RSVPs

The best thing about the invitations, I think, besides how cute they are, is that the tear-off postcard has no " _____ will / will not attend." It simply says please respond by February 15 without any instructions on how to do so. The back of the postcard is blank, so most people are using that space to write us a little note and say how excited they are, etc, or even if they can't come they are writing a little note or even a picture :)

LOVE.

It's in the mail.................

the invitations!

Last night I sat down and stamped, stuffed, stamped, and sealed the invitations and today JewishGuy took them to the post office! I just can't get over how pretty the invitations are!!!

THE INVITATIONS!

YAY! They are done and they are soooooooo pretty :D

It's all one piece, tri-folded, and the last fold is perforated so it breaks off into a postcard. No inserts, no extra papers, no giant envelopes.

The extra little squares are tags that we are going to affix to programs/menus/whatever so that we can print the things at kinkos or somewhere not so expensive and then have a fancy touch :) They came with the invitations because there's extra space on the paper for those little squares.

Also we have matching thank-you stationary, which is just a single card (you can see it in the top picture). It has enough space for a short thank you, and is so nice I hope people keep them.

I love them because they are so pretty but not girly, and so different!

Invited Conundrum

I have written before about what to do about inviting people from our current city, since we have a lot of friends in the synagogue and I would want to invite my whole graduate program class.

We've decided to invite our closest friends from shul to the wedding and then have a separate party for the people in my class when we get back. The reason is, there are a lot fewer people from shul we want to invite, and we simply can't invite another 27 people. Additionally, if we only invited a few people from the program (because there are a few people I would really like to be there), there is a good chance they can't afford to come anyway, so all I would accomplish by inviting them would be to point out who are my closer friends in the program. We're all getting along really well right now and I don't want to start any drama, like why did she invite her and not me, and I don't even know if that will happen but I don't want it to happen.

So that is the solution. I'm not 100% happy with that, but there is no way to invite everyone from the program. I feel bad inviting them to pre-wedding things, like my dress-trying-on party, but not inviting them to the wedding. I wish they could come. But we are really overbooked, and I don't want to put pressure on people who are already spending tons of money on school (and who likely don't have jobs, very few of us are working at all and those who are do so in order to pay back loans immediately that are gaining interest) to spend $200-300 on a plane ticket and $100+ on the hotel room per night.

Well, we weren't invited to our friends' wedding here when we first moved here because we'd only been friends a few months and they didn't have any more space. We weren't offended! We understood guest list limits and whatnot. I hope everyone understands for us!

The Invitations!!

The last image is what it looks like all together.

We decided to do one piece of paper that is folded into three parts, the final section being a tear-off postcard RSVP!  We are leaving the whole back of the RSVP postcard free, so maybe people will write us notes or draw pictures for us, who knows.

The colors look a lot brighter on my computer screen than they do in real life.  The pink is a deep fuschia, the yellow is quite bright but the brown is a little darker, like chocolate brown.

Our benchers will have the same design as the first panel of the invitations in a bright green!

The invitations are from OrangeBeautiful :)

Invitees

OK Here is my conundrum.

Someone else in my program is getting married before me and she invited the whole class.  That was really nice of her!  I am definitely going to the reception, the ceremony unfortunately is still on Shabbat and I can't get there (but the reception is after Shabbat, so I can make it!).  The thing is, she is getting married in Chicago, so it's different, kind of?  I'll explain.

Our wedding is in Maryland.  There is a good chance most people in my program won't be able to make it because flying is too expensive and it's a 12 hour drive.  Plus, on top of that, the hotel costs, etc.

So then, should I invite everyone in my program, or just the people I am close with?  We are having numbers issues, and are cutting back on invitees because we are running out of space.  I don't want to invite the whole program because we just don't have room for many more people.  I don't want to invite select people for the reason that BECAUSE most people won't be able to come anyway, all that would accomplish is making some type of statement as to who my "real" friends are in the program.  Or, should I not invite anyone from the program (I don't really like this option, I have already become good friends with some of my classmates)?

