Little Red Briding Blog

Well, Mr. Red and I were at the mall yesterday and the day before yesterday, and like any good fiancee, I dragged him over to all the jewelery counters in the mall.

And, dare I say, I fell in love with a Tiffany ring! *Le sigh*.

Of course, it was a bit on the expensive side. So we went searching other stores for the same ring. We found a very similar one at Kay Jewelers, but in white gold with blue sapphires. But they said that they’d be willing to order it custom to my liking. So, I’m considering getting a 14 or 18kt white gold 2mm ring, with pink sapphires, that looks pretty much identical to the one above. I originally wanted to go with platinum, but platinum prices have pretty much peaked, much like gas. So I think I’ll go with something modest for now, and upgrade later.

Joe found his dream ring at, I believe, Belden’s. I can’t find any pictures of it online, but he wants a nice big meaty ring with big meaty diamonds in it… at a whopping $1000. *Faints*. Looks like I’ll be doing a lot of saving in the next 1.5 years!

The Russian traditions seem very fun. I looked up a bunch today… and here’s a few things that we may include in our wedding:

- At the end of the Russian ceremony, bread and salt is offered to the newlyweds by both parents as a symbol of health, prosperity and long life. Both bride and groom must take a bite of the bread and the one that takes the largest bite will be the head of the family!

- The first day of a Russian wedding ceremony is filled with a series of events that includes the civil ceremony, a tour of the city and the start of the reception. The wedding day begins with the bride and groom in separate locations each accompanied by their own friends and family members. The groom will arrive at the bride’s location well before the two of them need to arrive at the civil service. This is necessary because the bride’s friends and family members make it difficult for the groom to reach his bride. For example, if the bride lives on a high floor of an apartment complex, the groom will be detained by friends or family members at each floor and asked trivia type questions about his bride. If he answers incorrectly, he must pay cash to advance to the next step. Once he arrives at his bride’s side, the two of them travel by train, in separate cars, to the location of the civil service.
(I’m a little torn about this one… it seems fun, but I don’t really want Mr. Red to see me until I’m walking down the isle!)

- The reception always starts with a toast and usually the parents are the first to toast the bride and groom. The rest of the guests then offer their toast. Following the toast is the most prominent Russian wedding tradition. The guests drink wine after each toast and after they sip the guests will begin to shout, “Gor’ko” which means bitter. The couple then has to kiss in order to sweeten the wine. The guests will continue this tradition after each toast requiring the couple to kiss after each toast.

- The second day of a traditional Russian wedding is usually held at the house where the couple will begin their lives together. This is a more relaxed day and although anyone from the first day is invited to attend, usually only the closest friends and family members attend this second day of festivities. Day two of a traditional Russian wedding usually begins in the late afternoon or evening. The guests all enjoy a meal together and after the meal comes another Russian tradition of having the bride clean the floor. The guests will litter the floor with currency and the bride has to “clean” the floor by picking up the money. The guests can continue to litter the floor with additional currency while the bride is “cleaning” and are particularly fond of coming to the festivities with a large amount of coins to make the bride’s job as difficult as possible. This tradition gives the guests the opportunity to make a contribution to the new couple.

- Wedding shoes served the symbol of the bride’s thrift and willingness to be a good housekeeper, as she was supposed to buy the shoes from her savings.

- Often guests leave the wedding in such a condition that they cannot remember what happened. If this was the case with the majority of guests, then the wedding was a huge success.

- As a wedding is supposed to be two days, usually the first day is Friday with the celebrations continuing on Saturday, and time for rising from the dead on Sunday. Wedding is an event where everybody must be drunk, and being sober is simply impolite; there is also so much excellent food that there is a saying “If you are going to a wedding, you don’t need to eat 3 days before and 3 days after”.

Well, upon my previous entry, Mr. Red asked me what traditions there are in Italian weddings. Not coming from an Italian background, I looked some up online, and am now posting the ones that I like and wouldn’t mind including in the wedding:

- Wearing of green by the bride the night before the wedding brings luck and abundance to the couple.

