Mailing Snafus

Here I was thinking that the invitations were out and all I had to do was sit around and wait for the RSVPs to roll in. Well, I was wrong. Mostly due to my own stupidity. Exhibit A:

What, the post office doesn't mail things for free? I figure that 1 out of 90ish envelopes isn't so bad, but, seriously? Did I really forget to put a stamp on this? Yes, yes I did. The post office kindly returned it without any markings (well, not true - there was a blue arrow pointing to our return address stamp) and the sticker came off no problem. Then I was faced with a dilemma: Stick a stamp on it and mail as is or go through the hassle of readdressing it because of the arrow. Considering the fact that we are T-minus 10 minutes from leaving for Indiana for another wedding, I am opting for the stick the stamp on and away it goes. Sorry to the recipient.

But this one won't be hand canceled you may be thinking. And you would be right. However, it doesn't appear that hand canceling actually works. I give you Exhibit B:

See the red hand canceled stamp? Then see the horrible black lines through it? Yep, that's right - the origin post office did not run it through the machine but the destination post office did. Thanks, guys. You would think that the fact it was hand canceled in the first place meant something. Apparently not. I take solace in the fact that the hand canceling was free and the fact that at least there are not 2 black machine cancels through the stamp. At least you can still see it! (Thanks M for the photos).

That's all for my rants today. Off to the second wedding of the year!

First RSVP!

Despite the fact that we just sent out the bulk of the invitations yesterday, we received our first RSVP. And it was a YES!!! :D Hoorah!! We had to celebrate this momentous occasion with the requisite photo op.

Here it is (Caution: Spoiler for what our wedding invites look like):

Hmmm... Wonder what Marley picked for food? (I knew it was from her because 1) She told me she sent it like the day I gave it to her and 2) She had her return address on the envelope.) :)



First one! (I'm a huge dork)



Sorry guys, the bar has now been set high. You must use smiley faces or other symbols to mark attendance and include a personal note. :)

Yay! Guest attendance is officially 3 people! Bride, Groom & Marley... Funny enough we'll all have the same last name by the time of the event.

All Invitations Sent!

Today, a big milestone — ALL the invitations have been sent!

Bmaid Steph came over for the final push. I don't know how I would have done it without her! It took us a good 1.5 hours. Granted, during that time we were watching Bride Wars and um.... day drinking a little (it was 5pm somewhere). :) A little side note about Bride Wars: Awful, unrealistic annoying movie. I mean, the planner messed up and they messed up by not reading their contracts before signing! And one of them was supposed to be an attorney in NYC. She dressed very skanky to work (one meeting was with her in a pink bra and suit jacket) and was just inappropriate. It was very weird and just plain ol' annoying. Steph and I bonded over the ridiculousness of the movie. It made it easier to focus on invitation stuffing rather than watching the movie. We did pause for the wedding meltdown scene though.

Anyway... back to the subject of this post. Here's Steph in her helper glory:

Like I said before, stuffing envelopes took a surprising amount of time. There are several elements: 1) Invitation itself (very important), 2) response card with envelope, and 3) directions/accommodations insert. Not to mention inputting the number of the response cards into our master spreadsheet (it's a thing of beauty btw). Anyway, we had just enough of everything - almost ran out of the directions/ accommodations inserts. We just sent them to everyone (even bridal party/ close family members) so they could see E's handywork. He did such a good job on them — they match our invites perfectly. He's now in charge of the seating cards, menu cards, and programs. :) Everything will match and it will be awesome.

After all 90ish envelopes were stuffed, it was time to mail them out. I wish I had taken a picture of them in the stacked glory but, alas, I'm getting lazy with the photos. Photo overload? Maybe.

Anyway, next came the issue of hand canceling the envelopes. I had heard here that it was difficult to get the post office to do it. Martha suggested this, so, of course, despite the naysayers, I had to at least attempt. For those not up with wedding lingo (I know I wasn't before MS), hand canceling means that instead of going through the machines at the post office - they stamp them like back in the day. Martha also suggests sending your invitations to cities with lovely names and having them hand cancel them... A little too much effort in my opinion.

An excerpt from her wedding website on the subject:

Hand-Canceling
You can take your invitations to the post office and request that they be hand-canceled. Machines print bar codes on the envelopes, but hand-canceling -- just marking each stamp -- keeps invitations neat and prevents damage that machines can cause.

