Help from Non-Bridal Party Members

Thank you to all the people that have helped me thus far with the wedding. This relates to those that have done tangible things (gone to stores for me!) and intangible things (talking me out of a wedding-related freakout). I really appreciate all your help, guys. I mean it. I wish I were wealthy so I could treat you all to something really special. That not being the case, you'll just have to accept my immense gratitude.

Last week, I sent an email out to my future family and some ladies that I've known for years in the greater Chicago area asking them to help me find vases for the wedding (see them here). I loved them but Meijer did not love them as much and discontinued them. Good news: They were much cheaper ($1.75/piece) but the bad news was they were increasingly hard to find. I sent a frantic email out to all the ladies in the family and otherwise asking them to help me find them. Little did I know that the manager at the local Meijer made it his personal mission to find the vases for me! He has called me almost every week. The best news is that he has found all the remaining vases I needed! I feel so lucky to have people who are willing to go above and beyond.

Once I have the vases in hand, I fully intend on sending Meijer corporate an email commending the work of one of their managers. When I talked to the guy to thank him, all he said was that he promised to have the vases for my wedding and he wanted to fulfill his promise. Thank you, Rob, for really taking that promise to heart and remembering what real customer service is. It means a lot and my tables will look fabulously coordinated!

I sent an email to the family and friends letting them know they were off the hook. I hope that they found some though before my email because the discount is significant, and it would be nice to return the full price ones!

It's just so heartwarming to have people willing to do things for the wedding without being in the wedding. I also appreciate all the people who are excited about the upcoming event. It just makes me more excited and reminds me why I'm going through all this stress in the first place. To have people excited about attending my wedding just makes my day and makes all this planning worth it!

Wedding Bands - Part IV

Last post about the wedding bands — I promise. Well, not promise because, of course, there will be band drama to blog about post-wedding, I'm sure. I don't want to rule out a funny post about the groom or me forgetting the rings in Urbana when we leave for the wedding in August. Wouldn't that be hilarious?! Not! That makes me think about making a "take" list for that week. I'm sure we'll be running around like chickens with our heads cut off because I'm landing back in Central Illinois a mere 9 days before we are leaving for the wedding festivities! I'll make an item on my to do list to make another list... Wow. That's all I have to say.

Anyway, back to the bling. As I have posted several times before (here), I was not pleased with the band that went with my engagement ring. I mean, it was beautiful but just not me. I'm not the kind of girl to have so much hardware on a daily basis. I do want the option of having it for special occasions so we kept it but I wanted something to wear every day. I did not want just a plain band though — a girl's gotta have some sparkle. Here are some pictures I took of the new ring (and E's ring!):

My rings with my Chief Justice gavel... Yeah, I'm a total law dork. See this post for proof.

Our wedding bands together. Don't they make a great team?



The trio. Diva (as I call my E-ring) is in the middle peaking through.

I'm super excited about my wedding band! I really can't wait to wear it. I like the round cut diamonds because they match my ring — I also know that diamonds in a band are mostly princess cut or channel so I like the uniqueness of it.

Stamp Dilemma Resolved

I took all of your comments under advisement for the stamp dilemma. After careful consideration, we decided to go with the custom stamps from Zazzle.com, and we picked the Wordle ones (mockup on right)! It was a tough call but after talking to my FMIL about it, I feel really good about my decision. She thought the idea of the Wordle was so unique and agreed with me that it would distract from my handwritten addressing. I just felt that I'd already cut more corners than I would have liked - no inner envelope and no calligraphy. (I'm surprisingly bummed about the calligraphy actually).

Anyway, we wanted to do something special because the invites totally set the tone for the main event. We want to show our guests how much attention to detail we have (read: Meaghan notices the little details and hopes others do too).

Soo... I ordered them and waited patiently for them to arrive. I shipped them 2-day air because I didn't want any waiting mishaps (like with the paper for the accommodation inserts). They arrived late last week (before the paper btw) and much to my disappointment the background turned out lavender NOT light blue! I initially thought that this was my mistake but after comparing the mockup to the final product, Erik and I have determined it was not. Zazzle will be getting a friendly phone call from me tomorrow. Although the stamps were not insanely expensive, I would really like them to match. I'll let you know that that phone call goes.

