bride-foo

Crisis Averted

People are beginning to RSVP online, which means invitations are arriving. As Leia said -- we have a real-time guest list!

So, the lesson we've learned? Trust your postage scale.

The invitations finally went in the mail. Yes, they were horribly late. But when you decide to make them yourselves and then one of you suddenly has surgery, it can delay your already cramped schedule. If you know you're getting one and you don't see it Tuesday or Wednesday, let me know; the postal scale said we only needed 37-cent stamps, but I'm paranoid that they're all going to come back to us.

So, that's one thing off our painfully long list of things to do. We leave for Austin in less than three weeks, and I'm nervous that everything won't get done. We have a conference call with our cake baker this evening to go over the design, and we're slowly but surely finishing the favors and flowers. Every night, my body ends up wound too tight, so around 9:15 I prepare a scalding hot bath to loosen up. So far, it's working.

Here we go

My mother very graciously just dropped all our inviations off at the post office. I'm really excited, but what if no one wants to come to our wedding after all this?!

Also, J's ring arrived today. I purchased it from the same jeweler who did my ring, but had them ship it to me here in order to avoid taxes. Worked out very nicely. Now I just have to think about the inscription...

Update

.I started addressing invitations with my mom on Saturday. We are not calligraphy experts, so our guests will just have to deal.
.Also, we have managed to not order enough invitations. Lesson learned: take the number you think you're going to need & add another 50. Trust me, it will save time later.
.My future mother-in-law is throwing me a shower in February. It will have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party theme. How much does THAT rock?!
.Tina, the world's *greatest* MOH, should win an award for putting up with me.

Invitation Time

Well, I'm getting down to the wire on invitations, if for no other reason than the only time I have to address them is the week after Christmas when I am off work. After some discussion, my mom and I decided that as long as they look reasonably classy, we don't need to break the bank. I've been looking at www.rexcraft.com and I think I will go with them.

Programs

A friend sent me this example of a goregous program - possibly a little ornate for my tastes, but along the lines of what I would like to do, shape-wise.

I also found a good way to encourage responsible drinking and a tactful way to let people know the bar will be closing at a certain time...

The MyGatsby site has a really helpful tips section regarding wedding invitations. (Select 'wedding' from the dropdown menu)

Also, the USPS says that square cards require an extra 0.12 in postage. Something to think about when deciding!

more doodads

More favors/decorations/gifts etc at Wrap With Us.

If you've been holding off on buying any sort of crafty supplies, Michael's is having a fairly large sale right now -- including a coupon you can pick up in the store for 50% any single item. I bought a couple calligraphy books and some pens, and purchased the equipment I'll need to make our invitations.

Yes, I could just buy them like this. But I want to customize them a little. I also want to feel like I'm doing more for the wedding than making phone calls and mailing checks.

[FYI: The invitations above are from the Something Different line by Carlson Craft. They're actually the best line I've seen in terms of the price-originality-customization sliding scale. Like most invitations, some of them are really cheesy or cheap looking. But there are a handful that are really classy and mimic a lot of the more expensive custom designs you see out there.]

stationery, also glasware

If you want some ver'nice stationery (I saw this with a mention of hand-written Save The Dates, but also lovely for thank you notes and generally having grown-up note cards), Horchow's got a fantastic sale on a monogrammed 200pc wardrobe. It's such a steal, you could get both pre- and post-name change sets.

Linens 'n Things has 9.99 Party Packs of 12 champagne flutes and all-purpose goblets.

(I'm not able to make categories, not sure what's going on there.)

Edited to add: Horchow's embossers are fantastic and also extremely reasonable.