Sweet Invitation Suite, Dude!

Last night I had my first real wedding breakdown. I won't go into all the details but basically, even though our venue is absolutely beautiful, I would never, ever recommend it in a million years to even my worst enemy. After a particularly frustrating phone call with them, I did what anyone would do. I got off the couch, went into my walk-in closet, turned the light off, curled up into a little ball, and cried hysterically. That's rational, right? I don't think my fiance thought so though. He came in and tried to convince me to go lay in the bed, which only sent me into further hysterics while somehow still managing to choke out "I - just - want - to - cry - all by myselffffff!!!!" between sobs. He did not laugh at me, bless his heart. He awkwardly patted my shoulder and left me to cry it out. After 10 minutes of that and 2 minutes recovery time, I got up, cleaned the mascara off my face, and went back to the wedding project I had been working on prior to the call. So, in order to cheer me up some after that incident, I've decided to now post about our Invitation Suite, which is one of my absolute FAVORITE details about our wedding.

After we (actually, mostly he!) came up with the Itialian Film Festival theme, things started to fall into place. I really wanted to incorporate the theme into our invites, but found that any pre-made invites having anything to do with movies looked childish - more like a movie night than a wedding invite.

Thanks, but no thanks.

At least it's not super bright?

Closer, but still not quite right.

Eventually, I turned to Etsy (yep again - it's a bit of a wedding rabbit hole) where I found a vendor who had a mock-up of movie theater invites and was willing to work with me - I got total control over font, colors, wording, paper, and envelopes. What I did NOT have total control over, hwoever, was the amount of other work she had. Unfortunately, my invites were a week late in getting sent out to me (and mine isn't the only review that says that), but I'm pretty willing to let that slide because I'm so pleased with the work. I really feel like this strikes a balance between playful and elegant, and they match not only our theme, but also our color scheme (champagne, gold, burgundy) perfectly. So, without further delay, I present to you our Antique Movie Theater Invitation Suite (with personal info scratched out just in case any weirdos are creeping!).




Front of invite.

Back of invite.

RSVP. I love the gold leaf printing, and the decline wording!

Inner envelopes - Paid a lot extra for these, but I coudln't resist!

Return address labels for the outer envelopes.

Custom return address stamp we had made (from yet another Etsy vendor) that was used on the inner RSVP return envelopes.

We also got to pick out special stamps for the occasion. I know that nobody else probably even noticed the stamp, but I didn't want a regular flag one, so we chose the Love stamp, which, according to the U.S. Postal Service Website are dedicated to "the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center". Pretty cool! Unfortunately for my out-of-country friends, they got stamps that look like Amish Pennsylvania. I'm not sure if that's what it actually is, but when I saw the stamps, it reminded me of a trip I took there in 2004, so now they will forever be Amish stamps to me.

My future Mother-In-Law was kind enough to address all of the outer envelopes for me - she has far nicer writing than my hybrid print/cursive scribble. After all of the envelopes were addressed I started putting together each one. I wish I could say that there were no problems with this but unfortunately, I mislabeled no less than 70 envelopes before I realized that I had placed the return address in the wrong place. I, uh... I blame wedding brain. That's a real ailment, look it up. Clinton later told some co-workers that he has seen me mad, but never quite THAT mad. I dropped probably 100 F-bombs in a 10 minute rant, then collected myself and went to buy new RSVP envelopes. I managed to control my temper enough to NOT rip up all the others (impressive) and save them for when we send out Thank You cards. Crisis averted. So with the invites all put together (correctly, this time), I sent Clinton on his merry little way to the post office with a box full of love to send to all our nearest and dearest.

It was only a couple of days before we started getting RSVPs back. I got my first batch only two days after sending them out! At our apartment complex, the mailboxes are in the front up by the leasing office, and our building is way in the back, so we always stop at the front on the way home from work so I can get out and check the mail. The day we got our first RSVPs back (two of them!) I came running back to the car waving them around and smiling ear to ear - it made everything feel so real!! We have been getting them pretty consistently every day since then, at least one per day, and I'm loving it. No matter how crappy my day was, ripping those envelopes open when I get home never fails to put a smile on my face.



Our first two RSVPs!


So that's that! Whew, who knew I could type so much about paper! I'm still happy with them and the way they turned out, and I've had nothing but positive feedback thus far, so yay!