Also, we decided we liked the wordle so much we are going to use it on our programs but one thing at a time.

Goals

While it was (and still is) a goal of mine to have this wedding planned before I leave for New York, it feels less and less like it is actually going to happen. There are just so many details left to figure out. For instance, I thought that Tina was going to do my veil (and for free no less!), but I am now worried about whether she can actually do it (she hasn't done one before and used the phrase "I'm up for a challenge"). This is a little frustrating but hopefully I'll have time in NYC to look at veils. If not, I just won't have one. This is what it's come down to. And there are so many other details — writing the ceremony, picking the music (we have to have a song for when we exchange rings?!?! Doesn't that take like 5 seconds?!!?), making a cakestand, among other things.

I know I'm just not going to have the time this summer and am regretting the decision not to hire a wedding planner. And there's the change in our honeymoon plans, which I'm also handling. Not that I'm complaining, I am done with my second year of law school after all. I'm just a little overwhelmed at the sheer prospect of getting all this done! As well as frustrated at myself for not planning better. "Sure, I can finish finals, pack for a summer in NYC and plan a wedding while going out of town almost every weekend in May and have that all done in 2 weeks — no problem!" Can someone go back like 6 months ago and tell me I'm on crack please?

Anyway, expect several posts in succession tomorrow. I have to blog about the wonderful assistance of non-bridal party members, my 3rd-to-last fitting, stuffing invitations (and the requisite drama of delegating to the groom), the stamp decision, my new (second) wedding band, honeymoon changes, deep cleaning of the apartment (give the groom a nice base for the summer while I'm gone), and my fabulous shower that my friends are throwing for me tomorrow morning! That reminds me, I should probably get some beauty sleep....

Stamp Dilemma

So, it's getting about that time—time to send out the invitations. Or at the very least, time to purchase stamps for the envelopes. I just have to say one thing: Stamps are shockingly expensive! I bought a bunch of Forever stamps for the RSVP cards (before the rates increase on the 11th!) so I don't have to worry about those (sorry guys, no fancy stamps for you — just the plain 'ol Liberty Bell). In hindsight, I wish we had done RSVP postcards. They seem to be big right now and they would have helped us save on postage... On the other hand, I feel weird about asking people to write their names on something that isn't sealed with their food preferences. I don't think it is secret or anything but it still makes me feel weird.

Anyway, the reason I'm blogging is I've hit a bit of a snag with the stamps. Like the invitation design, I am having a hard time deciding. Do I go with something that the USPS has or do I custom make the stamps? Is it worth the price difference? I've already cut corners with the lack of inner envelope and lack of calligraphy (which still makes me a little sad) so I don't want to necessarily wimp out on the stamps. At the same time, I don't think people will actually notice or care. I mean, I would notice, but is that really a good thing? Here are my options:

This is the only "wedding" like stamp that the U.S. postal service has for the new rate. The colors will go with our envelopes, but we're not big card players so it seems kind of weird . . .

This is one that we can custom make at Zazzle.com. Custom making the stamps adds about 45 cents per stamp to the cost. What concerns me (and Erik) about this stamp design is whether the monogram is too much. It's already on our invitations so would it be overkill to have on the outside on the envelope too? Plus, we want to be able to use these stamps for TY cards so I worry that with the TY cards being our monogram only it would be overkill. I also worry about the impropriety of using the "wedding monogram" before the wedding.

This is not my favorite, but it does have our wedding flower on it. Well, it's probably the wedding flower — there have been some issues with the blue hydrangeas, but I'll save that for another post. Anyway, the font on this stamp matches our invitations which is nice, but I don't love it.

I think this one is Erik's and my favorite. It took me an hour to create the Wordle (I'm creatively challenged sometimes), but I think it was worth it. Is it bad that I had a hard time coming up with words that were wedding related but not party-planning related or overly legalistic. I asked E what the first would to come to mind with our wedding was and he had all these great words like "love," "cherish", "friends." Mine were "commitment," "true love," and "details". Not overly romantic. Another thing we like about this is that our guests will be impressed with the Wordle. Not a lot of people know about the website and it would have a nice "wow" factor to detract from my penmanship.

