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!