Special Postmark
The towns listed below will cancel your stamps for you, imprinting them with their sweet names. Enclose your stamped, addressed invitations in a large padded envelope or box, and include a note detailing your request. Address it to "Postmaster," followed by the name of your chosen town, state, and zip code; call ahead to let him or her know the invitations are on their way. Consider sending the envelopes Priority or Express Mail, so you can track the package. Allow enough time for invitations to be delivered, postmarked, and mailed out -- ask the postmaster how long it will take.

Bliss, New York 14024; 585-322-7740
Bridal Veil, Oregon 97010; 503-695-2380
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514; 919-942-4170
Darling, Mississippi 38623; 662-326-8408
Deary, Idaho 83823; 208-877-1470
Groom,Texas 79039; 806-248-7988
Harmony, Rhode Island 02829; 401-949-2745
Honeyville, Utah 84314; 435-279-8213
Kissimmee, Florida 34744; 407-846-0999
Lovely, Kentucky 41231; 606-395-5848
Loving,Texas 76460; 940-378-2259
Luck, Wisconsin 54853; 715-472-2079
Romance, Arkansas 72136; 501-556-5911

Here is the difference between normal and hand canceled envelopes:
Machine:

Hand Canceled:

I definitely wanted them hand canceled because we paid extra for our custom stamps (which ended up looking really cool - too bad I overbought by like double... sigh). Anyway, I went to the post office at around noon and went with a game plan to convince the postal workers that they should do this special service for me. I explained to the postwoman that we didn't use inner envelopes and I was concerned about my invitations being damaged. I noted the special stamp (big hit with the ladies at the P.O.) and even offered to cancel them myself! They had no problem doing it. They agreed with me about my concerns. In fact, I think that the special stamp sealed the deal. Yay! I've asked a good friend, M, to send me a picture of her invite once she receives to see if they really were hand canceled (yes, I'm paranoid). There will be a blog update at that time.

All this makes me think of one thing: I love living in a small town sometimes. Customer service is much better here (see this post for the Meijer Store Director who made it his personal mission to get my vases - which only ended up costing $14 total for 8!).

First Invites Out

Because my law school friends are scattering to the 4 winds, we distributed some invitations early (by only a week) last week at my Champaign Shower (will post on that soon). It was surprisingly stressful to get everything together. Stuffing the invitations was surprisingly time-consuming. I know I keep saying "surprisingly" but I guess I figured that since the addressing was so easy (and Erik stamping the return addresses and sticking labels on the RSVP envelopes was easy for me - not so much for him) that I assumed that putting them in the envelopes would be easy. Nope. Thank you, Martha Stewart, and your crazy "good" idea to number the RSVP cards for the silly guests who forget to write their names! This added a level of complexity to the invitation stuffing — especially since the addressed envelopes got out of alphabetical order. That was an unintended consequence of delegating the return address stamping (with our awesome embosser) to the groom.

Oddly enough, this kind of snuck up on us. Erik had ordered the paper for the accommodation inserts several weeks ago, and we were in a holding pattern until that came. Bad news: The paper didn't come in time. Result: Scrambling to get some decent paper at Kinko's and printed enough to give to the people heading out of town! Erik went the morning of the shower to pick them up. Can you say stressful?

At any rate, the ironic part was the paper came the next day! E is picking up the finished product today from Kinko's — I can't wait to see it on the Cougar 80 Cover paper we got. We plan on using this paper (we ordered 100 sheets) for our seating cards too - waste not, want not.

Sealing up the invitations was also a momentous occasion. I made Erik lick them since I was running late getting ready (have to look pretty for my shower). Here are the photos (you can see they obviously tasted bad):

You can see the pure yuckiness of the envelope glue. Just keep in mind - they were sealed with love. Again, we thought about that Seinfeld episode with Susan & George's wedding invitations. Please try not to notice the crazy mess in the background of the photo. I thought about cropping it out and then reconsidered. It was finals week. Judge if you want but it was spotless by that weekend!

Doesn't he look happy to not be licking the envelope?

Anyway, the rest of the invites will go out this week. I'm going to ask the Post Office hand cancel them; however, I'm a little worried that they may not (see the link). I'm thinking since this is a relatively small town they might. I'll keep you updated. As for the stuffing, I'm having a girly-wedding-help-day with Bmaid Steph. We're renting Bride Wars and stuffing the invitations/ painting the guest book — there may also be some day drinking involved (we'll see if I can convince Steph).

