This just in...

Bachelorette weekend in San Francisco is BOOKED!

All I know is I have to be in the city starting Friday, October 1 and I won't be leaving until Sunday, the 3rd. So freakin' stoked right now!!! :):):)

Florist, Caterer, Venue = touched base.

Scheduled my final consultation with my amazing caterer. She practically acts as the day of coordinator so we'll be letting her know all the pertinent deets. :)

The damn cake.

I don't know why this is so hard. Maybe because I have a hard time justifying paying $500 for a cake I probably won't even eat and definitely don't want. But I know the guests expect it... This has probably been the most challenging thing so far.

Shower numero uno is in the works.

I'll be having two--one for family/friends and one for work--the work one officially has a date, September 18! My boss rocks. Just a little FYI. :)

Gifts, gifts, and more gifts.

I figure I need gifts for each of the following

• My boss (shower hostess)
• My Aunts (shower hostesses)
• Ushers (3)
• Bridesmaids (3 + 1 junior)
• Groomsmen (4)
• Flower girls (2)
• Mom and Dad
• FMIL
• Guestbook Attendant/helper
• Photographer (a bad ass gift too as she's doing our photography as a wedding gift!)
• Officiant
• I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them...

What did you do for gifts??

Wedding Woes

The first step to admitting you have a problem is admitting you have a problem. Wait. Wha?

I have a problem. I am too obsessed with the little details. There. I said it.

While Tyler is really good at looking at what is important and big picture stuff, I prefer to spend my time mulling over the little things. This is especially true in wedding planning.  In reality, no one cares what font I pick for the wedding programs... or the color of ribbon we're using on the candy buffet... and IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS... these things are beyond unimportant. 

I know I get wrapped up in "the vision" but deep down I know that the reason I am getting married is to spend my life with someone I love and cherish and will do anything for. 

Good thing we balance each other so well. :)

Shoes for all!

Well, the girls and I are set. 

My junior bridesmaid will be wearing these:

via endless.com

Her mother, my FMIL, spotted them when they were featured on The View. Works for me!

My other three bridesmaids will be wearing these:

via zappos.com

Simple, sweet, and classic. Love them! 

As for me... I ordered these but I'm not sure how they will look with my dress. If they don't work, I'll just send them back and continue the search. But I really, really hope they work, they're beautiful!

via nordstrom.com

I have my first appointment for my dress fitting in August, I can't wait to try on the whole ensemble!

Operation: Invitations...

DONE AND SENT!

I'm not going to lie though...I had a minor panic attack when I walked out of the post office today. They've sat on my work space for two weeks now and I'm sort of sad I won't get to look at them 12 times a day anymore. But! I can't wait to hear people's reactions and to start getting RSVP's in the mail!! :)

Off to the post office!

 My boss insisted on taking pictures of me with them before I took them in to the post office though...

Now, an explanation...

I am sending them just under three months early for two reasons. 1, we have a ton of out of town guests. Like, 85 percent of our guest list is coming from out of town and half of that, from out of state. I just felt like we needed to get the info to them sooner, so that hopefully, more people could make it. 2, We really couldn't wait any longer! TG and I are both pretty impatient so this is what happens. 

We're so excited though! Less than three months now...woo!

Guess what!

We got our first gift off our registry in the mail Friday!!! I was giggling like a giddy little school girl.


It was from family friends who already had a vacation planned during the weekend of the wedding. :(

I was so excited... and it was one of the gifts that I really, really wanted...

EEEEEEEKK!!! OF COURSE I had to take some shots...immediately. 

Interrupting their afternoon nap...how dare I.


:)

Photo Upload Cards

Instead of getting those cheap disposable cameras to put on all of the wedding tables, TG and I decided to just have people upload their own digital photos to a common share site. That way everyone could see them!


To spread the word, I had business cards printed from VistaPrint.com.

I don't know why I put a password on it. Kind of regretting that now. But I will also make the info available on our wedding website so hopefully our guests won't get too confused.


I rounded all of the corners with my handy dandy corner rounder:

Seriously, this thing rocks. I got it on Amazon for like 5 bucks and would gladly pay triple for it.

I opted for the pink border because I thought all black and white looked boring.


Cost breakdown:

• 250 business cards: $9.41 {including shipping}
• Round corners: free :)
• Memories to be gained: priceless :):):)

Total: $9.41

Guestbook Inspiration

I decided a long time ago that I don't just want a guestbook where people sign their names. I want something unique. But what? Apparently, there are soooooo many options... the hard part is narrowing down my ideas and deciding on one.

I love the frame idea and all the potential handwritings with a photo of us in the middle. But would I really display this for longer than, say, a year? Probably not.

 I also like the idea of individualized notes put into envelopes in a scrapbook type guestbook.

  Or loose notes into a bowl...then I could scrapbook them later.

I really, really love these personalized guestbook pages. I could design some that fit us and let people go buckwild filling them out. :)

So many choices!

What did you do for your guestbook?

Invitations: FINISHED PRODUCT!

I don't know how we did it but our invites are done two weeks before we want to send them out. The assembly process was the most fun because each guest address label I put on the envelopes I imagined them opening the invite... so exciting! 

Here is our entire invitation suite:

Like I said before, I had so much fun assembling them...