I'm leaning towards the last one but cringe at the extra expense (45 cents/ stamp). What do you think? Is it worth it?

Engagement Ring

I realized I have never posted about my engagement ring or posted any closeups of the ring (until yesterday with the wedding bands). I hate putting pictures up of the rings but realize it's one of the "rites of passage" for brides. Also, I was inspired by a post on the Weddingbee about taking artistic photos of your rings.

So, I decided to take a few pics for fun - with the TAX CODE. Yes, I'm a huge nerd. I just love it though!!

About the ring. E and I went ring shopping January 2008 and he made me wait until June 2008 to propose! We narrowed it down to 2 rings, and he picked this one. I was a little wary about it at first (at the store—not when he proposed) because our jeweler described it as a "tank" in response to E's questions about the likelihood of the diamond falling out. Never describe a woman's ring as a tank please. It's a turn off. Anyway, I absolutely love it and a little over 10 months since he proposed I have made the ring public in an official internet broadcasting way.

I've been thinking about it and may (after finals) post about our engagement. I'm not sure how many people know the whole story. I've been shy about sharing such a private moment but now that's it's been awhile that's wearing off. ;)

Wedding Bands - Part III

Upon further reflection from my post here, I have decided that, no, I do not like the wedding band that comes with my engagement ring. It's curved and and just too sparkly. I know, gasp in horror now. But seriously. I thought about the practicality of wearing such a ring every day and it does not fit my lifestyle at the moment. I'm in law school for heaven's sake. I will be keeping my eye out this summer at my firm to see what the ladies are wearing there, but I do not remember seeing any bling during my interviews.

So, here's the ring that matches my engagement ring (excuse the close-up of my cooking-scarred hand—I'm an absolute klutz in the kitchen):

See what I mean?

So, after determining that I don't like it, the next problem was what to do about it. We already special ordered it and paid for it. I also had to bring this up to my future husband, who said on the phone (prior to viewing) that it was probably all in my head and remember about the engagement ring, etc. I waited until he got home (did I mention we were leaving to go to Chicago for our shower that afternoon?) and showed him the ring. While waiting for him, I wore the rings around the apartment hoping to warm up to it and I almost did. That is until I saw the look on E's face—he hated it too!

We came up with a game plan: Buy another ring (feasible because of the crazy deal we got since our jeweler's going out of business) to wear on my left hand and I would continue to wear the engagement ring but just on my right hand. We would keep the bling bling for special occasions. The problem with this plan is that we were worried about what his mom would think about the added cost. Turns out that that was unfounded. She loves our idea! So...

We went shopping again. And picked out this beautiful number:

Here's how I'll wear it:

Isn't it perfect?!?!?! I LOVE IT and cannot wait to wear it. I have to wait how long?! Anyway, I was relieved that my e-ring actually fit on my right hand. The downside is we no longer saved money in our ring budget but we still didn't go too much over! Even with the additional ring. So, thank you T. Kelly's for giving us such great deals and customer service.

Tim himself took a picture with me because he just loves how I'm documenting the whole process.

He's so sweet and always remembers me when I come in (every 2-3 weeks...) to get my ring cleaned. We chat about his health and his daughter and the weather. I'll really miss him when he closes shop. He's talking about opening a smaller gig a few days a week in an office somewhere to do cleanings and stuff for his regular customers. Let's hope that's true!

Wedding Day Accessories

I've been meaning to post about my wedding accessories for a little while and well, it's late and no more homework will be done tonight, so I thought, "why not?"

Shoes
For the wedding photos and ceremony, I'll be wearing my ivory satin mary jane pumps. I have to wear hose so I don't get blisters. No fun. Here's a picture:

For the reception, I'm going to wear these bad boys:

Aren't they fabulous? I love that they are not white. To be honest, I'm also wearing them to my shower this weekend. In fact, I bought them for my shower to match my fabulous shower dress (Thanks, FMiL). They were a bit of a splurge so I am justifying my otherwise extravagant purchase by wearing them during the wedding festivities. Side note: E loves them too. :)

Clutch
No photos to share, but I will have an ivory satin clutch (to match the shoes!) the day of the wedding. I know, I know. I won't have any need for a purse, but I do want something to hold my lipstick, camera (for others to use, I guess), and other potential necessities. Don't hate on a girl for wanting her accessories!