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

Monogram Update

Here is the official monogram. We made the "N" be on the top of the monogram and the outer ring a little wider. It's perfect!

This is an update to the 1st Monogram Post.

Monogram

For all of you that have been following my blog, this comes as no surprise — I am not good about making a decision on anything stationery related! Fortunately, we've been working with Erik's cousin's best man, Chris, on our monogram and next will be working with him on the invitations and other stationery items.

The monogram was the first thing to accomplish because it will serve as our "theme" for the wedding. Some brides do "beach" weddings or "Tiffany's" weddings, I do letters. Yes, I'm boring and uncreative. This monogram will be on our invitations, thank you cards, programs, and favors. I can't wait to see the monogram printed on our paper (Chris said they are in the mail!). And let me just say, the monogram is FABULOUS!!!

Now, I want to give a shout out to Chris for ALL the hard work he did. It took several weeks, 60+ emails, 2 phone meetings, and 15 iterations to get this monogram. He worked really hard to translate my non-designer speak into changes to the design. It was much harder than I thought, especially since I didn't know what I wanted. I knew what I didn't want but, unfortunately for Chris, that was after he sent it to me! (He's trying to get into the wedding business, so I have his info for any of you ladies that are interested in personalizing your stuff). There still may need to be some tweaking once I see it on paper, but I LOVE IT (and Erik does too!—it was his idea to make the inner circle navy). Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show all of you all the iterations of the monogram in order. Enjoy!

Monogram #1



Monogram #2


Monogram #3



Monogram #4


Monogram #5



Monogram #6


Monogram #7


Monogram #8



Monogram #9


Monogram #10


Monogram #11


Monogram #12


Monogram #13


Monogram #14



OUR MONOGRAM

Fancy Wedding Website or No?

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a TON of friends that are married or are getting married in the near future. Including our own wedding, Erik & I are going to at least 3 others (jury's still out on whether we are invited to the 4th). So, there are real comparison issues in terms of colors, dresses, invitations, save the dates, etc.

A few people have made some really cool—really fancy wedding websites. This has led me to question whether we should have a "real" wedding website. One that we pay for that has a catchy URL like "www.meaghan&erik.com" or "www.bayernelson2009.com." Something that will look sleek and classy on our invitations and something that we can put music to. These websites are relatively expensive ($20/month) and I question the efficacy of them. Yes, the website will look much nicer on invitations and other wedding paper announcements, but are they really worth the cost?

Another plus of these wedding websites (check out my friend Katy's) is that they are really easy for guests to navigate. I'm not an html wizard and am thankful for Blogspot, but I would like to have a link on the side that is a bit more obvious. I put it in all caps, but still worry that finding the information about where to stay (once that's finalized) and what to do (again, once finalized) will be difficult for those that don't keep up with the blog. Any suggestions are welcome.

As for now, I think I'll keep with the blogging. I like that I can keep people who care updated on all the little things going on. It also gives me an outlet to talk about wedding stuff without nauseating my friends. I'm sure more than a few are tapped out and I find that I get bored with myself sometimes! Over break, for example, I felt that finals left me so brain dead that the only things I could talk about were wedding-related. I pity the people that had to deal with me during those weeks.

A couple months ago, after my first survey, I was asked to do more. So, in light of this being an issue where I don't have a definite opinion either way, I thought I would open it up for votes. See side panel for the survey.

Other Meaghan & Erik's

So, for the heck of it, I decided to Google "Meaghan & Erik." Come to find out, there's another couple with our names! The nerve! And they just got married this past year. Here's their website, in case you are feeling slightly e-stalker: http://www.mywedding.com/meaghananderikswedding/. The other thing that came up was a link to this blog via a link to a good friend of mine's blog. It's good to know that there are not that many of us "Meaghan & Erik"s out there.

I think that I feel this way because when you Google my name, you only get me. I like that. There's something unique about that. Maybe that's part of the reason why I am having difficulty giving up my name (in addition to the whole losing my independent identity thing and the feeling like property thing). You see, if you Google Erik's name, you get thousands of hits and websites for an aspiring model/actor, technical consultant, and comic book artist among other things.

So, that led me to think about how many Meaghan Nelson's are out there. I was a tad disappointed at the results—there are a lot! Included in this search, was an eerily similar meeting story for Meaghan Nelson and her husband: There are also LinkedIn and Facebook profiles for Meaghan Nelson's. I had pretty much already decided on what my married name will be, but these Google searches sealed the deal. I've become pretty attached to the idea of being the only one with my name out there on the Internet.