To add more of a personal touch we decided to create custom postage that would pop on the front of our envelopes. And what pops more than two smiling faces...? :)

Cost breakdown:

• Invites (designed by me, printed on Zazzle.com): $66.00
• RSVP's (designed by me, printed on Zazzle.com): $71.50
• Belly bands: $18.29
• Wrap around labels: $21.61
• Postage on invites: $56.70
• Postage on RSVP's: $25.20

Total: 259.30 ~ $2.88 per invite

I can't even believe it...

Until I walk down the aisle and marry my best friend!

HOLY CRAP.

Candy Buffet Inspiration

I'm not going to lie, I really do NOT have much of a sweet tooth. But I know a lot of people do and I love the look of a candy buffet so gosh darnit, we're going to have one!

Here is some of my inspiration...

So many decisions! But here is what I'm thinking...

• Clear containers (in fact, I already started buying some)
• Pink and black candy with splashes of white maybe
• Have the candy buffet available during cocktail hour

But I'm having a hard time deciding...

• What kind of freakin' containers do I get??
• Should the cake be on or near it? What if people knock it over?
• Decor? I'm thinking fresh flowers?

Bridesmaid dress fiasco

I found my bridesmaid dresses way back when. I was with three of my bridesmaids so they bought them on the spot and I didn't have to worry. The fourth bridesmaid (who is technically a junior bridesmaid) is TG's little sister and lives in Virginia. So I forwarded the information about the dress, where she could get it on the website, etc. to his mom in APRIL. 

Well, come the end of June and they only have a size 14 left on the website and FMIL has not yet ordered the dress.  To top it off, she calls and tells TG right before she is going in for her scheduled surgery, all drugged up. {it's funny now, but wasn't then}.

And to top all of that off, TG tells me right before I go to the salon for a hair appointment. So guess what I was stressing about while I had 100 foils in my head?

sonofabitch.

I called customer service for White House Black Market and they couldn't have been more helpful. I explained the sitch: my bridesmaid dress, no longer available online, breathe, panic, tear up. The girl was super helpful. She was able to find a store where they had the dress, she transferred me to Kentucky {yeehaw} and the sales associate {who rocks} took all of my info, payment over the phone, and shipped it to me FedEx. 

hugesighofrelief.

There was even a cute note of congratulations for the sales associate in the package when it arrived. Now that's customer service.

And wedding crisis numero uno: averted.

Invitations: Wrap-around Address Labels

I absolutely love the idea of wrap-around labels. It's very modern and clean in design and I am obsessed. So I bet you can guess that I made some for my very own invitations.


I have to start by saying TG was skeptical... but in the end, he loved them! :)


I used Adobe Illustrator to design my very own wrap-around labels. After a lot of tweaking this is the finished product...

I printed them on full sheet labels and used my Fiskars rotary cutter and a ruler to cut them out.

All of the graphic design is by me except the border with I got from istockphoto.com.

And on the envelopes...

I'm pretty much in love with them.


Cost:

• Full sheet labels from onlinelabels.com: approx $0.14/sheet; 24 sheets: $3.36
• High Resolution Border pack from istockphoto.com: $18.25 

Total: $21.61 (approx $0.24 each)

Invitations: DIY Belly Bands

In order to save money, TG and I decided not to do 100 little inserts and just let the wedding website do it's job. So we opted to only do a invite and an RSVP, which you can see here. 


However, I didn't want to just throw them into the envelope and call it a day either. I wanted some sort of form and organization to them. I googled and searched wedding blogs for ideas. I came across the idea of belly bands and was intrigued.


I found some at Cards&Pockets but at $11.25 per 25, I decided with a little labor, I could do them myself. 


Tools:

• Fiskars 45mm Rotary Cutter
• Self-healing mat - I used this one.
• Cardstock
• Pencil
• Ruler and/or sample belly band

I had ordered a sample belly band so I had a good example to begin with.

I essentially used the sample as a ruler too. It was about a quarter inch shorter than 11 inches so I just made my bands an even 11 to save time.

After tracing them all out, I could fit four on one sheet of cardstock, I cut them out with my rotary cutter. This was definitely an arm work out--the paper was pretty thick and I had to push pretty hard to get a clean cut. I absolutely recommend spreading this job out over a couple days or your arm with be super tired.

Then, in order to make the folding easier I rolled over the band using the rotary cutter (without going all the way through, of course) at approximately 3 inches and 8 inches, just enough to cut maybe a quarter of the way through. 

And the finished product...

 

Cost:

• Cardstock: $3.89 (25 pack so there are extras)
• Fiskars Rotary Cutter: $14.40 on Amazon (which I will use for so much more, love it!)

Total: $18.29 for 92 belly bands

I'm alive!

It has been a busy month for me and I suck for not posting! With 107 days until the wedding I figured I better get going on my posts or I was going to regret it. 


Here are a few of the topics you have to look forward to...

• Invitations!!! Yes, they are done (2 weeks early!) and I have a 3-part post for my labor of love :)
• Finally booking a florist
• Bridesmaid dress fiasco... let's just say I went from pissed to ecstatic within an hour period
• Other fun DIY's!

107 days to go!! Craziness!