Hallelujah

The invites are finally done.

Well, I thought they were until we started stuffing them into envelopes and I realized that there were eight I never made name tags for and five that I never got addresses for. But, still, those figures are a lot better than the hundred I had before. Besides, the ones that I do have the addresses for will be done tonight. And out in the mail tomorrow. Woo hoo.

The process became a lot easier today when I finally had it with the old printer and went and bought a new one. I think I might have actually broken the other one with the cardstock. I'm pleading the fifth.

And now I might actually be able to enjoy the wedding stuff again. I think I was just a little too over ambitious with the fancy invites. But, they look good (even though the new printer prints more grey than black.)

I'd put a picture up, but you're just going to have to wait to get them in the mail and then you can be awed.

Woo hoo

With any luck, I will have all the invites sent out by the end of this week. I'm now beginning to think the pocketfolds were an insane idea because the cards don't always want to fit. And, I miscut some of the ribbons, so the bands vary from being really tight to kinda loose. But I don't care. I'll just be glad when I don't have to deal with these things anymore.

Also, I bought the stuff to make the guestbook, the unity candle, and the memory candle (which could not be a small size to fit all the names on there -- it's almost humorous). Jeremy's still up in arms about the unity candle because he doesn't think one is necessary.

Phew

So, thanks to the past week, I'm no longer hating the wedding planning process.

A. I took a trip to Minneapolis. Yes, it was cold (3 degrees? Seriously.), but Lois and I got some good work done on the invitations. We huddled around her kitchen table and managed to knock out the bands for the invitations for almost all of them. We would have done more had we had enough of the champagne paper to back the name tags.

B. I got the flowers figured out. I talked to the flower lady, and we got it all taken care of. I get my white tulips, but Jeremy no longer gets his "shot glass" flower. Instead of a calla lily, he will have a white tulip too. The girls will have bouquets of various shades of pink gerberas, while the bouts will be the same. And the mothers and corsages will have orchids. We'll also have two altar pieces with ivory French tulips.

C. I got the direction cards written up and some of the RSVP cards printed out. This did create some frustration because the printer gets cranky and results in me getting angry. But, the end is in sight.

D. We ordered our wedding bands. Jeremy's excited yet bummed because he doesn't get to wear it.

So yes, things are coming together, which is good because it is now less than three months away

Here we go again

Something good came of me being home sick for two days -- things got done!

I'm now up to 88 invites done (still minus inserts), so I don't have too many more to do; about half that number. Woo hoo.

And, I even started making appointments for flowers. Of course, I forgot that there's this thing called Christmas coming up, which means they are all slammed. So, I don't get to talk to any of them until January. Which means I'm not talking about it to January because my track record with such things.

I managed to start labels on this blog. I realized that I talk mostly about paper. I guess it shows what I really like about this wedding (I won't discuss how excited I got when I realized Paper Source has gift certificates). However, I'm not brilliant enough to figure out how to establish label links on the page. Oh well.

Only two months later ...

So, I know I said I was going to get the rest of the Save the Dates out after Fall Break.

Well, I meant like the next week, not two months later.

But, the rest of them (minus a few because of lack of addresses) are now on their way.

And, the countdown to some major wedding planning has also started: I've got 11 days left of school. And then I will work on the wedding. I swear.

Back on track

After my mini freak out this week, I managed to get things accomplished on my day off.

I started printing out the invites, so now we just have to get a hotel block (Jeremy has a deadline of the end of the month on that one), make a map and write up the RSVP card, and I'll be able to print out the inserts too.

Of course, now I don't even like the invites, but Jeremy says I'm nuts, which I am, so they'll stay. Partly because I'm not redesigning now.

I even have some more save the dates printed out ready to mail.

I'm on a roll. I'm saying it's because I only had to work four days this week.

Eh. It'll get done

I'm in an "eh" slump for the wedding. I have little to no desire to work on any of the stuff I need to do. I'm blaming this on the fact that I've been having nightmares about the whole thing. Such things included in these are:
1. No photog
2. An ugly Scooby-Doo cake that was not from J's
3. An odd, stuffy, extremely formal, extremely uncomfy, dirty - no less - wedding dress
4. A missing groom after the ceremony, which was questionable if it even happened
5. The ceremony and reception was at a two-bedroom house with guests I didn't know and were all in T-shirts and jeans. And a lot of them look like students that I don't have.