On a positive note, a surprising number of our friends have already said they have booked hotels or flights!  People we were unsure of because of financial concerns are coming anyway!  How exciting!!  They are sharing hotel rooms, shacking up with friends in the area, etc.  Some are even coming for the whole weekend!

Updates & Clarification

HEY everyone,

#1, I wanted to clarify something important about the blog, because I think I have given the wrong impression to some people.  This blog is where I post things that I like, things that I think are pretty, not necessarily things that I *have* to have.  I'm not actually a bridezilla.  I just think things are pretty.  Mostly, I am flexible about the wedding, and have in fact given up control over most things because I don't have time or I'm not overly concerned with how it turns out.  I do have general ideas as to what I want, which I post here, but it's not set in stone!  So what I post here is the same as a bride-to-be buying bridal magazines and clipping things out that are cute.

Also, just a note, I lapsed in renewing my domain name, so images may not show up on the site for a couple of days.  They will be back soon, hopefully.

#2, Updates!  We are having our invitations done by OrangeBeautiful, and they are pretty awesome, so check them out.  They also have a blog, where they post pretty things that THEY like!  I'm having my second meeting with them next Thursday, when we'll go over some designs they are working on for our awesome invitations.  The invitation is going to have a tri-fold, with the third section being a tear-off RSVP postcard.  How fun!  They're going to play off of the cuteness of the imagery of our Hebrew names, which mean Bird and Tree.  WE ARE SO ADORABLE.

Also, I am taking a trip to Maryland in December to meet with florists and wedding planners.  We are thinking of hiring someone for the weekend to make sure things go smoothly, and if not the weekend then definitely a day-of coordinator.  My mom is putting together the itinerary of my meetings and I'll just go to them and chat (maybe we will go together?)

Things are coming together without me having to do too much, which is also awesome.  My mom and JewishGuy's dad are working on Shabbat services, the whole family is participating, reading Torah or Haftorah or having aliyot or leading services.  It's going to be awesome.  I am really excited. :)

DesignerChick is working on setting up a consult with her make-up artist for me also for my trip in December.  I probably won't have the dress yet, but we are going to design my make-up concept.  Ha!

CankeyB along with my other bridesmaids are hard at work on my bachelorette party, although I don't know much about it other than it will be a slumber party the Thursday night before the wedding.  OBVIOUSLY I am ridiculously excited!  (Also... I have a sneaking suspicion there might be a "surprise" bachelorette party for me here in Chicago thrown by people in my program...)

I think that's it for now in terms of updates...!

Outta Controlllll

After visiting two potential printers/designers for invitations, I emailed the parents asking for final guest list numbers so that we could have an accurate quote.  I had been telling the designers that we were going to invite a bit more than 200 people because we were expecting around 150 guests.  It turns out we are now inviting almost 370 people to the wedding (so even if 50% of those invited decline, we are still higher than JewishGuy and I originally wanted).  Not to mention the venue - an old mansion - only holds 200-230 people in its largest room, so if more than 60% of our guests come we cannot legally have them all in the building!

This of course was Friday afternoon, so imagine the freaking out that happened by me this Shabbat!  Much.  I think we were just totally shocked by the difference between what we thought we had discussed back in March/April, and what it turns out the reality is today.

JewishGuy and I have talked about it and it seems like we have a major breakdown in communication - the bottom line is, email lists don't seem to be working out so well right now. I think we've come up with a viable solution: A google page!  We spent a lot of time this evening setting up our google page for the parents to use.

Here's a cropped screen grab:

Hopefully this will work and keep us all organized and communicating effectively (I realize this will only work if people check it relatively frequently).

Every section has a To-Do list that is organized by who is in charge of the item, what it is, how it was resolved, and whether it is complete.  Every section also has a "notes" section, so that JewishGuy and I can write in what we were envisioning for this particular part of the wedding.  This way we can delegate, have everything all in one place, and not have to send long emails back and forth!

