Signed and Almost Sealed

If you remember, the fiance and I decided we would be adding wax seals to our invitations.  After some searching, I found the best deal on the wax sticks online.  Beware, if you are looking for any color other than white, gold, or silver, you will not find wax sticks in stores, you'll need to buy it online.

Anyway, we ordered out wax sticks from scrapbooking-warehouse.com.  Each pack of sealing wax comes with 6 sticks.  I've read on average (and airing on the safe side) you should assume that each wax stick will give you 5 seals. Based on this we went with 3 packs, which only cost us $29 including shipping!  I can't wait for it to get in, so we can finish up these invitations.

Also, from what I've read you can use these wax sticks in just a regular sized hot-glue gun.  We will see how that works out and I will keep you posted!

Welcome to Town

A lot of our guests (my family and most of our friends) will be coming from out of town for the wedding.  As a small way to thank these guests, we will be making Out of Town bags with goodies to put in the hotel rooms.  I also came up with a printable full of information to include in the bags.  And then, just yesterday, I thought why not make it a cute little book instead.  Hence, my newest DIY project.

All Tied Up

We officially assembled our first invitation and here is what it looks like.  The outer envelope is just a sample, we still have to decide where we're getting them from.

Outer Envelope:  Dark purple 

Inner Envelope:  White

Invite, RSVP and envelope, and Insert all banded together with light purple ribbon.

Mail Merge

Planning on printing on your envelopes for the wedding?  Check out this video on how to use Microsoft Mail Merge to do it right!  This site offers several other DIY videos for wedding invitations.

Also if you are planning on printing on your envelopes like in the video, check out my Excel sheet here that you can use.  (Also read more about my other available printables, etc. here.)

Wedding Binder Revamp

So forever ago I made a Wedding Binder - one of my first achievements on the road to wedding planning!  Along the way I found myself modifying my binder a lot, so I just wanted to update you on the new and improved version.

First, here are tabs that my binder has:

• Calendar
• Guest List
• Registry
• Budget
• Decorations
• Stationary
• Rehearsal Dinner
• Ceremony
• Reception
• Flowers
• DJ/Music
• Photographer
• Cake
• Guest Accommodations
• Gifts
• Bride
• Bridesmaids
• Groom 
• Groomsman
• Honeymoon

Each of these categories was given a divider that I made by placing a piece of white cardstock into a clear page protector.  Then I added a 3" tab with the category wrote on it to the sheet protector.  (If you're confused check out more details here.)

Originally, I also had subcategories, but I found that those actually made things more difficult.  So, I got rid of them completely and just had those main categories that you see above.  

Then, I found what worked best was just putting a few page protectors behind each divider to add things as I went along.  That way I didn't have to worry about hole punching or pages ripping.  

Also, I did NOT use the majority of the print outs.  I found that many of them were outdated or just didn't work for me.  Looking back it was a huge waste of time and paper printing them all out and then putting the reinforcers around the hole punches.  :-(

For that reason, I created a new post of printables worth the paper and ink you'll use to print them.    Check them out here.  

Wedding Binder Links

As promised, here are the links to the print-outs that I used for my wedding binder.  I basically used a mix between the following two sites.  My suggestion is to look through both of them and pick out the worksheets and information sheets that work for you.

The best part about these, they are all FREE!

PASH Wedding Printables

Russell and Hazel Wedding Templates

Printable Calendars

Do you have any other great sites for wedding binders?  Please share!

DIY Wedding Binder

I set to work today on creating my own wedding binder - I'm all about DIY and I love the option to personalize it.

Here's how I did it.

Materials:

• 3" round ring binder (I just used one that I already had 2-3" should be plenty)
• 45 sheets of white cardstock ( I found a 150 ct. Pack of 110lb white cardstock at walmart for $5.48)
• white round reinforcement labels ($1 for a pack of 924 at walmart - that is plenty!)
•  20 Post-it note 3" durable tabs ( Like the ones here, but I found a pack of 20 in the store for $6.49)
• 30 Post-it note 2" durable tabs (I bought these in store for $4.49)
• 3-ring hole puncher (already had)
• 17 Clear page sleeves (already had them, but you can get a 100 pack for abour $5 at walmart)

Total spent:  $17.46  

Directions

1.  Insert a sheet of white cardstock into each of the 17 page sleeves.  Place the 3" tabs on the right side of the clear page holders as shown.

                      - Create 6 with the tabs on the top

                      - Create 6 with the tabs in the middle

                      - Create 5 with the tabs on the bottom

2.  Arrange the clear sheets with tabs in alternating order, so that you have one page with a tab on top, followed by one with a tab in the middle, followed by one with a tab on the bottom, etc.  

3.  Next, hole punch the remaining cardstock.  You are going to affix the 2" tabs as needed to this cardstock to create smaller tabs.  

4. Using my list at the bottom of this post or your own list of categories and subcategories, write on your tabs.  Label each 3" tab with a category (i.e. Calendar) and the 2" tabs with the subcategories (i.e. Timelines).   

***Tip:  If you want your writing on the tabs to look neat, do what I did and type up all of the category names on the computer and then print out the list (depending on your font Size 16 and 18 work best).  Then you can place the print-out below your tabs and copy!**

5.  Once you have finished writing on all of your tabs, you are ready to assemble the binder.  I used the reinforcement labels on the hole-punched cardstock so make sure that it holds up through all of the use that it will be getting!  

***I also found a lot of helpful printouts that I included in my Wedding Binder.  I will be adding those soon!***

EDIT:  You can find my post about those links here.

This is an example of using the 2" tabs.  This was my Ceremony section.  

Categories and Subcategories List - Adjust as Needed

• Calendar
• Timelines
• To-Do lists
• Guest List
• Registry
• Budget
• Decorations
• Stationary
• Save the Dates
• Invitations
• Programs
• Other
• Rehearsal Dinner
• Ceremony
• Officiant
• Venue
• Readings and Vows
• Music
• Other
• Reception
• Venue
• Food/Drinks
• Favors
• Seating Plan
• Other
• Flowers
• DJ
• Photographer
• Cake
• Guest Accommodations
• Hotels
• Transportation
• Welcome Bags
• Other
• Gifts
• Family
• Wedding Party
• Bride
• Dress
• Accessories
• Hair and Make-up
• Other
• Bridesmaids
• Groom
• Groomsmen
• Honeymoon