Joy

**Clark Kent or Superman?** Glasses. No glasses. Neither one of **Wang Chen Peng's** *looks* in these clips were that close to his current MDL profile pic. [*awful, needs to be updated*]. **Confused? Yes, I was. Thank you!** 😆 I don't watch him enough to pick up identifying nuances like the eyebrows, ear, lip shape, .... *back of the head*. ^([Yes, I've done that and was correct. Trying to remember which of MyBoyFriends though. 🤔]) 🫰🏻Shout-out to u/Icy_Requirement3521 who helped me pinpoint his ID in the first clip. *moving on...* 💋 Today's focus in LipLocking prowess: **Wang Chen Peng** [MDL Profile](https://mydramalist.com/people/138879-wang-chen-peng) ※ First clip: Happy Wedding In Beijing / Beijing Marriage with Joy\ [I think I'm correct for this title. I had to try and figure it out.]\ FL: Yang Shu Yu ※ Second clip: The Rose And The Green Pine / Await The Flowers\ FL: Bao Jin Ni --- **※** Clip Source 🎞️ Wedding Beijing: Insta [here](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWyO_s1D-8y/)\ **※** Clip Source 🎞️ Rose Pine: Insta [here](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXm_UPLicwL)\ **※** Song 🎤: Clip 1: OG to Clip. Clip 2: Sam Tinnesz - Play With Fire **※** To Watch 👀: Click the Actors/Drama Name MDL Link above, go all the way to the bottom of the page and check the **Comment Section** for the drama title and possible goodies. --- 💋 [LayALipLockOnMe Series Master List.](https://www.reddit.com/user/TxPep/comments/1t0jvwl/layaliplockonme_master_post/) 🤦🏻‍♀️ I took me like six tries over a three+-hour time period to get this vid uploaded today. Reddit was glitching out for a few hours. *painful* --- 📣 We have **CShortHaven Discord** where you can chat about dramas, actors, and just have fun! Come check us out! **[Invite](https://discord.gg/UYKN3V8hPa)** ^([13May2916])

Idk. I thought that when I added the hotels through the website it would direct them to the hotels website. Maybe so did she. And I linked QR code for details for my invites so people go to the website to find that information. I am not a traveler. I do not book hotels or anything so I am very green when it comes to stuff like this. I just wanted other brides to also be aware. Also wasn’t aware that TheKnot was in a lawsuit until way after I set everything up 🫠 and by then it was too late. I have not had any issues from them at all. From what I see on my website, is that theknot is using something called Engine for bookings. But it’s still all through TheKnot. So if there’s another party under those then it is not seen. The other bride is using a different website. WithJoy I think is the one. I just wanted to tell other brides who were like me and didn’t know these things to keep what happened to my coworker to their guests.

So it was booked through the wedding website and she’s having to dispute it through them. I used Priceline/travelocity as those are common third party sites and the hotel she booked through mentioned Priceline and some other ones I have never heard of that they no longer accept bookings from, and it’s a Hilton type hotel. And the third party site the website did book through I’ve also never heard of. I looked on my own website and it doesn’t tell you where the booking is booking through, just that it’s on “the knot”. The other bride used a different website, I think WithJoy or something. Idk her, I just know I don’t want my guests booking hotels and then getting scammed out of it cause the website is using sus third party sites. So this is just a psa to let people know to check and, like you said, properly vet their websites before using

