Save the Dates: Finally Complete!

Alright, so I won't be mailing them until the end of the month, and truth be told I have a few more addresses to get.  But by and large, they are finally complete!  It is beyond strange to have completed my first little wedding project- and mostly painlessly.  Here is their story: told through pictures.

Look what was waiting when I got home!

My materials all organized: addressed envelopes, Save the Date postcards, and stamps

(For the few left to address, I've got the blank envelopes, writing guide for addressing, and fancy pen)

A closer look at the addressed envelopes

(Addressing  in your own handwriting with a guide  was a huge timesaver!)

A closer look at the front: Didn't they turn out perty?

A closer look at the back

Finally: the look of it all together

(Clockwise: Front of envelope, back of envelope, back of Save the Date, front of Save the Date)

They are simple and they don't provide an extreme amount of information, but this was on purpose.  All extraneous information is posted online, and for those without internet access we are mailing this information out separately.  (More on that to come.)

You might also notice that nowhere does it state: "Save the Date."  Again, this was on purpose as I am just not so much a fan of this phrase (random, I know, perhaps the connection to STDs that makes me queasy).  I stole the wording I ended up using instead from a Save the Date received by the old roommate- and I would credit that fabulous bride if I had any memory as to who she is!

Any thoughts?  Do they get the point across?  Have you had enough of them and want to just move on to the next big thing?  In that case stay tuned for eye candy and my incredible photographers later this week!

How To: Super Easy Embossing

I hope that everyone had a great weekend celebrating America's Birthday!!  I actually got LOTS of homework and studying done, and also I finally worked on my Save the Dates!  You have patiently listened to the plans, and now you are saying-

"Enough already!  Just show us the gosh darn things."

Well my friends, the finished product is coming soon.  But first, don't you want to see how I gave them a special crafty touch?  (I will safely assume the answer is yes.)

Before placing my beautifully edited vintage postcards into the safety of their new homes, I thought I would do a little decorating.  So I figured I would give a short "how to" about embossing our new address onto the backs of the envelopes as the return address.  (Please ignore the awful blocked out info!)

Step One: ink stamp and press onto envelope flap

Step Two: not so centered, try harder next time!

Step Three: cover with embossing powder in color of your choice

Step Four: dump off excess powder

Step Five: use sweet pink embosser to heat it up!

Step Six: now ain't that a perty touch?

Materials:

Envelopes

Custom Rubber Stamp (from impressrubberstamps.com)

Ink in color of your choice

Embossing powder (can be clear, as shown, or colored)

Embossing Tool

Tips: I use a paper plate to tap off my excess powder onto; it makes for easy clean up if you fold it in half and use it to funnel the excess back into your container.

Very simple; gives it a personal and homemade touch.  Which is what I am going for- you can't take me too seriously if my own address isn't centered, now can you?  ;)

Tomorrow comes the finished product, I promise!  Thank y'all for your continued patience!  Anyone else finding the little things endlessly amusing while trying not to study for this week's midterm?

They're Here!

I know today is a short little post as I have work all day and then class from 4:30 until 9:55.  (I will be so thankful when this summer is over and I have my time back!!)  So forgive me, and forgive my excessive excitement about the mail...

YAY Tracking!

After all of my general uncertainty and frustration, I finally placed my order for my Save the Date cards last week and apparently, they have been delivered!  Sadly, as I am on campus all day working and attending class, the package will likely not be in my hot little hands until tomorrow when I go get it from the apartment office.  But I am so excited and I can't wait to see how they turned out!!!  I will show pictures soon...

Enjoy your Thursday!

Choosing & Asking Attendants

So right after we got engaged, I decided to wait a little while to ask attendants to be in my wedding for two reasons: first, I wanted to talk it over with Ryan, make the decision together, and be sure about my choices.  Second, I wanted to ask as many friends as I could in person.

We decided on five groomsmen, five bridesmaids, best man and maid of honor, and two ushers.

There were a few people I knew I could ask right away.  I had asked Mary to be my maid of honor, let's see... When I left for college seven years ago?  So I am pretty sure she was expecting that.  We also wanted Katie (my other younger sister) to be a bridesmaid, and my brother to be a groomsman.  Seeing all of them at Christmas and being able to ask and celebrate together in person was awesome, as I do not see my family very often!  (Especially Mike!)

I also had two boys to ask to be ushers, which some may find strange but worked out perfectly.  There are two guys in the world that have been extremely supportive and accepting of me, and have seen me through everything.  I could not imagine my wedding day without honoring those friendships, and I did not feel right asking Ryan to have them as groomsmen- they're my friends!  But I also was somewhat tied to the tradition of having girls on one side and guys on the other.

So asking those two to be ushers was perfect to me.  One is my high school best friend, and the other is one of my best friends from college, who is also (drama drama) an ex.  But thus far, I am nothing but happy with my decision.  And yes, for those who this scandalizes- Ryan and I decided together and he is very much in favor of it.  He has a long history of being very comfortable that I am close with an ex.  Thank GOD for that!

