Heloise

Dear Heloise: I’m getting married in late September, and I didn’t want a big, flashy wedding. My fiance and I decided to sit down and figure out ways to have a nice wedding, but still save money on some important features.

First, I bought my wedding dress secondhand. I found a beautiful dress, ballerina-length in ivory. When I went shopping for a dress, I was stunned to find dresses for thousands of dollars — and that’s for a dress I’ll only wear once! My dress was $125. I figured I saved about $2,000 by buying secondhand.

I found a bakery that’ll make my cake for $230. It’s a devil’s food cake with white icing and three layers. A posh bakery across town has one similar for $875. I saved about $645 by going with the less-expensive bakery.

We’re doing a buffet rather than a sit-down dinner, and we didn’t skimp on food or drink. Yet, we saved a bundle.

The average wedding today costs over $25,000, and we found that to be a waste of our hard-earned money. We’ll be just as married, have a great time and not indebt ourselves by doing a smaller wedding. We set up a budget, and we’ve stuck to it. The money we saved will go toward a new house. — Taylor and Mike L., Augusta, Georgia

Taylor and Mike, I borrowed my wedding dress from a friend of mine and, like you, felt just as married as I would have if I’d gone out and spent $10,000 on a wedding dress. My best wishes to both of you as you start your life together.

SEND A GREAT HINT TO:

Heloise

P.O. Box 795001

San Antonio, TX 78279-5001

Fax: 1-210-HELOISE

Email: Heloise@Heloise.com

BIRD DROPPINGS

Dear Heloise: I had a problem with bird droppings on my new car. A plumber was at my house to fix something, and he suggested I tie three to four CDs on a string and suspend them from tree limbs to keep birds away, as well as prevent them from leaving their droppings all over my car.

In our Texas sun, bird droppings can get baked into the paint of a car. I hope this helps someone else. — Mac, San Antonio

Mac, I’ve tried this as well, and it worked for me, too. The flashing of sunlight on the shiny CDs scares the birds and makes them avoid the trees from which the CDs are hanging. — Heloise

EMERGENCY ROOM BLUES

Dear Heloise: Would you pass along an important message to your readers? When they need to go to the ER and we ask them what’s wrong, we need to hear where it hurts, if they can’t breath or if they have chest pains in about one or two sentences. If the discomfort they’re feeling is bad, tell us it’s bad.

What we don’t need is a long dialogue about family issues. If the condition is similar to what you have felt before (such as if you had a heart attack, for example), then tell us. We don’t need a list of all your relatives who’ve died from a heart attack. Please no unimportant information. The ER is usually very busy.

Also, bring only one or two people with you, not your whole family. We do not allow entire families to camp out in the waiting room, nor do we provide places for you to sleep. Most ERs will not permit food or drink either. Please do not ask us to, because we can’t. — A Nurse in Detroit