WW: Invitationapalooza

Tonight I print out all the invitations, inserts, and finish addressing the last few invitation envelopes. Then tomorrow all that stuff gets cut down by the wonderful Chris and on Friday I'm headed down to MD to enslave enlist Julibean and her Sasquatch for help assembling. We'll also stop back at Curvaceous Couture to check out the veil I'm totally in love with, so that's another thing I can scratch off my list.

Meanwhile I've ordered snazzy cufflinks for Jason, socks for the groomsmen, and some additional items for the bridesmaids gifts.

m'Dad bought a tuxedo and we're still debating whether or not we'll just tell the fathers to wear black ties or we'll get them blue ties or something special. m'Mama bought a dress but that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking. She's not 100% sold on it and I'm meeting her at a dress shop in our town that's going out of business to try on a few things and possibly catch something on clearance.

I've set a date with the amazing Ashley and creative Courtney to have a paper flower making pow-wow and get the centerpieces done. I cannot even put into words how at ease I'll be once THOSE are done.

Once in the invitations are all set and in the mail I can breathe and work on other things, like, oh, idk making all the bouquets and organizing the rest of my life. Oh yeah, and pack maybe a little? Because even if we don't know where we're moving we're still going to be moving come May.

On a complete tangent:
I've decided to make completely anal RSVPs. I've heard that sometimes when you leave the RSVPs open so the guests write their names in themselves they forget and you have to like, brand the back of the RSVP with a number and correspond that number to a version of your guest list so you know that, Oh it was just Crazy Uncle Jerry who forgot to write his name in, but he's having the Veal.

Or you get people assuming that they can bring dates. No, I will not pay an arm and a leg for your random flavor of the week other who I have never met. And no, you can't just slip that person's name on there and think I won't notice because your name is effing printed in my special scripty font and all official like.

I'm not dealing with any of that bullshit. Each RSVP has the names of the people who are invited. A few have a line to write in a guest's name, but there are less than 6 people who we're extending that option to. We just don't have the room to invite people we don't know. Period.

I've already had some friends ask if they can bring a date. In some cases yes, I know their significant other, and no, I wouldn't mind it if that person tagged along. But I'm not going to sacrifice someone Jason or I actually want at the wedding who got shafted onto the B-List just so you can have a date. Husbands and wives are a different story, I'm not that snide. But unless you're engaged or living with your significant other, I'm sorry, you'll have to wait and see if there's room at the inn.

So hear this friends. I love you all. I love all of your significant others (even if I have yet to meet them, I'm sure they're wonderful people if you've chosen to have them in your life) and I have them on a tertiary list. But please don't get upset if you don't see their name on the RSVP, this whole political undercurrent to wedding invitations is trying enough, I don't want you mad at me too :(

WW: A Week in Review

So Jason came to stay with me Presidents' Week. It was nice. It gave us a little sneak peek as to what it would be like living together. Sort of at least.

Last Friday night Laura swung down and we hung out with Casey and strategized our plan of attack for everything we needed to get done that weekend. Saturday morning Julianne and Chris showed up and while we got our hair cut Chris dropped the 'rents off at the airport for their annual trip down to Florida.

We had a very productive day. Julianne ordered her bridesmaid dress and wound up finding a very cute dress at David's for her wedding that is currently in contention. We searched and searched for silver shoes for Laura for the wedding but could not find any.

Then when Jason got into town we tried a new restaurant for dinner. Julianne and Chris are still looking for a local place to have their rehearsal dinner. The Chophouse was pretty delicious, not gonna lie. We think it's a place that Chris' parents would like and as long as the dinner is timed correctly they won't have to rent out the entire place.

When we got home we popped open a few bottles of wine and got to work. Laura, tape maven, wielded the new tape gun I bought like a champ and got all of the pockets tacked down on the pocketfolds. If anyone is interested, the tape gun is Laura's new best friend. When we did her pocketfolds we literally had to hand cut and tape each one individually. Tedious is a good word for that one.

