Save. The. Date.

Things have been pretty quiet around this little blog of mine lately.  But this time I have a good reason.  Really, I do! 

Oh, that’s right.  Our Save the Dates are not only IN THE MAIL, they have all been delivered to our guests!

I had good intentions to document the making of these babies with photos, but yeah, that didn’t happen.  I will say that every component of them is handmade.  I didn’t do it just to say that I made them, but more so because I could get exactly what I wanted and for a very nice price. 

These babies came out to $0.63 each.  I know I could of had some very pretty cards printed up through a retailer for cheaper, but I wanted to have the picture included and add a bit of my own flair.  I’d say I succeeded. 

Without further ado, here it is:

 

I hate to admit it, but I originally got the idea long before we were engaged when I was reading Weddingbee when I shouldn’t have been.  Mrs. Cherry Pie made a similar save the date and I just thought it was fantastic.  Ever since I read that post (a good year and a half before we were engaged), I knew that I wanted to use that for our save the dates.  And when I showed L and he concurred that he liked them, we were off.

Since we knew right away what we wanted to make, I started early.  Like, November early.  I spent a couple of days pricing all the components out on the internet to be sure I was going to get everything for as cheap as possible. 

For starters, navy blue cardstock for the backing.  I chose text weight paper in bulk from Paper Source in the color Night.  I found some online shops that had less expensive paper, but once you added the shipping in, it was no longer the winner.  Luckily a Paper Source store opened in Charlotte a little more than a year ago.

Next was the vellum.  I got a pack of 50 sheets from AC Moore and used a 50% off coupon.  Same deal with the cardstock in terms of price plus shipping.

I already had my Gocco which my mom bought me for a very early Christmas present in August and knew that’s how I would print them.

I purchased navy Gocco ink, but was unable to find a pink that was the right shade.  So I chose to add glitter to it instead.  I love glitter.  A lot.  No seriously. 

And then I decided to add my other best friend.  Her name is Swarovski.  Yes indeed.  The rhinestones on the bottom are genuine Swarovksi crystal.  I purchased them from Rhinestoneguy.com.  A great resource that I found in high school when we purchased from them to add rhinestones to our competitive dance costumes.  I ordered 2 gross of the smaller size and one gross of the larger size.  It came to about $20 for all of them.

Then there were the envelopes.  I wanted hot pink envelopes.  Paper Source sells exactly what I was looking for, but they were just too expensive.  They came out to be about $0.48 an envelope and that was just too much.  So, I decided to make them.  Yes, that’s right.  I made 96 envelopes from scratch.  I purchased the template from Paper Source and made the envelopes out of Fuschia wrapping paper from Paper Source.  Don’t get me wrong, I searched the internet thoroughly before beginning this daunting task, but I couldn’t find anything that was the right color for the right price.  These came out to be about $0.11 each, which wasn’t much more than plain white ones I was finding Office Max and other stores.

And the wrap around mailing labels?  I was going to use Martha Stewart’s free template, but it was plain white.  And I was ok with that, but one last ditch search brought me to those babies.  I wasn’t even searching for the colors, just for free templates.  And low and behold, they were perfect.  I have also received tons of compliments on them.

I used a super high tech design program to set up the text, it’s called Microsoft Word, are you familiar with it?  L helped me to make the spacing perfect and some other edits.  Unfortunately, the first one I made was too big for my Gocco.  I thought I could print a 5×7 on it, but it turns out, I can only print a 4×6.  We resized it so it would fit on the Gocco screen, but when I burned the screen, it turns out, it needs to be slightly smaller than that.  Well crap, I wasted a screen and two bulbs (for anyone that Goccos, you know how depressing that is).  One last shot and another edit and we got it right.  So I Gocco’d away.  But wait, I’m out of order.

So in November, I took a couple hours and cut all the 8.5 x 11 cardstock to 5×7 sizes.  Then another night I started tracing the envelope templates onto the wrapping paper, cutting them out, trimming them, folding them and gluing them togehter – I used a double stick tape applicator which was fabulous (and cheap!).  That took several days to finish.  Then came another night cutting the vellum.  Then it all sat quietly for several weeks.  We needed a photo.

We looked at some photos we already had, but none of them were suitable.  Or vertical.  I really wanted it to be vertical, I just thought it would look best.  So we were going to have a friend take a photo for us – then his wife had a baby and they were busy.  So another friend offered to do it for us.  He just got a super fancy camera and was excited to use it and do some editing.  He took over 100 photos!

