What to Know about Wax

We ordered our wax for our invitations from scrapbooking-warehouse.com.  I just want to say that after finishing our invitations, I am very pleased with how well the wax worked.  When the wax first arrived, I was concerned that we didn't have enough because the sticks looked SO small.

We had ordered 3 packs of 6 sticks for a total of 18 sticks.  We only used half of the sticks after doing 85 invitations correctly and messing up on about 5 - so 90 total.  So, we actually ended up getting about 10 seals (twice as many as we had thought) from each stick.  This is what our seals looked like (they were each about the size of a quarter).



To simplify things: one stick of wax from that website got us 10 quarter-sized wax seals.

We're just going to use the extra and seal our Thank You cards since we had so much fun working with the wax on the invitations!

Another Stationary Steal

I got some great deals on our invitations a while back with Vistaprint.com.  Well there was recently another Groupon of $17 for $70 worth of credit.  Since I had earned a bonus of $10 credit to my Groupon account for referring someone, the Groupon only costed me $7.

Using the Groupon, I just ordered 70 programs and 20 menus for only $14 including shipping.

I want to briefly talk about these two stationary items.  I originally wasn't going to do programs, probably for many of the reasons you've heard - they're unnecessary, outdated, a waste of money, environmentally un-friendly, no one actually looks at them.  Then I read something that changed my mind.  First, you'll have one to keep AND immediate family members will most likely want one.  Secondly, (this was the selling point for me) they're it's touch to send along with a Thank You card for guests that sent gifts, but didn't attend the wedding.

As for menus, again, they're another waste of paper.  However, I felt like it would be nice just to have on the table in case someone did want to look at it.  Maybe so they could pace themselves for our banana foster at the end of dinner (at leas that's my plan).  Anyway, I settled on picking up some little stands from the dollar store and putting two copies on the menu on the table (one on each half), so that anyone that wants to see it can.

And just because I love sharing, here are the final product designs.

Programs (I went for simplicity)

Menus (again simplicity)

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.

The Search for Outer Envelopes

A while ago I discovered that I needed outer envelopes for my Vistaprint invitations.  Since then, I have been searching for great deals on envelopes.

First, if you are using Vistaprint invitations and their envelopes as inner envelopes, then you need a size A8 envelope for your outer envelope.

Here is the breakdown of sizes:
Vista Print Invitations:  5" x 7" (actually 4.61" x 7.17")
Vista Print Envelopes:  4.75" x 7.50" (slightly bigger than invitation - perfect for inner envelope)
A8 Envelopes:  5.50" x 8.125" (next size up from inner envelopes - perfect for outer envelopes)

First things first, you CANNOT find A8 envelopes anywhere in stores.  The closest thing that you will find in stores are A9 envelopes (5.75" x 8.75").  And stores only sell them in white.  In my opinion, these envelopes are just too big.

Just in case you are interested in the A9 envelopes here is what I have found.  Craft stores don't sell them (I checked A.C. Moore, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby).  You can find the A9 envelopes at office supply stores.  I found them at Office Max ($16.99/100ct.) and Staples ($13.99/100ct.)

Returning to the search for A8 envelopes - your only option is to buy them online.  I still haven't ordered, but here are my top three sites..

1) envelopesexpress.com:  This is my current favorite.  Sample are completely free (including shipping).  This is the only site that I have found with this offer.  They also have a large variety of colors.
Cost:  $42.30/100ct + $0 shipping = $42.30

2) envelopemall.com:  Samples cost $1.50 per envelope with free shipping.  However, shipping on a regular order is not free.  Also, they have a more limited color selection unless you go with metallic envelopes (these are NOT good for shipping, they confuse the machines a the post office).
Cost:  $21.95/100ct +$10.01 shipping = $31.95

3)  jampaper.com:  Samples are free plus $3.25 shipping.  They have a large variety of colors.  Also, when I signed up for the email, I got a coupon for 15% off my first purchase.
Cost:  $28/100ct + $13.09 shipping = $44.74

If I Had $100

...to spend at American Wedding, I would be very happy.

American Wedding is currently running an engagement photo contest.  You have to hop on over to their facebook page and post an e-pic.  You can vote on any number of photos by 'liking' them.  The contest runs now through March 8, the picture with the most 'likes' is the winner of the $100 credit for American Wedding.

With that said, don't miss out on your chance to win!  Head over and upload your photo.  Also, if you'd like, you can check out my photo here (and give it a 'like' if you're feeling generous  :)  ).    Good luck to everyone that enters!