Julianne folded all of the belly bands and I spent some time gluing down the layers to the monogram piece for the belly bands. Then we got incredibly distracted and wound up watching multiple episodes of Jersey Shore. I'm not proud.

Sunday we all woke up and munched on some delicious banana bread compliments of Queen Bang herself, Julibean. Laura had to leave us because her slave-driver of a company doesn't give her off for President's Day and she has appointments with Jim back at home to look at houses. (Scary that friends are popping out babies and doing things like house hunting!) We glued down all of the belly bands and glued on all of the seals as we watched episodes of Sherlock. BTW if you for some reason get the BBC watch it! It is utterly fabulous on so many different levels. We all LOVE this show now.

Anyway...Then the real fun began.

We took a trip to Mens Wearhouse to register for tuxedos for the groomsmen and Jason. We're flipping through the book together while they're fitting a group ahead of us and Jason drops a bombshell.

He points to the following photo and says,

I was thinking something like this!

For a moment I think he's joking. I look at my sister standing next to me, then back at Jason pointing to the man in the white tuxedo, then back at my sister standing next to me, then back at Jason pointing to the man in the white tuxedo.

It's then that I realize he isn't joking and did in fact truly want to wear a white tuxedo to our wedding.

Now let me add that Jason had mentioned wanted to wear white before. It was always after me explaining that the groomsmen would all be in silver vests but would be wearing different blue ties that match their respective bridesmaid. So I guess since his comment always came after talking about vests and ties that I assumed he meant he wanted to wear a white vest and tie, which was my intent all along.

Jason is a man of few words. I know this. I love him even though he doesn't always communicate the way I'd prefer him to. I'm over it though. Obviously I'm the vociferous one of the pair. We're both pretty comfortable with this most the time. However, when he doesn't communicate properly something like wanting to wear a white tuxedo to our wedding I get a little flabbergasted.

We sat down with the guy, I really can't remember his name but he was fantastic. Really funny and personable, kind of sarcastic in our dry way. Thought us nonchalantly going back and forth about the white tux was really funny. We wound up registering Jason for the same tuxedo as the groomsmen but with the white vest and tie instead of the silver but we have up until two weeks before the wedding to change it if we want.

I am definitely against the white tuxedo. So is my sister, so is my mother, so is my grandma-like friend Marlene over at Priscilla of Boston who we called to find out what color (white or ivory) I ordered my dress in because I'm a very forgetful bride and can't remember.

The only concession I'm willing to make here is a white dinner jacket a la Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. I'd be all over that. It's sexy, it's eye catching, and it's a compromise that I don't think would look horrible in wedding photos.

My only rule is that whatever color the white dinner jacket is, we have to make sure it matches (close enough) to my dress. I won't be able to get a swatch of my wedding dress until it comes in in April, but we'll see what happens or if Jason winds up in a plain tux.

After tuxedos we went to CozyMel's for lunch (delicious!) which is my new favorite Mexican Restaurant close to home. And then said goodbye to Chris and Julianne so they could head home.

During the week Jason and I printed, punched and stuck all the monograms onto the belly bands. They are now completely done. I'm still conversing with my mother over invitation layouts but I'm hoping to have them printed and cut down by the end of next week. Invitations are almost done! Huzzah!


(Photos borrowed from Mens Wearhouse & The Gentleman.)

WW: Pockets-a-folding

Basically today was really super nasty out. Long Island was one big skating rink. Lulu is still in the shop (we're waiting on her new rim) and my father basically told me, "I don't want you driving my car in that mess" so I called out of work.

I did a nice bit of organizing and cleaning and managed to get all of the pocket folds 90% done. Now they all have the invite backing glued into place. Next step is taping down the pocket and then the pocketfolds are DONE!

I got our custom return address stamp and our monogram stamp made up from rubberstamp.net so I also stamped all of the invitation envelopes with the return address. We're waiting on the RSVP envelopes for now because we're not sure if Jason and I will be living somewhere else before the invites go out, only time will tell. But for now we're using my parent's address as the return address for the invitations themselves, and the stamp will be theirs to keep once this is all over.

