H: PS

Josh's comment to me after seeing this article tonight:

*kisses me sweetly*
"I'm so glad you're real"

And P.P.S:
Tracy, my darling sister, we love you so, so much!

H: Just an update....

I am currently on scarf #14 and my oldest sister has graciously offered to help in the Favor Endeavour.
Oh yeah. It's gonna happen :-)

Also, I just have to point out how excited I am to be sharing the Holiday season with the man I love! Our families are close enough so we can do two houses so we'll go to my family's place in the morning and head to Josh's around 4 or so.
On a completely unrelated note, my new mantra is "marathon, not a sprint."

:-D

Exactly one year from today...

...I will be marrying my angel, my companion, my partner, my love, my heart, my best friend.
It's going to rock.
:-)

H: Our DJ for sure and certain

Remember when we were talking about DIYing the music?

Yyyyyyyeah, we sorta knew going in that it would be a lot to ask our guests to do, and we weren't that interested asking our guests to do anything during our wedding and subsequent reception. Likewise, we weren't interested in manning the iTunes either, which led us to the realization that DIYing this particular aspect of our wedding was not going to work out. This totally stressed us out considering that we have a budget so tight that you could bounce a quarter off it (though not literally I'm afraid...we need that quarter). When we met with Kelly at Monte Verde Inn, she asked us if we have a DJ in mind. We said no, that we were planning to do that ourselves. She raised an eyebrow and quickly dismissed us, saying something about "we'll check with Joe". Joe. Who's Joe? Oh, he's the DJ on the preferred vendors list. Okie dokie.

Flash forward a few months and our amazing photographer Jessica emails us to ask if we'd booked Joe yet. Who is Joe? Oh, he's the DJ on her preferred vendors list, too. I emailed her back to say that, no we haven't but did she think he'd be willing to negotiate his prices? He answered me back that day saying that he got my information from Jessica, and yes he would, and would we like to meet? So we did at our preferred meeting-with-vendors place (Peet's Coffee).

It turns out that if you googled "rude, over-priced, annoying, egotistical, narcissitic, claw-my-face-off, not to mention mean" (anything really, as long as it's vile), the direct antonym of the result would most definitely - without question - be Joe. Seriously, this dude should take his rightful place in the Encyclopedia under "awesome". Not only does he only work by referral, not only has he been doing this for over 20 years, not only do people rave about him, not only is he extremely reasonably priced, but he is the nicest guy I think I've ever met. And I've met some! His attitude, his demeanor, his philosophy, everything about this man screamed "YES!"

And the best part of all of this? The negotiation. I've never had to negotiate a price before, so I didn't know how this would work, but I felt comfortable enough with Joe to tell him so. So he said, okay, let's talk about that. He then proceeded to list off all the stuff that he does at weddings and how much it costs. He then asked what we could do. I mumbled no more than a grand. His response?

"Oh. I was going to say $900".

!!!!

Who does that?

Joe does that. Joe of SJ's Disc Jockey. OUR Disc Jockey! The one that I just sent a signed contract to.

This is going to be the most rockin' shindig ever.

Blogfest post #3: Our amazing Photographer

Josh and I were already pretty sure about the photographer that we were going to be going with. We liked his work, his style, and his philosophy. Then we went to a wedding of a friend of mine that he shot and - while we still liked his work - we decided to keep looking for a photographer that was closer to our area, and more "us". That's when I decided to hit up weddingwire.com. It's a site where vendors can put up their info, and brides and grooms can post about their experiences with said vendors. This is something that I really appreciate since, in an environment that's as emotionally charged as wedding planning, no one wants to take chances so you'd better believe that if someone has a bad experience with a vendor I'm considering, I want to know about it. And honestly, the odds are that if I see a bad review (unless there are quite a number from other clients counteracting it), I'm going to nix the vendor right away.

We narrowed down our list to about six photographers that we wanted to take a closer look at. One of the ones that I loved right away but didn't think we could get or afford was Stout Photography (http://www.stoutphoto.com/about.php). I remember reading something about only doing 30 per year, etc. etc. But such glorious work. Truly, truly exceptional.

The time came to start emailing vendors for pricing lists and meetings and whatnot. Almost on a whim (I couldn't help myself) I emailed Stout. What came back very soon after was a lighthearted message about what you'd expect - pricing, etc. It made me giggle. A little trickle of hope appeared when I got a look at their pricing list. I held my breath. Oh my....we could afford this!!! It turns out that she (Jessica, the lead photographer for Stout) was only $300 more than the same package with the guy we'd considered before. And we LOVE her!

Not only is her work fantastic, but she's extremely, extremely nice and passionate about what she's doing. She was completely energetic when we met, and was so happy to have us in her home.

Needless to say, after meeting with another photographer there was simply no comparison. We clicked so well and this morning, we paid her retainer. We can't wait to begin working with her!

H: My new wedding obsession (aka, "the Favors")

I forgot to mention my other little helpers in the last post about invitations, so at this point, I'd like to give them a nod.
Dondi: floor supervisor: And Trotsky: quality control:

Moving on.

Immediately after the invitation project was completed, I felt the urge to knit. It's normal, it happens a couple of times a year and stays with me for a few months. But then, two things occurred simulaneously:

1. I had just been discussing wedding favors on weddingbee forums and

2. I was still in hardcore wedding crafting mode.

On weddingbee, we'd just been discussing the intricacies of favors, and what we consider a good one and what we consider a bad one and why. For example, my least favorite type of wedding favor are things that are personalized for the bride and groom AND I can't use but feel too guilty to throw away (i.e.: a keepsake of some kind...a snowglobe, a coaster, etc.).