They're Here

So after the problem with the first batch of invitations that Vistaprint sent me, they offered to reprint my order.  Yesterday the invitations arrived and they look AWESOME.  I am so happy wiht them.  Vistaprint even did one day shipping on them via UPS to get them here quickly since they had made a mistake on their end.  They should have arrived this past Friday, but because of the snow UPS was delayed.  Either way, that was quick.  Thanks again Vistaprint.

Extra, Extra

Approximately 200 extra that is.

So I've already told you about the awesome deal on the invites that we got through Vistaprint.

Well, right after I placed the invite order, I noticed that there a capital letter where I didn't want it to be.  I quickly opened the customer chat on the Vistaprint site and they helped me to upload the correct image and said that it wouldn't be an issue to fix it.  She fixed it buy adding a new order to my account.  Now, both orders were showing 100 invites with the correct image and 100 with the incorrect image.  I explained to her that they incorrect one was still showing, but she said that didn't matter.

Fast forward three days - it definitely mattered.  We got all 200 invitations!  Along with 200 envelopes to go with them.  I guess that's all bonus.

But wait, there's more.  After examining our invitations - which turned out GREAT - we noticed a small pink smudge in the same spot on every one of them.  It looked like something had been stuck on the machine that was running them off.  So back to the customer support.  Again they were super helpful and immediately offered to send us an entire new order.

So, long story short, we have 200 extra invitations and we have no idea what to do with them.  Any suggestions?  Also, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Vistaprint for having AWESOME customer support!

Michaels Madness

If you have a Michaels near you, it might be worth stopping by today.  They have a huge clearance event going on - their already clearanced items are an additional 70-90% off!!  Schools were closed today due to snow, so I talked my fiance into taking a trip over with me.  They had a decent amount of wedding related items included in the extra 90%.  One of the best deals that I saw were on invitations.  They had 30 count invitation sets that included the invitation, inner and outer envelope, rsvp card, envelope for only $1.  Yes $1!  So if you still need invitations (or are planning on doing any sort of DIY for the wedding) I suggest hitting up Michaels today and checking out the clearance deals!

I already have my invitations ordered and they didn't have anything in our colors, so no luck on that.  However, I did pick up two pairs of black tights for myself for under $1.  They also had some shirts and bedazzling material if you're going that route for anything.  Also some nice favor boxes, etc.

8 Months and Counting

I officially have hit the 8 month mark - that means that exactly 8 months from today I will be slipping on the gown and saying I Do!

In celebration of hitting my 8 month mark I made a list of the top 8 things I have done so far for the wedding:
1. Picked bridesmaids & created a website for us to use for planning
2. Went searching, found a venue, and picked a date
3.  Had our engagement pictures done & had them featured in another blog
4.  Finalized our guest list & sent out save the dates
5. Found my dress & got it for a great deal
6. Designed our invitation suite & again ordered our invitations at a great price
7. Booked our DJ
8. Applied to be a weddingbee.com blogger


How many months do you have until the big day?  Time flies so quickly, it'll be here before you know it!

Stationary Steal!

So we officially ordered the first part of our wedding invitations (we don't know meal choices yet, so we didn't order the RSVP cards).

Here's what we did order though:
100 Custom Invitations with 100 white envelopes
20 Extra White Envelopes
250 Custom Business cards (Used as Invitation Inserts)

Total cost:  $32  (No that's not a typo!)

A little while back I bought the Vistaprint Groupon - $17 for $70 worth of credit.

While the Groupon specified that it couldn't be used with other promotional codes, it didn't specify that it couldn't be used with sale prices.

So after buying the Groupon I designed our invitations.  Then  I waited and waited and finally the site had a 50% off sale (yesterday).  A note to you on that:  Vistaprint is changes their sales on a daily basis (i.e. starting yesterday invitations were 50% off with the upload fee for images waived, today they are now 20% off).

After adding everything above to my card my total came to $64.  However, when I added the Groupon, the costs nearly doubled.  The 50% off went down to only 25% off.  I ended up calling Vistaprint and they explained that the Groupon couldn't be paired with other promotional offers.  But being as stubborn as I was, I didn't give up.  After they realized that, they offered to take the new cost (which was still 25% off), applied the Groupon to it, and then took half off of that price.  They also offered me free shipping (which I had expected to pay another $9 for).

Moral of this store:  Vistaprint has awesome deals and great customer service.

More to come:  We have two Vistaprint Groupons (I bought one and my fiance bought one). We plan to use the second one to buy our RSVP cards and Thank You's.  We'll see how using the Groupon works out the second time around.

Also here is a peak at the invitations and inserts.