https://preview.redd.it/fkr5cuwqjl0h1.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=683843c403b1de4e802e54e366d3713249c9e327 # Veteran Writer Starts Series on Her Mother First of a series written by Mrs. Irving Moe Sr. about the life of her Norwegian-born mother, Sigrid. **By EMMA MOE** How can my pen record what should be said to give a true portrayal of Mother, not only as we saw her daily, busy with household tasks, but to express in words her ideals and best things in life for her family. In her quiet, patient way, unlike those who “talk about the weather”, she did something about it. As you read the brief story of her life, you will realize how she won her children’s confidence and love, coupled with respect that was akin to fear. Her arrival at the Hovi family home in Valders, Norway on Feb. 6, 1853 was not sensational in a home where the girls outnumbered the boys four to one. Her early years were carefree however, for she had her sisters Ingrid and Kari to help with the heavy chores in winter and her younger sisters, Ingeborg and Marit to shield her from punishment when things went wrong. Her first recollections centered around the bustle of preparation for the move of women and children, household goods and cattle to the summer camp each spring in June. It was about four miles up in the hills called the Soeter. There the mother cared for the small children too young to help with the hay harvest at home. There was milking of cows and sometimes goats, and making of butter and cheese. Also the cows grazing on the hillside had to be watched lest they stray to the woodlot assigned to a neighbor. The children too small to herd the cows found ways to amuse themselves with games like “Duck on the Rock” and Jacks, played with tiny stones without a ball. For play houses there were rocks, and green moss made a soft floor. Sticks, stones and smooth pebbles from the little lake nearby were the only toys. For building a play house there were a few willows and prickly heather, but nothing gentle like our maple leaves. When table was set at suppertime, each child ate home cooked cereal of barley flour with milk but no sugar, and was given his own wooden spoon to eat with. Wooden bowls made from home grown wood were made smooth by being shaped by a lathe, the operator of which was called a “svarver.” Spinning wheels were called Rok, hence our old neighbor who lived where Julius Severson’s farm ends on the north, was called Johannes Roksvarver because he turned out bowls and spinning wheels. At the age of four, mother had to forego much of her playtime for a daily lesson in the A-B-C book. No story on the first few pages. First the whole alphabet to recite. Then came vowels with letters added to make syllables ba-sa-da-ro-po, followed by spelling like this — to make the word samtale, you first said sam, then tal and lastly le, sam-ta-le meaning conversation. The fun did not begin until short stories were told on the 6th or 7th page of “Hans who always did things wrong for he did not use the sense he was born with.” Then too there was the Great Buck, the middle sized buck and the little buck who were to cross the bridge where the ugly troll lived. It turned out that the troll in his greed for getting the biggest buck got pushed into the lake himself. The stories were of the violent, rugged type much like Little Red Riding Hood. In late fall after snow had come, the trek was often a severe struggle with cattle hard to manage in rain and sleet, on the way to the home farm. Christmas time was looked forward to with joy by young and old. Advent was a time of very plain fare much like Lent is observed now, but at Christmas time every good thing to eat was set out on the table in the most generous great bowls at hand. Pounds of butter and cheese and cream pudding and fresh pork ribs done to a turn were all set out on the festive table on Christmas Eve. The big display of food was left right there just in case some good fairy should like to nibble at the good things while blessing the household, as well as the cattle in the barn that on Christmas Eve received a generous feed and could be expected to be still chewing at midnight. There was a superstition in earlier days that if you visited the cows at midnight on Christmas Eve you would find them kneeling in their stalls. Fact is, all cows kneel before they lie down, that is they fold in their front legs first. A barley grain sheaf was raised on a pole for the sparrows. It was called a “Spurve Bandet.” At age of 7, in the year 1860, mother entered school. The teacher was a good looking young fellow named Tollev, who taught a little geography and arithmetic besides giving Bible instruction. The children from the better families were able to read quite well before entering school, having been taught table prayers and the ten commandments. Mother had also learned to sing the hymn “Lov ov tak og evig are” — “praise, thanks and glory ever.” Children’s prayers were words of praise. They were not as now “GIVE ME, GIVE ME.” The school master was admired and respected and even loved by his pupils while the pastor whom no one saw except in the pulpit was looked up to even more but feared as well. At age 14, each child walked three miles to the parish schoolroom near the church where each Saturday, lessons for confirmation instruction were assigned and oral tests given from the book of Bible questions and answers. The book was called Forklaring, meaning explanation. The best pupils memorized the entire book of about 40 pages word for word. Mother was among the most clever in the class of 24 boys and girls and was rated as No. 1 on Confirmation Day, having to stand at the head of the line of girls during the two hours that the services lasted. Her dress was so tight she almost fainted. Just across from her was the No. 1 boy, John Dahle