invitations

Nov162010

Party Invites are in the Mail!

Today was the first day I made actual progress towards the January wedding reception. Well, aside from Sunday evening when I sealed all the envelopes. But yes, today… today I dropped 70 thick envelopes into the mailbox at work. So by Wednesday, pretty much everyone should have received them. I still have about 30 more to address and mail.

The party is on January 15th, 60 days from today. I really do need to step it up about 12 notches and start delegating whatever needs to be done like booking food, finding table/chair and maybe tent rentals, making favors, and test-running desserts.

Yes, Greg Grunberg (@greggrunberg) and Zachary Quinto (@zacharyquinto) are getting invitations. Greg was my selection, Zachary was both of ours. Steve’s was Michael Keaton. I’m Batman! He asked me the other day what I’d do if any of them showed. I said that I would pass out. I’m about 150% sure that they won’t be showing, but a nice autograph would be wicked awesome!

Our other celebrity “guests” include the Obama’s (@barackobama) and, my personal favorite, Jon & Dorothea Bongiovi. Yeah, that’s my celeb hubby Jon Bon Jovi (@bonjovi). The only problem is that I can’t find any sort of fan address to send something to him.

iSpy a Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) book in the background along with Woman’s Day and a knitting yarn winder.

Jul132010

July 13 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – is it possible to get a good photog for about $1200? in miami? yeah, i didn’t think so. i hate budgeting.

Tweet: @msrib – is music really needed? don’t need an MC or anything like that. just some background noise. not getting a dance floor. #budgeting

As seen in my last post, I am focusing on our Miami reception right now. I got a quote from one of my favorite photographers and it’s totally in our budget. She is local and I’ve coveted her pictures for a long time. It’s pretty much a given that she (or her hubby) will be doing our reception pictures and that makes me happy to no end! The best part is we’re not doing any traditional wedding stuff, not having a dance floor or emcee and are basically dubbing it as just a big party.

It’s been pretty much decided that we won’t have a band or DJ, just an iPod DJ for some background music. Although, the band at my cousin’s wedding yesterday was simply amazing! I got a bunch of videos of them singing and just… wow… they were awesome. This past weekend was the third wedding I attended while engaged. Sure, I’ve gathered ideas at them all, but this one was not full of ideas for me. Instead, I wandered around and gathered ideas on favorite shows in Vegas. What is your favorite?

Tweet: @msrib – aw crap. my test labels look terrible w/smeared text! apparently the clear labels hate me b/c they’re perfect on plain paper #wedding

I actually wanted to get started with our labels this past week, even though they aren’t getting sent until after our Vegas Vows. They’re all typed up in InDesign and I sent a PDF to myself at work to do a test run. Thank goodness I only printed a single sheet cuz on paper they were PERFECT… on the clear labels, not so much. The text was all super thick and bulky and totally unreadable. I was seriously bummed since I bought 100 labels for 85 envelopes. Meaning a very tight margin and I just lost 10 of them. *sigh* I’m totally bummed about it. Maybe the labels will have to be white since my envelopes are white. Grrrrr! I am annoyed, but whatever, they’ll still be pretty and embossed and… tossed in the trash almost immediately, right?

I printed them at work and think it’s an inkjet. Has anyone has good success with clear labels? What kind of printer did you use?

Jun222010

June 22 TMW Post

Tweet: Today is my parent’s 39th wedding anniversary.. in 39 years & 3.75 months, we’ll be celebrating ours too! 😉

There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. 39 years. That is a loooooong time! In those 39 years years they’ve owned 3 houses, raised 3 children, and owned hundreds of exotic birds and probably about a hundred dogs. Not to mention the odd creatures like goats, tortoises, koi, iguanas, and whatever else they’ve had. While we’re not going for the animal part, having 3 kids after 39 years is something I’d love to emulate. Even if there’s only 1 perfect kid – me, of course! 😉

Tweet: wedding ring mailed yesterday, remake payment just made… now to wait 8 horribly long weeks to get it back. going from 7.5 to 9 #justincase

My beautiful ring finally got mailed back. And what’s better, it was received 2 days later. Before I could even check the tracking, I got an email from the jeweler saying” it arrived, he’d use my old stone and crate the new one… and as a reminder, the current waiting time was 8 weeks.” Le sigh. 8 weeks until I have my precious back in my hands. The timing is pretty dead on since the wedding is just shy of 4 months away.

Tweet: The result of careful counting & lots of painful hot glue injuries: http://twitpic.com/1x510b

Tweet: All I need now are the pillars. #cupcaketower http://twitpic.com/1x6ag8

Tweet: Mini us! Now to hook to the base & varnish the whole thing #caketopper http://twitpic.com/1xannv

That’s right, I finally got some wedding DIY done… or at least seriously worked on. The cupcake bases are complete and I just need the towers. The cake topper is done and I just need to varnish them. We have normal varnish from the kitchen cabinets, but I’m thinking that it wayyyyy too thick. All the sites I was referring to used spray varnish. Too bad a bottle of spray varnish is about 10x what I need and costs like $8. Can’t they just sell a tiny bottle for me?

