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!

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!

Another Postcard

...And everyone is, and everyone is - in the mail.

That's right, we officially sent out our Save the Dates this morning.

Before going to the post office, I called to confirm that I could have the postage hand-cancelled, so that way the postcards and the text weren't ruined.  The gentleman that I spoke to told me that yes they did do it, but it would cost $0.60 per card!  I couldn't believe it!
 
Well, still in a state of disbelief, I decided to go to the post office to ask in person.  I showed the woman at the counter the cards and said that I was interested in having them hand cancelled and asked how much it would cost.  She explained that that was a free service that they offered to anyone that asked and pointed out that my postcards were probably too thick to go through the machine anyways.

So, after a small amount of confusion (and shock) I was able to get my Save the Dates on their way to all of our wonderful guests.

Tip:  When mailing out invitations, save the dates, etc. mail one to yourself.  That way you will know (1) what condition the guests got their invitations in and (2) when exactly you should expect your guests to receive it.  

P.S. Save the Date

As I talked about here, we are doing postcards for our Save the Dates (unfortunately we don't get to save on postage because we chose over-sized postcards - reduced postage only applies to standard sized postcards).

As a reminder, here is the back side of our postcard.  Our return address was also printed in the upper left-hand corner (I just cropped it off, so I could post it on here).

The challenge was addressing the post-cards.  We were considering two options: (1) hand-writing the addresses or (2) buying the clear stick-on address labels that we could print the addresses on.  Looking for the easy way out, we had settled on option 2, but weren't sure if the labels would look tacky.

Then, my fiance came to the rescue with his brilliant idea.  Why don't we just print directly onto the postcards.  Why didn't we think of it sooner?  However, the postcards were too thick (we ordered the heaviest cardstock option so that it wouldn't get destroyed in the mail) and we couldn't get them to run through our printer.  Even better idea - have someone do it for us.  We took our Save the Dates and our list of addresses over to Office Max and told them what they wanted.  They said it wasn't a problem at all and that they would have them done in 1 day.  All we had to do was provide the addresses in an excel document and they did the rest.

And is was surprisingly inexpensive.  (Drumroll please....) It cost us $3.57 to have addresses printed on all 50 of our Save the Dates!  Maybe this will also work for the wedding invitations.  Fingers- crossed.

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?

This Just In!

So our Save the Dates arrived in the mail today (you can read about them here and here).  I wasn't expecting them until next Tuesday, so that was a nice surprise.  They turned out EXCELLENT.  I couldn't be happier with the quality \and design of the cards.  If you want to know what the look like, check out my last post.  We went with all black and white for the cards, so now we really want black and white stamps (personalized ones maybe?).  Has anyone else done this?

The deal on the Save the Dates was too good to not pass up, even though our wedding isn't for another 11 months.  Now its so tempting to start showing everyone, but I have to wait.  We aren't planning on sending them out until February (7 months before the wedding).

I'd love to see some more Save the Date ideas. Feel free to share! :)

Our Save the Dates!

The following is our Save the Dates that we ordered (read about that here).  They are oversized postcards.

This is the front.

And this is the back.  The upper left-hand corner also has our names and return address printed on it.

I am so excited to have these done!  I can't wait for them to get here.  The latest is going to be next Tuesday.  I will let everyone know how they turn out.

The next challenge is going to be finalizing the guest list, so that we know who to address all of these postcards to!

Save the Dates - Great Deal

We have officially purchased our Save the Dates.  

Staples currently has a 40% off of custom prints offer, PLUS 6.5% cash back through EBates, PLUS if you buy 250 colored prints you get another 250 free.

So, that means you can get 500 colored cards for around $80 including tax. And you get free shipping (cards arrive in 7 business days). What a steal.

I opted out of the colored prints (we wanted black and white) and got 250 prints for $65.

In case you don't know, EBates is a free way to earn cash back. You create an account (which automatically earns you $5) and then you earn a certain percent back on on-line orders (this varies by store and changes throughout the year).

If you're not already a member and want to sign-up I would appreciate if you use the link below (everytime someone uses your link to sign-up you earn another $5). It's a great site and everything adds up. And then every so often (I believe every 3 months) the site just sends you a check for the amount that you've earned.

Anyways, once you have your account set up (or if you already have one) just type in Staples Copy and Print into the search bar (you will see a 6.5% next to it), CLICK on this. On this new page you will see various coupons/coupon codes. The top one says 40% off custom prints (exp. 10/31/12). Click on the corresponding button that says shop now and you will be taken to the staples web-site. Start your oder and you will automatically get the 40% off and 6.5% added to your EBates account.

Again, here's my EBates link. Click on it to start an account (plus you'll earn $5 for yourself and $5 for me). Start saving today!

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=eNcveycFWNI5MG2O02eRNQ%3D%3D

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?