Invitation Suite

I am putting the finishing touches on our invitation suite. I was torn. I really wanted to diy our invitations, but I really wanted letterpress. So to save money and compromise…. I ordered our main invitation and envelope in letterpress. You have seen them.

Then, I made our hotel and area information sheet, the RSVP, the RSVP instruction card, the photo upload information card, our rehearsal dinner invitation, and finally our after party invitation.

It’s taken me months and I’m still not done. Everything is done but the RSVP which is taking forever since they each have to be hand typed. Our RSVP mimics out Save the Dates.

I have had a blast doing them, but I seriously want to warn brides. If you do not have the time or patience to print, design, cut, and man handle all your invitation pieces…. get the set.

Sorry for the horrible quality of the picture. I’m waiting to let Nikki get the best picture of all of this madness.

Save the Dates!!!

I know that you saw the cute sunflower stamp I posted in a recent post about our Save the Dates. But since I have confirmed many people have them already... without further ado... my Save the Dates!!!!

The envelopes were typed out on an old fashioned type writer. No stamps here.

The actual Save the Dates were printed on old school library cards (I got them at a library supply shop). Each person got a different booked that they "checked out". The stamp in the middle basically gives them the information again. The date of check out is our wedding date, the library is our own (yes we own every book we let them check out), and the room is the chapel we will be married at.

We finished them off with cute Moo stickers with images of us from the library shoot of our engagement shot and a few other favorites. I have more images to upload later if you want to see more.

A moment...

I'm really excited today. Our Save the Dates are in the mail!! I mailed them today at lunch. Jonathon took me out to El Cancun for some Mexican to lift my spirits (bad day) and then when we got to work again we walked hand in hand to the post office and mailed them!! It's official, people are invited, my dress is ordered, and our beautiful letterpress invites are sitting at the apartment looking lovely. (Did I mention how lovely they are wrapped? See!) Anyway.

So, it makes me smile knowing that all of our work is starting to come together. Nevermind, the fact that I am so busy and swamped and house buying emotionally exhausted. I feel inspired today. I have a meeting with a florist in the next few weeks. I have so much wonderful vibes going around.

Who else is ready for spring?!?!

STDs are not always bad...

... they are if you have the HIV, but not when talking about Save the Dates. Mine are done. Finally. I am mailing them out tomorrow. So, busy week with house buying stuff, but I promise this week you will get to see my STDs. I hope you are excited. I also have other things for you to get ideas from this week. Yes, I am out of the doldrums.

the wedding lull

I'm seriously loving this dress from Holly Stadler. Lovely. It'd be a perfect beach or informal wedding dress. I contemplated buying it. However, my wedding dress budget already strapped, my mom suggested that we go to the lady who made my prom dress my junior year as a knock off of the red "jump dress" in Titanic. It was $100. She said perhaps she could make something similar in design to this since she makes wedding dresses. I am going to check when I go home. If it is about $100, Jonathon said to get it. I'll wear it to the after party and for pictures we will have made at TWC in our formal wear.

I believe it is a lovely knock off (though I'm sure not what Holly intended) of the Claire Pettibone dress that I adored, longed for, and loved.

Not a ton of stuff is going on. I mailed my bridesmaids their lookbooks. Jane, Kourt, Court have gotten them for sure. I haven't talked to my other girls yet. Court already has her dress! And this story made me happy. She had to buy a dress for another wedding that is one of the colors I said they could get. She said she didn't know where she was going to be able to wear it again. So she'd be out the money for the dress for one time use. She asked if it was okay if she wore it to my wedding. I happily agreed. That is what I wanted for my girls: to be able to wear them again. Jane is using the opportunity to get a new J.Crew dress. She said it's a great reason to splurge and a good excuse to buy the J.Crew dresses she loves. So, that is good.

I'm sending out my Save the Dates this week, I hope. I ordered cute stickers from our engagement session (the first one) for the back from Moo. I hope to get them this week. We've already stamped them. Now, all we have to do is get the stickers and we are set. As soon as they go out... pictures!!