Tweet: Embossed envelopes… It’s a start! #wedding http://twitpic.com/1yki33

I am actually please with how these turned out. All the stamps I purchased and carefully planned and showed to people… they won’t work for embossing. I tried. All the text runs together. I guess that means everything else will just get stamped onto the envelopes. I did start that part… the stamping onto the envelopes. Our snazzy and complete fab return address stamp got stamped onto all 100 RSVP envelopes over the weekend. Only a handful were either too light, ink missing, or something else unusable. Not too shabby!

And I leave you with this, from Monday…
Tweet: 111 days until 101010! (cc @brokebride2be!)

Jun012010

June 1 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – Ok folks, which font for the monogram in the middle? http://twitpic.com/1s99o4

Tweet: @msrib – yay… we finally have a Steve & Becca-approved return address stamp. <3 next up, the RSVP quote stamp editing

Tweet: @msrib – is it silly to stamp “thank you” on the back on the RSVP envelope? or maybe some other saying… #wedding

Tweet: @msrib – i believe we found our RSVP envelope quote! last 3 lines: http://bit.ly/VqyGd

I’m not totally sure where I got the stamping of the envelope idea, but whatever. At the suggestion of a fellow tweep, I started looking at quotes we like. After much searching, and even quizzing Steve on some of his favorite songs and quotes, we found the perfect one. I am really excited about it too. And even if the embossing doesn’t work, I’m fine with buying a few different ink pads and just going that route.

All our stamps are designed by the fabulous BlossomStamps on Etsy. So far she’s done one for us, and I just submitted the order for the quote stamp and our return address stamp. The return address stamp went though about a dozen edits, some pretty major ones, before Steve liked one of them. In the end, it will be a fairly simple stamp with only 1 row of dots in the middle. He though 2-3 looked too cluttered.

The majority of my “planning” is the small stuff. Vegas is almost totally taken care of and now it’s just the DIY projects like embossed cupcake wrappers, cupcake tower, and picking out the flavors for the 4 dozen mini cupcakes from Retro Bakery. While I’ve started researching stuff for our January reception, I haven’t truly begun planning it yet.

According to my iPhone app, 131 days left until 10-10-10!

May252010

May 25 TMW Post

Tweet: Yay! Our invites, etc from @overnightprints are here!! http://twitpic.com/1p0hlb

I am so so so so so excited about these! In typical graphic designer nit-pickiness, I am annoyed at the resolution on the bamboo, but hey, I will let that go since *I* designed them and didn’t quadruple check. Seriously, these bad boys are so cute and I’ve been carrying around a sample in my purse to show, ummm, everybody! Well, invited everybody’s that it…

Tweet: decided to get crafty… trying to find inspiration to paint our wedding cupcake topper people. so far the base is gold. 🙂

Tweet: Possibly the collegiate design for the topper. Just hoping I don’t look like a boy. #UF & #WVU http://twitpic.com/1q5baa

Tweet: Our mini-me’s have clothes. But still need logos and faces http://twitpic.com/1q5st7

Tweet: We have logos! These mini-me’s are so stinkin’ cute. http://twitpic.com/1q6fw3

Tweet: With the stand… Not done painting or sealing us yet. http://twitpic.com/1q6gbs

Yes, that is my terrible handwriting on the base. I might repaint and try it again.

Sorry for the series of progressive tweets, but I finally started working on the cake topper. I bought the pieces and paint a few weeks ago. I guess it’s just been sitting here awaiting inspiration. After showing Steve a bunch of super cute ideas on Etsy, including Han & Leia, space suits, and so much more, I had a random source of said inspiration and was off and running. It hasn’t been put together yet as “we” still need faces and then a final coat of glaze, but here’s the progress pictures… cuz “we’re” so cute!

I also exchanged a series of tweets and Facebook posts with friends about airlines. I spent the better part of Sunday checking airfare again with nothing really extraordinary except Spirit Airlines. During one of my question tweets, the manager of customer relations started asking where we were heading and answering questions I had about the possible pilot strike, pricing, etc then said if I had any problems, I could contact her directly. Behold the power of twitter to sooth my nerves. For a company with so much negative reviews, they are really quick to respond to complaints on twitter. As for the rest of the web, who knows how fast they respond.

138 days!

May242010

May 11 TMW Post

Disclaimer: For all y’all not following my wedding planning antics over on TweetMyWedding Tuesdays, I’ll try to remember to post them all here. Unfortunately I’ve been seriously lagging at that and so there’s going to be in flux… apologies!
+++++

Tweet: ARGH! by waiting an extra day, the $501.60 airfare jumped to $621.60 #damndamndamndamn please go back down!!

