[Poll] Dilemmas Deluxe Part 1: The Reception Debate

Jeng and I began looking at reception venues yesterday and came to the realization that we're snobs. (He likes to put the blame on me but its a shared flaw.) We have really lavish dreams for our wedding and future life together. For our reception, we want the nicest venue, with the best food (does Ferran Adria or Thomas Keller cater?), an open bar and all the fun little add-ons. (Jeng recently suggested a dunk tank.) And of course we also want an around-the-world honeymoon, a multi-million dollar renovated Victorian in the Marina district of San Francisco, and a private jet to take us to our weekend home on our own private island. Not too much to ask, right?

Since we're not bizillionaires (yet), we've had to prioritize our plans and better manage our finances. We hate this whole 'responsible budgeting' stuff. What do you mean we can't go to Japan in August, Germany in September, the Philippines in December, Italy in March, Amsterdam in June and then get married in July? Isn't that what my student loan (and/or Jeng) is for?

Sigh. The harsh reality has sunk in and at least in the short-term, I have to make a trade off I never wanted to make -- dump Jeng and find a richer man. Just kidding. I need to decide which one is more important for our wedding -- the food or the location. Dilemma deluxe. Do we splurge on an awesome caterer but settle for an okay location? Or do we pick a really cool location but mediocre food? I can't have both so I ask, what's more important to you my potential guests?

(Don't worry, open bar is something that will never be compromised.)

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[Poll] What's in a name? Part 1 - You say tomayto. I say tomahto.

With Eileen back in school and building her network of future venture capitalists, CEO's, and millionaires (which I hope all take a liking to me), she's had to introduce me at various events. Then there's the other times she has to introduce me to members of her family. And every time the exchange of salutations sounds odd when she says my name is "Jeremy". Not because I'm not used to being called Jeremy -- probably 40-50% of people I know call me some form of Jeremy -- but because coming from her it always sounds unnatural. I'm used to her calling me "Sexy Hot Man Mound". I kid! She's always called me "Jeng".

Anyway, I suppose if we're going to be friends, proper introductions are in order. Hello, my name is Daniel Dan Jeremy Jerms Kuya Jeng Reyes. Yeah, I can see how that can be confusing. Believe me. I was confused up until third grade or so. I grew up primarily going by either Jeremy or Jeng so every time at the beginning of a school year, the teacher would call out "Daniel" and I would blankly stare ahead, not knowing she was talking to me. I'm surprised I wasn't put on the special bus.

So here we are 20 years or so later and people still get confused. What do I prefer? Honestly, I don't really mind the various configurations my name has undergone so if you already call me one thing, feel free to continue doing so. If you want a real answer then I'm most used to Jeremy or Jeng so that's always cool. But if you want to throw me a "Sexy Hot Man Mound" or two, that's fine by me. Just kidding.


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A Useless Sunday Night Project

As you may have noticed, this little blog of ours has gained some minor enhancements. Jeremy (or whatever it is that you call him) has been working on our web site and is running into some creative obstacles. So last night, I suggested we dress up our blog with a fun little picture adding some whimsy to our "Wedding Absurdity" title. (Which has a history for those who do not know, but we'll go into that another time.) Of course, it ended up being a whole evening project.

Here is a list of the minor improvements we've made:
- Fun header. That's an obvious one.
- Added voting buttons for 'funny', 'cool' and 'interesting'. We're both very competitive so I'm sure we're going to tally who gets the most votes throughout this blog-venture, so please vote!
- Added a plug for our pal, Prestigious Planning. Got to help our friends.
- Moved some of the Google Ads around. I think they're dumb, but Jeremy is determined to make some money on our ads. So far we've earned ~$0.03 and he's confident we can make millions to fund our wedding. (Right.) You can make him happy anyway by clicking on some ads. . . . read more.

[Poll] Actually we've got a nice little Saturday planned...

"... maybe we'll hit Bed Bath and Beyond."

Eileen has been nagging me to post my first wedding-related blog ever since she went ahead and published her's a month ago. So I'm like, "Woman! Are you already trying to tell me what to do? I will post when I'm ready to post and you will accept it!"

She told me to post again a day or two ago. Now I'm here posting my first blog. Hmmm. I don't know who won this battle. Did she really tell me what to do and I complied? Or did I win for holding out this long? I'm leaning toward calling this one a draw as a peace offering and so my manhood can contemplate its future. Although I suppose posting my first wedding-related blog already means my manhood's future is on some shaky ground. Wonderful.

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