For example: I am asking JewishMom to be in charge of the florist.  So that she doesn't have to keep checking her inbox, searching for the email I sent her about what I want, or searching around the house for the pictures I sent of examples of center pieces I like, she can just go to this website.  There it is: Decorations -> Decorations Notes.  Pictures will be in Share Files -> Decorations Pictures.

JewishGuy and I talked about this a lot this Shabbat.  We talked about how much control we really want to have over the wedding, how we're feeling about things in general, and especially about this guest list thing (which shocked both of us, I have to say).  I was feeling very overwhelmed by the planning process, I think mostly due to the way we were going about the planning, where I was being held responsible for final decisions on things but I felt like I wasn't actually in control of the planning - for example, I would get a list of things I needed to accomplish, like someone else is in control and I was reporting to that person, but then I was asked for advice about something I was told to do...  I don't even know if I'm making sense anymore!

It's not that we didn't appreciate the help - I don't know what we would do without the parental support!!

The point is, I think us taking more of an active role in organizing the planning will help us to not feel quite so overwhelmed.  We still plan on only being in charge of the few things we want to do, but now we have a system where we are also overseeing the progress of the other elements.

This doesn't quite resolve the guest list issue.  It may happen that we will have to pare the lists down, as it's now T-7 months and we may not be able to find another venue that will be large enough to comfortably hold about 80% of the people we are planning to invite.  If these lists are the absolute minimum, there really is no way that we can comfortably fit 300* people in that venue.  We will be back to square one in that respect, which I am not looking forward to, but we'll deal with that if it comes to it I suppose!

* The event planner in me doesn't feel comfortable with inviting so many people over the legal maximum occupancy of the largest room.  I would like to plan so the largest room can hold 80% of our potential guests - just in case!

Ball is a-rollin'

Seriously, it is amazing to have a supportive fiance, future family in-law and family in the wedding planning progress.  I have to say: I LOVE delegating!  Love, love, love.  It means I can focus on working on a few things rather than feeling like I am in charge of everything.

 

Today I feel good about the delegation and am now working on invitations.  We've talked about this (fleetingly) and basically decided we want a local (Chicago) printer, preferably letterpress printer, to do our invitations.  AND they have to be done by Thanksgiving-ish.  Hopefully that's not too much of a time crunch.

My employer has a good friend who is a letterpress printer so of course I emailed her first.  I also emailed a few other printers who are actually in my neighborhood - as luck would have it - so hopefully I will hear back from them soon.

The main issue is that we will need Hebrew on the invitations.  At least our names will be in Hebrew, if not more.  I'm not a huge fan of the whole invitation being in Hebrew and then translated, although it can look nice, so it really depends on how that all works out.

ALSO...

We are looking for a photographer.  We really like Akil, as he did our friends' wedding and was fantastic.  The downside is he is in Houston so we would have to drag him all the way north for the wedding, which adds to the cost, of course.  We are looking for photographers in the area who offer a similar package with similar quality, but to be honest I don't think we are going to find it.  We're still looking, so we'll see...

JewishGuy is in charge of the band.  He's taking on that responsibility, and I'm glad to let him have it.  He's going to contact the 5 bands we've narrowed our search down to, get some samples, we'll both listen to them, then he is going to make the appointments for auditions so that my parents (and hopefully also CankeyB) can listen to them.  We got some great recommendations from Jewish couples who were recently married in DC, as well as family members who know people who know people.

CankeyB has found her yellow dress, and although I haven't seen it yet I'm sure it is great!  This is exciting - the yellow dress was going to be the hardest one of the three to get, since yellow is not in season anymore she had to brave the sales.

I've decided I want a button/felt flower bouquet by Princess Lasertron.  I have to run it by the parents but I am sure this is the best option for me.  They are soooo cute!

I am thinking of alternatives for bouquets for the bridesmaids and boutonnieres for the men.  I think I might want to go with the herbs for the boutonnieres, but I don't know about the bridesmaids.

Anyway, yay, progress, things are moving, can you feel it?

Potential Invitations..!!!

This is a long shot... BUT.