But I did finalize the invite wording. And I started addressing those envelopes. Those tasks seemed undaunting, and they don't even cost money right now. I still need to send out the second round of Save The Dates. Ugh.

I think I might have to go back on Paxil. Double ugh.

And they're out

Well, at least partially.

The stamps finally came in for the Save the Dates (I'd abbreviate that, but putting STDs up on my planning site just seems like asking for trouble), and the ones that I actually have addressed have stamps on them. And, they're going into the mailbox to go out into the world tomorrow.

I think I have a little more than half addressed, and the rest are just going to have to wait until after I get back from the land of corn. And speaking of the land of corn, I need to go pack.

They'll eventually get out complete with whimsy

So even though the save the dates have been done for more than a week now, they're still sitting on the coffee table (and not all of them are in their sparkly envelopes yet either, nor are all of those pretty envelopes are address either). I've been putting off buying stamps so it makes it a bit problematic to actually mail them out.

We had planned to go with the DC comic superhero stamps -- even though I was a little bitter about the Plastic Man ones (seriously, who wants Plastic Man; who even remembers who Plastic Man is?). But then, tonight, when I went online to buy them (I do not have good luck at the post office, and I still need to go there to file my claim since they shipped out my guaranteed next day package two days AFTER it was guaranteed to get there), I found these. I'm a little bummed that there aren't more Curious George ones; Jeremy is bummed that there aren't more Wild Thing ones. But yeah, we're using those.

I also say Yurtle the Turtle should have been included.

They're done

I finished the save the dates tonight, and they look pretty good in my opinion. I tried to upload a picture of it, but it didn't show most of the stuff that's on them. So, now you'll just have to wait until you get yours in the mail:) With any luck, I'll get most of them out this week so be looking for a pretty enevelope!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

The laptop is back up, which means I once again have complete access to all my wedding planning stuff -- which could mean I might get things accomplished. Or not ...

But, I do have most of the stuff for the centerpieces. The boxes are now sitting in what has become the "wedding closet," which Jeremy isn't allowed into since my dress is in there. And, I now have ALL my paper products. Well, except for the paper for the programs, but that just means a trip to a store to get a ream of some off-white paper (yes, Lois, I'm totally stealing your program idea for them:))

Having the laptop back means I also have the Save The Date file back, so that design just might get finished soon. Of course, I also have to convince the boy to do the wedding info site. Or, I might just go with an easy one and then have him revamp it later because he decides its not up to his standards.

Anyway, here is the link to a bio of a recent bride with my dress that even has the champagne sash. Of course, she opted to use the free white sash for the ceremony and the colored one for the reception. I'm not doing that. That's too much work.

And, if you want to see more photos of the church on the inside, go to photosbyrae.blogspot.com and then click on "view proofs." Go to Sarah & Steven 8-5 wedding, and in the midst of those photos is the church.

At least something's getting done

So today I kept up with my habit of doing things that I have plenty of time to do and ignored what I need to get done ASAP.

I saw a dress a few weeks ago that I thought would be great for the rehearsal dinner, but I didn't get it because I told myself I should wait. Well, I saw it online again and decided I had to have it. So Jeremy and I headed to the mall today, and I now have my rehearsal dinner dress. I love it. And there's a high chance I might wear it before then too. If it's decent enough weather, it might be what I wear for our engagement pictures. Of course when I told Jeremy I now need a new pair of shoes for the dress, he looked at me like I'm nuts. He just doesn't understand that one pair of black shoes just doesn't always cut it.

And, Jeremy has actually contacted a few people to DJ the rehearsal. We decided on one, and then I found out that he failed to ask them if they were actually available for April 14. So, now we're just waiting to hear back about that. If they are, we've got a DJ. If they're not, I've learned my lesson and will give a list of questions Jeremy needs to make sure he asks when making requests.

I now have all the paper cut for the pocketfolds for the invites. It's great having a monster paper cutter at work:)

Progress and more progress

I am happy to say that teaching has lit a fire under me, and I have gotten several things accomplished in only one day off so far this weekend.

Last night, I sat down and found the silk flowers needed for the centerpieces as well as the bud vases (for less than a buck, no less) so they're ordered and on their way. And, I've even been pointed toward some placemats at Target, so I might have all the stuff for them by the end of the month.