To honor the friend who got me through my two years without family and friends after moving to Atlanta, I bought Jess lunch after she helped me wedding dress shop for the first time and asked her to be in the wedding.  It was so nice to do it one and one and let her know how much she has helped me get through my move.

With three more girls left to ask, I made invitations to get coffee over our college Homecoming weekend in Florida.  I wanted to make cute "Will you be my bridesmaid" cards, but I ran out of time.  So I gave out flowers instead!

Abbs, D, me, and Nicole

So after getting affirmative answers from everyone, I still felt badly for not making cards to let everyone know how much their friendships mean to me.  So I made "Thanks for agreeing to put up with me and be in the wedding" cards!  I found cute/funny pictures to put on the back, and made a pull down sappy letter to put on the front.

Katie, Mar and I a few years back wearing matching jammies, lol

(Instructions were included to pull down and find the entire letter of thanks)

Being the sap I am, doing this made me tear up and feel super thankful to have such great people in my life.  It was also fun to find old pictures: one totally hysterical one of Drew, David, and I back when we visited Drew at UF during college, one of all three of my Stetson girls and myself during our senior year, the childhood one of Mary, Katie, and I, and then one of Jess and I.  I can't wait to have all of these people together in one place!

I had hoped to find the money to send singing telegrams to ask my attendants to be in the wedding, but that didn't pan out.  Anyone get extremely creative when asking their closest friends to be in their wedding?

I dragged Ryan to Michaels tonight to use my coupon, and I am now the proud owner of this:

image from Paper Source

You can not imagine my excitement!  I made another invitation mock-up just to show Ryan how it worked.  I think he is hiding in fear of the crafts that are taking over the apartment...

In other random news, I ripped a very inappropriate hole in my fat jeans tonight.  It appears that fate is kindly suggesting I hit the gym and lay off the pizza only diet.  I'll be sure to let everyone know how that goes, lol.

Thoughts on creative ways to use the Xyron before I start making my invitations?

Save the Dates: In Progress

Crazy weekend!  We had a few friends from out of town and I was more social than I have been in months, leaving me exhausted but happy.  Then I had a paper due in my class tonight, leaving me- hopped up on caffeine late at night (again).  So forgive my lateness.  I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and official start to summer time!

So last week I placed my order for the Save the Dates... (Yes, I finally got it to upload!  Woo!  More to come on awesome customer service later.)  And while they haven't themselves arrived yet, I have been getting all excited by the packages preparing for their arrival.

First, the envelopes!  (Is it wrong to be really excited about envelopes?  I justify by telling myself it makes the wedding one baby step towards real.)  I really wanted these:

I heart Paper Source

However at $3.50 for ten, the total would have been $35 for the 100 I wanted.  Now before you think that doesn't sound bad, consider that envelopes that aren't quite as dear to my heart can be found for about 1/3 of the price.  So I figured I would be a good kid and scratch that.  I checked Envelope Mall for something similar, and while I did find this:

Carnival "Euro Flap" 4Bar

at $15.25 for 100, it sadly did not come in the correct size (I wanted A6 to fit my postcards, and of course it came in various other sizes but not A6).  So I settled my silly envelope-loving heart on these:

Natural White A6 Envelopes from Envelope Mall

Now I know you're feeling big time sorry for me (completely kidding!), but don't worry!  I made it all better by ordering 100 of these babies which arrived today:

Thank you, USPS!

And now that I am done whining and my envelopes and stamps have arrived, I am quite happy with my decisions.  The envelopes were $10.75 for 100, are 30% Post Consumer Waste, and best of all, are the correct size!  (And they are very nice, despite not having my fancy flap.)

I can't wait to get the actual postcards and send these babies out!  It gets slightly more real by the day...

Anyone else excited by the little things?

Invitation Design Update

The other day I realized I haven't been by the apartment office to check for packages in awhile... and there were THREE waiting for me!  Most exciting was my Epson RX595 (which I purchased at the suggestion of Paper Source via WeddingBee).

As I have been waiting to do a million things until I got this new baby, I spent an afternoon working on my invitation layout instead of doing my homework:

ignore the blank spots, pretty please

I keep thinking it looks a little bland, but I also really like it.  And while I sat pondering what to do to make it less bland during dinner, Ryan reminded me, "About five people will judge what it looks like.  Those five people don't matter.  No one else will care."

I love it!  He admits that some people will judge it, but that it doesn't matter.  It's simple, easy, and I think it works just fine.  Is it bad if seven months out I am already resorting to "just fine"?  Give me your input!!

Please Make Plans...

To join us for a big party in January!