Today I just had an interview to be a studio assistant for a woman who makes items with cute little illustrations on them - items like pillows, sketchbooks, bags, ceramic things like cups and pendants.  The interview went really well, so hopefully I will get the job.

Anyway, she has a background in letterpress and actually has a 102 year old letterpress in her studio.  She said she would show me how to use it and I could play around with it!  She said she would be happy for someone to use it, since she almost never gets a chance to use it anymore.  At the end of the interview, she joked about making things for my wedding - LIKE INVITATIONS - and giving me an employee discount. (I'm telling you, the interview went really well!)

So I'm thinking, if she shows me how to do the letterpress then maybe I could even make the invitations myself, or at least design them exactly how I want and have her make them!

I really want the job... they kept talking about what I "will" be doing, rather than what I "would" be doing, which I take as a good sign.  Plus there was a lot of laughter and it was really laid back.  And she loves robots!

Here's hoping!

Status Update!

Since we'll be interviewing our first (and hopefully only!) photographer tomorrow, I thought I may as well post a status update.  What has been done so far, and what does theknot.com say we have to do soon?

DONE

• Booked hotel, venue and caterer
• Found an "officiant who suits [our] style and spirit" (JewishFIL)
• Put together an engagement party (happening tonight!)
• Begin working on wedding guest list
• Choose color scheme
• Start registering for gifts
• Choose bridesmaids, etc
• Begin looking at gowns
• Gave the bridesmaids guidelines for the dresses (well, I still have to send the packet to HillelLady!)

CURRENTLY WORKING ON

• Booking photographer
• Looking for bands to interview/get sample mp3s from
• Deciding where to go for honeymoon

NEED TO DO THIS MONTH

• Insure the engagement ring already!!! (it's going on our renter's insurance at our new place)
• Interview/book a wedding consultant (a day-of coordinator)
• Decide on a budget (haha)
• Finalize the guest list
• Book the band
• Talk to a florist

We liked the photographer from our friends' wedding so much we are going to try to book him for ours.  We're meeting with him tomorrow to talk about his rates and travel stipulations, considering he will have to go all the way to DC for the weekend.  I'm hoping that he will be excited to be there for the Cherry Blossom Festival and won't charge us too much for his travel!  We'll see.  There are also photographers in the DC area that CankeyB is pointing us towards, also JewishGuy's cousin is sending us amazing photographers but some of them are super expensive and high profile.

Also, I think we need to add the invitations to things that need to be worked on this month.  I think once we finalize the out-of-towner guest list (which should be almost finalized?), we should send out save-the-dates.  There's also some controversy about whether or not to send RSVP cards, but I'll talk about that another time.

In any case, I think we're in good shape considering the wedding is still 279 days away!

More Invitation Inspiration

Oooo...

(These designs are from WeddingPaperDivas.  Click the images to see the product info.)

I don't know what is a good price for invitations.  However, JewishGuy and I will be setting up a website with all the information, so we are hoping to only have an invitation and a card with a url and related text.  Maybe we could order fancy invitations and make an insert - I only say that because it seems the inserts cost more than twice as much as the invitations!!

Invitation Inspiration

I just love the way letterpress stationary looks. LOVE.

On one hand I really want to draw our own invitations and have them printed, but on the other hand... LOOK AT THE PRETTY.

details:

(These designs are from White Aisle)

Just. So. Pretty.

I am wondering if they are a little too formal, though. It's so simple and white, plus our wedding will be in the evening, it might look so formal that people will dress up too much for the semi-formal dress code.

Of the above pictures, I especially like the one I gave the detail image on - those are cherry blossoms! I have some stationary with a similar design. :)

Friends of ours made their own invitations and they look very nice. They actually have a similar look to these invitations, but I am sure they were a lot cheaper (even factoring in the cost of the new printer, but a printer is useful not just for printing invitations, so I don't think it was a myopic investment). They printed their own invitations and then used stamps to add flourishes and I really like them! I would love to do the same thing, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea - we are inviting about twice the number of people as they did, and they said it took them hours and hours to do.