Invitation Frustration

People need to know about this big, fat, expensive party we're throwing, right? Invitations are definitely something you can't do without. While my practical, wanting to be green self would love to send out an evite, I am pretty sure that is frowned upon. So, the search began. Ohhh Letterpress, how I love thee. In my perfect world with unlimited funds, you would announce the pending nuptuals. Letterpress, pockets, and layers!

Project Wedding

I also completely lusted over the detail on these beauties- the envelopes, the bellyband- LOVE IT:

Hammerpress

I also thought these were cute, especially with the vellum map.

Project Wedding

I love the simplicity of these two. They make me imagine a very contemporary wedding and the second feels really industrial.

Source via Source Project Wedding

But these babies are all pretty pricey. I realize that my invitation will hang on a refrigerator for eight months at best and then be unceremoniously dropped into the trash by everyone but my mom and me. I can't justify $3.50 plus postage per invite. So, I gave myself a limit $1 per invitation plus postage, and I do not want to spend more than $.44 per invitation. That kind of thing adds up! I thought I would use some serious DIY here. We live really close to Archiver's, so I got a ton of ideas from them. This was my favorite because it looked easy, but still nice. All it takes is two types of cardstock, an inkjet printer, and a stamp.

In the end, though, Andrew convinced me that it would be WAAYYYY too frustrating and I would hate myself for it. So, the search continued. In all of my research (and there has been a lot!), I found that The American Wedding is probably the best value for your money. We ordered from them, had a minor issue, and are working at getting it resolved with only having to pay a minimal additional fee (we had to pay to mail something back to them, but it was less than $5). They provide samples, have good customer service, and are really affordable! I'm not ready to divulge my choice just yet, but here are the invites that almost were, courtesy of Wedding Paper Divas (also affordable, but I didn't love the lack of customization, and the invites were just plain printing, whereas TAW invites had raised printing).

There are so many options! What was your ideal invitation price? Where did you end up finding that piece of stationary that can set the tone for your whole wedding?

Who on Earth do I think I am?

No, really. Who am I? What makes me and my little bitty wedding blog unique? Hell, what is going to make my wedding unique? Things I think I need to address before this blog and this wedding can feel like me. I'm 24. A college graduate. A victim of the unfortunate job market we are in now and working a job I don't terribly love to attempt to scrape by. I like to be different and I definitely do things my own way. You can tell what I'm thinking by the look on my face. Ever since I was young, I wanted to get married. I still don't know if I want to have kids, and I don't know what I want to "be," but marriage was always there. So, the wedding. Me doing my own thing is definitely a factor. All etiquette is going out the window, unless it's something I'll like. Then, we'll keep it! I want our wedding to feel romantic. We are not overly outwardly lovey people, but I want everyone there who is in love to feel in love and those who aren't to wish they were. I think our venue is gorgeous, but it lends itself to many opportunities to add our own special touches. That is where I get to shine (at least, I hope...) My goal for this wedding is to develop something I will refer to as Lazy Girl DIY. With crafting, either you've got it, or you don't. Unless you're me. I have all the ambition and tons of ideas, but I am not the best at making my ideas come to fruition. I will be the Sandra Lee, the "Semi-Homemade" of DIY wedding projects. That way, there will still be my spin on invitations, placecards, centerpieces, and the rest, but I won't be completely bogged down by DIY-ing. Case in point: tonight we worked on invitations (more on that to come!) for about 30 minutes and I was done. What did you want your wedding to say? How are you making it your own?

Deciding who will document the big day!

In late July, I drug the unsuspecting fiance to the Houston Bridal Extravaganza with a clear agenda in mind: 1) Find a photographer and 2) Find a linen vendor. Other things, like a limo company and a cake baker, we thought we would just find later. We spent a mere 2.5 hours going from booth to booth, talking only to the vendors we deemed worthy. (Sidenote: I attended this same show in January with my mom a few weeks after being engaged when I had no idea what I wanted and visited nearly every booth. Then, a sheet of stickers with your name, address, wedding date, etc. cost $1 per sheet. At the most recent show, the price was up to $5 a sheet! Print your own at home, ladies! You want to enter your name for every prize available, not scrimp and limit yourself like I did the second time around!) Surprisingly, Andrew didn't hate the show as much as I thought. We met several photographers and got TONS of information. At the show, we already had our venue booked and therefore were nearly forced to commit to one of five caterers (or else incur a huge fee- a story for another post). I thought I knew which videographer I wanted and I had a tentative DJ contract that included another vendor that I want to keep a secret. So, we tried to make this short and sweet. My main focus was photography. That really is the thing that will last forever and could potentially be my biggest regret. The show made me completely obsessed with magazine-style albums. Who wouldn't want to display their wedding day in all its glory for all eternity? I knew a photographer who offered these treasures was a must. I was also adamant on limiting the "cheese" factor in a wedding photographer. "Cheese" photos include, but are not limited to, the following: 1) groom laying across bridesmaids' laps 2) bride being held up by groomsmen 3) bride being intentionally dipped by groom (if that happens during the kiss, awesome. Otherwise, let's leave it out, k?) 4) pictures taken at awkward angles claiming to be artistic. These are definitely not my favorite things. I wanted to find someone who would take a fly-on-the-wall approach and capture what was happening. The little things I would never be able to remember. At the show, we narrowed our choices down to about six photographers, plus one who wasn't able to attend the show that I fell in love with online. I bookmarked all 7 sites and then asked for the groom's opinion. Each site was given a rating on a scale of 1 - 10 for its gallery quality by each of us. Being in either person's bottom 2 was an immediate kiss of death. We were able to easily narrow the range down to three. Unfortunately for one of the three, his prices were only in our budget if we booked him that day, and I wasn't comfortable with that kind of pressure (at the show we told him where we were getting married, and he said since he loved it so much, he would give us $500 off if we booked that day). So, we were down to 2 and we emailed each for quotes. They were both very, very similar. Andrew took a last look at both photographers and decided that he liked Lindsay Perry better than the other. I, in my typical indecisiveness, didn't know who to pick, but I was leaning slightly more towards Lindsay as well. Coincidentally, she and I attended high school together and are the same age: she is facebook friends with my cousin (yes, I stalked), so I think that being younger, she will be in alignment with what we want. We met with her, she sent us a contract, and the rest is history! How did you make your important wedding decisions? What are you looking for (or not looking for) in a photographer?

Milly Update

We didn't make it on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It's still a sore subject in the Perez-Martinez casa. (Wouldn't that be strange if that became my last name? Neither fits me, but BOTH? Seriously? No thanks.) Now that I am finally in the full swing of planning, I will hopefully update more. Today I told Andrew we needed to make good on our promise to make a video blog, so hopefully we will do that this week. I'm not sure how I want to do this as this blog will eventually be linked to our wedding website that guests will use to RSVP and I don't want the few people who care enough to read this to have NO surprises at our wedding... so we will see. I am really excited to share and to document all the steps leading to our special day!