Dresses and paper samples

At the moment, wedding planning stuff is kind of slow. Last week, I researched prices on my dress, and also ordered some paper samples so I can decide what I want to use for our invitations (which I'm also doing myself!).

I'm about 98% sure I'm going to end up ordering my dress online. I can save more than $200 off of what I would pay for the dress at a local shop. And hopefully I'll be able to save on alterations by going through someone other than the bridal shop. The online vendor is actually a bricks-and-mortar bridal shop in NJ that has started taking online/phone orders and shipping the dresses out of state. They are listed as an authorized retailer on the designer website, so I feel pretty confident. Plus, numerous people on The Knot have had good experiences with them. So right now, I'm researching seamstresses. I want to find someone I like and can trust to measure me before I place the order for the dress. Plus I'd like them to give me some idea of what they think they'll charge for the hem and bustle. We'll see. Oh, and by ordering online, I can also save each of my bridesmaids about $55. Amazing!

On Wednesday, I ordered 10 different paper samples. I need cover weight cardstock to make my pocketfolds, and I'm looking for an aqua color, which can be difficult to match with online swatches. So we'll see what happens. I also need white/ivory colored text weight cardstock for the pocketfold inserts. I won't need invitations for quite some time, but I'd like to get a jumpstart on them so I can work on them a little bit at a time. Making 125 invitations and copies of all of the inserts will certainly get old after a while. So if I can work on them until I get sick of it, take a break, then work on them again... that will be helpful.

We are getting our engagement photos taken on August 13. I'm excited about them, but also a little nervous, too. It's kind of weird to think about prancing around in front of a camera with your fiance. But I suppose we'll manage. Then, once we have the files back for those, I'll get to work on designing our save-the-dates.