And A Sixpence.

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

While we all know that little rhyme, the meaning is not as well known. Well, here's what yahoo says:


Each item in this poem represents a good-luck token for the bride. If she carries all of them on her wedding day, her marriage will be happy. "Something old" symbolizes continuity with the bride's family and the past. "Something new" means optimism and hope for the bride's new life ahead. "Something borrowed" is usually an item from a happily married friend or family member, whose good fortune in marriage is supposed to carry over to the new bride. The borrowed item also reminds the bride that she can depend on her friends and family.
As for the colorful item, blue has been connected to weddings for centuries. In ancient Rome, brides wore blue to symbolize love, modesty, and fidelity. Christianity has long dressed the Virgin Mary in blue, so purity was associated with the color. Before the late 19th century, blue was a popular color for wedding gowns, as evidenced in proverbs like, "Marry in blue, lover be true."
And finally, a silver sixpence in the bride's shoe represents wealth and financial security. It may date back to a Scottish custom of a groom putting a silver coin under his foot for good luck. For optimum fortune, the sixpence should be in the left shoe. These days, a dime or a copper penny is sometimes substituted, and many companies sell keepsake sixpences for weddings. (http://ask.yahoo.com/20031027.html)

So there's that! Want to know what my something's are? Read on.

Something Old:
This one was pretty easy, actually. The decision was made practically made for me awhile ago. My step-father's mom passed several years ago. She left to me her wedding set which includes the engagement ring and the band. I absolutely love this set. It is so dainty and delicate - words which some may not use to describe her, but for me, since all my memories of her are from when she was ill, delicate is definitely how I remember her. I could really see myself wearing something like this set - that is, had my fiance not gotten me my absolute dream ring all on his own without any guidance (other than, "I like sapphires better than diamonds.") So, when our engagement came and went and I started planning, I knew immediately that I would be wearing this set on my right hand on our wedding day. I've had it re-dipped, cleaned and polished, and it is in a shiny new box ready to go!

Isn't it just beautiful?

 
While my original Something Old was easy and decided a long time ago, the next part was a bit of a surprise. Clinton's grandmother had been very sick for a long time and unfortunately passed soon after our engagement. Her death was not a huge surprise, but it was of course still painful for everyone. Her son, Clinton's father, asked me if I would like to have any of her old jewelry. I chose to take a pair of her favorite earrings and use one of them in my bouquet after finding this inspiration picture:

Found this picture somewhere on Pinterest (what a time suck!)

Grandma Reissig's earring.

So although  we will be missing these women with us on our special day, they will both be with us in spirit, close to the action, right where they would love to be. <3

Something New:
I feel like this is kind of silly - everything is new for the wedding! There's shoes, garter, dress (which I would be crazy to post here - I'm keeping that baby under wraps!), stuff for decor, veil... so, instead of listing ALL of that stuff individually, I'm just going to go ahead and say that my bridal jewelery (hair comb, bracelet, earrings) get to be my Something(s) New! 
The first thing I found was my earrings. I stumbled across them one day on a post over at one of my favorite bridal blogs, Style Me Pretty. From there, it was pretty easy to find my bracelet and hair comb, both from Etsy vendors. 
I am really happy with my finds. They all look like they could be part of a set, even though they're from different places. My dress is nearly free of embellishment, except for one small area of beading on the left hip. To balance that out, I'll be wearing the bracelet on my right wrist. My favorite part of the bracelet is that because it's on a ribbon instead of regular links, it will actually fit my (teeny, childlike) wrist. Enough talk, time for pretty pictures!

Earrings.

Bracelet.

Hair comb.

Something Borrowed:
This one was the hardest! I've thought about this for AGES! We have had a 15-month engagement, my wedding is now 6 weeks away, and I still hadn't come up with anything. So, I did what any girl would do - I turned to my mama. That's the solution to everything, right? Right. After a few days of thinking, she came back to me with the PERFECT solution. My mom and step-dad inherited some beautiful dishes from his grandmother - they are a dark, beautiful red, and my parents have offered to let us borrow two full place settings for our dinner at our Sweetheart Table! This is actually perfect, because our colors are gold and burgundy, so these will look absolutely lovely on our little table! I'm so excited about this, especially because with the meaning/origin of the Something Borrowed, I think it's awesome that it'll be something we both use, rather than just me.