Jewelry
I decided to go nontraditional. There will be no pearls or crystals making an appearance at the wedding. I will, however, be satisfying my "something blue" with these. While reading some wedding blogs today, I realized I totally forgot about a bracelet. That was Tina's question for me tonight too since I wore my jewelry at the fitting today. I did some searching on the website where I bought my earrings and necklace and found a beautiful bracelet that matches. I'm going to keep an eye out of sales and/or free shipping! Anyway, here is the jewelry:

Alright, well, that's enough for one day. 3 posts... Can you say "procrastinating from doing actual studying...?" After this weekend, I'm banned from the internet until the 8th of May. Well, maybe not banned but it'll be a valiant effort to not be distracted.

Fitting # 14 & Veil Revisited

Today I had my FOURTEENTH fitting. Yes, that's right 14 fittings. Fortunately, the end is in sight - only 2 more left! One on May 13 and then another in the first week of August. This week, the dress actually started to look like a dress! I had a skirt and everything this time. Well, not a finished skirt but something that resembles a skirt more than in previous weeks.

Unfortunately, my lovely bmaids were unable to make the fitting this week. Finals can do that to law school peeps like ourselves. It's a shame because it was the most exciting fitting in a long time... I did take photos and sent them to all bmaids and FMiL to catch them up and keep them involved. Those photos cannot be shared, unfortunately, but the ones below are groom-safe and groom-approved. :)

The skirt is currently being produced in 2 layers - silk organza (I think that's what it was!) and silk taffetta (what the dress is made out of).

In this photo the silk organza layer is pinned to the bodice. Tina was in the process of pinning the silk taffetta layer up to the bodice. There is still some tweaking that needs to be done, but it looks really great. Just like a real wedding dress. Too bad I can't post photos. Silly groom.

The back of the dress. It looks kind of like petals, doesn't it?

Now to the second part of the post. I've posted about my aversion to veils before (here and here). Well, I've reconsidered. I think that I have found the perfect veil! I know, complete reversal. Here's a previously hidden photo of me in a veil (excuse the crazy not-quite-finished dress):

It is SO HIDEOUS!!! I just hate it so much. I'm a little embarrassed to even post this photo.

Anyway, here are some photos of the new veil idea:

It's called a birdcage veil. I just love it. I love the vintage-y feel of it. I think this last photo captures really what I am looking for. Tina is going to make it for me using some Russian lace she's ordering and using the chiffon flowers that I purchased from J. Crew awhile ago. Amazing how useful J. Crew's sale website has been. At my next fitting (May 13 after finals) she should have the dress completed and my veil made!

So exciting!

Wedding Bands - Part II

Several weeks ago Erik and I picked out our wedding bands. His came in quite quickly (within a week!). His is awesome! It looks so shiny and nice. I'm sure it won't stay that way for very long after he starts wearing it. He jokes about wanting to wear it right away. No, honey, not yet!

Mine came in today, and I have to be sans engagement ring for several days. It's silly but I really feel its absence. I feel like I need another ring on my left hand to just account for the emptiness. And I have 4 more days to go! The reason they need to hold onto it is because the new ring has to match the shape/size of my current ring. Because it's curved, they need to match up perfectly. I may post pictures once it comes in but I'll have to run that by the groom. He's much more secretive than me!

One thing about my new wedding band—it's VERY sparkly and flashy. In fact, my first thought was "I hate it!" I know, I know. I feel bad admitting that. I even said it outloud, which led my jeweler to say defensively, "It looks just like the picture!" Yes, it does look like the picture but it also looks much BIGGER and flashier. It's beautiful don't get me wrong, but I'm just not sure I can rock a ring like that. Bmaid Jess swears I have some diva in me so she has no worries. And my jeweler reminded me (he's such a great guy) that I was a little worried about the flashiness factor of my current ring initially. We all know how that turned out!

Invitations Arrive!!!

