I m planning my sons 3rd birthday and the thought came into my head to ask guests to take the money they would spend on a present & put it towards an activity like swimming lessons or horseback riding. I feel like he has enough toys & he s going to be donating some so I don t want him to just turn around & get more. I would rather him get the experience of doing something fun. Is that rude & if not how could I include that in the invitation?

Were there mixed emotions? Realizing your starting a new life with someone by your side?

So I am trying to plan a wedding next summer (2017). The only issue is, my fiance' gets deployed from around September to May-ish I'm guessing. He says he will only get about a 2-3 month heads up when his post deployment leave will be for me to plan the wedding, and I know when he gets back he will have post deployment paperwork and counseling and stuff that may take awhile.. So does anybody have any suggestions on how I should go about planning the wedding without a date? I don't even know what month because I don't know how deployments and post deployment leave works (this is my first deployment experience). Any advise helps! Thanks!

I'm quite a loner. I had friends in the past but distanced myself as I was trying to change my life around from my previous one (drug addiction). I pretty much only have 1 friend now but he is still using drugs and I don't think he would be the person I want standing up there next to me. I don't have any family I am close enough to who I would want to be the best man either. Would it be awkward if my wife had all her friends there and I had none?