whom all looked up to. Ten years later, 1878, this John Dahle is listed in the book on Churches in America as Music teacher in a Lutheran Church College in Madison, Wisconsin. The years from age 15 to 18 found mother spinning, knitting and weaving in the wintertime and helping in hay harvest or dairy work at the summer cottage where she learned to make fine butter and cheese to be sold in Oslo when the men made their yearly trip of fifty miles to buy supplies before Christmas. In the spring of 1872 when Sigrid was nineteen years old, she and Kari Rudi, mother of Mrs. Martin Viste, set out for Toten, a dairy community about forty miles from their home. More than ten miles of the distance was made on foot after Kari’s brother with horse and cart had taken them part of the way. Their place for employment must have been prearranged, for a day after their arrival, both girls were assigned to large farms where they got work as dairy maids. They had to take complete charge of the milking of a dozen cows and the feeding as well. When the calves were born there was no vet to call. The “buaie” as the operator was called was supposed to know just what to do. Mother even had the courage to reach into the mouth of a cow and release a piece of turnip lodged in her throat. There was not even a tip for saving the cow from strangling but there was a good word from the farmer’s wife as she poured an extra cup of coffee. On Sundays when mother was seen to spend leisure time in reading texts from her church hymn book and writing letters, Madame Holmund realized Sigrid must be used to virtuous and gracious upbringing. She even surmised that mother came from a home of moderate wealth and possibly left home because of an unwillingness to marry the young man parents had chosen for her. The result was she was given free use of the library. She read books by Norwegian authors as well as translations from English and American writers. The story of Uncle Tom’s cabin (Hytte) impressed her deeply but alarmed her as well. As children we heard her relate the fearsome story of the ice pond escape of negro mothers to free territory to avoid separation from a child about to be sold “down the river.” The salary agreed on was for a full years work, less than $3.00 per month, plus board and clothing for general wear. After two years mother had almost all her earnings saved, $50.00. With that big sum, she rented rooms with a seamstress in the little town, Juvik, where she learned to use a sewing machine and to match patterns to make ladies dresses. A year later, age 22, she left for home proudly carrying her portable sewing machine in a wooden case. For the next few years until her departure for America in 1880, the year after her marriage to Kristen Hovi, she had the most satisfactory period of her life. For three years she was busy sewing dresses for the most well-to-do neighbor ladies and their children. Up to that time, men only were hired as tailors for both men’s and women’s wear apparel. As dressmaker, she was an honored visitor, receiving the best of everything to eat as well as being shown to the sunniest room in the house while at work. As was the custom when children earned money away from home, they no longer shared the meals served by parents, but boarded themselves altho they had a room set aside for them as an apartment until marriage. On July 26, 1879, our parents Sigrid and Kristen Hovi, both having been brought up on the large Hovi estate composed of four smaller farms were married in Hegge Church by Prost Heierdahl. The wedding was held at the bride’s home and lasted three days. Each day the invited neighbors came —back with baskets of flat bread, cheese and cakes but Kristen, the groom, had to furnish the drinks and perhaps pounds of green coffee and he also had to provide for a toastmaster who showed guests to their place at the wedding table according to age and rank. It was a struggle as no one wanted to be seated too close to the head of the table. For amusement there was a lot of dancing to violin music, the dance being mostly a show for the old folks who eagerly watched sons in “Halling Kast” kicking up to the ceiling, or daughters circling around the room in the Spring dance to show how long they could spin without getting dizzy. Some tottered and fell. [https://archive.co.door.wi.us:443/jsp/RcWebImageViewer.jsp?doc\_id=1e8fc801-90a4-4104-8e86-19a1ea0947dc/wsbd0000/20151119/00000316&pg\_seq=6](https://archive.co.door.wi.us:443/jsp/RcWebImageViewer.jsp?doc_id=1e8fc801-90a4-4104-8e86-19a1ea0947dc/wsbd0000/20151119/00000316&pg_seq=6) Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive \[Forklaring: [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Erik\_Pontoppidans\_Forklaring\_ower\_Katech/O-20R82tHcMC?gbpv=1](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Erik_Pontoppidans_Forklaring_ower_Katech/O-20R82tHcMC?gbpv=1) English translation: [http://www.independentlutherandiocese.com/uploads/1/8/6/0/18605550/pontopiddan\_1878\_-\_catechism.pdf](http://www.independentlutherandiocese.com/uploads/1/8/6/0/18605550/pontopiddan_1878_-_catechism.pdf) Parallel Norwegian - English text of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Onkel Toms Hytte): [https://anylang.net/en/books/no/uncle-toms-cabin](https://anylang.net/en/books/no/uncle-toms-cabin) Halling Dance: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t7pNd3nY\_U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t7pNd3nY_U) The Halling Kast is the part where a hat is kicked upwards. Valdres Springar (Spring dance): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icx5amSPBnQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icx5amSPBnQ) \] Articles by Emma Moe [https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/emma-moe](https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/emma-moe)