Today I cut all the ribbon for the band on the invites. If I counted right, I should have done 150 pieces. So now my hands are a little shiny from the hairspray I used to prevent the ends from fraying, which I don't think they would have because it's a meshy ribbon -- but I wanted to be safe.

I'm also happy to say I managed to get about half of the pocketfolds done. And that even includes putting the pink backing sheet on them too. I also sat down last night and did the math to figure out how many sheets of paper I needed for the invite wording and the inserts. So that paper - along with envelopes - is on its way. Of course, I realized today I forgot to order cardstock for the save the dates. However, I think I might just go to Michael's and get a pack of their cardstock in off white/ivory or something to that effect. I'm planning on cutting the pieces of paper for the fronts of the invites for the names so I can get a head start on writing those. I'm also going to start addressing the envelopes when I get them just so I don't have to do it all at once. I would just send them through the printer, but it gets fussy if the paper isn't 8 x 11, so that might just be a pipe dream. And I know I'm not letting Jeremy address them; no one would be able to read them.

Too bad my sixth graders don't have decent handwriting ....

And we have centerpieces!

The latest bane of my wedding planning has been centerpieces. I thought I knew what I wanted, then I realized I didn't and the one I thought I really liked I realized would make it difficult for guests to see across the table.

So, now that I seemingly have more time to work on wedding planning (I do believe my hiatus is over), I spent time this morning (I actually woke up before 10 a.m. by myself; that's a first in YEARS) looking for centerpiece ideas. And then I found this one:
Of course, I won't be using a green mat; it'll either be pink or beige. And, I'll use three gerbera stems (I'm thinking I'll just use silk ones) in light pink, hot pink and white. And, I'll probably also group three candles around the bud vase.

And, I'm also happy to say that I have almost all of the save-the-date envelopes addressed. Of course, I still have to actually design them, order the card stock for them and have a certain fiance make the info Web site so I can have the address to put on them. But, the addressing was going to take the longest, and it hasn't been that bad. So, at least I got the worst part out of the way.

Paper, paper and more paper

So after a tiring first day of teaching (who knew standing up all day could hurt so much), I came home to a box of paper! And then promptly decided I got way too excited about it again.

This time the paper was just envelopes for the yet to be designed/made save the dates. But, they are pretty envelopes. I splurged and got champagne metallic policy ones (long and skinny for the future save the date bookmarks), and I'm glad I did. The color is very close to the sash on my dress. Here's a photo, but it doesn't show the color very well at all:
There were also some sample sheets of paper included, one is the same paper as the envelope and the other two are ivory variations. I think we might splurge and go for the metallic again just because it's closer to the color scheme.

And, because I've been feeling guilty that I have not done anything wedding related because I was running around trying to get a classroom set up and trying to finish up my old job, I started to address some of the envelopes tonight.

Of course, this could be a ploy to just not have to do seating charts. Ugh.

Say cheese

I've never really understood the point of the regular guestbook because I knew it would be something that I'd end up throwing on a closet shelf and never look at it again after the wedding. So I was really happy when I found out about the Polaroid guestbook (thanks, Missy!).

This means that all of our lovely guests will get to have their picture taken, too, and there will be more space to leave a message instead of just the names. But, this way we'll have another album of the day, which I'll be more likely to look at in the future.

But, instead of buying a bunch of the pricier ones that are made by Poloroid, I'm going to get a scrapbook from Michaels and make my own. Luckily, this will be one of the easier DIY projects because I'll just have to put photo corners on the pages. It will kinda look like this, if things go according to plan:

The invite making is going more smoothly than I thought. The biggest pain is scoring the paper, but once the pocketfolds are actually made, it's a very easy process. And, by some miracle, I've even managed not to get cat hairs stuck on the glue dots.

Here they are

Here's my first attempt at the invites, and it was actually close enought that had I used the correct measurments (I seriously cannot do simple math), I could have used it for the actual invite.

Anyway, this is what the front will kinda look like. However, the little card will not be pink and tan. It should be tan and black and will be less squarish.

Here's the inside. The enclosures will also all be tan, and the pink backing will go all the way around the worded portion of it -- another example of my stellar math skills. The little pocketfold also has some pretty sweet scoring on it, which actually makes cutting the triangle a little easier.
Here's a close up of the wording, although it really isn't what we're using. It's got the places and times right (well, and the names -- who would have ever thought I'd willingly use Elizabeth?), but other than that, it was me blindly typing away at the computer -- and just trying to get three lines per "section" (the OCD has taken over on these things.).

