Rehearsal Invites

I finally got around to making our rehearsal/rehearsal dinner invitations this week.

Actually, I suppose "got around to" is the wrong way to say it. Let's face it: I realized we have three weeks left and had to get my ass in gear.

Earlier this week, I confirmed everything with the church and restaurant. I wanted to make sure all of the times were finalized before I printed anything.

I designed the invitations in Microsoft Publisher. I decided to make the dinner invitation and the rehearsal invitation separately, since there are people (mostly grandparents) invited to the dinner that don't need to be at the rehearsal itself. Because some people would only be getting the dinner invitation, I decided to make that the main focus. I concentrated on designing that, and then simply made an insert card with the actual rehearsal info on it.

The design was centered around two things: 1) Being easy to put together, and 2) To use some paper that I had left over from both the wedding invitations and the shower invitations, as well as extra envelopes I had. I didn't want to have to have to buy more supplies when I still had stuff left that could be utilized.

Anyway, here is what I came up with. Don't mind the black/white boxes. I had to use them to block out personal information.

I cut all of the paper myself this time around. I only had to make 25 invitations, so it didn't take too long. I used rubber cement to adhere the three layers of paper together.

I'm happy with how they turned out. They are a bit more casual than the other invitations I have done so far--which is what I was going for--but they're still nice.

I still have to address and stuff them all, but my goal is to get these in the mail on Saturday.

Big Weekend

Lots of stuff going on this weekend. Well, for the first half of it, anyway.

Since we're on summer hours at work now, I got out at noon and ran a few errands. I came home and started baking--I made a couple loaves of banana bread to bring to Michael's sister's tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, we're getting up early and driving 2.5 hours to visit with Michael's sister, our brother-in-law, and nephew. They are having a barbecue, so a lot of Michael's other family will be there as well (mom, dad, younger sister, possibly aunt, etc.). We'll hang out for several hours, then head back the 2.5 hours home. It's a long haul just to spend a few hours, but it's convenient since we don't have to worry about what to do with Tessa, and we get to be home in our own bed at night.

Once we get back, we are heading to my cousin Lindsay's house for ANOTHER barbecue, for her birthday. She is my matron of honor. I'm making her an awesome birthday cake... I will post pictures sometime this weekend. It's currently in the oven (I'm doing MORE baking!). I hope it turns out as well as I think it will. So we'll go and hang out over there, have more food, a few drinks, and celebrate her birthday. We're going to bring Tess with us since they just fenced in their backyard recently. She'll love running around back there. But we're a little concerned because they have a black lab... hopefully they'll get along. We'll see; we're going to give them a test run.

Tonight, we drove out for a meeting with our DJ to try to finalize a lot of the details for the reception. Unfortunately, we were largely unprepared because we can't make decisions. We have no idea what we're doing for the parent dances, intros, garter/bouquet tosses, or cake cutting... any of that. Really, the only one we had an answer for was the first dance. Oops. However, he gave us several suggestions, so now we kind of have something to go on. We're going to try to narrow some stuff down and make some choices this weekend.

I was happy to finally have a timeline worked out for the reception--to know when we do intros, first dance, toasts, etc. It's exciting to work out all of those little details.

Anyway, so the weekend has been busy so far, and will be crazy busy tomorrow. Sunday and Monday? We really have nothing going on. Yay! I'm excited to have some time to relax and catch up on some wedding-related things. I really need to get cracking on the rehearsal dinner invitations, as well as the morning-after brunch invites. Considering this crap is four weeks away, I don't think I can procrastinate any longer.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

It's May! It's actually May!

Our wedding is officially "next month."

*squeal*

It makes my heart rate skyrocket. I can't even believe it.

I'm currently working on preparing and researching a number of things.

I'm trying to decide on and finalize a design for the bridesmaid jewelry (which I'm making), because then I have to order all of the supplies. And not to mention--I have to leave myself enough time to make them all.

I need to finally bite the bullet and just pick and order a garter set.

I'm waiting on more RSVPs so I can make the last-minute decisions on the "extras"--favors, personalized cocktail napkins, etc. I don't really want to order anything until we have a more accurate estimate of how many people to expect.

We're going to start gathering photos and scanning them into our computer so we can get started on creating a photo slideshow/montage for our rehearsal dinner.

And also, in the next week or two... we're planning to go get our marriage license! Eeeek!

I'm sure there is more that I'm forgetting right now, but it's good to keep the list short, complete the things on it, and add more. When I look at a ginormous to-do list, it gives me major anxiety!

51 days!

Rehearsal Dress

I found my rehearsal dinner dress several weeks ago when I was at the mall wandering around on a quiet weeknight. Those of you who know me can attest to the fact that this rarely happens. In general, I'm not a big fan of shopping (I know, *gasp!*) so I rarely just "wander" around the mall. That night, however, I was in "a mood" so I decided to take advantage of it.

I ended up finding a dress at Ann Taylor Loft. I wasn't looking specifically for anything, but for me, there's this annoying little rule that seems to be a given in my life. When I'm looking for something, I can't find it. If I'm looking for the perfect gift, I can't find one. If I'm looking for a kickass pair of new jeans, I can't find them. If I'm looking for a special occasion dress... you betcha I can't find one. So when I saw a few cute dresses in Ann Taylor Loft, I decided that I should strike while the iron was hot and try them on.

I walked out with this:

Please excuse the crappy self portraits, in our bathroom no less. But you get the idea.

I figure if I happen to find something I like better, great. But given that my life seems to follow that pesky "can't find it when you're looking" rule, it's highly doubtful that I will.

Now, I just need to find a light cardigan or something to go over it. I'm one of those people that is always freezing in air conditioning. Our church isn't air conditioned, so I'm sure I'll be OK in there, but I'm likely to be shivering in the restaurant for our rehearsal dinner. Especially if I have cold feet (kidding, kidding!).