Hello my fellow potatoes 🥔 and potato queen 👑 Let's start with the context, please bear with me, and you let me know if I am overreacting or just reading things wrong. I (33F) have two brothers one older and one younger. My older brother and I are very close in age, grew up together and after hitting puberty (we couldn't stand each other), we got along fine like siblings normally do. Every time my brother has girlfriend, we grow apart. I do not blame the girls in any way, I know it is his decision and his alone to become fully immersed in his relationships and not hang out with me (or anyone else really) at all and stop checking in. Because of this, I don't push it and just go low-contact with him until they break up and then we become besties again. My brother has been dating this girl, for almost 3 years, lets call her Gertrude (IYKYK). At first, I tried to get along with Gertrude. We went to the same gym and I would say hi to her. I was actually hoping that this girl and I would get along since I really hate my brother not being present in my life, especially since I was already living with my now husband, our wedding had just passed and my brother had really been there for me during all the time leading up to it. Gertrude would return the gesture every time I greeted her and I could see us being friendly down the road. I would ask my brother about her and even offered to go on double dates to actually get to know her, but nothing ever came of it. At the time, my brother was an instructor at the gym, that's how they met. He was also my instructor. I began to notice some things, but I kind of brushed them off. To name a few: Gertrude would give me a killer stare whenever I would ask my brother to correct my form, interrupt him whenever he was explaining things to me just to say "I love you", she would cling to his arm and look me dead in the eyes, hop on his back after every set, so on. My family and I rarely show affection between us. We don't say 'I love you' or hug often or anything of the sort, so it wasn't like I was competing with her, besides, he is my BROTHER so I didn't understand why she was being like this towards me. Some time passed and my parents moved out of our family home. So it was just my brother living alone there. Since my husband and I were renting, my parents offered for us to move in with my brother while we saved up for our house. My husband, brother and I had a talk about this and we were all in agreement of living together for some time, we guesstimated about 2 years. At first, everything was fine. My husband was really looking forward to us bonding with my brother. We moved in and began using the common spaces, like the bathrooms, kitchen and living room. We were getting along and Gertrude would often visit and stay the weekends. My husband and I began to notice, that whenever she be at the house, things were out of place. I asked my brother were certain things were, if he had moved them and such. Turns out, Gertrude was moving OUR stuff out of sight because they would bother her or place them were it was most convenient for her. I talked to my brother about this and he was siding with her, saying that we can all learn to share. I was livid, since our living agreement did not involve some random person who DID NOT LIVE THERE to be moving our stuff around to her convenience. My brother and I had an argument about this and after more arguing, he agreed that she would not move our stuff around anymore. Things got super tense after that. Gertrude saw my boundary as a personal attack on her, so she proceeded to avoid me (in my own home), block me on socials, and not greet us whenever she would visit my brother. I was okay with this, I did not want to establish a friendship with this person any more. Other issues came up during this time: our utility bills were doubled (water, gas and electricity) since she would take long hot showers everyday she was there, turn up the heating unit so she could walk around barefoot. We once had a couple of friends over and we heard her moaning very loudly. Mind you, they had music playing and so did we. Our guests eyeballs were about to pop out of their faces when they heard and asked us to turn the music up. Gertrude KNEW we had people over; she greeted them. I was really embarrassed. My brother said it was a natural thing and I was being dramatic but to not tell my parents about this issue. I wonder why... We ran out of there the first chance we got. We thanked my brother and parents for letting us stay here and moved the fuck out to our now home. My husband knew the mere presence of Gertrude made my blood boil then. It is no longer the case and I could really care less about this person. I don't ask my brother about her and he doesn't mention her either. If we happen to be at the same family events, we only say hi to each other and nothing else. We prefer to sit at another table if possible. The relationship with my brother is okay. I greet him with joy because I rarely see him, I do appreciate him and care about him but we don't really talk if we don't have to. I do love my brother, but also because I love him I will not sabotage his relationship with Gertrude. My brother has been to our home several times and he will always be welcome. We hosted a family gathering at our home and we invited both families (my own and my in-laws). Our parents (my husband's and I) get along really well. They've gone out to dance and eat out a couple of times and are in touch often. My sister in-law is also amazing and I really do feel she is like a younger sister to me. They all know the story behind Gertrude, we confided in them often about this seeking advice about handling the situations presented. Our parents know Gertrude and I aren't friendly. Heck, I bet you know by this point we aren't friendly. I've never included her in any plans, parties or celebrations of sorts. So, given this whole bible of context, here's what happened this weekend. I let my brother know we were gathering in our house for breakfast/brunch. My in-laws arrived, then my mom called and asked if I could pick them up (they were a few min away), so I did. When I was about 1 min away from home, my husband calls me and says "I have some bad news." I thought the food we were prepping had gone bad or something so I asked what happened and he says "She's here." My heart stopped. I was going to go into full rage mode but I had my parents in the car and I just said "I can't believe it." My parents asked what had happened and I explained to which my dad replied after some silence and in a apologetic tone "You're gonna have to accept her eventually." I said "I do accept her, just not in my home." My husband was not the one to let her in, he was in the restroom when the doorbell rang. My in-laws opened the door and my brother walked in with her. I took a deep breath before walking in to my own home and walked straight past her and my brother and into the kitchen. My husband was furious. We both wanted to ask her to leave. I couldn't bring up the courage to ask her and cause a scene since EVERYONE there, but my brother apparently, knew she wasn't welcome. They left after about two hours. Once they were gone and I had cooled down. I sent a message to my brother letting him know I don't like people showing up unannounced, specially her, and to never bring her again to my house. To which he replied that he didn't understand what I meant and if something had happened. Am I missing something here? Like, why on earth would you block someone on social media, avoid talking to them but still have the nerve to go to their home uninvited? I get that maybe my brother asked her to come and said it would be fine, but is she so delusional to think I would want her there? I needed to vent, and I have. So, potatoes, AIO?