WWW and STDs

Today, I have to admit. I don't have a wish to make. Not one. Seriously. I know. Crazy. However, I do have news.

My STDs (except for the wax sealing on the back of the envelope, because I haven't gotten the wax seal yet) are done!!! They are sealed in envelopes, sitting there, waiting to be waxed and mailed. I'm pretty much excited.

In that line of thought, we have decided to go with Peculiar Pair Press for our invitations. I'll submit the order next week. I'm excited.

Rocking: My Love x Justin Timberlake (shush)
Feeling: tired

Home Sweet Home

We are back home from our trip to see our parents and J Rock's trip to ATL. It has been a busy wedding week. And a busy week period. My boy is sick today. He got a wicked virus yesterday. So I'm munching on airborne and playing nurse. But let me tell you about my week.

My mom (love her!) found a typewriter (for free!) for me for our STDS. So, the first morning I was home, I cracked it open and started to work. The work was slow and repetitive. But fun. I have a small, fairly precise area to work with. I am about halfway done and I now have it down to a science. I just need to find the envelopes to type out the addresses.

Then, Natasha (my MOH) and I went shopping for fun wedding things. It started with a trip to get wedding shoes. I found some adorable Steven by Steve Madden shoes. They were fuschia with a dragon fly rhinestone. It just wasn't what I was looking for though. So, the search continues for shoes. But we went to Hobby Lobby where I did luck out. I bought some new gold stamp ink. But I found a wonderful stamp that looks like the postage paid stamp from Paris in 1949. And one for our thank you post cards (which we already have) that says merci!. I'm so happy with those. I also found 35 gold Christmas tree balls of all sizes for $10 and some other gold, ivory and orange balls. Lovely.

On Tuesday, my wonderful engagement photographer worked through the night (Monday) so that our pictures were ready. I'll have this disk this week and will regale you with my favorites. I'm pretty excited.

It was a productive week, even though I forgot to write down the two Dj's numbers so that I could call them and I was sans internet for a week. I got a bunch done.

Blurb!!!

Well, I'm having fun. I am working on our guestbook. We decided to do a digital scrapbook after getting the idea to make our own wedding album on Blurb. I am really excited about Blurb. I love the thought of being able to create your own book of anything. I write all the time and this might be an avenue to get a book of my work. At any rate, I've been adding photos, telling stories, and generally having a good time. I need to scan all of the other items in. But I'll have to do that later.

I'm also thinking about adding playlists, things that were popular, dates we had, movies we saw, trips we took, and other scrapbooky type things. It's going to take a ton of work, but I have 13 months!

I'm kinda excited about going home. I am going to work on my Save the Dates with my mom while Jonathon is in Atlanta. Then, I'm going to Becky's to look at shoes for the wedding. I want to get them before the dress so I can wear them to try on dresses. But I'm also looking forward to some down time.

I thought I'd share a few of the images from my scrapbook/guestbook with you.

This picture is one of my favorite from when we started dating.

Date night on the mountain (one of the best days of my life.)

We are mothertrucking rockstars!

WWW

For my wedding wish this Wednesday.

I wish our Save The Dates were done.

I'll give you a clue.

(From here)

This isn't my exact save the date. It's a clue remember. Anyway. That is my wish.

The Ceremony

Jonathon and I have started working on two of my favorite parts of the wedding. The ceremony and the stationary. Yesterday, (with a little help and push in the right direction from my mom) we finally make an absolute choice on what we are doing for our STDs. We even got started working on them since we are individualizing the names on them it will take us several days (if not weeks) to finish the design. Then, we will print and stamp them. It's going to be cute. After I send them out I will upload pics to show you.

We have narrowed down our readings. We will have several people do readings for us. We have picked our vows and what we would like our officiant to say. I just need to work it all out together. It will probably be a rather longer ceremony than most people are used to.

Here's a rough outline and our vows.

Prelude

Processional

Opening Remarks from Dr. R.

