The weeks leading up to your wedding are impossibly busy.  I was pretty organized throughout the process but between designing our programs, creating menu cards and printing escort cards, free time was hard to come by the last few weeks.  Oh and don’t forget about making sure all gifts were purchased and cards written.  And that there was a detailed timeline of the day.  Or, if you’re us, a detailed timeline of the 5-day event starting Wednesday.   Regardless, doing these projects myself made our wedding a labor of love and I enjoyed pouring myself into every last detail.

I always knew I wanted a Blurb guestbook.  My main goal was to create something that Matt and I would want to keep, not just a pretty book with the signatures of our loved ones.  So I pulled out that box that most of us gals have - you know, the box filled with ticket stubs, receipts and cards that you aren’t sure what you’ll do with but one day -  yep, that’s the one.  I uploaded all of our personal memories into Blurb and voila - our guestbook!

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I am all about practicality. I am not a pack rat - never have been. If I haven’t used it, worn it, looked at it, touched it or seen it in over 6 months - it’s in the garbage. Bill and I have had some disagreements about our “stuff”. He has a lot - I don’t. He feels like I am trying to get rid of all his. I’m not - I just like it my way right? (I am getting better with this. My therapist calls it “letting go”).

I (we) wanted my (our) guests to have a practical favor they could take home and use. I got my favors from Beau Coup - a great site for gifts! I have thrown out countless single shot glasses, beer glasses, and votive candles. My thought? If you are going to give someone something - have it be something they can use. I don’t want to spoil the gift if my (our) guests are reading this - so I will reveal the favor after the wedding!

I also wanted my guests to have a program that they wouldn’t throw out immediately and could actually use!  {August can be the hottest month of the year in Rochester, NY I didn’t want anyone fainting}. I guess programs are practical to begin with - they guide everyone through the ceremony and tell you, who’s who!

I was 100% inspired by Anna Melcon Bond of Rifle Design:

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How do girls getting married in just over a month spend their weekend? Crafting, of course! I’ve been working on a lot of easy but time consuming projects this weekend. Table name signs, escort cards, M’s wedding gift, and a mock up of our ceremony programs so I can start trimming down the stock for the covers and laying out pages in InDesign. Am I the only one who gets really really excited to see something working out as planned? Consider me really excited right now. I’m in love with how this mock up program turned out!

Pretty blue cover stock, kraft paper pages and blue-striped baker’s twine? Heaven! This is also going to prove a useful tool when laying out the pages. I can see the hardest part involving figuring out how to ensure the fronts and backs of the pages line up so they print nice and aligned, but for now I am trying not to worry about that one. In the meantime, here’s what I am planning for pages and content -

{front cover} some sort of Gocco magic going on
{page 1} a title page of sorts with our names, wedding date, etc.
{page 2} a welcome message
{page 3} order of events
{page 4}  bridesmaids/bridesman introductions
{page 5}  groomsmen introductions
{page 6}  thank you note and directions to the champagne reception after the ceremony
{page 7}  recognition of loved ones who can’t be with us
{page 8}  recognition of our belief in gay marriage rights and hope for all men and women to soon be able to marry the person of their choice
{back cover}  some more Gocco magic

Is anyone else working on a program project right now? Let me know if you have any tips for printing book layouts front to back so the pages work properly when assembled.

With a little over a month to go until the wedding, I feel as though it’s finally catching up with me. Many months of planning have gone by and admittedly, it has all been rather surreal to me up to this point. I’m a planner, an orchestrater, an organizer by nature - it’s just what I do. So doing it in the context of our wedding hasn’t felt all that different to me for most of the journey. Research, debate, get inspired, make decisions, execute, lather, rinse and repeat. Make lists, check items off the list, make phone calls, obsess over contracts, reconsider everything for the eightieth time, slash the guest list, slash the budget, add to the guest list, add to the budget and then slash again.

The Wedding Date

However, over the last month or so, the sappy part of me has started to kick in. Who on earth is this sappy bride I’ve become?! At work, I have been working with some of our awesome Bella Figura brides on a couple of upcoming projects and some of them have been insanely forthcoming with the details of their love stories, the plans for their weddings, their ceremonies - a few have even shared the text that they’ve lovingly created for programs, readings and personally written ceremonies and vows!