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I've got 53 of the pocketfolds done, only about 100 more to go. Wee hoo.

Martha ain't got nothing on me

I got the large sheets of paper Thursday morning to start working on the pocketfolds. And after a short, minor freakout about the paper's thickness -- I thought I got the 80# paper, but I got 70#. So, I wasn't convinced that it would be heavy enough, but it works fine -- and after a trip to Michaels, I started making some lovely invites.

I originally decided we'd do a 6x6 (Jeremy said he liked the square ones better, and 6x6s seemed to be a logical size). Then, after some measurement issues (it was another example that I cannot do simple math), I decided 6.5 x 6.5 would work better. I'd post a picture of my mock-up, but of course, I forgot to borrow the digital camera from work (and one day, I swear we'll have one of our own).

The process is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, and it's gone a lot quicker with a yardstick. And one "flub up" turned out to add a cool element to the actual pocketv--vscoring ends up looking pretty cool if you don't fold it, and it made Jeremy happy b/c it kinda looks like pinstriping.

It's still a little odd, however, that I of all people have pink in some of the wedding stuff. Like I read on another wedding blog, this planning stuff just does wierd stuff to you.

Flowers, pebls and paper

There has never been any question that the main flower for my wedding would be daisies. Although I did toy with the idea of tulips, but I also know that April tends to be a little bit too early for them to be in season (I guess living near Pella "We're not in the Netherlands, but you'd never guess it" actually did teach me something). But, I am perfectly happy with a daisy/rose combo. So here are some ideas for the bridesmaids' bouquets and mine.

This is basically what I'd like for the bridesmaids. However, I do not like The little bow thing they have going on, so I'm going to find something different for that. But, I would like the brighter pink gerberas for them. However, I realized that a pale pink dress on Lois would completely wash her out, so she has a few color choices for her dress. So, she might get the lighter pink gerberas instead.

I have no clue what the bouts will be yet. Jeremy did make a request to have "the flower that looks like a shot glass," which I somehow determined to be a calla lily. So, he'll have some type of calla. Of course he admitted he didn't really care, but I figure it's one of those things I can let him have.

In my original wedding plans that have been going on in my head for years, I had just wanted a bouquet of daisies. But then I saw this picture on a Knot bio and decided roses had to be added in.
I'm not sure if I like the ribbon wrap on this one either, and I would like mine to be a little bigger, but it gives the basic idea of what I want. I do think I would prefer more of the lighter pink roses instead of darker ones.

In other items, I now have another "something blue" -- my cell phone. So it won't exactly be with me all day, but I have seen plenty of other crazy, crazy ideas for something blue (including stuff at the reception). And I just really love this phone. Jeremy's phone died this weekend, so we got to reup our contracts, and I picked the blue PEBL. I figure after placing second in the FSNE headline contest, I deserved something. And it's cute. And Jeremy's been playing with it more than his new BlackBerry, and that gives me some sick satisfaction.

Also, I ordered some paper to try out our pocketfold idea for the invitations. They appear to be labor intensive, so I figured I should a. try them to make sure I want to make 100+ of them and b. get a head start because I know how I can procrastinate. So I should know early next week how much work I'm going to be putting into our invites. And since the pocketfolds were more of Jeremy's idea, there could be a lot of grumbling at him next week.

Our monogram

So, I decided to start this so I don't have to clog up anyone's e-mail boxes with wedding ideas. Ya'll can just check here when you feel like and sound off on the comments.

After spending waaaaaaaay too much time looking at The Knot's wedding bios, I realized that a lot of people were having people make their monogram. My brilliant thought was "Hey, I'm a designer, I can do this." So I started on one.

I chose courier for the font because for some reason it's Jeremy's favorite font, and it is in one of my tatoos. Plus, it's got the typewriter feel, which kinda fits in with the newspaper stuff. But, here's what I came up with. It's nothing fancy, but I like it -- and Jeremy didn't complain too much about it so it's what we went with.

It'll probably go on the front of the programs and the unity candle (DIY is a big theme for this shindig so we can have the big reception). And now I think I can justify at least part of my college major.