The monogram stamp is just slightly too big for the size circles I wanted to use on the bellybands. Instead I think I'll leave the embossing for the invite itself and just print out the monogram on plain paper for the belly bands. Which will make my life dramatically easier. Plus it'll give a little sparkle to the inside of the invitation and keep the outside a little less distracting.

On Saturday when I was up state with Laura we went to David's so she could try on the bridesmaid dress and we could finalize the colors. Originally it was going to be Marine, Horizon, Cornflower, Pool and Capri. When we got to the store we realized a few things. Firstly Marine looked waaaay too dark with the other colors, and secondly, David's just came out with a new color Malibu that worked into the palate nicely.

So now the bridesmaids will be in Horizon, Cornflower, Malibu, Pool and Capri. Here's a slightly hilarious representation of the girls via David's "dress your wedding" website:

I say slightly hilarious because they facial features and hairstyles are no where near at all what my ladies look like. They'll all be in silver shoes and I've bought pretty silver wraps for them and hopefully it'll look as pretty on the day of the wedding as it does in my mind and at the store when we lined up the colors.

Slowly but surely I'm chipping away at my massive to do list for the wedding. There is still a lot to be done, but I'm confident we'll get through it all soon. Tomorrow marks 150 days till our wedding.

Holy crap.

STDs, the fun colorful kind

When it came to Jason and my Save the Dates (STDs) for our wedding I knew I wanted to do something so over the top quirky and us that people would open them up and be like, well damn, that is SO them!

I can't remember where I first saw it but I came across a couple's wedding invitation that were printed on long skinny posters and basically it was the story of their seven year relationship and how much of a whirlwind it was over the years. Not only was it funny and a little silly, but it was also a brilliant piece of typography. When I saw them I knew THAT was what I wanted to do, so I set out to make a fun little story of us.

This is what I came up with:

Originally I was going to get some shiny mid-weight paper to print them on but after the great paper search of July I wound up with 400 11x17 sheets of the Astrobright Glisten and figured I might as well use what I had on hand instead of buying more.

Here they are, in all their majesty!

They were mailed in 5.5"x5.5" Astrobright envelopes.
I designed and printed mailing labels on adhesive paper.
Our return address is on the back.

An STD cost analysis:

• Paper - As I mentioned before, it was difficult to track this paper down. I really really wanted the Astrobright Glisten paper that matched the blue dotted washi paper I had my heart set on using for details. Because the paper was discontinued I had to buy a whole case of it which was 400 sheets. Each sheet came out to about $0.50 and I made two STDs on each sheet. I believe I made 84 STDs, so I used 42 sheets. Grand Total = $21.
• Envelopes - I purchased these envelopes from envelopemall.com. I have always found envelopemall to be easy to work with and I go to them to purchase samples often. These envelopes specifically came to about $0.11 a piece (when you add in shipping and taxes). I used 82. Grand Total = $9.02.
• Labels - I purchased Astrobrights Print & Stick Adhesive paper. It came in a pack of 30 for $10.85 from amazon.com which comes to about $0.36 per sheet. I used 14 sheets for the labels. Grand Total = $5.06.
• Postage - Since they were square and slightly heavy, postage was $0.64. I guess what I saved on not buying any additional paper I paid for in postage. Grand Total = $52.48.
• Printing & Cutting - Was free. I was able to print the STDs at work and a family friend who works at Kinkos cut them down to size for me because he's awesome. Grand Total = $0.

STD Grand Total
Including postage: $87.56
Individual price: $1.07 ...Not bad!

Not including postage: $35.08 ...man, if only I could have hand delivered all of them! They would have only cost $0.43 a piece!

I've already gotten a few phone calls from family members and txt messages from friends saying how much they loved our STDs. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear that when I worked so hard on making them special.

Now we get down and dirty and start making invitations!

WW: Branding

For Jason's birthday one year/his graduation from college, his sister Amanda bought him one of the greatest gifts ever. It was literally a brand. I kid you not. She bought Jason a branding iron with his initials on it so he could brand his meat.

