Archive for November, 2009

November 17th, 2009

Invitations and more invitations

So, I’ve ordered three invitation samples so far and been happy with exactly zero of them. The first one was dreary and on flimsy, shiny paper that was completely wrong for the invite. The second one was a pocket invitation and the paper was just cheap and horrid. The last one, well, I liked that one by far the best, but it didn’t quite fit (Deirdre from InviteSite). The invite was close to the right apple-y green color, the price wasn’t horrifying, and I loved the feel of the homemade paper, but it just wasn’t me and it just didn’t fit the feel I was trying to capture.

So, I was still hunting and finding all the recommendations I could for print shops and presses and whatever else. Then, I saw a blog post talking about stationary from Minted.com. I browsed through all their invitations, looking longingly, as always, at the letterpress and found…

The Mod Victorian Frame invite

I have, once again, ordered a sample and have all my toes and fingers crossed that it will prove to be significantly closer to what I want. I also ordered a sample of the La Fete Save the Date (in chartreuse). They aren’t what I want for an invite, but they’d make a fun Save the Date. I’d love to use one of our engagement photos but I don’t think the timing will work out since I’d really like to send the Save the Dates before the end of the year.

Hopefully, I’ll get the samples this week and they’ll be exactly what I really want! Hopefully.

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November 13th, 2009

Forget the invites! I’m using notebook paper.

Wedding invitations. Engraved, letterpress, thermography, and digital. Every shade of paper under the sun, except the color you actually want. A bazillion colors of ink, but the color you like isn’t available on the paper you want. The invitations are customizable except for the part you don’t particularly like.

And they’re all ridiculously expensive.

*sigh*

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November 3rd, 2009

Oy, the din

The choice of wedding venue for us was something of an odd journey (as I mentioned in an earlier post). The restaurant we ended up choosing has a lot of sentimental value in my family and I’m very excited about having the wedding there. One of the advantages is having a choice of ceremony sites. We can have the ceremony on the lawn or beside the creek. Sometimes, the spring run-off chooses for you and the creekside is flooded but we’re hoping it won’t be. The trick to having the ceremony creekside is blocking out the noise. See, the creek (and the highway which is just across and up the hill make a sound system a necessity.

According to the wedding planner at the restaurant, there’s only one company/person she’s found that can successfully cancel out the noise and do sound for the ceremony. In the midst of all the life stuff, I hadn’t had a chance to call so I turfed the responsibility to my Dad. He called and found out the cost for handling the sound for just the ceremony. It was higher than I expected, I suppose, especially since I’m planning on keeping the ceremony very short and sweet, but it just isn’t something where we can’t skimp.

I’m not sure why the price of this one thing is catching me. It isn’t more expensive the anything else. Perhaps it’s because it’s the one place where I don’t have a choice. It doesn’t mean we’ll have to skimp somewhere else; it just bugs me a little. I suppose I could have the ceremony up on the lawn, but there’s just something extra special about having it next to a creek in the Colorado mountains. I think the extra bit of cost is worth it.

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November 1st, 2009

Nothing up my sleeve… oh wait, there aren’t any

Picking up where I left off a few entries ago, prior to interruptions from visiting parents and unexpected surgical procedures, I was walking through how things had evolved from the original wedding plans I had cooked up in my head. So, we’d gone from 40 to 140 guests, backyard to restaurant, and from one date to another. Having never really thought about having a wedding or getting married for that matter, I had no clue what kind of wedding I wanted – dress, colors, themes, music – all foreign to me. I initally was thinking that I didn’t really want a dress and was looking at salwar kameez, but veered away from that. Then, I thought maybe incorporating a subtle steampunk theme would be fun. I made the mistake of letting my Mom google it unsupervised and she panicked a little. Then, my friend finally dragged me to the dress shop.

I went with three friends. When we walked in, the samples/sales rack was out and two of them pointed out a two piece dress that I rather liked, but was four thousand sizes too small. Besides, it was slightly poofy and I thought I wanted a simple, as not poofy as you can get dress. I also thought I wanted sleeves. The problem was when I those dresses on, none of them did it for me. So, our salesperson began just bringing in random dresses. She managed to find one quite similar to the one my friends had pointed out in the beginning.
Wedding Dress

As you can see, it met my need for simple – no decoration, no lace. It was just dress and I adored it. It even had a train which I swore I didn’t want because of the wedding being outdoors but the salesperson showed me how we could bustle it up. Suddenly, it also met my interest in having a neo-victorian feel to the wedding attire. Plus, it went nicely with the fabulous apple green wrap I’d found (and already purchased). The pic is a relatively close approximation of the dress, minus the sash. Focus on the dress part because it really is kind of an awful picture.

Needless to say, my Mom was pleased that I wasn’t wearing something bizarre. She’s still pretty hesitant about the apple green wrap, but I’m hoping to win her over at the first fitting. In the meantime, I need to re-lose ten pounds that I’ve gained since I bought the dress. My bustline was one size (the smaller size). My waist was a middle size. My behind was a bigger size. I went with the middle size; so, I need to actually fit into the dress. That’d be helpful. I should have gotten the bigger size, but oh well, water under the bridge.

As for the price tag, it was surprisingly reasonable. I went into the whole process imagining the worst and not wanting to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a dress. By the time I’m done with alterations, the price tag should be right around $600. I think I did pretty well.

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