Enveloper Pusher

Last week, M and I mailed the invites to our Countdown Party.  It was my first foray into the wonderful world of stationary and design and a good crash course for DIYing our save the dates and actual wedding invites.  I designed the invitation, then outsourced the printing to VistaPrint because I had a $50 for $10 Living Social deal I wanted to use.  We went with flat cards with a glossy, color front and matte black/white back.  But I'll reveal those to you on Wednesday, when hopefully all our guests have gotten them!

Today we're talking envelopes.  Who knew that such a little package could yield such fun (and anguish)?  I used the default white paper envelopes that VistaPrint gave us for free, mostly because the cards were such a weird size I didn't want to try and match envelopes.  It made me sad that they weren't more colorful, but luckily I solved the problem myself by accident...

[personal photo]

About halfway through printing we started running out of ink, and my printer produced some awesome color effects!  Addresses printed in purple and fuchsia – and one lucky guest who got a rainbow-effect with multiple colors!  Eventually we had to give up and buy more ink because the addresses became illegible, but I think about 30% of our guests got a cool color for their address.

Clearly I didn't mind the color change, and buying more ink only set us back a day and maybe 3 envelopes that got ruined.  All in all, no big deal, but definitely a cautionary tale for when we print our invites.  I have a feeling I'll be a lot more picky about color, and will be sure to give the task plenty of time.  Another thing to keep in mind is always ordering more envelopes than needed!  Luckily we had extra invites and envelopes, because it took me about 6 tries (on 2 envelopes) to get the text aligned properly, and another 6 or so envelopes messed up when the printer fed wrong.  Again, no big deal because we had the extras.

My favorite part of the whole invite, though, is the stamps.  As soon as I knew we were having a Disney themed e-party, I started searching for stamps.  Unfortunately, the post office doesn't have any current Disney stamps (though they're coming out with an awesome Pixar collection later this summer... so jealous!)

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Instead I turned to eBay, and found quite a few options.  I settled on the Disney Romance sheet for obvious reasons, which sold at just a little higher than face value once you added in shipping.  Since they're only 39¢, I found these vintage Walt Disney stamps from 1968 to get up to current letter postage.  Don't they look sweet together?  

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 Has anyone else become stamp-obsessed once you started sending (or receiving) invites?  Would you buy vintage stamps off eBay?  

Surprise, Surprise

This weekend M and I celebrated our two-year dating anniversary.  Yep, we got engaged before we'd even been dating for two years, and what's more, we moved in together after only dating about 3 months.  What can I say?  When you know, you know.

Because we're saving for the wedding we didn't splurge too much on our anniversary.  We thought about going to a Bed and Breakfast for the weekend, but since those can often cost upwards of $300 for two nights we decided to stay a little closer to home.  Just up the street from us is the Reston Town Center - one of my favorite places in Northern Virginia.  We go here all the time for dinner and movies, so when we found out they were having a wine festival on the weekend of our anniversary, we were sold.

Why, yes, now that you mention it, we do love wine!

Not us, but we did enjoy some sipping on the hill [src]

Afterwards, I managed to surprise M with a fancy schmancy room for the night at the Hyatt.  And I mean, really surprise!  I snuck an overnight bag into the car while he wasn't looking, and checked in under the premise of using the lobby bathroom.  I am SO sneaky.  ;)  The cost wasn't nearly as high as those B&Bs, and I upgraded to have champagne and strawberries waiting for us in the room.

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Here's what you should know about me.  I love surprises.  I love being surprised, and I love surprising other people (especially M!).  Last year for our anniversary I booked a whole trip in secret, then on the morning we left, doctored up fake airplane tickets for a different (less exciting) location, and didn't reveal that we were actually going to Las Vegas* until we were at the gate.  The look of excitement on his face was completely worth it!

Just chillin with our homie  (personal photo)

So when it comes to our wedding, I don't think I'll be able to resist the urge to surprise him.  Whether it's a groom's gift of cigars, an engraving in his ring, or an upgrade for a vendor service he has his heart set on, I want to give him something special on our big day.  Aside from the perfect wife, of course.  ;)

Did you surprise your groom on your wedding day?  Are you planning to?  You can tell me, I promise I won't let him know!

*Not Las Vecas! 

Checkmate, Kate!

Fair warning, if you're sick of hearing about the Royal Wedding, you may want to skip this post.
But let's face it, you're reading a wedding blog.  You probably love it as much as I do.

Hands up, ladies - who woke up to watch the Royal Wedding this morning?  When I first started hearing about the RW (that's what the cool bloggers call it, right?) I wasn't all that interested.  Sure, Kate Middleton seemed nice, and had fantastic hair, but what did a $34 million dollar wedding have in common with mine?