Jason was thrilled. Who knew he could get so excited over branding?!

I should have known that he was interested in that sort of branding because it involved meat. The branding that I work on is more graphically based. But here and there Jason still surprises me with his interest in my design work.

The past few days I've been kicking around ideas for our wedding's identity. I do a lot of work with paper, so I want it to be a paper wedding. Paper flowers, paper centerpieces, paper decorations, paper anything and everything. The verdict is still out on the paper flowers. I bought a kit and we'll see how they come out. But if I stand against anything, I stand against shoddy craftsmanship, so if the flowers don't look right, we'll ditch them and go for something more ... alive.

My first task was to design us a monogram. I knew I wanted something that was simple, but would tie in the dots design I had thrown together as a doodle to decorate our invitations with.

I sent Jason a few versions and he totally chose the one I loved. Usually when I have my heart set on one thing, Jason will choose the opposite. But I think we've come to a decision!

Today I put together a mock up of what I'd like our pocketfold invitations to look like and Jason seemed okay with the design. His only comment was "The loopy font doesn't appeal to me per-say due to my limited fontography skills/knowledge and the whole engineering mindset" I told him that when marrying a graphic designer, decorative fonts might be involved.

Here is a little sample of the pocketfold, belly band, seal, and our monogram.

The squiggly plus sign, as Jason likes to call it, is actually two infinity symbols layered perpendicularly. I think he liked it because subconsciously he's familiar with that shape.

Ages ago I picked out all the paper I wanted to use, however I should know already that everything I think will be easy while planning this wedding, is really going to turn into some catastrophic wild goose chase.

This week I've been tracking down paper. I should have heeded Jim and Laura's advice, or rather, their mantra: "Hesitation Kills!"

Back in May I had Tom at Anchor Paper quote me some Astrobright Glisten cover in Lunar Blue to use as our pocketfolds for our invitations. He warned me that it was being discontinued but up until last week we weren't sure how many people we were inviting and heretofore how many invitations I would have to make.

So now I have 3-4 different people contacting vendors and searching for my perfect paper. Although I don't care if it has a metallic finish, my mother seems to think for a wedding invitation it is mandatory that it sparkles in SOME way.

Thus far I've only found one vendor who still has some in stock. Only problem is it would be twice the cost I was originally quoted by the ever so awesome Tom. That's not the most exciting thought...having to pay double because Wausau decided to discontinue this line of paper.

WHY!?! Why must my perfect paper be so hard to find?!

Hopefully our ordering lady at the office can track someone down who has it in stock. I have faith. Otherwise I'll just have to not have sparkly paper. Which won't really thrill my mother, but them's the breaks.

Crazy Go Nuts

This weekend was extremely productive. Laura and I got a whole lot done.

Typically when we get together we make a whole lot of plans to do certain things and then we only get maybe two out of the seven things done. This weekend we got everything done except one thing...and that was to eat corndogs. Alas, regrettably we just couldn't fit it in to our busy schedule.

However the following things on our list got done:

• Candle Party - This was the reason I left work a little early on Friday, so I could get up to Albany and be there for Laura/Chrissy's Candle Party. It's like a Tupperware Party except with fire.
• Folded all 125 pocketfolds for the invitations.
  
  
  Our hand crafted pocketfolds.
  
  
• Stamped the return address on the back of all invitation envelopes.
• Stamped their address on all the RSVP envelopes.
  
  
• Went to GoodWill and found glass containers of various shapes and sizes for Laura's candy buffet.
• Went to a few antique stores and found a bracelet for Laura to wear to her wedding. Her grandmother had given her a necklace and earrings ages ago and we managed to find a bracelet (decently priced) that matches the set exactly!
  
  
• Hit up a good sale at Michael's and got the last bit of adhesive tape, stamp pads, and various other things we needed for wedding crafting and the like. I love when absolutely everything on my receipt is 20% off.