So once we had the photo chosen, then I used my Xyron to put adhesive on them and stick them to the backing.  That’s when I found out my paper cutter didn’t cut straight and the backings were slightly crooked.  I was disappointed at first, but figured no one else would notice since it was so slight.  Then I went and got a new paper cutter that I love.

Next, I Gocco’d all the vellum.  After I printed each one, I sprinkled it with glitter and set it to the side to dry so I could tap off the excess.  That took several hours.

I took five hours one day to glue each rhinestone by hand. 

L cut a roll of adhesive magnet into small strips and we stuck them to the back so they can be hung on the fridge if people desire.  This should have been done last, because I place the strip where I needed to punch holes for the ribbon so some of the holes were off, but again, I don’t think anyone noticed.  So I punched each one and cut the ribbon and threaded it through. 

I printed all the mailing labels, Xyroned them, adhered them to the envelopes and stuffed them.  Paper Source makes a great envelope glue that you can put on ahead of time, let dry and then moisten like a regular envelope.

And then.  WE MAILED THEM.  On January 27.  Woohoo!  We got lots of positive comments, and of course, we took photos!  Because that’s what we do.  Needless to say, we had ourselves a good little photoshoot while there.  Good thing it was about 9pm on a Sunday.

Off we go!

Getting closer!

Even the Post Office is telling us to “Mail It!”

Off to my parents!

And to L’s parents!

The last batch!

I Think I Can, I Think I Can…

Give me what seems to be an impossible mission, specifically a shopping mission, and I will succeed. 

My green shoe search?  It’s been solved.

I had noticed that a lot of the options in green that I had been finding were by Caparros, even though many of them were out of the size I needed.  While searching the internet, I found a few comments on threads by women that said they found theirs in the store, but not online.  So, it was time to hit the pavement. 

I stopped into Off-Broadway Shoes (like DSW) the other day when I was out running errands.  I started off at the end with the dressier shoes and came across an evening clutch in the most fabulous green color.  This was the exact color I was looking for – now if only it were a pair of shoes!  I looked at the tag and what do you know?  It was by Caparros.  I kept strolling the row and came across a green pair, also by Caparros, but much too winter-y.  As I walked, I scanned the other aisles and was sure I was going to walk out of this store no closer to solving the green shoe mystery.

But as I made my way toward the end of the row and was rounding the corner to the second row, I spotted them!  Green.  Slingbacks. Perfect.  And what do you know, they’re also by Caparros.  I glanced down at the boxes looking for my size to try them on and noticed that they had every size I needed.  They were pretty, the right color, relatively comfortable and not too high. 

And then it got better.  Yes, BETTER!  They were $49.99, so they fit in the price range I was looking for.  But that’s not the good part.  They were an additional 30% off.  Grand total – $35!

Now, factor in the $10 from me and the $10 from my mom, and each girl will spend $15!  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I didn’t want to buy them before asking my girls what they thought, so I texted a picture to each of them.  Everyone likes them, one girl questions whether they’ll match the dress or not though, but she likes the shoe in general and wouldn’t mind wearing them.

I think that they will go with the dress, but maybe I’m just blinded because I’m so excited I found green shoes.  They aren’t very chunky or clunky when they’re on.  What do you think?

As a reminder, here’s the dress:

 

 

 

The girls will also have green flowers and green jewelry.  I was thinking about having my matron of honor wearing pink shoes, and these come in pink, but it’s more purple than pink, so that’s a no go.

Sometimes I think I like something that is more like this style:

And I’m sure if I wait for the spring lines to come out, I’ll probably find something more like this.  But, they probably won’t be on sale if they just came out!  And I really don’t want my girls to spend a lot of money on shoes.  Especially green shoes.  And you can’t beat $35/$15!

But anyway… do you think the green ones go with the dress?

Green With Envy

I’ve gotten a lot of big things checked off my list of wedding related tasks.  Wedding gown? Check. Venue? Check. Photographer? Check. Videographer? Check. Bridesmaid dresses? Check.  Wedding shoes? Check.  And I’m stuck searching for one item.  Bridesmaid shoes.

I saw this picture long ago, way before our engagement, that made me fall in love with navy and green.  Specifically the green shoes.

I saved this photo long ago and don’t know from where.  If it’s yours, I’m happy to credit or remove at request.

I’ve been on the lookout for green shoes everywhere and can’t find anything I like.  My only hope that is in the next couple months, more options will present themselves when the spring lines come out.  But you know what?  I don’t want to wait a few months.  I want to find them now.