But as we drew closer, I grew more obsessed.  I eagerly read wedding predictions, dress ideas, rumors that cropped up... by Monday I was at a fever pitch, waiting for the week to be over so the WEDDING could begin!  (I can't even imagine what I'll be like the week I get married)  M was pretty indulgent, even when he saw me making weird faces before going to bed and asked me about what I was thinking....

"Oh... nothing."
"Is it about the Royal Wedding?"
"I'mjustwonderingwhatKate'sfeelingrightnowshemustbeSOexcited!!"

Ah-hem.  Of course, maybe the worst was setting the alarm for 5am without telling him and sneaking out of bed this morning so I could watch the wedding, leaving him unable to get back to sleep.  But he should have seen that coming, right?  Nonetheless, this morning I donned a fancy hat, brewed a cuppa tea, and settled in to watch The Wedding.


First and foremost... the dress.  My first reaction was LACE!  (I love lace)  I was happy to see her in a Princess Grace style, since that's what I predicted she'd wear.  I know not everyone was happy with a conservative choice, but let's be honest...

Kate says it best. [src]

For what it's worth, it's not something I would have picked, but hey - I didn't have the entire monarchy judging me.  I think it was classy and timeless, and complimented her figure.  It won't be setting trends for the next 10 years, but I think women have enough inspiration.

To me, the most interesting part was the ceremony itself.  For some reason, I loved the tradition of William facing away from Kate as she processed down the aisle.  One of my favorite moments was when Prince Harry peeked at Kate, then turned to tease William, who in turn couldn't help but sneak a quick look.  Adorable!

Harry gets a sneak peek [src]

I also enjoyed the readings, even though I'm not overly big on tradition or highly religious readings, I thought they had some great public speakers with real words of wisdom.  In any case, I wasn't as bored as William!  The choir was lovely too, singing some very original pieces.  "Jerusalem’, (by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, words by William Blake) was my favorite and really captured a modern take on a traditional hymn.

Kate and Will, I wish you the best of luck - thanks for sharing your engagement with the rest of us and letting us see a fairytale wedding come true!

Have a great weekend!  [src]

Countdown to Fun

Friends, we are almost 13 months out from the wedding and being a frugal and utterly practical bride (right) I've been very good and refrained from doing too much buying or planning.  But I'm itching to get my DIY craftiness on and start whipping up some adorable decorations and stationary!  So what's a girl obsessed with party planning to do?

Throw an engagement party!

Buying this game probably would have been cheaper [src]

My parents are visiting on Memorial Day weekend this year, and since that nicely coincided with the negative one-year anniversary of our future wedding I bullied them into hosting they graciously offered to host an engagement party.  And by "host" I mean put-their-name-on-the-invite-for-etiquette-reasons since I've already started planning the whole thing and also, it's at my and M's house.

We're calling it our "Countdown" party, a la Mrs. Bruschetta and it's a complete departure from everything we've planned for the wedding so far.  I wanted something whimsical and casual - we'll be barbequing in our backyard, entertaining throughout the house, and friends and family should feel welcome to come and go.  But most of all, I wanted the theme to reflect M and I and some of our shared history.  You all remember my obsession with themes, right?

Here's the thing - M and I love Disney.  We sing duets to "A Whole New World" during car trips, we watch Mulan on rainy days, my favorite coffee mug has Mickey all over it.  Our first vacation as a couple was to Walt Disney World, and we still reminisce about how much fun we had.  So our engagement party will be Disney themed - hopefully in a very classy,  "child at heart" way.

NOT LIKE THIS.  Never like this.  [src]

More details ahead... stay tuned!

Dresses Part 2

Okay, so you've seen the dresses I didn't like.  What about the ones that made it into the Top 3?

Dresses and Family

Last weekend I headed to New York to see my sister/MOH starring in HMS Pinafore and spend some quality time with la familia.  This was actually the first time I'd seen my family since Christmas, so they hadn't even seen my engagement ring yet! 

Family and extended family congratulating my sister after her show
(From left) Me, Mom, Dad, and Sister

I didn't really have any plans except for seeing MOH's show, so when I had some free time with my parents on Saturday I was really surprised when they suggested looking at wedding dresses.  See, I had this whole schedule for my planning process in mind, and that included not shopping for dresses until 9 months before the wedding (September-ish).  I've heard too many stories about dress-regret, and wanted the chance to tone up a bit before I picked out a dress and had to worry about alterations.

But I could tell my mom was eager to share this experience with her little girl, and since I don't get to see her as often as I'd like, of course I said yes!