I'm going back up to Albany this weekend because we are in fact still a weekend's worth of work behind because of the funeral and the fact that I haven't been able to get up there since.

So for this week I am racing to get the invitations designed, printed and cut. As well as two of the four inserts designed, printed and cut. Then this weekend we'll assemble what we have so far and emboss their monogram on the invitations and the belly bands and put those together as well.

No rest for the bridesmaids. As if I could complain about doing stuff that's so creative and fun!

Long Week!

This week just won't end! It's dragging on like none other!

In less than 3 hours I'll be on a plane down to Norfolk, VA to see my Silly! We haven't seen each other since July when he and his parents stopped in, so this week couldn't go fast enough for me...but all it did was drag on! Ugh!

I mean not to say we didn't have some excitement. Jaclyn & Andy mailed out their invitations once I finished writing out all the envelopes in my now perfected calligraphy style. Wednesday night we helped them stuff the last of the invitations and I printed, chopped, and punched each and every one of their handmade rehearsal dinner invitations (more on that when I get back).

Tuesday we met our newest little addition to our family of friends. Little Xavier has definitely stolen our hearts, and I just want to devour him, he's so cute!

Thursday the Beaner started Law School Orientation. And despite the fact that I was at work when she left, I imagined her going through a movie montage while getting ready...much like the one Elle Woods goes through in Legally Blonde.

And I've continued to seed my mother's head with ridiculous ideas about how I'll have a circus wedding since she seems to think that's what I mean when I say I don't want a traditional wedding every time J&A's pending nuptials come up and everyone sounds so overwhelmed.

*sigh* Am I in Virginia yet?

Shower Thank Yous: Check!

So after an unsuccessful Saturday of not getting as much as I wanted to get done off my to do list, on Sunday I woke up and cranked out the rest of Jaclyn's bridal shower Thank Yous.

Huzzah!

We invited about 45 people so I made an even 50 Thank Yous just in case she messes up writing one, or needs an extra envelope...you know how it goes.

Showed J&A some calligraphy samples and I might have the job! :P There's a chance my aunt might have them sent out to be done by someone else, but we'll see what the final verdict is. I personally wouldn't mind writing all the envelopes out by hand but I can understand wanting a "professional" doing it. I guess it's all about the Benjamins. I'm cool with the decision either way.

As for me, not too much is happening. Jason got a job offer down in Virginia so within the next few weeks he'll be moving down there. I'm not so excited about the distance, but we've already proven we can stand it. It's a 6 month contract job and it's actually in his field! I especially don't mind that he'll be leaving his job at Subway making sandwiches to go do something he actually went to school for. This might just be the break he needed to get his foot in the door in his industry.

But ahhh, Virginia till January! Not looking forward to a 7 hour drive to visit him...

DIY Shower Invitations & Decor

As I've mentioned before my sousin Jaclyn is getting married in October and my sister and I are co-maids of honor. The other wonderful bridesmaids and the two of us decided to throw Jaclyn her shower in July and I've been crafting ever since.

It started with the invitations. I had an idea in my head and managed to get it into paper form pretty easily. (Some personal information is blurred out.) I bought the purple cover and matching envelopes from envelopemall.com. From what I've seen they have the best prices on envelopes out of any online store out there and have an excellent selection of colors and brands. I've ordered samples from them before and their customer service personnel are all very friendly and accommodating.

The ivory paper is actually some resume paper I've had forever and the ribbon came from Michael's. Each of these invitations fit into a long policy 10 envelope. I liked the different shape of the invitation and knew that this was a chance for me to do something creative since J&A decided to get store bought wedding invitations.

Two weekends ago Julibean and I started working on some decor elements. We're hosting the shower in our backyard, so we wanted to add some simple pieces to the canopies and to the trees in the yard to bring some of Jaclyn's favorite color (purple) into the space. We searched around for ways to create pretty and simple centerpieces and decided to make luminaries.

We bought small glass filled candles at the dollar store and wrapped vellum around them. Then we decorated them with the same cut outs that I used on the invitations. I don't have a photo of one while the candle is lit, but trust me, they look very pretty and were really simple to make.

