Sara Cotner did something that seems impossible: She put on a summer wedding—on a Saturday night, no less—for $2,000. (And she did it in seven months.)

Cotner, an education consultant and schoolteacher, planned her wedding the same way she approaches her lesson plans: by thinking of the outcome first. With her groom, she lined out nine goals for their wedding, including a family-reunion vibe, a pledge to not spend too much money on the affair, and a commitment that all decisions would be made solely by the two of them.

Staying under $2,000 meant making some different decisions. Cotner bought her wedding dress for $15 on Target’s Web site and spruced it up with some of her own embroidery.

She and her fiancé bought more than 60 avocados at Sam’s Club and made guacamole (with the help of friends) on their wedding day. They also asked friends and family to donate old gold, which was melted down and made into wedding rings. (Which ended up costing just $109.)

Since her wedding, Cotner has been fielding questions from other budgeting brides in need of advice via her Web site (linked above), where you’ll find an honest discussion for those of us who are nervously watching the numbers add up. Best of all, unlike many newlyweds, Cotner and her husband get to start their lives without any debt.

I should probably just be up front about this: I had never tried sake until now. It’s not because I haven’t had the opportunity. I enjoy sushi as much as the next guy or gal and have found myself at a variety of Denver’s raw-fish joints. But I’m a textbook beer lover. So on a recent late-night happy hour trip, I decided to make the jump and try the traditional Japanese alcoholic beverage. Sushi Sasa turned out to be the perfect place to do it.

My friend and I—another first-time sake sipper—showed up a little after 10:30 p.m. to catch the late-night happy hour. The downstairs lounge was just closing, so we opted for a seat at the sushi bar in the rear of the restaurant. A few people were still scattered around the dining room, which looks like someone used a protractor to arrange. Still, being late on a Tuesday, the place was fairly quiet.

As we surveyed the drink menu, we quickly realized we couldn’t pronounce 90 percent of the sake list and didn’t know what to order. Thankfully, our waiter came to the rescue. After listening to his sake spiel—he explained flavors and the varying quality of the beverages—we split a small bottle of Hakushika Junmai Ginjo, the waiter’s recommendation—not too sweet, not too dry, and very smooth. The best part? The $20 bottle was $10. As our waiter put it, “anything with booze in it” is half off during Sushi Sasa’s happy hour.

Late-night happy hour runs Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 p.m. to midnight. The happy-hour special applies to the entire drink list—which, in addition to sake, includes domestic and Japanese beer, wine, and cocktails. The dinner menu is also available late-night, but everything remains full price.

2401 15th St., 303-433-7272

I have very reluctantly been watching my odometer climb, and when it hit 135,000 miles, my stomach churned. My auto-repair shop made it clear that I would need a tune-up at 135,000, but in my world, “tune-up” was code for spending a thousand dollars on parts I can’t comprehend.

So I decided to read up on what other local writers are saying about regular engine maintenance. I learned about my own potentially dangerous fixes, like the driver’s belt and cracked steering boot, from my mechanic, but I discovered from my reading that a tune-up can also make cars more eco-friendly.

In my case, my car was leaking oil, but other tune-ups might reveal a faulty oxygen sensor, worn spark plugs, or a dirty air filter—all which can cost a driver three to four miles per gallon.

I also learned that oil can make a difference when it comes to gas mileage. Synthetic oils, for example, can improve your fuel economy, though they cost more up front.

If you’re looking to make your car even more environmentally sound, check out Boulder’s Green Garage, which just opened last November. They call their mechanics “Carhuggers,” offer a “green” oil change, and feature biodegradable engine and fuel additives.

When Colorado microbreweries tout “Imperial IPA,” I warn my taste buds to take cover: Things are about to get really bitter.

And the hops Twisted Pine Brewing Company uses in Hoppy Man—Chinook, Cascade, Simcoe, and Northern Brewer—impart aromas and flavors that run the gamut of hoppiness, from flowery and smoky to grapefruit notes. Beyond the range of hops varieties, they also hop the beer six times. (And yes, they dry-hop it.)