- Folklore called for the groom to carry a piece of iron in his pocket (Toc Ferro) on his wedding day to ward off the evil eye (mal’occhio) since his happy situation might provoke envy, and invite supernatural danger.

- The bride wore a bridal veil to conceal her from malignant spirits, yet tearing the veil was considered good luck.

- In Southern regions of Italy, the couple shattered a vase or glass into many pieces at the end of the wedding day. The number of pieces represented the number of years they’d be happily married to one another. (ALSO A JEWISH TRADITION IN THE CEREMONY!)

- All the men at the reception kiss the bride for good luck — and to make the groom jealous. (mwahaha, I don’t think Mr. Red will like this one!)

- In ancient Rome, a loaf of wheat bread was broken over the heads of the bride and groom to ensure a fertile and fulfilling life. Guests would eat the crumbs for good luck.

- The wedding couple remains for the entire time at the reception and not only, sometimes the very close friends stay with the couple even after the reception. For instance, going with them for a drink or even going to their house. The honeymoon starts one or two days later!

- The bride herself presents her new mother-in-law with an olive branch, symbolizing peace.

- The bride and groom don’t get much rest; they go about from table to table, greeting and chatting with every guests, so no one should feel left out.

- Today it is common to spend the honeymoon in a foreign place, in far-away destinations or even in unique places. In the past the honeymoon, for a lot of people, was the first trip of their life and would always take place in Italy. It was the best occasion to discover our beautiful country and cities like Florence, Rome, Venice, or the Amalfi Coast… However today, like yesterday, for the Italians the honeymoon is a ritual which cannot be avoided as it is a unique and unrepeatable trip. (I really hope we get to go to Italy for our honeymoon!)

Catholic and Russian customs to come later D!

I must say… I am quite disappointed that Mr. Red will be out of the military once our wedding finally rolls around. Because there’s just something about the way a man looks so heroic in uniform — tehe.

Anyway… that basically means that it is time to look for tuxes… I mean, it’s not really time now… as the wedding is still like a million years away. But as I was procrastinating, I tried to decide whether or not there is a difference between tuxes… I mean, they just all look the same! Or do they?

After browsing around, I decided that there are some slight differences. And I’ve decided that he should probably wear a shorter jacket rather than a longer one, as, while he’s not short, he’s not particularly tall either. I decided that I’m not the biggest fan of the one-button tuxes, as I feel like they’re more likely to get the front wings… I’m not sure if you know what I’m talking about… but that’s like when the front of the jacket pops out as if the guy is womanly-endowed in the chest area. So two-button seems good to me. I’ve also decided that I’m not really the biggest fan of super-shiny vests… because they’re just too shiny. I’d like something more dull but still fancy-looking.

After all this looking around, I realized that I actually have a lot more of an opinion on tuxes than I originally thought I had! I also noticed that Men’s Wearhouse has a tool where you can… DESIGN YOUR OWN TUX! Now, design-your-own tools are basically my favorite procrastination tool, so here’s what I came up with (jacket: Joseph & Feiss Two-Button Notch Lapel):

Although, now I’m almost considering the kind with tails in the back a la Looney Toons, where they belt out those orchestrated classics! Do you think Mr. Red would go for that? There’s just something so sultry and James Bond about it… (I’d like it in black, though.)

Of course, there’s one thing for sure… I am a shoe girl, and I definitely definitely definitely want him to wear his dancing shoes!

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl “Will you marry me?”

The girl said: “NO!”

And the girl lived happily ever after and went shopping, dancing, camping, drank martinis, ate chocolate, always had a clean house, never had to cook, did whatever the hell she wanted, never argued, didn’t get fat, traveled more, had many lovers, didn’t save money, and had all the hot water to herself.

She went to the theater, never watched sports, never wore friggin’ lacy lingerie that went up her ass, had high self esteem, never cried or yelled, felt and looked fabulous in sweat pants and was pleasant all the time.

THE END

Goddamnit! I feel like I made a mistake somewhere!!! Just kidding, Mr. Red. You know I love you hehe.