In my circle, if there’s not an online option, people just bring a card with cash/check in it to the wedding. We used withjoy for our website and they didn’t charge any fee for the “cash fund” but when you actually contributed to the fund, it was just a link to Venmo us anyway lol. So the only benefit to using the fund vs just providing the Venmo link was being able to customize what you called it (like “honeymoon fund” etc)

Hello brides! I'm finally almost done with my digital wedding invitation. My sister made it using Canva and I’ll be using WithJoy for RSVP (hyperlinked sa canva). The setting I'll use is yung i-activate yung “restrict to guest list only” yung pwede mag-RSVP where in may uploaded na guest list sa backend. When I send out yung invites through fb messenger, maglalagay rin ako ng note sa message na “please input your name exactly as: Manny Pacquiao” - something like this. My question: May nakatry na ba ng ganitong method (kahit not in withjoy) na may instructions ng exact name and all. Any cons sa ganitong set up ng rsvp or comments please? Thank you!!

Withjoy seems to hide the fact that some items are out of stock when making your registry. If an item is out of stock the only option is "Add to Registry" and if it's in stock there are two additional options "Buy Now" and "Add to Cart". That's the only way to tell. From the [joy store credit help page](https://withjoy.com/help/en/articles/11394587-joy-store-credit): >Due to inventory changes, sometimes an item may not be available at the time you want to buy it. If that's the case, the shop item won't show an 'add to cart' or 'buy now' button on your admin page. >You can still add the item to your registry for a guest to buy. We'll allow them to buy the item in case the item becomes available again during the processing time. Note: for guests visiting your registry all options for purchasing are still available for out of stock items. If an item is out of stock the value of that item is automatically converted to Joy store credit when processed. You cannot convert that credit to cash or use it to purchase gift cards or third party items, only (in stock) physical objects and experiences. The only way to get the funds out is to refund them to the original purchaser which is awkward as hell. So there's a chance that when making your registry you add an item, a guest purchases it, with joy gets the money, you get store credit and have to try to find something that matches to spend it on (unlikely you'll find something the exact same price so will either have left over credit or have to pay some more to get a similar item) all while the item was never actually in stock! It seems they legalese their way into the ability to do this by having this in the aforementioned help page: >When you purchase a gift on our site, you're buying the equivalent in Joy Credit, which is equal to the full price of the item at the time of purchase, including taxes and shipping. The gift recipient can use that value to have the selected item shipped at their convenience. Theoretically they could list any item on earth as able to add to your registry without necessarily having to stock it. One other thing to mention, if withjoy stops carrying an item that's on your registry and it's purchased you're still locked in to store credit for that item. For example, if you had the [nest thermostat ](https://withjoy.com/shop/item/6b1051e6-2408-5a0a-bbe3-161d1712fbb5)($250) and a guest purchased it, you get $250 in store credit, but that item is "no longer in \[their\] catalog" and will never be restocked and they don't carry any other smart thermostats so now you have to find something else in their store to spend $250 on. Or you can reach out to the guest who purchased it, ask them to go to withjoy and get refunded (which will not be straightforward), and purchase it for you again through another site. Overall withjoy has been pretty good for us, but dealing with gifts purchased that are out of stock has been a pain, and if you are using it as a registry I would recommend to pay attention to whether an item is in stock.

hi! planning my wedding and thinking of doing a custom website (not the usual knot/withjoy templates) has anyone here in the ph tried working with a designer/dev for this? i kinda want something more minimal/luxe — less “wedding site”, more like a fashion brand or hotel vibe if that makes sense would love to know: * who you worked with * rough cost * what was included (rsvp, guest list, etc) * if it was worth it also open to recs if you’ve seen a really nice one 🙏

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has experience with WithJoy registry items being purchased through WithJoy and then being out of stock after guests have already paid. Were the items ever restocked? How long did it take? Did you have to check every day to see if they came back? I am specifically dealing with three Mackenzie-Childs pieces that are currently in stock on both the Mackenzie-Childs website and Williams-Sonoma, but unavailable through WithJoy. WithJoy support told me they cannot provide any timeline for restocking. My only alternative right now is to refund the guests directly, which feels really uncomfortable. I do not want to reach out and say they are getting a refund and then ask them to reorder the same gift somewhere else. Has anyone dealt with this? What actually ended up happening?

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has experience with WithJoy registry items being purchased through WithJoy and then being out of stock after guests have already paid. Were the items ever restocked? How long did it take? Did you have to check every day to see if they came back? I am specifically dealing with three Mackenzie-Childs pieces that are currently in stock on both the Mackenzie-Childs website and Williams-Sonoma, but unavailable through WithJoy. WithJoy support told me they cannot provide any timeline for restocking. My only alternative right now is to refund the guests directly, which feels really uncomfortable. I do not want to reach out and say they are getting a refund and then ask them to reorder the same gift somewhere else. Has anyone dealt with this? What actually ended up happening?

Finding the WithJoy website really confusing! We've already printed our wedding invitations so we're stuck with it. Is it not possible to add External Registries in Canada to WithJoy? I tried to add our West Elm registry (.ca URL) but the WithJoy site has an error message and only accepts .com URLs. How did you get around this?! Ahh! At this point, I don't believe the WithJoy Registry ships to Canada, so if I can't link an External Registry either, I'm a bit stuck. Do Canadians just make a link from their WithJoy websites to an external site like MyRegistry to handle the registry entirely?