So I had mentally armored myself by the time I poured the beer—a very pretty amber color—into my pint glass. But the smell and taste of this very well-balanced beer, which left my bitter taste buds intact, caught me by surprise. Sure, it’s still delightfully hoppy on the tongue, but it’s the clean, sharp type of flavor that lingers lightly after the fullness of the malts.

Inspecting the beer more closely, the 10.5 percent ABV explains the mature balance. Such a high alcohol level doesn’t come without a good dose of malts.

Hoppy Man was originally brewed for the Great American Beer Festival, but Twisted Pine has brewed a small amount again for limited release, so grab a bomber of this refreshingly well-balanced IPA soon.

Last week I took a look at how Twitter can help you find a job. This week I’m reviewing a tool that organizes all your social-media feeds into one platform: TweetDeck’s JobDeck.

JobDeck is a desktop client that organizes multiple feeds into columns, including your TwitJobSearch, job-search experts, and your many social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even MySpace.

Ideally, if you use all your social networks strategically, this could be a wealth of well-organized information from each of your groups. You can easily post an update to one or all of your accounts and organize your feeds to glean information quickly.

I’m not that organized, however, and the updates popping into the upper-right corner of my screen—my chosen location; you can have them pop up elsewhere—have quickly turned into a guilty-pleasure addiction. (My third-grade friend is snowed in! My boss just posted about an upcoming show he wants to see! There’s a job at a London library that I should apply for!) (more…)

Soon after I got engaged, I visited theknot.com, one of “the” wedding Web sites that guides brides-to-be through the sometimes overwhelming planning process. I reviewed the checklist of things I should be doing, learned I should have been doing them months ago, freaked out, and left the site.

But Cheap Thrills reader and Knot user Katherine Laurin convinced me to give the Knot a second chance, pointing me to the site’s community feature, which gives you access to message boards written by brides in your area, who are endearingly referred to as Knotties.

“Wedding planning is so stressful, and right now everyone wants to spend their money wisely, even if their budget isn’t really tight. If a bride finds someone who she loves and is making her wedding planning easier, she is quick to recommend them,” Laurin says, adding that the Knot keeps vendors out of its message boards.

Laurin also found some tips about where to buy discounted decorations. Turns out many brides count on craigslist to sell wedding goods after their big day. (more…)

I usually know I’ve entered a pub I like when I feel as though I’m visiting someone’s very cool living room—where they just happen to have numerous four-top tables and a few kegs on draft. It’s comfortable and homey, but not as personal as other rooms, like the bedroom or the kitchen.

The sunny and warm Village Cork, however, feels like you’ve entered a dear friend’s aged-wood kitchen. And when my companion and I sat at the bar, we were almost literally in the kitchen, and the evening’s meals are prepped just behind the bar.

The wine selection is extensive, and during early happy hour, five glasses are discounted to $5 each. I sipped happily on a few too many glasses of Syrah, and we enjoyed some salmon-mousse appetizers, followed with an order of house-made ricotta. As happy hour ended, the Cork filled quickly, steaming up the windows with conversations—just like the kitchen at home, where everyone always seems to end up during a gathering.

Happy hour options are two-fold: There’s an early one that runs from 4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, when select glasses of wine (chosen by the staff) are $5. The late-night offering begins at 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and at 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and it also features glasses of wine at reduced prices.

On Mondays, bring a donation fit for a pet as part of “Pour la Pet.” The donation goes to the Dumb Friends League, and you get 15 percent off your check.

1300 S Pearl St., 303-282-8399

Back in January I wrote about a free Denver running club at Nike, framed as a way to keep up on those New Year’s resolutions to start running. But as e-mails came in about other free running clubs, I realized Denverites don’t need to make resolutions to run; it’s what we love to do.

Another free club is the Denver Trail Runners, which meets weekly on Thursday evenings. There’s very little to worry about if you run with this group: There’s no required sign-up or dues. (Which, frankly, I appreciate. Sometimes even having to sign up for a running group deters me.) You simply register for the weekly e-mail to find out where they’re meeting and where the run is that week. Dogs and baby strollers are welcome.