Erik got back from California Saturday afternoon. He also brought the invitations with him (picked them up from Chris on his way back). I'm not sure if I was more excited to see him or the invitations. I'm embarrassed to say that it was probably the invitations! (Love you, E — I promise). I wish I could post pictures, but I can't yet! I promise I will in about a month when they go out. I'll just say they turned out wonderful (one minor thing I'm not a big fan of - but I'm not going to say so you don't notice!). It was my mistake, not Chris so don't think he didn't do anything less than an excellent job!

The colors of the invitations match the blue envelopes we purchased from Paper Works perfectly! I'm sooooo happy that we didn't go with the plain white envelopes. They are okay for the reply cards and the thank you cards, but they just weren't nice enough for the actual wedding invitations.

Right now, I'm trying to manage my stress as we approach finals. I'm not doing the best job ever but I am taking my time addressing envelopes. I'm doing 5 a night. It's a very manageable amount and makes me feel like I'm doing stuff. Erik is still finalizing the accommodations/ directions inserts. Once those are complete we are going to start stuffing the invites. Erik's jobs will be to stamp our address (using our new embosser! - See above for picture) on the backs of the envelopes, to stick the mailing labels onto our response card envelopes, and to put stamps on all of them. When we get to stuffing the invitations, I'll be numbering all the respond cards and putting that into my spreadsheet just in case people forget to write their names. Apparently, this happens. Silly guests!

Bmaid gifts

Despite the fact that I want to blog all about them, I can't! It's sooo frustrating! Again, I may be more excited about my attendant gifts than some of my stuff in the wedding. And again, I almost bought 7 instead of 6 (see the post about the bmaid dresses). I think these girls are lucky — hopefully, they feel the same way!

Here's what I'll say without giving too much away. The gifts were handmade by an artist in Nashville and they were a custom order. They match the wedding and turned out perfectly! They actually came in THIS WEEK!! It's just killin' me because I have to wait 4 months to give them! I really enjoy giving gifts so this is just torture.

Here's a photo that doesn't give away size or type of gift. I just had to post some sort of picture.

Here's what the bridesmaids gifts are NOT. This blogger is on crack (sorry, but really).

Hair Place Booked!!

Over the weekend while visiting the family for Easter and the birthday/ retirement of Erik's dad, I visited the local Aveda salon to interview my wedding-day hairdresser. We went over hairstyles and she was quite impressed with my wedding binder. (Of course, she was). While we did the consultation, another woman came over and gave me a hand massage. Everyone called me the "bride." Let's just say, I'm starting to warm up to this whole "bride" idea! There is only one problem: My hair is not going to be long enough for the style I want... I booked my practice run for the Wednesday before the wedding so we'll see how much my hair grows before then. Until that time I'll be taking my vitamins religiously!

I also booked the hair appointments for my bmaids and future MiL for a total of one bridal updo, 4 regular updos and 3 styles! Needless to say the salon is pretty happy about it. Note to brides out there: All prices are negotiable. They quoted me a pretty high initial quote but I was able to talk them down (at least on the bmaid hairstyles—I took one for the team). The best thing about it being an Aveda salon is that I'll be able to use my Pure Privilege reward points. I knew I've been saving them up since 2005 for a reason! One more thing out of the wedding budget!

As for the day of the wedding, we all have to be there bright & early at 8:30am. And I have to have clean hair, which means I have to be up at like 7:30 to shower and blow my hair out! The wedding isn't until 5:30pm! What the crap!

A cool thing about this place is that they have a private room for us (I saw it—it's really nice) and will provide fresh fruit, juice, and champagne! There's a Dunkin Donuts across the street so we'll also pick up some coffee, donuts & bagels. We are going to be treated like princesses! :D

Efforts To Not Do Wedding Stuff Fail

First, I know that the above title does not conform to BB Rule 8(a), which, unfortunately, I knew off the top of my head. Just to make sure I looked it up and, yes, I was right. That officially makes me a HUGE law nerd. I like the way it looks with every word capitalized thankyouverymuch!

Anyway, I'm writing because I utterly failed at not doing wedding stuff today. After my post this morning, I swore off wedding planning. I mean, I am in law school and it isn't easy. I have homework to do, articles to read, etc. Despite my best efforts, wedding planning again was on the agenda today.