Gorgeous, right?

Something Blue:
This one is simple enough - my engagement ring! Pretty straightforward - I was not involved in picking out my ring or anything, I just told Clinton before we were engaged that I would greatly prefer a sapphire center stone to a diamond. From there he was totally on his own and I think he did an AMAZING job. I definitely get a lot of Diana/Katherine comments, but it doesn't bother me because I (obviously) find that famous ring incredibly gorgeous - although not as beautiful of mine, of course. 

I couldn't find something more perfect if I tried.

And A Silver Sixpence In Her Shoe:
Many Americans don't include this part. Probably has something to do with the fact that we don't have sixpence, ha. Now, to be honest, if this were an alternate life and I were marrying someone else, I doubt that I would incorporate this particular bit. However, this is not an alternate life, and I am not marrying anyone else. Therefore, I present to you my lucky penny. 

It's even from the year we met - don't ask about the holes though, that's kind of a long story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know, I know, it's not a sixpence, but it's close enough - I don't have a sixpence, nor do I want one, but I do have this lucky penny that I had been looking for. When we were moving earlier in the year, I found it and was so happy! Clinton and I met when I worked at a small Starbucks kiosk inside of a Safeway where he was a manager at the time. It had been several days that I worked there before we even spoke, but when we finally did, well... you know. The rest is history, etc etc. After our first conversation, Clinton came back over to the kiosk a few hours later. While we were chatting, we both looked down and happened to notice this penny on the floor. He told me to pick it up, because it was my lucky day. So I did. And it was.

Thanks, IKEA.

Okay, so I lied in my last post - I said I was going to do Table Signage, but I'm only partly done with that, so let's talk about today's project instead - Table Numbers Names! To go along with our Italian Film Festival theme, rather than using Table Numbers we are using Table Names. AKA instead of John Doe: Table 1, the seating chart will read John Doe: Casablanca.

So began the task of finding an acceptable 2-sided picture frame. I won't go into how many picture frames I looked at, the story would bore anyone to tears - but I can assure you, it was a lot. Finally, I accidentally stumbled across these Tolsby frames from one of my favorite places in the world - IKEA.

Added bonus - the frames were only $0.99 apiece!

I also bought a bag, because I ALWAYS forget that IKEA doesn't give you bags for your purchases, no matter how many times I've been there!

I was looking for black or gold frames, which these are clearly not. I decided I wanted to paint them in a shade of gold to bring a little light to the tables since they will have a dark (burgundy) tablecloth. I was worried about paint coming off of them since they are a smooth, finished plastic, but after some googling, I felt confident that I could successfully paint them. Today I had time to take on this project, so I went to Wal-Mart (ugh, don't even get me started on how awful that place is, I swear I hardly ever go!) to pick up some paint. I got a primer, the gold, and a clear coat.

The materials

When I got home I went straight to work - covered the patio in plastic, put on my gloves (and of course made an inappropriate joke to Clinton), opened and screwed together each frame, and laid them all out. I painted one frame with primer and one without. After they were both completely dried I realized I didn't need the primer OR the clear coat. Luckily I didn't use the clear coat at all, so I can return that along with the unused can of primer. Good thing I saved my receipt!

While the frames were drying I went about getting all of my pictures printed up for the mini movie posters. My printer has become my new best friend throughout this whole DIY wedding crafting process... he's probably pissed and ready for a break. Also, don't ask why when personified my printer becomes a male. I really couldn't tell you. Perhaps because it he makes a bunch of noise, takes up a bunch of space, and is kind of messy.

Hiya, buddy.

Maybe your favorite love story is in here?

After the paint had dried, I brought the frames back inside and got to assembling. Every single frame had a 2-piece plastic sleeve inside to protect the photo. Each plastic sleeve had no less than FOUR pieces of protective sheeting over it. My goodness IKEA, I thought you were all about less is more? I appreciate the unscratched plastic though. Thanks, guys.

All lined up and ready to go.

See, now isn't that just prettier than a big ol' Number 1 staring at you all night long??

I don't have all of the pieces together yet for the completed centerpieces, but here's a tiny little mock-up, minus a bunch of candles, plus a dinner menu that will go on every table.

Stock photo of candle holders also courtesy of IKEA!