So, my married name will be Meaghan Bayer Nelson. Two last names, no hyphen. Of course, I had to confirm that this was the best course of action: And was pleased to see that it was. Like I said earlier, I had pretty much decided that this would be my married name a few months ago—mostly as a result of getting spam emails from Bridal Expo and the like (see post here). In that post, I said I was pretty attached to my email, but later checked to see if my married name was taken yet—and it wasn't! That was a big step for me with this name-change thing. Next, E's dad renewed E's membership to Sam's Club and added me on it—as his WIFE! After the initial panic wore off (it took about a week), I think it's kind of cool to have something official with my new name on it. Granted, it's not my name yet but I'm beginning to warm up to the idea.

This does not mean I'm warming up to the idea of being the "Mrs." in "Dr. and Mrs" or to being "Mrs. Erik C. Nelson." Warning: If you send me anything with this on it, it will be hard for me to forgive you in the near future. I have my own identity thankyouverymuch. And on that note, I'm out.

Welcome Save the Date Recipients

Hello to those that are visiting our blog after receiving our Save the Dates in the mail. Thanks for taking the time to check out our planning process. I hope that you will continue to check back often to see how things are going. There are a bunch of things that I have yet to post on the blog — honeymoon information, the tasting, invitations, wedding dress updates, etc.

If you look to the right there is a link that says "Details for Guests." Click on that link to access our "The Knot" wedding website that has details about the wedding party, the venue and our registry. Upcoming additions to that website will be hotel accommodation information and directions.

Thanks again for visiting and I hope you enjoy reading this blog!

Save the Dates (Part 3)

I've written a lot about Save the Dates. For whatever reason they are a big sticking point for me. They are so final, you know. The guest list is set, names are (hopefully) correct, and now our wedding size is determined on who responds.

After Erik and I prepared the addresses (return and otherwise), Erik's mom stamped and sealed the Save the Dates. She did it like a pro! I wanted her to use a sponge or some other like product to seal the envelopes, but she licked them. (Sorry if that grosses the recipients out). Erik and I had this fear of the glue in the envelopes since that one Seinfeld where Susan licked the envelopes and died. We would hate to be responsible for anything like that. It's been 3 days and Barb's still alive a kickin', so we feel a bit better about it.

Anyway, the Save the Dates went out today except those that we still need addresses for (blame Groom). My apologies to those who have been reading and following this blog who will not receive Save the Dates. As referenced in an earlier post, I've recently reconnected with my half-brothers and that meant cutting some of my friends. I wanted to invite everyone, but that's just not possible. Erik and I split the list 60-90 and I didn't want to go back on that since his family is so large and they're family, so, of course, we want them there. Sorry, family will always trump friends. This is just how it works. If you have planned a wedding, you understand and if you haven't, you will.

There has been so much wedding planning accomplished this last week so expect some more posts in quick succession.

Fitting # 4

This morning, my local bridesmaids and I braved the remnants of an ice storm to have breakfast and go to my 4th fitting. We met at Le Peep and hung out there until just before my fitting at 11am. It was nice to relax and share some good conversation now that the semester is over. The funny thing is that none of us were actually done yet - we had lingering papers to deal with.

At the fitting, I finally got to see my fabric!! It was very exciting and felt so wonderful. It's getting more and more real as the days go on. See below for me inspecting the silk taffeta. It's amazing that Tina is going to take this bolt of fabric and make it into a wedding gown. I wouldn't even know where to begin. If you look at the bottom of the photo you can see Tina's helper, Molly. She's the sweetest cat ever (well, except for mine!) and really enjoys wedding dress making.

This is me making sure my wedding shoes match the fabric. It's not like I would change anything if they didn't, but it was nice to see that they did match! After all, I bought the shoes first. . .

I bought my wedding jewelry at Thanksgiving at my favorite jewelry website and wore it to my fitting to get an idea of how it worked with the neckline. I'm beginning to notice a trend of buying accessories first and then worrying about whether the dress will match. . . This may not be the most recommended way to do things! My necklace and earrings are aquamarine and blue topaz respectively. Since my dress is going to be simple and I won't be wearing a veil, I thought that a little color would be nice and would match the hydrangeas. Plus, I'm not that traditional and the thought of wearing a pearl/crystal combo was not pleasant. I would consider wearing diamonds, but we don't have the money for that!

