DIY projects....last bit!

This should really be it for diy projects. I did quite a bit over the weekend and finally am getting around to posting pics. It's quite a bit so bear with me ;-)

First, I decided to do an iron on for my Mom with the leftover rhinestones I had. Used them all up:I have instructions for how to do this if you click on diy or bridesmaids, it will come up.

Next, I did petal toss signs, menus, for the bar and dinner, and cards sign. The petal toss sign I made in Publisher. The poem I found on good ole trusty google!:


I made the bar sign in Publisher. Found the recipes on greygoose.com. We love the Goose!
The dinner menus were made in Publisher also. I'm printing them on VistaPrints oversized vertical postcards and tucking them into the napkins at each place setting.
This cards sign was also made in Publisher. Where the yellow piece of paper is on the treasure chest is where this sign will go:I got around to designing my card box. It's a treasure chest (we already owned) with fish netting, pink and ivory pearls, and starfish. I also bought a hermit crab for decoration:


The above photo is the bottom of the chest which will have a little sand to cover the bottom and a knobby starfish as well.


Here are my beautiful petal cones:
I bought gold colored doilies from Michaels, used double sided tape to roll them up and stick the bows on that I hand tied with ribbon purchased from Michaels also. I alternated ribbon colors with pink and brown. I'm going to display them in a brown basket with the instructions sign next to them. I love how they turned out:
Here's the brochures I made in Publisher for the OOT boxes. This is the inside:
Outside:
My table numbers also completed in Publisher, just a few for you to see:Lastly, our rehearsal dinner invites. I plan on giving these out in Florida either hand delivered or in the OOT boxes for the bridal party and their spouses/significant others. Here's the front:
And the back with directions to the restaurant from Paradise Cove:
Whew! That is it! I am done with diy! I think.....heehee.

I knew this was coming....

the RSVP madness. Why don't people just send the damn cards back? I paid money for that little stamp on the back that you've wasted. Thanks.

I think a few of my guests hit a new record. Ignore. Have you been ignored by guests that you felt enough about to invite to your wedding? Well then.

After we passed our RSVP date last Saturday, Mike nearly flipped a gasket. I tried to tell him to calm down and wait a few more days before calling people because some people are just late, slow whatever you want to call them. He called a few people anyway, whatever, his prerogative. I even texted a few on Sunday just telling them I need their RSVPs, hoping they would drop them in the mail on Monday.

So by Wednesday when only 1 of the like, 12 people sent the card back, I'm starting to get pissed. A few answered me by text right away letting me know they were coming just kept forgetting to put it in the mail, yadda yadda yadda. But there were some that just straight ignored my text and still hadn't sent a card. What gives?

Finally I start getting on the phone yesterday. One girl sends me an email totally unrelated to the wedding; I think it was in response to something I forwarded to her that I received. I quickly emailed her back asking what she was going to do, accepts or declines? She finally answers, no, but I'll be at your shower! Okay. The other girl I called, I got her answering machine and left her a message to please call me. 2 minutes later I see my MOH, Mary at work and we're talking about the RSVPs and she said, wait I'm going to call her right now. Guess what? Mary gets her on the phone! I can tell from Mary's end of the convo that the girl is telling her how she's scared to fly, blah blah blah. Finally the answer is no. Why couldn't she just tell me that or better yet send the damn postage paid RSVP postcard back with declines checked off so I know what to do.

People just don't get it but I never thought people were scared, for lack of a better word, to just say no. It's okay. I knew when I planned a destination wedding that everyone wasn't going to be able to make it. And that's fine. That's part of the reason we planned one ;-) lol.

Invites have been received!

So far so good! Guests starting getting their invites yesterday and we've gotten some great feedback from them. Here's a few of the comments:

"Hey CH. Just received your wedding invitation. What a class act! The way you did it is so beautiful. You go diva!"

"Wow!! What beautiful and original wedding invites!!!! I love it!!! I'm more excited about the wedding than ever...God bless!!!"

And my personal fav:

"My bottle washed ashore. Too cute."

I'm only posting these because if you're thinking about the expense of sending message in the bottle invitations, do it! Your guests will love them! It's a nice keepsake for the sentimental types and they are something different. I think they're perfect for a destination wedding.

Now hopefully I'll get the RSVPs back before the date has passed. =)

2 months to go!