Blessing from MF? (maybe if she can attend)

The readings

(I would like to fit in these next two, but I am not sure if I can.)

I would like to have the choir or a choir sing Feels Like Home x Chantel K.

And I would like to somehow work in an excerpt from a musical.

Then, the vows. (We are doing a non-traditional set I do not want to share yet.)

And these:

I, (name), take thee (name) , to be my (wife/husband) ,to have and to hold, from this day forward,for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,till death do us part, and thereto I pledge thee my faith.

**These are traditional Methodist vows. We are being wed in a Methodist chapel by a Methodist minister it only makes sense, plus there is a deeper meaning to these vows as well.

Then, ring ceremony.

Recessional

Bell Ringing

Grand Exit

Home Again

JB and I got home yesterday and pretty much got unpacked and rested from our long week of shopping (me) and business meetings (him). I am pretty glad to be home. I caught up on wedding blogs and slept. I am well rested and ready to go back to work. I got my hair cut while I was away. I didn't do a thing on wedding planning except!, I found a great sale on Kleenex for our wedding guests. I got 2 boxes of the 280 Kleenex for $3.00! I'm going to either make packets like on wedding bee or put them in my programs or something! Not sure yet.

I also organized my pictures on my laptop into sections, worked on my STDs, and made a new inspiration board. Okay, I guess I done a little bit. So, I thought to settle back in I'd show you some pictures I've been loving right now. We are having our engagement shots done very soon since the leaves are changing colors and stuff. Thus at the moment I am in love with engagement shots. I am not sure where I found these (this was before my coding of images to know where they are from). However, if they are yours please please please tell me so I can credit you.

My newest inspiration board. I love all these elements. The fun, the party, the elegance, the ethnic traditions.

The engagement shots in the red dress are amazing!!!

This shot is just so much fun!

I love the sorta vintage bad-boy, naughty sexy shot!

Bridal Show and Ideas

So, I'm back at work after being sick. That was quite an ordeal and I am glad it is over with now. I work tomorrow and then I am off for a long weekend, but I bet you'd rather hear about the bridal show. It was the My Bella Bridal Show in Ga. I met some great vendors. However, I was underwhelmed. I might have found my day of, DJ, and rental company though! The fashion show was somewhat ridiculous with those very cheaply made dresses that look somewhat like polyester. *sigh* Nonetheless, my boy and I had fun. We sat out on the peir for about 30 minutes before it began. It was delicious. Then, we got a nice gift basket.

I'm on a kick. I am working on my programs! (Shocking since it is over 14 months until the big day.) I am working on our STDS. (Not shocking since those need to go out soon.) I am making a list and gathering some shot I love for my photographer. Not that she needs much help, but it's always good to convey what you'd like so they have an idea of the pictures in your head (an ipod cable linking us would work better!).

I work at my venue as you may know. I see it everyday and I can't help to plan and plot and get ideas on a daily basis. My current idea is to put candles EVERYWHERE outside. I mean, on the backs of the stone benches, on the outside stairs, on the top of the veranda, inside the chapel, inside the buildings, on the porch. I mean... EVERYWHERE. Since it will be evening and winter it would look cozy. I'm also thinking about those lovely floral monograms you see everywhere, but not just on the doors in other areas as well. All in all I think it shall be lovely.

Bridal Show Day

Well, we are about to head out to the bridal show. However, we taking a detour and stopping by Apple Annie's first. They have an amazing selection of gifts and accessories. Most of it is wedding perfect. Not to mention the fact that they have tons of wonderful scented candles, Vera Bradley, and other goodies. I think today we will pick up our wax seal kit from there for the invitations. She has the whole kit with the gold wax for less than what I would have thought. Considering the price it is online. I'm pretty excited. This will be our first bridal show.

Last night, I changed the idea for our Save The Dates (STDs). I had an orginal idea, but I have opted to do it differently. And I am in love with this idea. Even though it will be alot of work. Oh well. More later after the bridal show. And my wonderful boy is going to guest blog for us later for a male perspective on the bridal show.