Packed up and ready to go!

So there's one project out of the way! I also finished up our guestbook and the little pencil cup holder for the fancy pens needed to write on the photo paper. I designed our guestbook through a site called Shutterfly. It's small, but we're not having a huge wedding, so that's alright. I used pictures from our Engagement Session (all photos courtesy of Erica Shurter Photography) to make up the majority of the book. There's room to write in the margins but I definitely didn't want to run out of room, so I added some pretty, shimmering cardstock to the back of the book.

Not even kidding this time, this one was at least 15 coats of paint. Damn ittttttttt. But hey, what started as a boring black cup is now gold and pretty and sparkly. 

I've done quite a lot more over the last few days, but this will be enough for now! I know not everyone nobody is as interested in my tiny DIY details as I am, so if you've made it this far, congratulations!

In other, non-DIY-related news, I just counted and realized that there are LESS THAN FIFTY days until my wedding! OMG! Less than 50 days from now, I will be married. Less than 50 days from now, 15 months of work and planning will be over, gone, out the door! I really can't believe it. I'm really excited though, I'm super ready for it to be here, even though I still have so much to do!!

Organization, Shmorganization.

I wish I could start out by saying, "I haven't always been this way" or, "Wedding planning brings out the crazy in me," but the truth is, I've been a Type A personality since was in the womb. I was probably in there planning out my escape strategy. Of course, nothing went as planned - I arrived much too early and immediately started crying. Not much has changed. I am the ultimate planner. I make plans to make plans. I write out lists of things I need to pack a month before vacation. When someone won't give me information that I need in order to make a plan, I silently seethe. When my plans don't go right (which, honestly, when do things ever go as planned?), I cry for 5 minutes and then make a new plan. Hence, the Wedding Binder (referred to hereafter as WB).

After getting engaged, running out to get myself a binder and plastic sleeves was the 2nd thing I did (the 1st was to buy at least 5 wedding magazines, obviously. I think that's actually some kind of unwritten bridal rite of passage). It started out with only 5 or 6 sub-folders, but as time went on I realized I would need more. It's an ever-evolving beast, this thing.

Whenever we have meetings with vendors, I drag this puppy along with me. It always gets a few looks and a couple of laughs, but in general vendors tend to like it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "no, it's okay, I love an organized bride!" Honestly though, I'm a little bit shocked that people are surprised when they see it. I personally can't imagine why anyone spending over $10K on a party wouldn't want to know exactly where everything is! The thought of not having all of those papers and contracts in order actually terrifies me.



The WB in all its glory. My most used pen, Save-The-Date samples, ticket to my first ever Bridal Show and, yes, practicing my signature like a 6th grader writing a boy's name all over her binder.

 

I think I need a bigger binder!





Do you think I have enough labels?

Front page houses the color palette. Yes, that is in a plastic sleeve. Yes, all of the pages are in sleeves. Yes, I do realize that I have a problem. Don't worry, I won't subject you to every page. One is enough to grasp the depth of my crazy.

Don't worry though, even crazy organized people have things that don't make sense to anyone but them. I keep a notepad inside the front pocket of the WB that houses all of my thoughts and to-do lists before the organization kicks in. Eventually, things get condensed and put onto much, much cleaner pieces of paper, but every idea and task starts here.

*shudder*



And, if you still doubt my ability to be messy, I present to you our spare room.

Please don't judge me!

At least there is SOME proof of organization in here??



While I'm obviously very excited to get married, I am also kind of at the point where I'm ready for it to just BE HERE ALREADY, OMG. My whole house (and, um, life) are consumed by it right now and I'm ready for things to go back to normal. I'd like to eat on my dining table and put a couch in that room, I don't really think that's too much to ask. The good thing is that while I am as Type A as it gets (and going crazy with all the STUFF around), my wonderful fiance is... well... not. Of course there are times when that drives me bonkers, but the truth is, he balances out my crazy. If I'm honest with myself, I need someone who is laid back. I could never deal with someone as anal and high-strung as I am, bless him for putting up with me. It's a good thing I found him. <3

Basically, what you can take away from this post is that if you want to play the ultimate prank on me right now, just hide my WB. Total. Bridal. Meltdown. I'm not even confident that my uber cool-headed fiance could talk me down from that one.