As a runner who prefers the flattest surface possible, I’m excited to try this club, but I’m also a bit intimidated to run uphill. Luckily for wimps like me, the members’ performance levels range widely and include simply walking and hiking.

Bonus: In Boulder? Check out the Boulder Trail Runners, which schedules even more weekly runs, including a happy-hour run at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays. The hour-long run is followed by drinks at Sherpa’s.

Local breweries are not only turning out more seasonals—I’m noticing an increase in year-round beers, as well. And while this week’s pick, Claymore Scotch Ale, is a year-round beer, Great Divide Brewing has released it at the most appropriate time of year for its style.

This dark, flavorful brew stands up perfectly to all the comfort food I’ve been eating out of our crockpot. It’s also an interesting anomaly: Scotch ales are strong, and they tend to need a lot of sugar to yield a stronger brew. (The Claymore weighs in at 7.7 percent ABV.) That’s why I expected a strong, malty beer with some sweetness on the tongue. Instead, I got a very clean-tasting beer with a smooth mouthfeel devoid of any stickiness.

Even more interesting is the malt character. After such a clean start to the flavor, you’re left with a charcoal bitterness at the end of the drink.

Overall, Great Divide’s take on the Scotch ale will keep me buying more.

After learning more about the effects of throwing away produce, I’ve become increasingly interested in worm composting. Try though we may, my fiancé and I are guilty of letting lettuce spoil more often than we’d like, and tossing it in the trash only serves as a guilty reminder of the methane gases it will produce.

For others like me, registration starts today for Backyard “Learn to Compost” classes, which are free and held weekly from May through October on Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons, or Wednesday evenings.

If you’re interested in worm composting or learning how to build a compost pile, there are specialized classes on those topics.

The classes are sponsored by the Denver Urban Gardens, Denver Recycles/Solid Waste Management, and the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District. Registration is first-come, first-serve, and you can sign up via their Web site (linked above).

Classes are held at the Denver Backyard Composting Demonstration Site in the Gove Community Garden, located at East 13th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

My fiance and I appear to have hit the invite stage of wedding planning. But it seems we might be well-served in having other information gathered first—like, say, knowing where to point our guests to book a hotel room.

Considering such details can make you realize: 1) how little you have in order, and 2) how many of these details need to be organized and cross-referenced. At this point of the planning process you either dive in and organize, or decide it’s time to hit Vegas and elope.

For those of us willing to sort out the details, Myweddingworkbook.com is a way to help keep our blood pressure down while we do it. The Web site offers a variety of free tools, from budget planning to a task calendar to guest-list planning—and they all connect to help keep you organized.

Even better? It’s a locally owned business, started by two grooms. The idea came from one of their brides, who became frustrated looking for online organizational tools to plan her wedding.

The site launched last March and currently touts 14,000 user-brides. Also in the works is a premium site for brides, which will cost $7.95 per month and will offer additional services, like personalized wedding Web sites.

Making all the right environmental choices can seem difficult, but knowing that it often saves money in the long term, if not immediately, makes things easier. One of my many bookmarked pages is The Simple Dollar’s rundown of 42 green ways to save money and reduce carbon emissions. But it’s a lot more fun to talk about such matters with like-minded people, which is just what green drinks Denver does each month.

The event is informal, and the drinks and networking are complemented with a themed talk. February’s topic is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink” and will address what we consume and which items are most likely to pollute the Earth after we throw them away.

In the spirit of keeping us even further connected and informed, green drinks Denver has a blog that links to local environmental stories, as well as other eco-themed events around town.

The next gathering is tonight at 6 p.m. at Mario’s Double Daughter’s Salotto. Future meetings happen the last Thursday of every month at 6 p.m.

Rarely do I bother with happy-hour food. I’m not a restaurant critic (I leave that to the experts), and food specials generally aren’t the tipping point of great happy hours.

