The Invitations

Invitations were one aspect of our wedding that we were going to make our DIY project... yyyyeah... That was until I discovered that most places where we could get DIY kits would cost about as much as some invitation designers! Granted, we would have to go with a standard set that the designers have and do away with customization... and so, I left it up to Andrew. He would be designing our invitations (with me looking over his shoulder to pitch in my two cents), so, I felt it was ultimately up to him.

He chose to go with a designer. I'm a big fan of the Green Wedding Shoes blog ~ especially considering it's where we found our photographer. So, I suggested we check out her recommendations. After going through one designer after another, one stood out from them all, and drew an immediate "awwww!" from me. And that was TearDrop Weddings. Her artwork is cute, smart, and SO original! Not to mention that even going with her standard sets, she STILL adds a bit of customization by making the characters look like the bride and groom ~ no extra charge!

When we received the invitations, I couldn't help but make a bit of a DIY out of it by dressing them up a bit! We went to Michael's and bought packs of transparent white paper sheets to wrap around the invites and tie with a ribbon. It did added SO much to the presentation!

For our stamps, we customized them at Zazzle.com with our proposal picture!

Play Time!!!

Oh my goodness!!! TOMORROW!!! = Big Day!!! Okay, not THE "big day," but it's a "big day"!

Tomorrow morning, to start off, I will be driving to the UPS Customer Center in Van Nuys to pick up my dress for...tomorrow's engagement photo shoot!!! I can only hope and pray that that all goes smoothly! Because what follows that is a trial with my hair and makeup artists from B.L.U.S.H. at noon! I gotta be back here with plenty of time to spare before they get here.

Tight schedule, I know! But that's how I do it... ;-) No, really...the story is this: I ordered a FABU dress from ModCloth for our shoot. Really, the dress is perfect! Come Thursday of last week, I tracked my shipment, and it turns out that it's arriving *the day of the shoot*! Now, if UPS delivered my packages in the morning, there would be no problem... but UPS constantly delivers my packages in the evenings...anywhere between 5pm to 8pm. That's no good. Andrew and I will be heading out to our location spot at 3:30pm. What's a girl to do?

After discovering that I wouldn't be able to pick up my package from the center until after UPS's first delivery attempt (in which case, doesn't matter because the delivery guy always leaves the package at my door or on my patio), I re-ordered my dress (and had 3 lovely chats with ModCloth's online representative), shipped it Next Day Air and had it sent to the UPS Customer Center. Sadly, because of Labor Day, it's delayed my order... in fact, it's why my original order is also coming in tomorrow...and of course, I will be returning it.

Here's the kicker... I just checked in on my original order...it's in Vernon, CA. 15 miles from here. Really??? Kills me...it's so close, and STILL, the delivery time is for tomorrow. It would be a heavenly miracle if the dress happened to show up in the next hour!

*sigh*

Moving on! It's been non-stop. This past weekend, Andrew and I shopped for tons of accessories for our engagement shoot, then went back to his place to gussy up our invitations, and we browsed through the endless options of wedding stamps. This morning, I faxed off our Banquet Event Order (finally!) to Traci, and printed out my contract with B.L.U.S.H. This afternoon, after walking over to the Pack-n-Mail to weigh our stuffed invitation envelope, I came back home and ordered two sets of customized stamps. Then it was off for the most relaxing mani/pedi I've ever had in my life at Oasis Nail Spa on Magnolia in Burbank!

And now I have tomorrow to look forward to! I'm so excited to meet and work with the ladies of B.L.U.S.H. and with our photographer, Jill Thomas! Andrew and I have some fun ideas for the shoot, and I cannot wait to post the pictures!!!

P.S. It is now 12:12am...I just took another look at my two ModCloth packages... the one coming through via Standard Shipping was scanned in in Van Nuys at 8:18pm. My "next day air" one is in Louisville, KY ~ scanned in at 12:31am (9:31pm my time). Hmm...I wonder if they'll hand me my original order when I go there tomorrow morning...

Planning Ahead: Invitations

Tomorrow is our Planning Session at Disney, and I'm so excited!!! :-) What IS a "Planning Session"? Pretty much just as it sounds ~ hehe... We'll be meeting with our wedding planner (yes, this is what I'm calling her now), Traci and (if I'm not mistaken) the Disney event team. We'll be going through the finer details of our wedding ~ the flow, the design, décor, what Disney will be providing, what we'll be providing, etc. Following that will be the FOOD TASTING!!! Yessss ~ one of the most fun parts of the wedding planning!

On to what I've been up to...

The past few days, I've been drowning myself in the Sea of Invitation Brainstorming. With the possibility that Andrew may be heading out for another European tour earlier than expected, more decisions and action need to be taken before he leaves.

I decided to check out Impressions, located in Celebration, FL (one of my most favorite towns in the world), and the only company licensed to use official Disney images. Now, Andrew and I had said that we would create our own invitations, but I couldn't help but be drawn to Impressions's invitation designs! Totally blew the previous websites I mentioned out of the water!!!

In comparing prices between getting DIY material from Impressions vs. "the previous websites mentioned," vs. pre-designed Impressions invitations, it equalled out to about the same ~ at worst, maybe a $100 difference...so, why not get the pre-designed? The only reason I can see is if we don't find a design we fall in love with. We're also both talented, creative people and could probably design an invitation completely unique to us.

Besides the fantastic customer service (i.e. email convo) I've had with Impressions, they also can customize their clients' invitations from the ground up! Would we have had more money in our account, it would've been great to utilize this service. All the pictures I've posted in this blog are customized invitations they have done for previous couples.

Now it's just about deciding what *we* want for our invitations. I've already said that I want a tri-fold with pockets! but I'm amenable to a sleeve insert if we had to... ;-/)

I'm still alive!

Here I am!!! ;-)

With Andrew being away for the past several weeks, with the exception of sending out contracts and deposits, I have not been anywhere near anything wedding related! ...Until tonight. In this past hour, I started perusing DIY wedding invitation sites. This will be the next task we tackle upon Andrew's return.

Two useful sites I've found so far:

http://www.formal-invitations.com/ ~ Only thing is that I'm leaning towards using a tri-fold invitation with a pocket. Unless I missed it, I don't think they carry it. Still, some very cute designs!

http://www.myexpression.com/ ~ they have tri-fold invitations!!! And tons of great designs! (and yet, I'm not posting a tri-fold pic by them ;-P)

The one thing I'm kinda torn about are the ribbons. When I went to Downtown L.A. a few weeks ago, I bought a ton of ribbons! One (or two?) rolls specifically for our invitations. I'm thinking that it's possible to not use the ribbons that come with the cardstock ~ i.e., it's not attached. But I wonder if there will be a part of me that will end up using their ribbon because it will look better. I'll then have to find another use for the ribbons I purchased.

Who knows if we'll go with either company, but it's a start...especially in brainstorming design ideas.