The Coolest Invites Ever

So, I love my wedding invitations, but these have to be the coolest wedding invites ever!!! If I could have afforded something like this it would have been amazing to do!!
First of all, I love wine . . . plus I love those wooden wine boxes (I have a couple of them). How amazing to be able to send all of your guests such a unique and memorable wedding invite!! They will get to enjoy the wine, and have a little memento in the box!! So cool. I will have to remember this for some big party in the future (although on a much smaller scale). I cannot imagine what it would cost for about 100 of these babies!!

Photo by Leigh Miller Photography

I'm Back . . . Really

Hi everyone, so sorry I disappeared for a few days . . . I hadn't missed a day since I started this blog till last week, so I am a bit disappointed in myself, but I promise I will make it up to you!

I don't have the professional pics back, but I do have a few from family and friends that I will start sharing soon. In the mean time I will finish up with some of the other things I wanted to share before the wedding and just ran out of time.

Anyway . . . here is a quick few of my rehearsal dinner invites!

I went a bit with the bluegrass theme cuz I thought it was really cute, plus it really fits M and me. We served BBQ chicken with my family's secret BBQ sauce, potato salad, a garden salad with nuts and berries, BBQ beans, fruit salad . . . probably a bunch more as well, but honestly I don't remember . . . oh and the best part . . . strawberry shortcake, with seriously the best shortcakes in the whole world. I wish I had pictures of everything, but somehow not many pics were taken. I have a few and M has a couple as well, but that is about it. I think there is one pic of me from the whole evening and I am taking it (me and my cousin) and maybe one of M as well. Guess the party really wasn't about us! Oh well. I thought my invites were cute. I will talk more about Pink Lily Press (the fabulous designer of these and my wedding invites) when I talk about my wedding invites . . . I promise I will do a blog about them soon too.

Numbering RSVPs

I saw this post on Martha Stewart and it made me laugh . . . everything I have read says to number your RSVPs, and I kept thinking, who would send back an RSVP without a name on it?? Well, I decided to number them anyway and I am so glad I did. We have gotten back three without names on it (although it said things like congratulations, or sorry we can't come), a couple that didn't mark if they were coming or not, and one that was completely blank no name, no response, no nothing. Ha! I won't embarrass the forgetful ones, but seriously to anyone who is getting married, NUMBER YOUR RSVPS!!!!

(Image from InviteSite)

Why do I love the shape of Oregon

For whatever reason I love everything that is printed in the shape of Oregon, so when I saw these invites, of course I feel in love.

(Images from Boxcar Press via JolieJolie)

See those cute little Oregons?? I will show you more when I find them!! This invites were made by Boxcar Press you should check them out when you get the chance.

Friends Invites

I realized that I shared a couple weddings, but didn't show your their invites . . . and seeing that the weddings are over I don't need to worry about taking out addresses or anything. I wonder if you can match the invite to the wedding . . . oh you can!! Trust me!

First, this one I wasn't able to go to . . . so sad! This was actually just a reception. They got married in Vegas awhile back. Still a cute invite though!
Second, Ted and Julie's Wedding. I don't have their RSVP, cuz I sent it back before I took the pictures. Oh well. I really like the liners though! Plus, I think it totally goes with their country theme.

Third, Abby and Chris's Wedding. Abby got to design her invites because her dad runs a printing company. I don't think they normally do wedding invites, but they turned out well. The pocketfold was actually the envelope, so our address was right on the back on the invite. Really nice if you are trying to save paper!!

Anyway . . . photos by me! I know I have at least two more invites coming in the next few weeks . . . very exciting!

The Invites are in the Mail!!! Yay!

So, the invites are in the mail . . . yay!!! They are a little late. I guess they were "supposed" to be in the mail by the 8th, but we had a little issue with the pocketfolds that I actually don't really want to go into much detail about, but it was just an annoying hassle. They discontinued the color we wanted . . . oh well they still look super pretty!! Anyway . . . I want them to be a bit of a surprise to all my guests so you guys are just going to have to live with with a little preview for the time being.

It is such a boring preview . . . but I want everything to be a surprise!! So . . . I guess it is now official . . . can't back out now . . . hehe! So much fun.

My guitar picks!

On my usual jaunt around the web I came across a very cool site. As I was admiring all the pretty things there I came across my own picks!!! Thanks JolieJolie for posting them!
And while I was there I borrowed some cute pictures of her fun invites . . . check them out.

(Image from JolieJolie)

Will you be my bridesmaid?

I guess I should talk about this because really it was one of the first things I did when I got engaged . . . Ask my bridesmaids to be my bridesmaids. I really wanted to do something cute to ask them, so I turned to Etsy to solve this dilemma!! I found these totally cute cards, by Dazzling Expressions:
The bridesmaid ones say "Name, I would love to have you by my side, will you be my bridesmaid?"

I also had some made for my two 13-year-old cousins who are going to be my hostesses. Those said "Name, I would love your assistance on my big day, will you be my hostess?"

And then of course we couldn't forget the Flower Girls!! Theirs said "Name, I would Love your sweet smile walking down the isle, will you be my flower girl?"

