ION, things I would never have said before writing Entourage fanfic. On hearing members of my family had a "guys' night", there again, not including me: "I make a better guy than any of them." And Mom was just like "???" But I think it's true. So, I guess they are officially losers. (Well, I don't know about officially...)

(It involves telling people after you elope, as always.)

I'm guessing this is a lot easier when you don't propose in front of 2500 of your closest invisible shiny-box friends?

Just don't stint on the cake. Cake is key.

Wise advice for any occassion, really.

I could just cry. I'm at the dentist for three small chips in my front teeth. My friggin HMO won't cover them and deems them cosmetic despite the fact the dentist says that not fixing them will lead to more damage. $600 to fix. I am never getting out of debt.

Aw, Pix. That sucks. Your HMO sucks big hairy donkey balls.

And so begins pressure from ND's sister to include the family at the ceremony (which we're planning to do very privately for a number of important reasons). The opening ploy involved evoking guilt about how depressed his mom is.

Hang in there, babe. It's for you two. However you want it. And at least you've got a lot of cheerleaders/shoulders around here.

{{{Kristin}}} Your HMO does indeed suck. I'm sorry.

Finally booked our flights for the F2F. Despite having flight vouchers, It is going to cost us more money.

I could just cry. I'm at the dentist for three small chips in my front teeth. My friggin HMO won't cover them and deems them cosmetic despite the fact the dentist says that not fixing them will lead to more damage. $600 to fix. I am never getting out of debt.

Ugh I know how you feel (my thing is pets at the vet and my car right now though). Did you just get the chips?

I've had a chipped front tooth since I was 7 and dentists ALWAYS want to fix it. It was filed down sometime in my teens and I haven't had anything done to it since and have had no problems.

I don't think big weddings are bad at all! This time, though, we can't afford a big wedding (plus, I did that once already), and the stress that it would cause Drew to worry about his mom and sister (though for very different reasons) would take the enjoyment right out of it. Unfortunately we also can't elope right away because of some lingering financial business stuff Drew has to deal with before we can make it legal. The soonest we could take care of it is probably after New Years.

You could just tell them you ran off and eloped right away and then you can take your time with the planning. Then the nagging would switch over to when the big party will be but that's got to be at least somewhat less emotionally fraught.

If you elope, all sides of the family can be mad at you, you can shrug and "Yep, we're evil," and move on.

I say you guys come out to Vermont and get married at Teppy's brother's brewpub.

The owner/brewmaster is licensed to perform weddings. IJS.

I could just cry. I'm at the dentist for three small chips in my front teeth. My friggin HMO won't cover them and deems them cosmetic despite the fact the dentist says that not fixing them will lead to more damage. $600 to fix. I am never getting out of debt.

If the dentist says that not fixing them will lead to more damage, can your dentist write a letter to the HMO explaining the medical necessity?

Yeah, there's probably no good way besides "we eloped" to tell parents and siblings they're not invited to the wedding.