Who could resist her mom looking like this?  [src]

 

 

Continue to read more, if you're not M!

Tool Tips: Evernote

With our venue booked, paid (halfway anyway), and signed for, M and I are taking a bit of a breather.  He's in a play right now with performances the last two weekends, I'm heading to New York this weekend for some family time and to see MOH/Sister star in yet another play (I'm surrounded by talented people!), and our 2 year anniversary is two weeks from now.  So our weekends are pretty busy this month and it seemed like a good time to take a break from the whole wedding process.  We're still over a year out, and while I know lots of May 2012 brides already have their caterers, photographers, florists, and coordinators booked... I think we can take a month off.

Does that mean I've stopped looking at wedding inspiration and researching vendors?  Of course not!  I have a list of caterers in my back pocket (ok, gMail) waiting for us to go back to Culpeper and meet with them in May.  And I've spent a few hours looking up photographers and emailing them for rates.  But there's definitely less urgency than there was when we first got engaged and I felt like we were rushing to find a venue.  And now that our spot is picked, I can focus on more enjoyable tasks, like looking at invitations and picking out decorations. 

So what do I have to share today?  How about an awesome new tool?  Fun, right?

Screen Cap from Evernote.com

Friends, this is Evernote.  Now you all know I am ALL about being organized, right?  M and I keep Google Docs on everything, our budget is kept in a super efficient Excel spreadsheet (with macros and everything!) and I use gMail labels like they're going out of style.  But the heart and soul of my organize-y little world is Evernote.  I could write sonnets to how much I love this app.

Evernote has a quick and easy getting started guide, so I won't bore you with details on how it works.  Instead, let's talk features - specifically, wedding related features.  (I apologize in advance if this sounds like an infomercial - it's hard for me to talk about how much I like this app without going a bit overboard!)

Visual Inspiration

I'm a pretty visual person.  I need to see all my wedding choices together in order to really figure out which ones I like the best.  Inspiration Boards have always been an essential tool for brides, but Evernote lets you create dynamic boards - just search with some parameters and it'll show you all your thumbnails for the notes that match in a handy grid.

Screen Cap from Evernote.com

I have a Saved Search for "Paper Products" - anything I've tagged with stationary or invitations.  This makes it extra easy to see all my current paper ideas, and quickly compile, oh say, a blog post about invitation styles (...coming soon).

Everywhere Access

I tend to use Evernote in a few different places - my work computer, both our home laptops, and my smart phone.  Luckily, everything is synched up.  I can snap a picture of flowers on my phone, file it in Evernote, and see it on my computer evermore.  Or I can clip an invitation I like off the web, and quickly pull it up on my phone to show my paper-obsessed cousin exactly what style I was thinking about.  No more trying to google search "Purple invitation with grapes" on my tiny mobile browser to find the image I spotted a few weeks ago.

Android Screencap [src]

Honestly, though?  I'd take Evernote for the web capability alone.  It has browser plugins that lets you just highlight the picture you want, click "Clip to Evernote", and then a popup screen to fill in tags and file it in a folder.  Couldn't be easier to save your wedding inspiration.  So even if you have a no bells-and-whistles phone, it's worth it to create an account.

Screencap of Evernote plugin for Firefox

Staying Organized

Ah yes, the meat and potatoes of this post.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most brides reading this blog probably have a folder on their computer with a ton of inspiration images saved.  And that folder has subfolders and creative titles and other mnemonics to help keep those pictures organized.  Here's what I really like about Evernote - labels.  Just like the tags we all use for blogging, Evernote lets you assign different labels to a note.  So that picture from Style Me Pretty of the awesome cake you love can be filed under yellow, brown, cake, and flowers.  Which makes it easy if you want a quick inspiration board of everything "Yellow and Brown" you've found so far, or all the cakes you've saved!

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Now lets say it's not a picture you want to save, but a quote or a snippet from a ceremony that you lurve and don't want to forget about?  Yep, you can clip those too.  They won't show up with cute little thumbnails (unless you highlight a picture as well) but they'll be saved and what's more - searchable!  You can search by text in your notes, or in your images!  Oh yeah.  So snap a picture of that florist's business card and rest assured you can find it later by just searching her name.

And here's the best part - Evernote stores the url for every clip you take from the web.  So if you're, say, writing a blog post and want to make sure to give credit, it's easy to look up where you found that particular image or quote. 

Okay, that's it!  Hopefully I've convinced you all that you should go sign up (for free!) and start using Evernote for all your wedding needs.  Or maybe you have another way of organizing your inspiration?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Also, if you'd like to see my wedding "folder" full of inspiration and whatnot, here's the link!  Wedding Notebook