Anyway, here's the latest picture of the dress, or at least the top part:

It's still a work in progress. I'm 1 fitting away from draping the fabric!! Tina has to put the boning in the above top and have me try it on again before we can do that. I CANNOT WAIT! My next fitting is in little over a month because we are all going our separate ways for the break (yay for being halfway done with law school). This means that I have to be at my wedding weight by NEXT MONTH! The interviewing and stress of school have not helped matters (neither have the aforementioned BWW Sundays). So, with the permission of my physical therapist, I will be hitting the gym daily!

Also, during the fitting, my local bridesmaids worked "sweatshop" style on stuffing the Save the Dates. I figured that the most efficient use of their time during the fitting (they are so nice to come to all of them with me) would be to stuff the Save the Dates — that way we wouldn't have to meet later to do it. They worked it assembly line style and got them all done! My only regret is that I didn't get a picture of my helpers!

Save the Dates (Revisited)

Tonight while "outlining," I ordered the Save the Dates!! Erik helped me design (well, he acted as quality manager). They turned out perfect! We got them online via MagnetStreet.com. We ended up picking out exactly the ones that I wanted originally.

Turns out that we could change the color scheme so now they match our wedding colors (see earlier post for details). I'm so happy we ordered samples and a catalog before ordering because things look very different in person rather than on the computer.

Ordering the Save the Dates, makes this so much more real now. In a good way, of course! I'm hoping to have these puppies sent out between Christmas and New Years. And hoping to have some b-maid help with stuffing envelopes. . .

Now to get on the groom (and myself) to get some addresses!

Save the Dates

So... The survey is complete and the results were very close! Thanks to everyone who responded.

The results were:

Absolutely Necessary.	20 (47%)
No. Why send 2 invitations?	22 (52%)

It has also come to my attention that some people would have voted had I had more than just two brightline answers. And by "some people" I mean my law school buddies. See below for examples.
K.E.:

hey! i saw the survey on your blog, but i couldn't vote because i don't necessarily agree with either (do i sound like a lawyer yet?) haha:) anyway, i think a nice way of making sure people save the date without the added effort & expense is to include a mini save the date in holiday cards. i just printed up a cute save the date type note on nice paper & put it in the cards. added bonus: december is the perfect time to send save the dates for summer weddings. hope that helps!

C.M.R.:

I'm going to join K.E. and say I didn't respond to your poll because while I don't think save the dates are absolutely necessary, they are a nice way to get people to put it on their calendars well in advance, and make sure they don't plan things that would get in the way - I am glad to have the one from my friend who's getting married in April so that I don't have to always be wondering which weekend it is, etc. Also, we went the magnet route (as did this friend) and I think that it's nice because that way you don't lose it among your papers somewhere - always easy to find! That's just my two cents on save-the-dates ;)

The reason for the survey and the questioning about "Save the Dates" is the fact that historically speaking "Save the Dates" were only mandatory if your wedding was on a holiday weekend OR was a destination wedding. Part of me is also bothered by the fact that people close to me wouldn't remember the wedding date - or, at the very minimum, the wedding month. If the wedding month is known, then they can always call before making big plans - if remembering the actual weekend is a problem. Also, a Save the Date would not apply to you, person reading this blog, because I would assume that you know the wedding date (hint: it's on the right hand side of the page).

Not trusting my own intuition on this, I have done some outside research. It appears that there are conflicting views. Some agree with my aforementioned misgivings about Save the Dates, but there was some merit to the argument about weddings during busy times of the year. August 15 is right around the beginning of the school year - as many of the invited guests are teachers, have children, or are in school themselves, this seems like the strongest argument in favor of Save the Dates. (As a funny side note, I almost abbreviated Save the Dates to StDs... yeah, going to write it out...) AND I talked to Erik about it, and he was like, "Of course we should send Save the Dates..." Right... Too bad he didn't say that a week ago...

At any rate, now, I guess, it's a manner of what kind of Save the Dates to send...

Peggy Post's website says:

E-mail Go’s: “Save the Date” notices. It’s a great way to send an informal note to friends and relatives to put the date aside.

Also, I have found some relatively reasonably priced magnets (always a crowd favorite), postcards, and some ideas on MS for making my own. Sigh. I should just resolve myself that cutting corners is not my nor my future husband's style.