Front and Back of Invitation

 Invitation Insert

The Honour of Your Presence

So as I mentioned here we decided to design our own invitations, etc. for the wedding.  As promised, here is what I came up with using Photoshop.  PLEASE leave your opinions.  I haven't ever designed anything before, so I'm worried that it doesn't look to great.

I am not completely done yet.  I still need to design an insert to mention our wedding website on.  I plan to band together the invite, rsvp card, the insert, and the rsvp envelope together with a dark purple belly band.

Also, as far as envelopes for the whole invitation do you think plain old white envelopes would work (free with the order) or matching envelopes ($90).  

The Invitations
Front

Back

The RSVP Cards

Front

Back

Vistaprint Dilemma

So I recently mentioned an awesome Vistaprint deal.  After reading the fine print, we realized that you had to use the deal by April 12.  That meant 3 months to use it.  Now we already sent out our Save the Dates, but we still have our invitations, programs, etc. to do  So, we went for it - my fiance and I each bought one.  That means we have $140 worth of credit to now use on Vistaprint!  Yay!

Now that hard part - figuring out what the heck to do with all of it.  After buying the Groupon and actually starting to look we found a few designs that were okay, but they just weren't what we wanted.
So we decided to create our own design (I will post about that separately)!  After adding it to our cart to get an idea of cost, we had a nice surprise.  In total, we are getting 90 invitations with white envelopes for only $48!!!

After seeing how awesome this price was, I decided to design a matching envelope as well.  However, I again went through the process of uploading it and adding it to our cart and received another surprise.       It was going to cost us $89 for 100 custom envelopes!!!  I am still wondering why this is so much more than the regular white envelopes.  Has anyone else had this issue?  Now I am trying to decide if I want to just get the white envelopes or go with the custom envelopes.  What do you think?


Sidenote:  if you are planning on using Vistprint for your wedding, you need to check out this bloggers post.  How I Used Vistaprint for Bascially Everything.  With my two $70 Groupons, I plan to do just that!

Vistaprint Deal!

What a steal!

There is a Groupon starting today where you pay $17 for $70 worth of credit.  Vistaprint.com is an awesome online print store where you can order things such as business cards ( an invitation insert to mention your website?), invitations/annoucements (wedding invitations/save the dates?), calendars, bags, hoodies, t-shirts, etc (bridemaids gifts?).  This is such a steal.  I am even considering buying one myself and having my fiance buy one so that we can stock up.  I'm thinking it will come in handy for some of our upcoming wedding purchases!

Guest List

Now that the Save the Dates have arrived, the dreaded topic of the guest list has come up again.  We have made multiple drafts on various occasions.  We now have our A list (wouldn't get married without them), B list (would love to have them there) and our C list (not too sure about them).  The problem now is deciding where to make the cuts.  Also, I have recently started  a new teaching job at small school (I only have 8 coworkers).  I have become friends with 2 or 3 of the ladies that I work with and would love to invite them.  However, there are two problems with that:

1.  We haven't been friends very long.  I don't want them to think that I expect them to travel 12 hours from Michigan to New York just to come to the wedding.  And then I don't want them to think that I expect them to not come and still give a gift.  They are just B list people - would love to share the day with them, but it won't be the end of the world if they can't make it.  In fact, as I said it's so far away that I honestly wouldn't expect them to make the trip, but would still love it they did.

2.  I only have co workers.  That means that everyone will know who I invited and who I didn't.  This is my first year there and I don't want to cause any trouble with the groups dynamic.


We don't need a final list until January, but we both find the task overwhelming.   Please share your thoughts and advice. How did you make the cuts?

New York: Engagement Photos

Also, while we are in New York, my dad has offered to shoot our engagement pictures for us (photography is a hobby of his).  I'm very excited and have a tentative list of locations:

• Sage (where I went to college at)/downtown Troy - they have some gorgeous brownstones 
• The Playground - where Dave and I spent time together before we started dating
• Prospect Park - a nice little park that we went to frequently 

I need to keep this in mind and get some ideas:  What to wear for engagement pictures!

Though he's agreed to go along with it, my fiancé doesn't really get the purpose of engagement photos.  I am planning on using them for Save the Dates, Invitations, and possibly in the guest book.  If you're having some done, what are you using yours for?

Wedding Music

I recently discovered a song that I am in love with.  I definitely want it to be played at the wedding.

Hard to Concentrate - Red Hot Chili Peppers

**Tip for Reception Music:  Add a line on your wedding invitations allowing guests to recommend a song they would like to hear.**

Online Surveys & Market Research