Although I’m bummed that the wedding is over, I’m PSYCHED that the *planning* is over 💃🏻✅😴 I won’t deny that 90% of my motivation for writing this is to leave a glowing review of our photographer while still adhering to the subreddit rules. Still, reading through the posts in this community helped me a ton, so I’d also love to share my numbers in hopes that others find it useful. We had a lopsided budget, where we skipped a few conventional things to splurge on others. It helped that our families didn’t have too many strong opinions, so my husband and I had a lot of creative freedom to choose the elements that best reflected our vision and values. The entire celebration involved a bachelor/ette party all day Friday, a Chinese tea ceremony Saturday afternoon, a dinner reception Saturday evening, and a post-wedding brunch Sunday afternoon. This recap will start with our essentials and work down from there. **TL;DR** * Ceremony venue, reception venue, catering: $19.7K * DJ, photography, coordinator, florals: $9K * Splurges: $24.2K 🤪 1️⃣ **VENUE, CATERING, AND CORE VENDORS** For us, “core” meant “if we don’t have this vendor, either we will be devastated OR something might go wrong during the event” **Ceremony venue: $1.4K**  We decided to skip the Western ceremony (i.e. walking down the aisle) early in the planning process, but adding the tea ceremony was somewhat last-minute. Our ceremony was family-only and held in my in-laws’ hotel suite in Hotel Caza (which we do NOT recommend lol). Although this cost could be categorized as lodging, we did book their specific room for the purpose of the ceremony. The ceremony was family-only, so we had no furniture rentals or coordinator for this part. The hotel was a 5-minute walk from Palette, which our families had no trouble with, so no need to arrange transportation. Although we cut out the aisle, we do find the vow exchange meaningful, so we held one at the reception. **Reception: Venue, food, and beverage: $18.3K** Food: $11.7K (including vendor meals) Drinks: $5.9K 😅 Coat room, linens, TV, projector rentals: $700 Post-tax, post-gratuity We hosted 80 guests at Palette Tea House, who were phenomenal to work with. They were incredibly flexible and chill and transparent about everything, and our guests loved the food. Instead of a venue fee, Palette has a F&B minimum. We booked their main dining room, which had a minimum of $10k from 5-10pm. Booking until 11pm with the coat room bumped the minimum to $11.5k for us. Their main dining room seats 120, but we sectioned off the back area for karaoke, leaving us with 88 seats, of which we filled 83.  Palette had a lot of bar options. We decided on an open bar, and they let us set a cap. We don’t drink much so we initially guessed the tab would land around $3K. Once we got into a party mood though, we removed the cap. In retrospect, removing the cap may have been unwise, but we’re glad our guests had a great time! We absolutely loved working with Palette. During the one or two walkthroughs we did, they brainstormed along with us, helped experiment with table layouts, and even let us add dishes not on their usual menu. For my husband and I, skipping the Western ceremony gave us the freedom to host our reception at Palette without worrying about weather or guest logistics. **Photographer: $5K** As mentioned earlier, this budget recap mainly exists so I can recommend our photographer, **Eric Le from Inspired By Studio**. We were soooo fortunate to have found him. We wanted a documentary-style photographer who could work with limited indoor lighting, and Eric was that and more. Eric’s rate is usually higher, but given the timing and personal circumstances, he was able to offer a generous discount and we can’t thank him enough. Not only was he communicative and experienced, but he put in tons of effort to scope out photography spots, coordinate our first look, and most importantly, get us laughing. We loved how easy it was to work together. And of course, the final gallery we received was full of whimsical, heartfelt memories, all beautifully captured. The lighting and composition were spot-on, and the moments he captured emphasized the love between us and our friends and family. **DJ: $2.6K** Our top wishlist item was finding someone who could run private room-style karaoke (i.e. singalong > spotlight). There aren’t a heck ton, but thankfully we found Jordan from Heart of Gold, an agency specializing in female+ DJs. Jordan had amazing communication, and she was so generous with our request to add a Cantonese song to the karaoke catalog (which involves downloading and working with lyrics in a language she doesn’t speak!) **Coordinator: $1K** We were originally going to have a simple reception dinner, so we weren’t sure if a coordinator was necessary, especially with no ceremony. But as we added more scope (more speeches, props, decor), we decided a coordinator would be immensely helpful. After a lot of searching, we went with Arlene Muñoz based on a friend’s recommendation. We really appreciated how Arlene took care of things on the day of so that my husband and I could feel like guests at our own wedding! **Subtotal: $28.3K** We’re overall happy with where we landed on this! For venue, catering, and vendors, our initial cost estimates ranged from $27K to $40K. While this initial estimate did originally assume we’d have a Western ceremony (thus inflating the estimate relative to what the event actually entailed), we still hit the bottom of our target range without sacrificing anything from our wishlist. 2️⃣ **GIFTS FROM US** Things people don’t expect in the slightest, but it made us happy to make it happen. **Lodging for family: $3.9K** We decided to treat my family (who flew across the country) to a mini-vacation leading up to the wedding weekend. Since our venue was pretty low-budget, we wanted to funnel some of those savings toward spending more time with them (and patching over some earlier drama lol). **Family brunch: $900** Before the tea ceremony, we brought all the relatives together, similar to a welcome or rehearsal dinner. We had about 20 people at Surisan, a tasty Korean-American fusion brunch place. **Wedding party lodging: $8.6K** This was one of the most important elements we wanted budget for. The vast majority of our wedding party live outside the Bay Area, and while we do travel to visit each other, my husband and I wanted to make the most of the opportunity to bring everyone together. As a thank you for traveling, taking PTO, and being awesome people, we booked us all a Victorian mansion from Thursday to Saturday night. On Friday we hosted a bachelor/ette party, a day of fun activities, and it was the most memorable time. At the very early stages of planning, my husband and I envisioned a retreat-style wedding, but there were few venues within our budget or on the date we wanted. Holding our event in SF, with Palette and the Airbnb within rideshare distance, made everything we hoped for possible. **Wedding party food: $1.8K** Three breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners for 20 people. We did a mix of catering and Costco, and everyone was sooo thoughtful about pitching in to help cook and clean up. Later we learned they also secretly covered the cost of Costco groceries, those fiends. **Post-wedding brunch venue: $1K** Since receptions can be hectic, we wanted a chiller way to spend time with guests, so we booked The Loft by Common Space SF for 6 hours. The space was light-filled and large enough for over 50 guests, so it worked out well! **Post-wedding brunch food: $700** We got Ike’s, which removed the need for too much dishware, and it allowed people to grab a sandwich and run off to the airport if needed. **Subtotal: $16.9K** **TOTAL SO FAR: $45.2K** 3️⃣ **GIFTS TO OURSELVES** Things nobody cares about except us. **Tea ceremony outfit: $60** Thanks Taobao 🫡 **Rings: $800** Thanks Costco 🫡 **Suit, tie, shoes: $1.5K** Thanks Suit Supply 🫡 **Reception dress: $1.4K** I splurged on a custom qipao/cheongsam from Alethea Sposa, based in Jakarta. I was a huge fan of her designs and felt the most optimistic that she could pull off what I was looking for. I absolutely love the dress and had such a blast wearing it day of, but due to a miscommunication on my part, the dress ended up being way oversized when I initially received it. So with 3 weeks to spare, I scrambled to find… **Emergency alterations, whose costs are a bit embarrassing but I can’t say I regret it either: $2.1K** If 90% of my motivations are to praise our photographer, then I’ll add another 90% (🧮🤔) for Suzanne from Atelier des Modiste!!! The tailors I initially contacted either said the dress was unfixable or that it would take months. Suzanne truly worked miracles performing invasive surgery on the dress, with multiple fittings along the way to get the details just right. Her initial quote was spot-on and there were no surprises along the way. A true professional artist 😭 I did consider giving up on the dress and wearing my tea ceremony outfit during the reception instead. But a couple months prior, I had a windfall from work, so I decided to yolo part of those savings into rescuing my dress. **Florals: $400** Since we only had a tea ceremony, plus the venue being plenty decorated, we opted out of bouquets and other large florals. I like flowers though lol so I squeezed in a few bud vases to spruce up the tables. We worked with Cecilia from Village No 7, who has an amazing portfolio and was super transparent, flexible, and communicative about everything! Highly recommend. **Save-the-dates, invitation, website: $45** We DIYed everything online. The only cost was a three-month subscription to RSVPify, which we chose over WithJoy mainly to avoid the ads the latter comes with lol **Party favors, decor, etc: idk $200?** **Bachelor/ette activities: idk $300?** **Subtotal: $6.8K** **FINAL TOTAL: $52K** Best weekend ever! Our biggest underestimates were drinks and alterations. Our biggest overestimates were photographer, coordinator, and florals. If we skipped the stuff in “Gifts from us,” then the total would’ve been $35K, but those things meant the most to us, so we were happy to splurge. Thanks for reading, and please check out our photographer!