Wheras good favors and my personal favorite are things that may be personalized, but can be used, eaten, etc.:

personalized M&Ms = good favor. They can be eaten.

personalized matchbooks = awesome favor. Those can fit easily into my purse and be taken anywhere.

plants = totally awesome favor due to their double whammy staus. They can be grown and potentially eaten.

So I knew that I wanted my favors to be personal, but also something that could be used. That combined with my desire to use my hands (i.e. knit) sparked the notion that I could make the favors. I could KNIT the favors. I could knit SCARVES as favors.

Since our wedding ceremony and the cocktail hour will be outside in November (albeit with loads of heaters around), I wanted to do something to say "I understand that it's cold, thanks so much for doing this for us, here's something to stay warm with". Originally the idea was to buy inexpensive pashminas from a wholesaler and put out a basket with them. I like this idea better. I like the idea that our guests are going to be wearing something that the bride gave to them to say thank you, and to make them just a little more comfortable.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I will in fact be knitting/crocheting 100 scarves for our wedding favors.

So far, I'm up to eight!

H: Blogfest Post #1: The Invitations!

One of the first decisions that we made once we started planning was that we were going to DIY our invitations. Do I regret this decision? I'm happy to say, absolutely not. For us, it is definitely the right way to go.

Sitting at home in the throes of unemployment kick started my creativity. I wanted very much to dress up our beautiful - but plain- invitations that had been purchased at Staples. I had seen a picture in The Knot magazine of envelope inserts made out of fabric. They were bright, colorful, and unique. Perfect! Off to the craft store I went, taking my budding ideas and my hopes with me (you have no idea how bored I was).

I found myself first going down the scrapbooking aisle, and it was there that I found it. It was 48 pages of textured scrapbooking cardstock, two pages of each color and pattern, and it was GORGEOUS. Absolutely perfect. AND it was 40% off. Score!

I briefly wandered around the fabric aisles, but I didn't find anything that I loved, like the cardstock. So a paper cutter and a few gluesticks later, home I went with my prize.
The first thing that I did was draw out a pattern for the template. The template would need to fully insert into the envelope with a lip cut out so the envelope could still be closed and glued shut. Here's what I ended up with:

Neat huh?

To ensure that I had a straight edge after tracing the template onto the scrapbooking paper, I employed the help of a paper cutter:

I do declare, I love this little thing. It was so satisfying to hear and feel the "ssshhhhhh" it made while easily slicing that cardstock in two. *sigh*

Next of course came the cutting out of the inserts, which I did with a pair of trusty scissors and an even more trusty companion:

My Mom.

Not only is she beautiful, she's also good with a pair of scissors (and I'm infinitely grateful for her help!).

Once everything was traced and cut out, it was time to stuff. And stuff. And stuff. And then glue! Here's what the finished product looked like:It was wonderful and turned out beautifully, but I felt like there was something missing. At some point, it was determined that we should have something on the outside of the invitations as well, which is where the stamps come in.

Did you know that they now make acryllic stamps that you fit onto a clear plastic block? I didn't until Mom brought them up and let me tell you, they are as good as it gets! Finally, I can fully see where the stamp will fall!

Anyhoo, behold! The outer envelopes:

So at that point I was done.

...then I felt the itch begin. The one that said that the OUTER envelopes were done...but what about the inner?

See, our invitations came in a kit. This kit has 50 invitations, 50 outer envelopes, and then 50 response cards with their envelopes. So....there was still plenty of leftover cardstock and lots of inner envelopes that were so very, very naked. Yes, yes something must be done here. At least, that was my reckoning. At this point, Josh seriously feared for my sanity but being the wonderful man that he is, he just grinned, kissed me on the noggin, and let me have at it.

I mentioned before about the awesome paper cutter with the awesome "sssshhhhh" sensation. Well, said paper cutter had at this point produced about 96 strips of fairly uniformed cardstocky goodness. I opted to glue these together and recreate the template at a smaller scale. That got me about 48 smaller scale inserts; not enough to complete the project. So, I decided to use the inverse and add a stamp which I think looks fabulous. The completed project:

Next up, to match the outer part of the outer envelopes was the all important stamp, which our invitees will see twice. On the outer envelope in blue:

And on the invitation itself in copper:

All in all, the entire project took about four days to complete from start to finish. Obsessed, I tell you! But I had decided to treat wedding planning like a full time job, and I've got to say, I'm extremely pleased with the result. My one regret is that we cannot yet print them since we still need to determine time of ceremony, etc. But they're almost fully complete! I can't wait until we get to the postage stamp stage.

Next up: my new wedding based obsession!

H: And.....we're back! Three posts today.

Yyyyyeah, so it's been a long time since I blogged. Break out the wet noodle, because I do NOT have a good excuse. I knew that I wanted to blog about our invitations and I was just too lazy to upload the pictures since I have to do it on Josh's laptop due to a variety of reasons. Don't judge! There's been lots going on on the wedding planning front.
We've booked Monte Verde Inn, which I believe I've blogged about. But we've also booked an amazing photographer, finished our invitations (everything but the printing), and I've started on an ambitious favor project.
Blogfest November 2009, here we go!