I also came across these fabulous easy to make paper poms from Martha Stewart. You can actually buy kits to make these at Michael's since they carry her craft line there, but we were able to make them ourselves at home without the kit.

We wound up making about six or seven of these poms in different sizes and shades of purple. They look a lot better hanging up than sitting on a table. I hung one from my chandelier to give you a feel for them. When a breeze hits them and they spin a little they look soooooo pretty. And they were really simple to make and despite the fact I have tiny shreds of tissue paper on my floor we definitely had some fun putting them together.

So we have paper poms, little luminaries and we've gone ahead and purchased Jaclyn a fantastic tiara she can wear because obviously the shower is all about her. :)

I also decided I wanted to make Thank You notes for Jaclyn as part of my shower gift to her. I know she'll use them and I had plenty of purple cover paper left over so I got to making them this weekend. We've invited about 45 people to the shower, so I still have quite a few to make, but I'm getting there.

I designed them to match the invitations and go along with the whole fun little flower theme we have going on. I found a set of cute little stamps that said things like "Thanks a bunch!" and "I really loved it!" and those little messages are the kinds of sentiments that Jaclyn would definitely like to impart on her friends and family.

So once I finish the Thank You cards, which I made to fit into A2 sized envelopes, then I just have a few more poms to create and we are set for decor!

Then all I have to do is practice my calligraphy a little more. I'm going to hand address all of the wedding invitations for Jaclyn & Andy. So I've been working on exactly how things should look and how certain letters should connect into others. Calligraphy is definitely a dying art and it has long been something I have had a passion for. I haven't pulled out the stops yet, since my different pen nibs are in need of a cleaning, but it's interesting how your medium can change your end work. Same name with same style of writing in a regular marker, a ball point pen and a special calligraphy marker...all have a different kind of attitude to them.

We'll see which style and which pen the bride and groom like the best, I can adapt to a certain degree with my handwriting. I'm excited to get going with more wedding craftiness, but my hand is definitely tired from just the practicing. When you've spent the past four years typing everything instead of writing it by hand, writing a lot suddenly is really a pain :P

Visions of Invitations Dance Through My Head

For those of you unaware, I am a Graphic Designer. Yes, I went to an engineering school, but while my friends played with their graphic calculators, I sat on my floor in a pool of paper samples just feeling my way around. Back in August when my sousin (our phrase for a sister-like cousin) Jaclyn got engaged I asked her if I could make her invitations and stationary as my gift.

I mean who wouldn't jump at the chance to have handmade stationary for a fraction of the price it would cost to have it "professionally" done. So over the past few months I ordered paper samples and showed Jaclyn & Andy envelope swatches. It was a whirlwind of decisions but we came up with some beautiful designs.

Save the Dates have been mailed out but it is time to start finalizing the wording on the invites and gathering the rest of the information for the programs. Once that is done I can begin the task of printing, cutting, gluing and beautifying the invitations. Basic plans done.

When I told Laura I was doing Jaclyn's invitations, she and I both automatically assumed I would do her stationary as well. Laura has completely different taste than Jaclyn. Not to speak ill of either of their taste, they are just different. Jaclyn knew exactly what she wanted and Laura left more of the design to me, which is where all the excitement is. I was thrilled when I brought a mock-up pocket fold invitation, complete with inserts, to show Laura and Chrissy and they loved the design. But nothing was ever finalized.

(envelopperinc.com such fantastic inspiration)

So now, I have all these ideas about what we can do with the basic design, and I want to ask Laura what she thinks and have her pick decorative things out for embellishments but then I remember...her wedding is next April. Take a breath Elise.

I guess my issue is just that when the Muse strikes me, I need to run with it, otherwise I won't want to put all my meticulous energy into the project. When the Muse hits, I need to do something creative. Perhaps I can tack down Jaclyn & Andy this weekend to work on finalizing the invitations so I can order things and get started...

Oh Muse, you are a fickle fickle creature.