What the title says. Do not use WithJoy for your wedding website unless you want to cause your guests headache, pain, stress, and out $400. Back in February I booked a hotel reservation through WithJoy for my cousin’s wedding in April. My card was charged $390 and I was sent a confirmation email for the booking. Flash forward to me arriving at the hotel to check in, and apparently the “system” canceled the reservation back in March. I got zero notice, and zero refund from WithJoy, as well as zero explanation. The hotel is now completely booked out on Saturday (the night of the wedding) so I have absolutely no where to stay and I’m still out $390. WithJoy has no number or real person to talk to anywhere, only an unhelpful AI chat box and an email with a slow response. So far, still have zero answers, zero refund and no place to stay on Saturday. Absolutely unacceptable. Do not give this website your business and save your guest time energy and money.

Hello! Our wedding website is on WithJoy, which I had read positive reviews about. However, I am now getting worried as I create our registry. One of our higher cost items is currently 30 percent off, the Le Creuset ® Signature 6.5-Qt. Sea Salt Enameled Cast Iron Deep Round Dutch Oven, down from $460 to $290. But WithJoy lists the full price on our site. Does the site list live discounts? I would hate for people to think we are over-asking or for them to over-pay. I’m now wondering if I should registry only directly with Crate and Barrel and not sync our registry onto WithJoy [https://www.crateandbarrel.com/le-creuset-signature-6.5-qt.-sea-salt-enameled-cast-iron-deep-round-dutch-oven/s610519](https://www.crateandbarrel.com/le-creuset-signature-6.5-qt.-sea-salt-enameled-cast-iron-deep-round-dutch-oven/s610519)

I'm based in the UK and am about to be married this summer. I need to create an online wedding invitation which will need to contain the 3 key items below. I've just signed up to the Knot, withjoy and RSVPify. So far, I'm really liking RSVPify because of its ease of use. I signed up to their "free plan" as I just need to build 1 wedding event and won't have guests more than 100. But as I was building the invitation, it states that some fields such as adding meal preferences option is a premium feature and that I'll need a Premium Plan for it. I don't want to sign up to any Subscription. Anyone knows a reliable, simple, easy to use website that will allow me to include the 3 key items below without additional cost? 1. Order of the day 2. Ability to add RSVP 3. Being able to add meal preferences Thanks!