Next post: Table signage. I know, you can hardly contain yourselves for all the excitement!

(seriously though, please don't hide my WB. I'm not sure our friendship would survive the devastation.)

Typical First Post

Because everyone in my life is probably sick and tired of me talking about wedding stuff, I need an outlet. For the next two months I will use this space to share the little details that I'm excited about, DIY projects, full on budget meltdowns, and, if I'm honest, probably lists - lots of lists. I have lists that include making more lists. Sometime I'll have to post a picture of my ridiculous bridal book that always gets me laughed at. That's another thing this blog will include - pictures. Because I can never get enough of them. After the wedding, there will be recaps and honeymoon posts. As of right now, I intend to keep this going through my first year of marriage, but let's just take it one day at a time. Contrary to what my wedding may lead you to believe, I'm not super good at making commitments.

Now that the logistics are out of the way - onto the wedding stuff!

Yesterday was a DIY day. When, at the end of the day, I sat down to show my ever supportive fiance my accomplishments, I was overcome with a wave of... pride? Joy? No. Disappointment. I spent hours working on projects yesterday, and I felt like I had very little to show for it. A few pieces of photo paper that I printed out and a small box. I felt like at any moment he was going to say, "THAT is what you did all day?" He did not, of course, say any such thing. I certainly thought it to myself though. Oh well. I am just going to have to accept that the hours of detail work I put in will more than likely go unnoticed by 99% of our wedding guests. Maybe that's part of the reason I decided to put everything down in writing. That way, if I get too busy or forget about details on The Day, I'll always have documented evidence, and clearly blog evidence is irrefutable.

Enough talk. Time for pictures.

My poor dining room table. There is no dining going on here. It started with invitations. (Which, by the way, I have the damn coolest invitation suite I have ever seen. Maybe after they have gone out, I will post about them here - I don't want to ruin the surprise first!)

Sorry for the filter, Instagram turns us all into wannabee photographers!



Invitations are now put away neatly and ready to be mailed this week, but they have been replaced by a crafting explosion!

I started out the day by making a box for our ring bearer to carry. [Side note - our ring bearer is my nephew, and his is possibly the most handsome, charming boy on the planet. All of the ladies at our wedding better watch out, because this kid has got swagger for days.] Our wedding has a theme (Italian Film Festival) and I had been trying to think of something he could carry to incorporate that. I had originally considered having him carry something sort of like an Oscar envelope, but I was just afraid it was too small and would get lost or ruined or something. What I ended up doing was getting a small, plain wooden box and just jazzing it up some by incorporating our colors (burgundy and champagne).

While the overall theme is Italian Film Festival, a sort of underlying recurring theme has developed along the way. One of our favorite movies is Love, Actually. Instead of table numbers, we're having table names (just to make things extra complicated for our guests, obviously), and one of them is Love, Actually. I'm walking down the aisle to Craig Armstrong's original piece, Portuguese Love Theme, from the movie. We are using a few other songs from the soundtrack in our recessional and the Anniversary Dance at the reception. It wasn't something we planned, it's just kind of turned out that way. So, when it came time to decide what to put on the box, Clinton made the executive decision that it should be a quote from the movie. I knew right away that I wanted the quote spoken by the Prime Minister (played by Hugh Grant, what a dreamboat) as a voiceover in the airport.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around."

So, with that decided, I set out to create a couple of options. I made one photo that is on a film strip - we ended up using this one for the final product. I also made another one that is a play on the movie poster - I liked it, but the other one looked better on the box, so we decided to put it on the inner box (yes, there's a box inside the box. Deal with it.) just because I didn't want to part with it.


Not the actual product, but close enough. I just bought a small, plain wooden box from Michael's.




572 coats of paint later: The Final Product. (okay, maybe only 4 coats and 2 layers of Mod Podge.)





The little tag has our names and wedding date. Sorry, too lazy to rotate! This is getting long enough for a first entry anyway.

The original poster, for reference.

I also made a whole bunch of table signage yesterday, but I'm going to save that for another post because it will be a lot more pictures and a lot more words. For now, I leave you with the immortal words of a fictional, aging pop star, Billy Mack.

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes
Love is all around us
And so the feeling grows
It's written in the wind,
It's everywhere I go

Thanks for saying what I can't always put into words, Billy. It is everywhere I go.