That all changed for me on a recent visit to Breckenridge Brewery’s Kalamath Street location after I took down close to a dozen of the signature smoked wings, which were on special for 30 cents apiece. I’ve been craving them ever since.

Breck puts out some solid beers at a spectacular price of $2.50 a pint during happy hour. The Kalamath brewery has a more homey feel than its downtown sibling, with chess players, large groups of friends, and servers who don’t hesitate to tease the regulars.

I enjoyed my sampler of the 471 IPA (a terrifically hoppy draft), and we also ordered pitchers of the Trademark Pale Ale for just $7.50. I recommend both, as well as those perfectly spicy, tangy, and tender wings.

Happy hour runs Monday through Saturday, from 2 to 6 p.m. Pitchers of the “mainline” (brewed year round) and seasonals are $7.50, and 471 pitchers (of the IPA and ESB) are $9. In addition, on Mondays happy hour lasts till close; Tuesdays feature all-you-can-eat ribs for $11.50; on Wednesdays happy hour lasts all day; Thursdays you get a free beer with a sandwich or platter; and on Fridays, starting at 4 p.m., the signature smoked wings are 30 cents.

471 Kalamath St., 303-573-0431

Sometimes deals are impossible to take at face value—particularly when everyone seems to be offering them–and I’ve been trying to find a catch to YoloDeals since signing up for them a few weeks ago. A recent set of coupons offered $40 worth of dining at The Summit for $20, $80 at Abella Massage and Skin Care Studio for $30, and a cut, style, and blowout for $30 from Solera Salon.

But it turns out there’s no bait-and-switch with YoloDeals. The advertised discount is the one you get. The Golden-based business sends daily coupons that typically offer 50 to 90 percent off area goods and services. All featured businesses are local, and they rotate. (I have yet to see the same business twice.)

Unlike some e-mail offers, the deals aren’t contingent on how many people buy in. As soon as your credit card is accepted, you print a certificate that can be used as early as that day.

As an added bonus, YoloDeals donates to various charities. If enough people buy a certain deal, Yolo gives five percent of its profits to the selected charity.

According to a recent New York Times article, “Twitter Could Become the Unemployed’s Best Friend,” 340,000 jobs were listed on the popular social networking site in a recent month. With more and more job seekers becoming savvy social-media users, it seems recruiters know they can move jobs quickly (and cheaply) with Twitter.

So I embarked on my own trial to find out whether Twitter has the potential to become the new craigslist of job searches. (An admission: Although I’ve heard all about the benefits of Twitter, I’m still not very savvy with it myself.)

The easiest way to search for jobs is via TwitJobSearch, basically a search engine for all the jobs posted on Twitter. If you’re looking for something in a specific location, be sure to include that in your search, which can be refined based on salary ranges, by how frequent the lister tweets, and when the job was tweeted.

Most intriguing to me is how Twitter makes the process more interactive for the job seeker. You can click on an icon under a listing that is titled “I can do that”—and that note of confidence will either go out to the public or just to the recruiter. You can also upload a resumé or CV, save jobs to an online account, and follow recruiters.

In my own search of “local writing” jobs, the listings have been different than those posted on my typical site-haunts of craigslist, JournalismJobs, and Andrew Hudson’s Job List. I may not be much of a tweeter, but I’ll definitely be using Twitter to watch for work.

While I’m all for using Evites to invite guests to our wedding, my groom-to-be has expressed an interest in creating a physical, lasting invitation to our celebration. And I get his point: If you’re hosting an event at which you’re pledging your life to another person, it’s nice to have mementos.

One place to accomplish this task is clear: Etsy. After searching for locally made invitations, I stumbled onto these adorable owl-themed options that are also eco-friendly.

Made in Denver by Lauren Lowe Design, the invitations are printed on brown card stock that contains 100 percent recycled fibers. Rest assured that trees didn’t die so you could send out cute wedding invitations. The cards are sold individually for $2.75 each, and Lowe also offers matching RSVP, travel, and reception cards. Finally, she allows you customize the cards with your choice of fonts and colors.