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While invitations are undoubtedly the most important element of a wedding stationery suite, it’s equally as important to not forget about other wedding paper ephemera - like seating cards!  Whether place cards or escort cards*, seating cards can help carry design elements from your invitation suite or wedding theme through to the reception and create a cohesive wedding style.  Here are a few of my favorite seating card options:

I love the contrast between the handwriting and yellow zig-zag print on these place cards, which were made by folding flat notes by Linda & Harriett:

{photograph by Jennifer Kloss via Linda & Harriett}

For an alternative escort card display, try using repurposed items, such as old doors or windows, as well as materials such as twine and mini-clothespins:

{photographs by Beaux Arts Photographie via The Bride’s Cafe}

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Eco-chic is a funny thing. The phrase itself makes me laugh…throwing “chic” after any word makes it…well….chic. Rustic chic, shabby chic… but heck. I’m all for making things eco-friendly. After my DIY debaucle last week with our invitations, I started thinking about the sustainability of our wedding. While we will be able to reuse the paper I had originally bought, I still felt wasteful for using all these resources. Because my brother-in-law (to be!) is attending a sustainable MBA program in S.F., I came to him for advice on some ways to make my wedding more eco-friendly.

Luckily, I discovered that we were already doing several things right: using recycled paper and soy ink for the programs, renting plates/dishes/glasses (better than the disposables!), a preowned wedding dress, no showers, engagement parties, etc. (which use quite a bit of wrapping paper, which just gets tossed, and generally require a lot of resources), using vintage rings, and getting locally grown produce and poultry from the caterer.

However, there were many things that needed improvement…the first being our centerpieces. Little did we know, about 79% of cut flowers are imported from Ecuador, where many pesticides and dangerous chemicals are used which leach directly into the water system. UM, no!! So we started looking into alternatives, and found these lil’ bits of happiness:

Photo by Gia Canali via Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book Blog

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It’s been a busy week.  I got my dream job offer, flew to DC, found an apartment, and have packed 7 fridge-sized boxes since yesterday in preparation for my big move to DC this weekend.  Although this means my fiance and I will continue our long-distance relationship for another 6 months or so before we re-evaluate our next move, NYC (where he lives) is a lot closer to DC than Africa was (where I was living last year).

The best part about visiting D.C. last week was meeting with my good friend Kate from grad school.  She is the one friend I have that is engaged at the same time as I am and I seriously don’t know what I would do with out her.  She is the only one who physically can listen to me talk about wedding details for HOURS upon end with feedback after every sentence.  My mother has actually forced me to call Kate when she can no longer stand my endless analysis. I hope you all have a friend like her too!

Anyway, Kate is an extremely creative, cool and classy gal whose most recent wedding DIY project I am planning on stealing is inspiring me to do something similar.  I’ve asked her to share with us her homemade SAVE THE DATES inspired by her venue.

She, like me, is in love with her wedding reception venue, hers being at the Headlands Center for the Arts, old army barracks in Marin County near San Francisco pictured below.

She asked the on-site wedding coordinator to send her a high resolution image of the venue to use as a stamp for her Save-the-Dates.  The results are oh so classy, cool and personal.

Not only does Kate regularly help me with wedding planning but she saved me this week with my blog post, since I am in the middle of a big move, and generously shared  all the details of her DIY Save-the-Date cards with me to share with you.  Enjoy.

Kate:

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I have to admit I’ve been scouring wedding blogs since well before I got engaged. In my defense, I’d been considering wedding photography since about 2.5 years ago, so in some ways it made sense that I was in on the latest in nuptial events.

[By the way, spell check your programs and whatnot, I went to a wedding this weekend where nuptial was spelled nuptual, which looks right but isn't. The little red squiggly underline in my brain went off when I saw it.]

Amelia Lyon ring shot

This mild obsession means that I have a ton of ideas of things I want to incorporate in my wedding, but also that I feel like I’m bored with the standard wedding. I’m also thinking of my wedding in terms of photographs, because that’s how I think for the most part. Amelia knows that I think in terms of albums and post-processing (photoshop) more often than not during a shoot and that’s how my wedding planning has become. I want the macro shot of our rings with some really random detail I haven’t picked yet.

photo from the knot: notice how our checklist has 1 to-do completed…

When we first got engaged I freaked out over the amount of time I had to plan. I fell victim to the knot checklist I had viewed before getting engaged, and of course the bridal shop urging of “you need to order your dress immediately because it takes 16 weeks to come in.” I feel like if I had 16 weeks I could learn to sew and make my own dress. Of course, I didn’t.