2 more months! The time flew by; it feels like I was just in July and hadn't even ordered my dress yet. The invites went out yesterday. They cost more than I expected but what the hell, I love them. This is the finished box we sent them in, stuffed with raffia:

We wound up using the return address labels that we used on the save the dates and the clear labels that I intended to use for the save the dates but didn't. So it worked out.

Funny story: I wanted to use the burned edges parchment paper for the address labels on the boxes to match the invitations. So about 2 weeks ago, I'm sitting in the family room with a candle, a bucket of water just in case the fire gets out of control, and of course the parchment paper. So I start burning my first piece. I'm slowly working my way around the paper when one side gets out of control! I can't blow out the fire quick enough so in a panic I toss the paper in the bucket of water. My mom is laughing at me and Mike is in "I told you so" mode. Needless to say, that's why the clear labels are there, lol.

Beyond words

Friday December 12, 2008 started out as any other day. I finished class early, done by 12 noon. Very good Homicide course that lasted 2 1/2 days. I decided to go up north to pick up Pops and bring him home. On the way, I stopped at the post office to get pricing for our invites. They're going to cost us a whopping $4.02 per invite to ship. Holy cow! I didn't expect that, but hey, it's the invites I wanted, so that's that.

Got home, started putting the stamps on the RSVP postcards and waited for Mike to get home before stuffing each box. An hour later, done. The night was going well, and I was looking forward to hitting the post office bright and early the next morning.

And then the unthinkable happens. That monkey wrench that comes out of nowhere. The devil at work and at his best. You know, good vs. evil. I now know what it means when there are people praying for blessings for you while there are others praying for the opposite. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but since this experience is a part of the overall experience of wedding planning and this roller coaster ride called life, I decided to at least include this much here. When I re-read it later it will serve as a reminder of all we have endured to get to February 20, 2009.

Menus and Invites

These are DIY as well. The 2nd set of invites and the rehearsal dinner menus. The invites were pretty easy; designed them in PowerPoint and had them printed by VistaPrint. I must say; the wording is a little difficult to read at the top. Other than that they are good to go. They came with rose colored envelopes and my RSVP card and Directions card will fit in their nicely. Like one of the knotties suggested, I am sending these to the older crowd (Mike's uncle, my grandmother, and I forgot the last one, lol) We actually have 20 of them with 10 envelopes, so we're actually debating adding a name or two if possible. Eh, we'll see. Kinda late in the game to expect someone to make travel arrangements but you never know.

The rehearsal dinner menus are for the rehearsal dinner at Bahama Breeze. I chose 3 entrees off the menu and decided that's what we're paying for. They don't cater to small parties, so we couldn't rent a room for privacy and we may be seated in the same area at different tables. Right now, that's not sitting too well with me, so I'm thinking about other options. We'll see. I love how the menus turned out but I haven't printed them yet (luckily for me) because we aren't 100% sure that's where it's going to be.

More on invites....

I just took a look at the bottles and the VistaPrint invites came in. Everything looks great. The only problem I see with the VistaPrint invites is that the wording isn't that clear; it's legible, but I think because of the coloring it makes it a little harder to read. Oh well. As a bonus for us, VP made a mistake and sent 20 instead of 10, although they did only send 10 envelopes. Either way, I won't be needing that many. I think we have a total of 70 that we need to send out, and we have 65 bottles and 20 invites from VP. I'm happy with them and just happy that it worked out in time.

I'll post pics of everything as soon as I can. My desktop computer is out of commission right now so I'm using my laptop for now.

Off to watch The First 48 and then to bed. Later ;-)

Catch up!

Whew, it's been a busy few days! I haven't posted since Thanksgiving, I think. We had family up from North Carolina and we had one heck of a weekend. So much has happened since my last post, I don't know where to begin. On top of everything else, I'm back to work and playing catch up from being off since last Tuesday.

Let me see, I'll start by saying that I am now bridal party drama free! Haha. It feels good to have the negativity away from me. I'm not going to go in to detail but it was definitely for the best. When you realize people are not for you, they must be against you and I don't need that mess around me. Peace to the haters!