Are you a local Etsy retailer with wedding wares we should know about? E-mail me at jennie@5280.com.

Someone once told me that people with charisma often have varying personalities. Apparently, we gravitate toward folks who have a few sides to them.

Such is the draw at The Corner Office, where both the customers and the bartenders contribute to the place’s charisma. Happy-hour customers are still freshly buttoned up from a day at the office, while bartenders are colorfully tattooed and hip looking.

The effect is a professional environment where everyone feels licensed to cut loose a little quicker. There may be a lot of suits at the bar, but everyone is relaxed and laughing. I notice my own merriment rise after one of the bar’s Paper Shredders, a martini (on special during happy hour for $5) featuring whiskey, ginger ale, and fresh ginger. (Be sure to peruse the cocktail menu. A lot of the drinks have special additions, like a Dum Dum sucker or a Quik-rimmed glass.)

Happy hour runs in the bar area every day, from 4 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 11 p.m. A list of specialty martinis are $5, house wine is $5, PBRs are $1, and Easy Street Wheat and 90 Shilling are $3. A happy-hour food menu is available during the same time periods, with fare like lemon edamame ($6), shrimp spring rolls ($7), and crab pad thai ($18), among other treats.

1401 Curtis St., 303-825-6500

This recession may have us shedding certain (or most) creature comforts, but I’ve also noticed more community-oriented events popping up around town. We seem to be coming together more to talk about finances, job searches, and, thank goodness, to have a little fun.

Yet another example is Hooked on Colfax’s new Scrabble night, which takes place at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month. The theme night is already gaining popularity. Barista Rebecca Peebles says the shop’s four Scrabble boards are snatched up quickly and one employee as well as some of the players bring in several of their own.

It’s free to play, and Hooked is open until 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. Also, the coffeeshop just received its liquor license, so if booze inspires your Scrabble vocabulary, plenty of beer, wine, and coffee-infused cocktails are available to help boost your game.

Bonus: Hooked on Colfax also hosts ArgusFest, a film series featuring documentaries focused on social awareness. The flicks show at 7 p.m. on Mondays, and the audience is asked to make a donation.

3213 E. Colfax Ave., 303-398-2665

I’ve made it no secret throughout my seven years of covering Colorado beers that Odell Brewing Company’s IPA is one of my favorites. When I finally took a trip to Fort Collins to visit the brewery, it was the first brew I ordered.

Until they accidentally mixed up my order and gave me their Red Ale.

Red ales are often saddled with adjectives like “sticky” and “sweet,” so I was less than enthusiastic about my mistaken pint. But it glowed a gorgeous copper in the glass, and I’m not one to send back a pretty beer.

It took just that one pint for my Red Ale affections to rival those of the IPA. Odell’s Red is neither sticky nor sweet. It starts with a blast of grapefruity hops and has a remarkably clean mouthfeel and crisp finish.

Despite its coloring (never skip pouring this one into a pint glass), I can’t help but put this beer closer to a pale ale category rather than a red. Either way, it’s fast become one of my favorite seasonals. Grab it before it leaves shelves in April.

A few weeks ago, we published an interview with local transition and executive coach John Heckers, who said, among other things, that it’s time to say goodbye to 40-hour workweeks and embrace 60 or 70 hours of work per week if we want to keep our jobs.

The post caught the attention of some readers, and I haven’t felt comfortable since. The reason? I live the workaholic life Heckers describes, and I’m unhealthy because of it.

As a freelance writer and musician who feels pressured by my industries to say “yes” to everything, my workdays start at 7 a.m., and it’s an amazing day if my laptop is closed or my rehearsal is wrapped up by 9 p.m. I rarely have a day off, and my idea of a “weekend” is starting with a nice breakfast and then heading right back to my grueling work schedule.

After years of living this way, I’m finally trying to change. I am surprisingly used to sitting down with shooting chest pains and shortness of breath. I drink too much whiskey because I think I deserve to after a long day. And these symptoms, combined with an overriding sense of emotional fatigue, point to one thing: I’m burned out. (more…)