Oddly enough, it was the groom's fault! I was on his case yesterday (part of a wedding planning meltdown moment, which is why I decided to take a break today) about not helping out more with the wedding and about how I do all the leg work and then he gets "veto power" on stuff. Well, he certainly took the initiative today! He spent the evening designing our map and accommodation inserts for the invitations and they look perfect! He was joking about us having the invitations done in 20 minutes if he & I just sat down and did them. Right... Anyway, it turned out lovely and matches our fonts & colors from the invitation. It will be a nice complement to what's already going out. Great job, Groom!

Also, other things that kept me in wedding planning mode: Follow up needed on a few vendors (for example: I panicked about a deposit w/ photographer being due), bmaid followed up with hairstyle, our embosser was shipped, and the jewelery designer got back to me about the bmaid gifts!

Reminds me of a Star Trek quote (I know the dorkiness is self evident): Resistance is futile.

Centerpieces

I was at Meijer grocery shopping the other day and saw these vases:

[Sorry, the quality is not that great. I have perpetually shaky hands and it was taken with my iPhone.]

I think that these vases with the hydrangeas and eucalyptus will look lovely at our tables. I emailed the picture to Aunt J. and hopefully she will agree! They are a little bit taller which will be better for our tables, which, to accommodate all our guests, are going to be 10 and 14 rounds. I get to see a sample centerpiece the weekend of my shower (which is quickly approaching!) and I can't wait. That also works out well because if J. likes them, I can buy them and bring them with me to Easter.

My only concern at that point is whether Meijer will have enough — we have 13 tables (not including the head table)!

Favors!!

I may have mentioned this before, but Erik and I were going to do personalized M&M's with our names and date of the wedding on them in 2 different shades of blue. These were going to go in those really great boxes I found at a confectioner's wholesale supply with a sticker made of our monogram on top. This was until Friday of this past week.

After running errands for several hours (yes, that's several), I decided to swing by the Fannie May chocolate store (not to be confused with the mortgage broker). It dawned on me that at some point (many many months ago) I had wanted to do Fannie May chocolates as favors because of the local connection to Chicago. A lot of our guests would not have had Fannie May chocolate before. So, I go in the store and discuss options with the sales girls and they take my information for the manager to call me back. I, fortunately, had a sample favor box with me (took it to show a girlfriend at lunch) and they put the truffles in it. It looked PERFECT!! [Side note: Groom disagreed and wants to put tissue or something at the bottom to make it look fuller, which I think it completely unnecessary but I'm humoring him for now.]

The manager called me the next day. She was really nice and is offering us a crazy discount that puts the truffles below the cost of the M&M's. This is crazy because I think this favor is much nicer but I'll take it! The best part is that they are going to assemble the boxes, put the monogram stickers on top, and fill them with the truffles (according to my specifications — there is a particular way I want them in the clear boxes for aesthetic reasons) for no extra charge! This just made my life a whole less stressful. My only worry is that it is too good to be true. Moving forward on the assumption it's going to work out... Here's a picture with the tissue (per "side note" above):

What's even funnier (to me) is that when I came home and went to write up the notes from my ideas in my wedding notebook — there was a note to myself to look into the FM truffles... Apparently, this wedding stuff is actually making me crazy!

Goodies in the Mail!

After a relatively uneventful day at school, I came home to 2 boxes and a mailer envelope! This normally would be somewhat exciting (mail is fun) but today it was extra exciting. Last week, I ordered the stickers for the favors, boxes for the favors and a new dress for our upcoming shower. Well, everything came in today!

I was a little concerned about color issues with the stickers (not saying what they are in case you don't notice!), but the difference was slight, and I don't think many people will notice. I put one on of the favor boxes so that I could see what it would look like sans candy, and I think they look pretty cute. I wish we could go with something a little fancier for the favors (personalized mini-wine bottles anyone?) but $20/ person is a bit out of our range (I'm so jealous of the ones from other weddings I've been to). I'll post pictures of the favors at another point after we order the personalized candies! So fun.