On another note, Mai ordered her dress! Can you believe it? Everything that girl has been through over the past 5 months and regardless to my protests, she still made it her business to order her dress and be a part of the wedding. I'm amazed, happy, ecstatic, all in one. She really wanted to be a part of our day, no matter what. I love her =) Awww, let me not get emotional here.

Next, I went shopping with Mike's niece and his nephew's girlfriend over the weekend. I was able to get their tank tops from Old Navy for $5 a piece! I plan to use the rhinestone iron-ons to individualize each tank. For instance, his sister is married, so hers will say Mrs. XXX. His niece calls herself "Ms. Boss", so that's what her tank will say. I'm so excited! Hopefully, the rhinestones will come in soon so I can get started. I also purchased them the mini reed diffusers. They smell great; I'm just going to give them a goodie bag, basically with a bunch of stuff in it and then get them each something else. I don't know. I'll keep looking and see what I come up with.

I also received a coupon from eBay for 40% off on December 1 only. I used the coupon to get my garters. Total price wound up being $12! They are Philadelphia Eagles garters, one keepsake and one toss. Mike should really like them =0)

My invites came in, both sets! The VistaPrint invites as well as the 13 bottles that the lady replaced for me. They all made it in one piece, thank goodness! So this weekends' project is to put the boxes together, address and stamp them, and get them ready to be sent out on the 13th. Everything is right on schedule.

I designed my rehearsal dinner invites but I haven't ordered them yet. Well, actually not invites but menus. Next project is the brochures to go in the out of town boxes, which I'm purchasing from another knottie for an excellent price.

Whoo! That was a mouthful! I'm done for now and I'll return on Friday with pics of everything new. Goodnight. ^-^

Oh, I almost forgot, I received my My Publisher photobook. Love it! I used our engagement pictures and I got 2 for the price of 1! I'm thinking about gifting one to my parents. The quality is amazing and so many knotties recommend them. I see why. Definitely making a parent's wedding album with them. I'll post pics of it in the near future. Goodnight, seriously this time.

Invites....part 2

I spoke to the woman who made the invites and even sent her pics of the damage. She kept apologizing and asked me what I wanted to do, either get a refund or she could make more bottles. We decided that she is going to make and ship me more bottles as soon as possible. I let her know that I want to get them out early December and she said she can make it happen. So we'll see. I really do love how they turned out and hopefully the other 13 will make it to NJ in one piece.

I'm still short about 5 invites, since we added to the guest list, so I'm ordered another version from VistaPrint. I'll probably use these to send to my 89 year old grandmother, who will probably look at the bottle like WTH? and to people I'm sure won't make it, or appreciate the bottle invite, mostly the older guests and those who probably aren't going to make it.

After Mike gives me the green light on the design he likes best (I made 4 different invites, similar styles) I'll place the order and be done with it. I'll post pics of the one we choose later.

Invites....round 1!

These are the invites. I may have to DIY the other 13, but this is what I ordered. Here's a close up of the wording I used. I found the poem on http://www.beachwedlockinviations.com/.

This is the invitation, burned edges and all. The invite is printed on pink parchment paper and the wording is brown in color. Love the palm tree!

These are close-ups of the contents of the bottle: a little sea grass thingy, some pink shells, pearls, and of course, sand.

This is the entire invitation put together. The paper is tied with a little champagne colored bow and the bottle top is wrapped in raffia. I truly love how they turned out. You can't see it here, but the top has a pink shell glued to the raffia. The DIY bottles are next!

The invites

We received our invites in the mail today. Ugh. First of all, there are 13 of the 65 bottles broken. They were packed with those noodle looking things and paper. Of course they wouldn't survive. Couple that with the mail workers completely disregarding the "fragile" written on the boxes and probably tossing them every which way. So, I'm down 13 invites. On top of that, I was already down a few more because we added people to the list. So now I need 15 invites, total

So what to do? Do I order more bottles and make them myself? Or, just get the Vistaprint invites and send those, as another knottie suggested, to those people I'm quite sure won't be attending. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

Right now I'm waiting to hear back from Andrea (girl who did the invites) to see what she plans to do. I don't know if she had insurance on the packages or not. If it's the latter, we'll see how she intends to make this right. I'll keep you posted. But first, for your viewing pleasure courtesy of Mike:

Here's the banged up box:

My broken bottles in the noodle stuff:

A few of the bottle tops. How wonderful.