I have been stalking all the major airline sites to finally buy the tickets out to Vegas. I waited so I could get all my homework turned in, last final exams, everything and when I went back, everything had skyrocketed. Um, airline peeps, we’re still 5 months out! Go the heck back down! Seriously! You’re giving me a heart attack!! I was so excited that I’d be getting both tickets for pretty much cross country flights (Miami to Vegas) for $500. Now they’re considerably over $600 and that’s even the discount airlines! I am religiously checking Delta, AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest, plus Orbitz and they’re not wanting to dip back down. I am less than amused at this.

Tweet: i have to reboot & since i don’t want to lose my @overnightprints cart, i’m ordering everything! 125 of each for $118, incl ship. #wedding

The invitations have been ordered! I had to reboot my computer and since I didn’t want to have to re-enter all the pieces back into Overnight Prints‘ website and find the coupon code again, I ordered them! I ended up getting 125 of everything but the photo dump cards and got 150 of those. It’s all my own design and I tried to get a few fonts to carry throughout the entire set, but there’s 1 or 2 used on just one piece. As a designer, it’s sort of annoying, but whatever, our guests probably won’t even notice!

Want to see them all?? All following images are mine!
The official wedding announcement (5×7)

The reception invitation (4×6) (major props to TheDearlyWed for the wording on this one!!)

The RSVP (4.25×5.5)

The photo dump cards (business card)

Tweet: OMG I just got an iphone. My aunt had a “spare” sitting in her car. Happy MBA graduation to ME! & dad’s getting my BB 😉

This somewhat relates because I want you to pretty please tell me your favorite free apps! Yes, right now I’m being Cheapy McCheaperson and not spending money on apps. I’ve got games and stuff, but what are your favorite wedding planning apps? And heck, baby planning ones too. 😉

May242010

May 4 TMW Post

Tweet: our wedding photo dump ShutterFly site is all set up. too early to order the cards & invites? i’m totally itching to order my pretties.

Tweet: if i have your email address, chances are you just got the “gimme your mailing address” email. #feelingproductive

This past week has seen a dramatic upswing in actual wedding plans. Sure I play around a lot with DIY projects and dress options, but this week we worked on the reception party guest list. That’s huge for us. Up to this point, it’s been word of mouth for Vegas invitees. I’ve made all the paper products already and just need to hit submit on Overnight Prints. However, it’d totally be my luck that I’ll order 100 of everything only to go over and have no buffer for mess ups. Right now we have about 55 address labels, but are still waiting for a good chunk of addresses.

Currently the items in my shopping cart, including shipping, total $93.60. Not bad for 100 announcements, 100 reception invitations, 100 RSVP cards, and 200 “photo dump” cards. I really want to order them at the same time to avoid duplicate shipping charges.

Tweet: looks like we’re doing soaps as reception favors. yay for trade & crafty friends!

I designed a logo for a friend’s business cards and website recently. In return, she offered to make us homemade soaps in our colors and any scents we choose. I’m picturing Japanese lanterns, twinkle lights, cherry blossoms, orchids and other fun touches on our extremely casual Miami reception party. The soap molds I tentatively picked out are flip-flops, palm trees, and an assortment of flowers. I still need to pick the scents as the colors will obviously be orange and blue!

Tweet: do i buy or wait? don’t want it to increase, but also don’t want to get screwed. 2r/t tickets Ft.Laud-Vegas for $501.80

The airfare really makes me nervous. Our hotel suite is booked already for 4 nights at just shy of $600. Booking another $500 for airfare is just nerve-wracking! I’ve heard booking mid-week is the best time to book flights, price-wise. What do y’all think, is $500 a good price for 2 round trip airline tickets?

Also, not wedding-related but still a huge accomplishment… I am days away from being an MBA graduate from East Carolina University!! It’s been 5 very, very long years in the making. It’s significant as I began the program before I even met my wonderful fiancé.

May012010

A real update!

I know I do not post nearly as much as I should. But in all honesty, I do the majority of my wedding “planning” on twitter these days. I am also the featured bride on Tuesdays over on TweetMyWedding. The other brides are amazing and you should really go check us all out. 🙂

sneak peek of the design for all the “invites”

That little plug aside, I’ve finalized the design for our “invites” and just need the final head count to order them. I put it in quotes because it’s a whole package of Vegas wedding announcements, Miami reception invitation cards, Miami reception RSVP cards, and little cards for our photo dump website. Our what? You know… when you go to a wedding, take tons of pictures with your camera then eventually get around to putting them on Facebook. Well, I created a Shutterfly site specifically for people to be able to upload everything there so we can see what everyone has done. We, and anyone viewing the site, can create books, bags, or whatever else from those pictures.

My main reason for posting is that we have been working on the guest list in the last few days. We have a fairly comprehensive list of family and friends. The problem lies in my father’s family. To say they’re all estranged is probably too harsh of a word. I am good friends with one of my cousin’s, and facebook friends with her and 3 others. However, my father hasn’t uttered a word to his step-mother, step-brother or step-sister in years. We kinda like it that way. My dilemma is do we be the bigger people and invite the lot hoping the “adults” decline and the cousins I like accept, or just not invite anyone?

What do you think? I can give back story if you want via email.

Thanks!

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