Hi friends!
I just wanted to start off by giving a big thanks and a huge virtual hug from me to you about my post on Friday. Truth be told, I wasn't sure how it was going to go over. I sat with Jerek Friday night before we started watching Sons of Anarchy {lets cry how were almost done with season 7} and he was beyond encouraging. I never really tell Jer what my posts will be about or when they will be published so he pretty much reads them the same time all of you are. When I explained I was worried what people would think he asked why, that he thought I wrote it perfectly. My biggest fear wasn't sharing my story it was the thoughts of what would go through the readers mind. Would they curse me out because they have been trying for years to have kids and I should be thankful for the two I have. Would they be compassionate and caring, perhaps they too went through a similar event. Or would they roll their eyes thinking I was screaming for attention. Those were my fears when publishing that post. Needless to say he made me feel at ease that he didn't receive it as that and no one else should either. Later after messages, texts and comments came pouring in I knew that he was right. So many people seemed happy that it was shared because they had their own struggles they were dealing with. And so many were just thankful and nice about me sharing that piece of my life that it made my heart really happy.
So thank you.
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Now onto the topic at large here! Wedding invites! Tonight I'm we will be spending the night stamping and preparing these invites to be shipped out in the morning, while watching Sons of course! Call me crazy but I'm showing you them before anyone has received them, cause that makes sense?
When wedding planning started I had to email people about the Mexico plans. It wasn't my choice really, I just didn't have time to order invites, wait for them to come in and THEN send them out. We only had 30 days to hold the block of rooms and time was of the essence! So I probably violated every damn wedding rule in the form of invites and I sent out an email to a mass group. WHATEVER!
After that was handled I knew I would be ordering my invites from Minted. I have two friends that are graphic designers and make AMAZING invites but I also knew that since the Michigan portion wasn't a traditional wedding that invites from Minted would be fine for me. {Check out Jessica & Kathleen's work if in the market for any type of Invites; graduation, wedding, baby shower, you name it!}you won't be disappointed!
At first Minted seemed like a lot to handle, I didn't know where to begin. So I just started in the wedding section, like any normal bride would right? I started favoring ones I liked, compiled about 12 of them and sent them to Jerek. I told him to pick his top three and let me know. I was hoping I loved at least one of the ones he did. Well I didn't. He actually choose ones that after I sent them I started not liking, go figure. So I did what any normal girl would do and I showed his sister, and we both agreed to order the ones I liked. I did this because in Jerek's email back to me he said, and I quote;
"Those are my top
three but honestly I am not going to be picky about it....."
Taken word for word from his email I figured if he wasn't going to be picky about it, I'll just do the picking for him. He's been really involved in all the wedding planning so before you tell me I'm being a brat, I'm not, mmmkkk!
When the invites arrived Jer was surprised but not surprised I didn't pick one of his three. I think he said something like 'why did you even ask me then, what was the point!' I probably gave him a beer and said something like 'well you said you didn't really care, that you weren't picky...so Amy and I picked for you!' and inserted a cheesy grin.
Here are the ones we ordered. One of the pre-made color schemes was already our wedding colors and I love how they turned out. We're doing a Bohemian Beach vibe so the party at my moms will reflect this with colors and decor as well as the wedding in Mexico. I'm really excited to be planning both parties, a total mood change from the Chelsea wedding planning 4 months ago! What's great about Minted is you can have as basic of invites as you want or as fancy of invites as you want. You can change any design to work with your colors/theme and there are tons of add-on options available too.
The total cost for the invites were $177 for 65 of them, including envelopes! I really just needed 55 but I think I read some where to have 10 more on hand so I went with that. I went with the basic paper they offered and choose the free address labeling. This saved us tons of time, plus we have shotty hand writing!
I had the option to pay for the printing of our return address but I knew I wanted to purchase an address stamp so I decided against it. So I turned to my trusty small business website, Etsy and started looking around. I found an amazing store called Stampcouture. With almost 14,000 sales and fantastic reviews I stopped my search right there. I worked with the owner, Kristina, on a stamp that will work even after the wedding. Here is the one I choose, it's simple and cute and not theme related so I won't get sick of it after a few months, and arrived in a few days after ordering it, BONUS!
{NOTE: I blurred out our address for obvious reasons!}
Stampcouture has a line of pre-made stamp designs, many are personalized, which are on display in her store. What they are best know for is her custom stamps (user-submitted artwork or her own graphic design). Each stamp is laser-engraved into rubber sheets, trimmed and cushion mounted. She then measures, saws and sands her own wooden blocks and assembles everything together onto the wooden black rubber stamp. She's been on Etsy for 5 years now and is in the process of opening her own website!
As you can tell a TON of hard work goes into these stamps and Kristina does an awesome job. She is offering any EWG readers 20% off their orders using the code 'EASTWILLOWGROVE20'. I personally LOVE these Save the Date stamps, making it extremely easy to send out in a postcard format! Feel free to message her on custom designs as well and tag me in any orders you make so I can droll over her designs with you!
Since we weren't having a traditional wedding where there was dinner plate choices or a seating chart I decided to forgo RSVP cards and I signed up with a website called anrsvp.com. Not only do I not need to pay for RSVP cards I don't need to buy the stamps that go with them! A huge savings in my book. People can log on and rsvp exactly how many and what family members will be going. It's that easy!
Another thing we are saving money on is the maps people seem to think is necessary to print out and send in wedding invites. I'm sorry but if I give you the address and you can't find the place with a GPS then maybe we have a bigger problem here. We have GPS on our phones and in our cars, even Onstar can can give you turn by turn instructions. So if you are reading this and it pisses you off because you don't have a GPS or a smart phone, go on your computer, MapQuest the address and write the directions down. But seriously guys, sending a map is so outdated and cost so much money to print. I personally throw them away the second I get it.
The last thing we did was register. The one thing I actually knew what I was going to do when we got engaged was register on myregistry.com. This website lets you register for a wedding and baby shower on hundreds of websites! There is no more going to Macys, Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and having to furnish your house between a few stores, no no, you can register at Anthropology, West Elm, and ZGallerie if you want! This people, THIS is how registering SHOULD be done! My girlfriend has done this for her wedding and baby shower and it's amazing! I'm sure all you old married folks are thinking, damn I wish I had done that! I went ahead and made the little registry cards myself (another cost savings!) and stuck them in the envelopes, BOOM!
So this was very long winded but hey, I had a lot to share! I hope you found some helpful tips and tricks if you are wedding planning (or baby shower planning even!) Don't forget to share any ideas in the comments about wedding invites and registering you want to share with fellow readers!
See you back on Friday for a post on our kitchen remodel that we started back in February!
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