Bridesmaids Keep Out: Again (A.K.A. They've Arrived)

My duffel bags arrived today!  I am VERY happy with the quality of these bags.  First off, they are HUGE - they are big as you can possibly have for a carry-on.  They have SO much space and I LOVE all of the extra zippers and pockets, etc.  I think I might just have to buy one for myself.  Three recommendations for these bags:

1) Find a way to get a copy of the receipt to give to the recipient.  (Since I ordered online, I'm just going to print out one copy for each bridesmaid).  The bags have a 5 year warranty, so you'll want them to have a copy of the receipt showing when and where it was bought.

2) Order them early and open them up.  They smell like new plastic, which (in my opinion) is not the best smell.  I have now removed each of them from the bag that they came in and have them opened and airing out in the basement.

3) For some reason I could not figure out how I was going to wrap such a large gift.  What the heck was I going to do with them?  Well once they got here I saw how easily they folded down flat - easy for gifting them and as well as storing them when they're not in use!

I will keep you posted as to what other goodies I find to add to my travel themed gift.

Elements of an Invitation

About a month ago I finalized my invitation suite....or so I thought.  While on Pinterest, I stumbled upon the following:

That's when I realized that I needed inner and outer envelopes.  Vistaprint only came with one envelope per invitation (as any normal person, myself included, would expect). 

If you decide to go with Vistaprint for invitations you have two options:

1) Use the Vistaprint envelopes as inner envelopes (since they just fit the invitation) and then buy outer envelopes from somewhere else.

OR

2) Don't use Vistaprint envelopes at all and buy a matching set of inner and outer envelopes.

We have opted for Choice #1.  Since our wedding colors (and therefore our invitations) are dark purple and white, we will be using the white Vistaprint envelopes on the inside and will get dark purple envelopes for outer envelopes.

Bridesmaids Keep Out: Part 3 (A.K.A. I did it!)

Just two days ago I posted about the duffel bags that I was considering.  Well I decided to go for it!  And I got an awesome deal on them.

Here's my breakdown:

I ordered them from Target.  They com in all different patterns and are reasonably priced at $29.99,

The downfall - they're only available online.  In order to save, I actually signed up for the Target Red Card (their credit card) which gives you free shipping and 5% on all purchases.

I also used this coupon to get $5 off your purchase of $50 or more at Target.  

AND I used my Swagbucks points to trade in for Target gift cards.


AND (last thing I promise), if you shop through EBates you can earn 2% cashback on your purchase. (That is my referal link for ebates, so if you don't use it yet and sign up I earn $5 or something like that!)

Basically, you can get an AMAZING deal on these bags.  I hope this helps!  Sorry for the long post, I just love finding good deals.  

I did purchase the three duffels that I have pictured here.  However, I do have three bridesmaids.  I forgot to mention in my previous post that I won't be getting these for my younger sisters since they don't travel.  I'm still brainstorming for their gifts.

Swagbucks

I recently discovered this awesome site Swagbucks.com.  What makes this site so great?  You can basically earn FREE MONEY! No really, it's true.  

I joined the site 4 days ago and have already earned enough Swagbucks to get a $25 Target gift card!!  How awesome is that?!? 

All you have to do is join  (that's my link) and then start earning.  You can earn Swagbucks in so many ways - taking surveys, watching videos, playing games, signing up for newsletters, starting free trials.  You can even earn points for posting a link in your blog (like above).  It's SO incredibly easy.  Oh and you can just randomly earn Swagbucks by searching the web.  You just install their toolbar and you can use it to search just like you would use Google.

Does anyone else use any awesome sites like this?  Also, I will be posting very shortly about what I'm using my gift card towards.  ;-)

ETA:  Today they are having a promotion where you request your credit report for $1 and earn 1,000 Swagbucks, which = $10 Target gift card!

Bridesmaids Keep Out: Part 2

Almost forever ago, I posted about my first purchase for my bridesmaids:  awesome robes!

So I have been trying to figure out what else to get for my bridesmaids and finally I found these:  

Rockland 22" rolling duffel bags.  I think they are very cute and convenient and come in all sorts of patterns.  

All of my bridesmaids travel pretty often (and are all getting married within the next year and they will definitely be traveling for their honeymoons) so I thought that this was a great idea.

Here's my plan:
Get one for each of my girls that matches their style and then fill it with other travel goodies.  I.e. Small travel sized bath and body works things in their fave scents, a lingerie baggie, maybe a set of luggage tags?

What do you think?  What fun gifts are you getting for your ladies?

Macy's Dream Fund Contest

Macy's is currently giving brides and grooms to be a chance to win a $5,000 gift card.  How?

You'll need a Macy's wedding registry and a Pinterest account.

1) Follow Macy's on Pinterest

2) Create a board on Pinterest called Dream Home

3) Add at least 3 Macy's home items to your Dream House board and at least 2 inspirational images for your dream home.  Be sure to tag all of your pins with #macysdreamfund

4) Enter the contest.  You'll see the link on the site.  You need to be signed in to your registry to enter.

The contest ends April 29, so start pinning!

MyRegistry.com

I recently told you where my fiance and I decided to register, but I didn't tell you about myregistry.com.  I am slightly obsessed with this site.  It is the Pinterest of wedding registries.

So here's what you need to know about myregistry.com.  First, it's 100% FREE (unless you're trying to do a cash registry - none of those are free).  Second, it's simple and convenient to use.

Here's how it works:
1)  Sign-up for a free registry.  You can make your registry password protect if you like (a.k.a. guests will need a password to view it).
2) Sync any existing registries that you already have (optional of course).  Just click on the Sync button and find the store(s) you're registered out.  Follow the easy directions and you're done.
3) Add other gifts.  You can do this multiple ways, but I'll tell you about the 2 that I prefer:

How to add gifts:
1) Install the Add to MyRegistry button. This works just like the Pin It button for Pinterest.  You can                 go onto any web-site (I frequently use Amazon) and find something you want.  Once you've found it, click the Add to MyRegistry button and you're done.        
2) Install the MyRegistry app on your smartphone.  Go to a store, find what you want, scan the bar code and you're done.

  

Where to Register

A while ago I reviewed various department store wedding registries, and decided that my top picks were Kohls, Macy's and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  In the end my fiance and I ended up registering at Kohl's and Macy's (overall they had better prices/deals than Bed, Bath, and Beyond).

We also decided to register at Walmart.  Weird I know.  Well we wanted an ancient traditional Corelle set for our our everyday dishes and Walmart has an AMAZING price on them.

Sashes are In

          Not too long ago I decided I was finally going to order sashes for the wedding chairs.  It ended up costing $73 for 120 including shipping.  Not bad at all.  The company that I ordered through, tableclothsfactory.com, had MANY bad reviews - mostly for damaged or dirty products.  Not only have I found a few of those issues on some of the sashes, but the color is also not as described.  Time to try to contact them.