Hi! I am planning to use WithJoy for my wedding but I am not too sure how I can use the RSVP. As I am planning to send the invite to individuals and they may bring along their family member, how do i go about programming the RSVP such that each family only needs to have 1 person filling in the rsvp form and I will know who exactly in the family will be joining? Also, for my wedding, guests will have a few choices to choose from for their mains, how do I allow them to fill in the main for those responding for the entire family? If the above is not possible using the rsvp function of WithJoy, is there any workaround? The simplest one i can think of is to create an external form (qualtrics/microsoft form) then just add the link into the withjoy page. Appreciate your help in this!!

I reached out to the website help but I didn’t get a satisfactory answer. So when I’m creating my RSVP questions, I want to ask the people who select ‘evening reception’ a follow-up question ‘Do you require evening food?’ However, WithJoy have said I can’t ask a follow-up question after the first follow-up question. WithJoy have said I can use guest tags, but I don’t understand how the RVSP system knows that certain questions are tagged, if that makes sense? How do I ask guests that have selected ‘evening reception’ about whether they want food without any other guest being asked that?

After I had already created the wedding website and invitations with [withjoy.com](http://withjoy.com), I looked on Reddit/review sites to see people complaining about it. I also think it’s pretty slow and buggy and not the easiest tool to use. Many of my guests report never having seen the invite emails (they are being sent to spam I assume). However, with one guest, she received the correct email subject: “The Wedding Of \[me and my partners names\]”, but the email content is anything but. It’s ACTUAL spam mail. Why is this happening? Anyone have experience with this?

Hi everyone, I'm looking at digital invitation options for my upcoming wedding and I'm struggling to find one that incorporates details on multiple events. I have a smaller religious ceremony on a Friday, and a large reception at a different venue the following day. I've already setup my Withjoy site to host information on the two events and collect the two sets of RSVPs for the correct guests, but I can't find a digital invitation with an "insert" functionality to add details on the smaller event. Unless I'm missing something, it looks like Withjoy and Paperless Post don't meet the mark. Can anyone recommend what they did to share multiple event details in the same digital invitation? Thanks!

I’ve recently heard that there could be issues with items in the WithJoy registry (charging more if the item from an outside site is on sale/charging when it would normally be free shipping/issues with never receiving back ordered items). I’ve externally linked the Amazon and Williams Sonoma registries to remove WithJoy from the equation. However— there were 1-2 items including gift cards from one website that we really wanted to include. One of these items is occasionally backordered and it seems WithJoy makes people purchase externally linked items through their own website directly? Is it worth it to leave this item in or should I instead ask for gift cards to their website as well? Also, anyone have any issues with including gift cards in their registry and redeeming them later on?

I have the following set of questions: \[Multiple Choice\] Q1. Are you able to attend our wedding? Response: Yes ; No \[Follow-up question for Yes\] Q2. Are you able to attend the pre-dinner celebration? \[Follow-up question for No\] Q2. Do you wish to leave a note for the couple? (optional) Q3. Any dietary restrictions or food allergies? My issue is when people responds No to Q1, they would still be able to view Q3 instead of going straight to the SUBMIT button. How do I go about resolving this?

Hello po! May suggestion po ba kayo ng format ng RSVP if done via google forms? Gusto ko po sana kasi yung indicated na automatically yung names nila and yung mga tao from the same household para maiwasan yung pag add ng names ng mga wala naman sa guest list. Pag paisa isa isa naman, ang dilemma ko ay baka tamarin sila mag answer nung form ☹️ Huhu any suggestions are welcome! Hindi kasi ako maka sign up sa the knot and may mga nega comments din about withjoy.

We have had so many issues with WithJoy but the cherry on top is that we created the website (which took hours), curated the guest list, formatted it according to THEIR template (ie first name, last name, party name, envelope name)…. Only to find out that they only ever address the digital invites to first name only. Meaning if you’re inviting Kate Middleton, and you want it to say Dr. Kate Middleton, you can’t. It gets addressed to Kate. If you try and finesse the first name to include Dr, when Kate goes to RSVP she has to enter Dr. Kate Middleton all in the first name section. It’s ludicrous and hoping I can save other brides the trouble!! Edit: I’ve since calmed down but I am leaving this up as I wish I would’ve known not to go through the trouble of creating a digital invite through them. It may seem minor to some people, but I don’t want to address my wedding invites by first name, no last name, no prefix. I still plan to use WithJoys website, since I spent so long curating it!

Baka meron kayong suggestion for RSVP that can accommodate this: - if family tapos kunwari 3 seats lang reserved for them, 3 names lang talaga maiinput nila Kapag the knot or withjoy kasi diba need mismong names nakalagay. But in this case, the said family can choose kunwari sino yung papapuntahin sa reserved seats nila. Baka may same concern sakin, please share ano naging rsvp site niyo :) Thank youuuu!!