For me? Thank you!

I'm getting used to this bridal shower thing. It's not a bad gig, really.

Anyone want to throw me another party?

Also: invitations are in the mail! Such a sense of accomplishment!

And: the woman at the clerk's office who answers the phone "Marriage!" in a sharp, curt tone might want to improve her phone skills. I felt like apologizing. "I'm sorry we want to get married. Is it OK if we come by and apply for a marriage license?"

The Great Invitation Invitational

Yes, creating and mailing wedding invitations might just be the most hectic part of the whole wedding-planning process.

Not only do you have to make sure you invite your cousin and his wife and make sure you don't accidentally forget to send a Save the Date card to your godmother (ahem, Jon), but when your on-a-budget, diy-ers, you have to print them. You would think this is the easy part, and I wrongly assumed that too.

Getting a new printer and then having the wedding invitations be your first project on that printer - not recommended.

However, last night I finished printing out everything and have them almost all set. (So much crap that goes into an invitation: the actual invite, the response card and (stamped) envelope, information about the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (for those who qualify), and then our after party invite.

I just need to pick up a few more stamps, and we're good to go!

Wahoo!

Piece of cake - er, cobbler

This wedding planning stuff is a breeze! I don't know what everyone gets so worked up about.

Mom's in town. She flew in Friday while Jon and I were at The Harvard Book Store listening to David Sedaris read from his new book (I'll have to post more about that on my other blog ... it was hysterical!).

Together, Mom and I have:

• finalized flowers with Karen-the Amazing-Florist (who is not named Kelly but at least her name begins with a "K") at Dandelions
• picked out invitations, (box of 50, including envelopes, and response cards/envelopes) at Staples for $29.99
• printed out invitations
• addressed envelopes (in Mother's best teacher handwriting)
• started creating paper flowers for the reception centerpieces (they're wicked cute!)
• booked Doyle's for the rehearsal dinner (best part: no deposit necessary!)

Aren't we productive?

Addresses, Oh Boy!

The postcards have arrived!

They are just as beautiful as I thought they would be (I made them, after all). Jon and I will label and stamp them tonight, and they will be in the mail tomorrow morning.

Hooray!

The e-version will also go out tonight (because you can never remind people too often).

Maybe this weekend Jon and I will start registering for gifts.

And speaking of dresses (well, kind of ... "dresses" is part of "addresses"):

My wedding dress came in! Right now it's in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin (say that three times fast!) but soon it will be boxed and shipped to Roslindale, MA.

Then comes the arduous part of making it short enough for little ol' me.

Progress!!!

After tweaking the Save the Date file 3 times and getting nowhere with it, we finally decided that we'd have to pay to have the cards printed.

Sigh.

When I got to work this morning I called my contact Paul at Hanson Printing - Hearth uses them for most of their print needs. I wanted an estimate on printing 80 postcards. Well, Paul wouldn't give me an estimate - he said he would print them, and I shouldn't worry about it.

So, thanks a million, Paul and Hanson Printing!

Funny coincidence: Paul's wedding anniversary is September 27.

Hitch in the Press

Attempts to print the Save the Date postcards have been hindered by the crooked, misaligned prints produced by our printer. So, ya'll just hold your breath. They'll come eventually!

Save the Date

Jon and I are nearly finished designing our Save the Date postcard which we hope to mail out soon (that wonderfully amorphous time designation!).

The joys of Adobe InDesign CS3 allowed me to capture the online representation of the color of the trim on my wedding dress (did we all follow along that chain of relationships?) and use it for the background color of the postcard.

All together now: oooooh!

For the truffle/chocolate brown color I was not nearly so precise. It just so happens there is a deep brown saved in my work color swatches, and I thought complimented the celedon green very well. And then I created the burgundy-ish shade for a splash of contrasting color.

All together now: ahhhhhhh!

Thus, the resulting color pallet looks something like this:

And, one more time: oooooooooooooh! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!