Crista was so helpful in personalizing these for me. She made them in "my colors" and exactly what I wanted them to say!! I think they are really cute, and I am really glad I had them made. I had to send most of them as I have one bridesmaid each in Missouri, Oregon, California, and Tennessee, plus one hostess in Chicago IL and one in Missouri, and of course the flower girls, but they are actually both in Missouri!! Anyway, if I was in a wedding I would love to get something like this, so totally happy!!

Wooden Invites

I made a comment on Oh So Beautiful Paper the other day . . . and then she did a whole post about it!! Check it out. It is about the beautiful wooden invitations below.

(Image from Stamp World Online)

These invites are from a wedding featured in Portland Bride & Groom . . . it is such a cute wedding, so you should check it out as well. Oh, and by the way you can buy these invites at Stamp World Online . . . you can also get save the dates, thank you cards, and all kinds of other wood products as well (like boxes and stamps!)

And a side note . . . so exciting to see my name on a wonderful blog like Oh So Beautiful Paper!!!

Invitations and so much more

Have you all seen what this amazingly creative woman over at Merriment created? Based purely on fabric, Karen created a whole design for her wedding. I wish I was that creative!!!!
Check all this stuff out . . . from invitations, to bridesmaid bags, to guest towels, to cake . . . everything. I love it so much.
The invitations are beautiful by themselves . . . but then programs, table numbers, seating cards . . .
And then . . . handbags, cake, ring pillow, guest towels . . . this is just too amazing for me. I wish I had a fabric that had inspired me this much. I would have loved to do something like this. So pretty!!
Oh, I love it way too much!

Lee & Hamilton Invites

Have you all seen these invites?? They have been around for awhile, but I just really think they are so pretty. I wish my brain was this creative!!
She also made Thank you cards 1 and 2 , Rehearsal Dinner Invites, Programs, Favor Boxes, and Travel Packets! All the pictures are from the Lee & Hamilton Blog!!

Aren't they pretty??

Missing Save-the-Dates

So . . . I am kind of upset. Some of our Save-the-Dates apparently didn't make it to their intended recipients!! The weird thing is that the people who didn't get them are living in Southern California (most within minutes from our house!!!) So I am getting new ones to those who I know didn't get them, and I hope there aren't too many more, because I will run out of magnets here soon!! Oh well I guess.

Olive Branch Invites

Olive Branches are part of my wedding scheme, so I kind of squealed when I saw these invites!! Basically, these are exactly what I want!

They have the sagey green olive branches . . . and purple type. I love CAPs mixed with the names in fancy cursive. It is organic, but also organized and clean. Oh I want them!! I might change the wording on it a bit, but other than that basically perfect!!!

The Save the Dates are in the Mail

My Save-the-Dates are in the mail and I am sooooooo excited. There has been a ton of drama around these babies. I had a little freak out, the printer had issues, I ordered something late . . . hassle, hassle, hassle!! Anyway . . . here is the finished product (with fake addresses!!) - although the return address looks a little different on the real ones because I actually used a stamp which I embossed the same as the olive branch - but oh well!!

I ordered the actual Save-the-Dates (magnets), from VistaPrint. If any of you are looking for an inexpensive place to get things printed this is it. They do a pretty good job for really cheap. I got 100 magnets for around $65!! And I think they turned out cute! I added a fun little detail, that I stole from Classic Bride, little stickers on the back that say "Hang me on the Fridge." You can't really tell, but they have my little olive branch design in the background (at least I know its there). I bought the moss colored envelopes from Paper-Source, along with the Olive Branch rubber stamp. I stamped and embossed each envelope and I think they look really cute!! I also got some printable business cards, just to explain that there was information on our website about accommodations and whatnot. Then last but not least I topped them off with custom postage stamps from Stamps.com (again they have my cute olive branch design from Chris - love it!!). Here are the details:

The freak out:

I was going to order cards that went with the save the dates that just had some extra info about Accommodations and whatnot. They were cramped and had way too much info and I decided I didn't love them, so I dropped that idea fast! I did run to Office Depot and bought some printable Avery business cards that are shown above. Anyway, then I started playing with how to make the envelopes look good. I punched out all these cute little olive branches to attach as stickers . . . then decided I didn't like that either . . . but look at the fun pics I took!!

The printer issues:

I have ok handwriting, but not beautiful handwriting, so I decided to print all the addresses on my printer. I found a cute font and started printing . . . well I had issues. I don't know if maybe the envelope was too thick, or maybe my printer just sucked, but I kept getting these blue lines of ink along the bottom of the envelope. See the icky marks??

Well, I came up with a pretty creative solution (if I do say so myself)!!! I put blue painters tape on the bottom of the envelopes where the smudges were showing up. When I printed again, the smudges were on the tape (and not my envelope), so I could just peal them right off!! No more problem!! Yay.

I ordered something late:

So, I was having a similar problem printing my return address on the back of the envelope as I was with the front, but the smudges were showing up all over the envelope. So, I gave up trying to come up with a solution for that one and ordered a stamp with my return address from RubberStamps.net. It was like $18, but it fixed my problem, and now everything is finished and I am so happy!!

Well, I hope you guys like them . . . oh, and one more thing . . . am I the only one who thinks its funny to cover my entire fridge in my save the dates??

(All Images by Me)