My dress for the shower is per-fect! I had to try it on immediately when I got home. I'm such a girly girl sometimes (shopping is a hobby of mine!). While we were dress shopping for E's mom's dress for the wedding, she offered to buy me a new dress for the shower. It's cool how she is really embracing this "you only get to do this once" mantra. I really appreciate her doing that, me being a poor law student and all. The weird thing is I bought the dress on JCrew.com on sale but now it's back up to full price... Good timing on my part! Here's a picture in case you are curious:

Blog Wordle

So, there's this really cool website out there that creates an image from text that you enter or from a URL that you enter: Wordle.

Here's what this blog created:

Wedding Planning Machine

That's me! Although, I just had a vague flashback to Kindergarten Cop when the little boy says, "My mom thinks that my dead is a real . . . " You get the point.

Anyway... here's all the stuff I got done this past week (not including what I already posted about):

• Scheduled another meeting with Mike at Country Squire to pick out fabric for chair covers
• Helped reschedule Atlanta bridal shower
• Followed up with hotel manager (left somewhat nasty message because of lack of response)
• Finalized (again) invitation wording and asked for mock-ups for final approval for invitations, response cards, and thank you cards.
• Bought embosser for the return addresses on the invitations and other wedding-related mailings (so cute! and cheaper than having the stationery company do them)
• Designed and bought the stickers for the top of the favors!
• Bought the tins for the favors.
• Scheduled dance lessons for Erik & me the week of the wedding!
• Looked into runners for the ceremony
• Called & requested information from Mario Tricoci hair salon for wedding day beauty stuff.
• Finalized guest list for Rehearsal dinner.
• Delegated items to Groom including looking into Tech Topics wedding announcement procedure, favor making duties over the summer, direction/ hotel info inserts for the invitations, and 2nd wedding night (Sunday) accommodations.
  
• Set up deadline/ timeline with officiant.

Whew! And that list doesn't include all the research I've done for my hair style and colored envelopes for the invitations (we decided to just go with the white linen for the response and thank you cards). Not to mention the studying I've been doing since it is Spring Break, which, in law, school is code for "getting your sh*t together."

Writing all this down makes me feel less depressed about not having a super-productive break. Looks pretty productive to me (maybe just not in terms of schoolwork)!

Invitations Designed!

This past week (okay, yesterday!) we finalized our invitations with our graphic design expert Chris! This is very exciting—especially since it only took 2 iterations! Well, technically 5 because he sent me 4 designs (all of which were very cool) and edited of one them, which we actually chose.

I would post it, but I feel like I want people to be surprised when they get them. Somethings should be kept secret I suppose. After the invitations get sent in May, I will be sure to post a picture so that people who follow the blog who aren't invited (sorry!) can see the invitation.

Some little details about the invitations:

• We decided to go with 5X7 size invitations. I had thought about doing "tea size" invitations (they look like regular envelope size) but decided that traditional size would be best. That being said, the invites are landscape not portrait in orientation.
• Paper: The invitations will be printed on white linen paper. We had toyed around with less expensive paper options and even pearlized paper (Erik's idea) but after seeing many many samples (thanks Chris for repeatedly sending us paper samples!) we decided on just plain jane white linen. It looks very classy, in my opinion, and the texture feels very nice on the hands!
• Thermography: We also decided to go with thermography as opposed to engraving (super expensive) or laser printing (just not formal enough). Thermography creates a raised print on the invitation, which will also look clean and classy.
• Envelopes: Now, I know that traditionally envelopes are white and there are two—an inner and outer envelope—but we are branching out from this mold! Our envelopes are going to be light blue (to match hydrangea blue and the blue in the monogram). The jury's still out whether the envelopes will also be linen—have to hear back from Chris as to the writing/printing ease before I decide. We also dispensed with the inner envelope for the invitations. Really, is it necessary? I say "no." Sorry to the traditionalists out there. As a side note: Emily Post (I consult her wedding guide on everything) said it was okay.
• Wording: Since our wedding is outdoors we decided to again part with traditional wording on the invitation. Our invitations will read "pleasure of your company" instead of "honour of your presence." Again, Emily Post said this was okay given the nature of the ceremony. I like it not only because it seems less stuffy but also because it gets rid of the British spelling of "honor."

So, those are the highlights and probably much more detail than you ever needed to know! Now, Chris has started working on the response cards. Updates later.