Alright, so despite the votes that the church image was too serious for us, I was still pretty in love with it!  (And Ryan, seeing this, gave me the go ahead.  Good guy.)  Here is the Save the Date so far:

[As usual, please excuse the marked out info.]

front

back

I plan to print the cards double sided matte (hopefully from www.printsmadeeasy.com if I can get it to upload... any suggestions?).  Then we will put them in envelopes and send them out!  I originally wanted to just mail them as actual postcards, mostly to save paper and money.  However Ryan is concerned that people will discard them without looking at them, and I am concerned about them getting marked up in the mail.  So we decided envelopes would be the way to go.  I will update once we actually mail them, but for now, what do you think?

Invitation Planning: Continued

So of course I had to keep working on it, and luckily I found inspiration for how I want to put it all together.  (Makes me think it might be too busy with the name on there too.)  But you get the drift of what I am imagining, correct?

Image found here (PS: I love this girl)

In the meantime, I am starting to think that black backing with the opal stardream on the front might be prettier, and perhaps more striking?  I don't know, it might be too much black when it's all put together.  But I think it looks good here.  (Use that imagination and picture it without the white behind the scrollies and also without all the info blocked out, of course.)

You likee?

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program...

... with this important message:

Ha!  Y'all thought I was going to finish my story!  But sorry, this takes precedence.  Clearly I have been staying up at night working on my invitation design, seeing as how my paper and book arrived yesterday afternoon!

It is sooo formal, and way more serious than I thought it would end up being.  And girly.  I really think it's girly.  (EEK!)  But... I kind of love it!  I know it's simple and basic and all that- but anyone who knows me knows I love simple and basic.

(sorry about the erased bits)

Imagine Stardream Opal backing with Soft White Paper Source paper as the front piece.  And the second image is my maybe belly band there to hold the other pieces in once it's all put together (ie: info card, rsvp card).  I thought maybe instead of an inner envelope, I could have black satin ribbon with a little name card holding it all together.  And for my little sample there, Mom is sending one to herself!  (Awwww!)  Or we could also try it without the name:

Thoughts?  Please let me know what you think... But make sure you say it as super nicely as possible!  I love really really nice (and flattering) constructive feedback.  Thank you!

We will resume shortly with your regularly scheduled programming.

Save the Dates

Based on the fact that we have not yet taken engagement pictures but the time to make some Save the Dates is here, I had to come up with another idea besides sharing pictures of my pretty little face with you.  (Wait, I mean, Ryan's pretty little face...)

I came up with (read as "stole" from this knot bio) the idea of using a vintage postcard, editing the wording, and using it as a Save the Date.  So first I thought a postcard of Piedmont Park would be perfect:

found here

Unfortunately, it was sold already.  So I needed a new idea.  I thought of Christ the King (the Cathedral we're getting married in) and I found this:

found here

And I was pretty sold.  It's beautiful, it's where we're getting married, and I love it.  Then I show it to Ryan and he said that he thinks it would be "pretentious" and very much not my personality to send out pictures of the Cathedral on our Save the Dates.  I immediately understood where he was coming from- I'm not your perfect church-going type.  Has wedding planning and a love of all things pretty affected my brain?!?  (But I still think it's beautiful, eh.)

So I figured I would look up a few more options to satisfy Ry's request.  I present the other ideas:

found here

(This is Ryan's favorite, he said it looks "happier")

found here

found here

(according to the website, this is of Inman Park, but it looks like Piedmont Park to me)

found here

(driving into Atlanta, past the stadium)

So what do y'all think?  You even like the idea of a vintage postcard?  I like the thought of giving people a cheerful little taste of Atlanta- so I am pretty sold on it.  Which one should I use?

Invitation Planning

So making the invitations is one of the parts of wedding planning I am looking forward to the most.  Many who have gone the DIY route with invitations have warned that it is more stressful and time consuming than they expected, so I decided to spend the summer making the invites, even though they will not be mailed until the beginning of November.  To get a head start, I have been working on a basic outline for a couple months.  No matter what I did though, it felt too boring.  (Sorry, I am not posting anything until I have something I am more excited about!)  Then I decided to go ahead and purchase this:

via amazon.com

Recommended by my old roommate as a good source of clip art to spice up the design, I thought I would at least give it a try.

Then I decided that I better at least have an idea of the colors and layout of the paper before I can finalize the printing, so I went ahead and ordered samples of some Stardream paper to check colors and weight for printing.  I decided to check out:

Quartz

Opal

Bronze

[Images are from www.paperworks.com but samples were ordered from handmade-paper.us (because they were $0.75 per sample!).]

Last, I decided to order some supplies from Paper Source... Because let's be honest, they have my heart.  (Dear Paper Source, Please open a store in Atlanta!)  Plus, I got the idea for my design from some of their DIY suggestions, so it seemed only fitting.  I decided to get some flat paper and some eco-white cover weight paper:

flocked gold with beige vines

eco-white cover

(the screen shot accidentally included the label, whoops!)

So once all of this gets to me, and I actually decide on what I am doing, I will post some more clues here!  Stay tuned!