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This week will mark three months until the wedding so after a bit of a hiatus in important decision-making, I’ve decided now is likely a good time to evaluate where we are and what major items are left to be accomplished between now and July. To be honest, I don’t typically like nor put much value on the prescribed planning timelines you’ll find on a lot of wedding planning websites, but I do think now perfect timing for me to be checking in on myself and getting organized again. So, with three months to go the list looks something like this…

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1. {Invitations} Mail invitations (scheduled for the first week of May) and begin cataloging RSVPs
2. {Cake} Decide on to cake or not to cake and if not, what we’d like to serve instead
3. {Ceremony} Finish selection of readings, readers, write vows, etc.
4. {RSVP Info} Mail list of weekend events + reminder to make accommodation arrangements to confirmed guests
5. {Itinerary} Mail list of weekend events/times/locations, suggestions for attire and other helpful information to wedding party
6. {Groomsmen Attire} Finalize decision on what M and his groomsmen will be wearing, make rental arrangements
7. {Wedding Party Gifts} Complete purchase of wedding party gifts for 7 bridesmaids, 1 bridesman, and 6 groomsmen
8. {DIY Projects} Complete or scrap remaining DIY projects including favors, table numbers, escort cards, programs, photo guest book and whatever other little ideas I fall in love with between now and then
9. {Rentals} Finalize details on what we’re renting and if it’s being delivered/setup or if we’re tackling that on our own to save money
10. {Music} Finalize music selections and meet with our friend/DJ to cover the basics…otherwise it’s all up to him
11. {Thank You Cards} Find/buy or design/print cute thank you cards so they are ready to go when gifts arrive
12. {Flowers} Find a weekend to mock up some bouquets and centerpieces so I can convince myself I won’t go crazy doing it on our own

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So, with three months to go, that’s how things are shaping up.  I feel ok about what we have left to do and honestly, I think I’ll be comfortable scaling back on the list to stay sane if need be. How are you June/July/August brides doing with your lists?

I love, love invitations that incorporate hand-lettering or illustration, particularly the work of Florida-based illustrator Anna Melcon Bond of Rifle Design.  Anna seems to effortlessly blend traditional illustration with folk art elements to create some of the most lovely Save the Dates and wedding invitations.

This first Save the Date is one of my all-time favorites - I love the the contrast between the black background, floral illustrations, and white hand-lettering is just so beautiful:

The next set is one of Anna’s most recent invitation suites, created for a late Spring wedding in North Carolina:

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Yesterday was my birthday and after a long search, I finally found and purchased a Gocco as my birthday gift to myself. I’ve basically been on the fence about purchasing a Gocco for a year at this point and naturally, by the time I realized just how much I wanted one they were completely sold out basically everywhere. Oops! Oh well, after some sleuthing and a shout out on my blog and some great tips from my readers, I found one and it is supposed to ship today. Hooray! So in the spirit of all things Gocco, I thought I’d share some of my favorite Gocco inspiration.

Mrs. Penguin’s Gocco coaster favors

Kristina’s lovely thank you cards

Elizabeth’s RSVP Packets

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While I love browsing the wedding collections of stationers and invitation studios, one of my absolute favorite things to do is to feature real invitations - particularly custom and diy invitations.  I just love seeing the way that real couples and designers work together to produce an invitation design that represents the bride and groom as a couple and suits their unique wedding style.  Today, I want to share this lovely custom invitation suite from Paperwink - both because of its beautiful design and the lovely meaning behind the invitations:

Tara, half of the design duo behind Paperwink, created this invitation suite for her own wedding!  Tara’s invitation suite conveys the Jewish concept of Besheret, or fate - in Tara’s case, the fate that brought the bride and groom together originally, as well as the fate that would bring their loved ones together on their wedding day.  The invitation also included a quote, which says “man and wife ‘are the roots to one complete soul’:”

The quote served as the inspiration for the mail visual elements of the invitation design.  Paperwink used a hand-drawn flower and bulb as the central design elements throughout the invitation suite to visually represent the concepts of roots and fate.  The invitations were letterpress printed on ultra-thick coaster stock to add an organic texture.

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