I have searched the internet looking for green, preferably satin, shoes that are not ridiculously expensive.  I’m looking for something no more than $50.  I will cover $10 of each pair and my mom said she would cover $10 of each pair.  At $50, my girls would only have to spend $30, which isn’t so bad.  But the cheaper the better, so I’m on the lookout for that.

Apparently, I’m not the only one on the lookout for apple green shoes.  There are threads on Weddingbee about this topic with many women in the same predicament.

It seems I’m a few months late because Nine West used to make the most perfect shoe.

Source

Too bad these bad boys seem to have been discontinued.  I’ve found them in various places around the web for as little as $20, but do you think they are in green?  No, they are not.  I’ve been stalking ebay.  Green?  No.  And besides, what do you think the chances of finding 5 green pairs in the right sizes would be?

I found another perfect pair in the Nine West outlet after Christmas.  In fact, they look almost the same to me.  Did they come in green?  Of course not.

Then there are these:

Source

PERFECT!

Except for two minor details. 

1. the heels are 4″.  I think that may be a little high for a couple of my girls. 
2. They are $92.  Yikes.  The combined $20 contribution from my mom and me would only bring them to $72 and I would NEVER ask them to pay that much for a pair of shoes.  Especially green ones.

I continued searching.  Google searches, store searches, blog searches.  Anything I could think of.  As I clicked on a pair of shoes in a general search to see if they came in green, I was met with the surprise that they were!  They were green!  The right green!  And they’re cute!  And they’re $55 so they fit into the price range.  Surely I could throw in another $5 per pair to bring them to $30 for my girls.

Source

Son of a b****!  They only come in 5, 5.5, 7, 7.5 and 11.  Too bad that would only fit one girl.  Everyone else is in the 8-10 range.

But, I will not stop.  Surely they must sell these in other places.  And if I have to, I’ll just freakin wait for the spring lines.

If, however, you know where I can get those Nine West Jojus in green in a 7.5, 8, 8.5 and two 9s, I will love you forever!

What’s the Going Rate?

I’ve been presented with an opportunity.  Some might think it’s not the most ethical opportunity, but I don’t really have a problem with it.  One of L’s colleagues approached me and asked if I would be interested in writing his papers for a music appreciation class he is taking.  And he’ll pay me.  I just have to name my price.

But what do you charge for something like this?  Obviously I want to make it worth my while, but I don’t want to rip him off and lose this opportunity for a little extra cash.  I know some people don’t agree with this, but let’s face it, it’s been going on for as long as term papers have existed.

I never knew anyone in college that paid to have a paper or assignment done for them, so I can’t even make a comparison.  He asked me about this last month before his semester started, so I told him to show me his syllabus and we’d talk after that.  I know I should base it on how long the paper is and how much research I would have to do to complete it, but where do you think it starts?

This all began when L was working at this guy’s station one day (they have to switch up for a shift every  now and then) and was working on some homework.  He and L started talking about schoolwork and what a pain some of the general ed classes were and L told him that I helped him with his papers for him.  That’s when the guy asked if I’d be willing to do it for other people for money. 

Many of the guys that work at the fire department are in school.  You just need a high school diploma to get hired, but there are different pay levels based on education.  So many of them get hired young and complete their schooling part-time.  I began helping L with his because I find it fun.  I miss college.  The learning and writing papers and staying up to study for exams.  Don’t get me wrong.  I did NOT enjoy this while I was in college and I couldn’t wait for graduation day!  It’s one of those ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ situations.

These guys don’t want to be bothered with the freshman English or music appreciation classes they are required to take.  They want the fire classes and the diploma.

So what do you think?  Let’s say it’s a two page paper (I’m trying to think back to my music appreciation class which was about 8 years ago) that requires2 hours of research.  What would be a good price?

Say Cheese!

I thought that we would never be able to find a photographer.  After three weeks of venue searching when we first got engaged, the photograher and videographer were next on our to-do list, but what did I find when we started looking?  Large numbers and an inevitable comma.  I was not liking these 4 figure price tags attached to every photographer we found.

It seems that my organizational skills have gone out the window when it comes to this wedding.  Although L and I had come up with our overall budget figure, we never really broke it down.  Sure I had consulted a couple of wedding planning books, the Knot’s budgeter and wedding magazine checklists to determine what percentage of our budget should be spent on different aspects, but when I saw that our photography and videography should be no more than $1100 combined, I knew we were going to have some issues.  From the beginning, I always said that photography was one of the things that I wanted to splurge on.

So what was our budget for photography?  Well, we never really specified it.  As we continued to look at photographers, we were trying to stick to the $1500 range because that was the cheapest we were finding.  At the beginning, our criteria was good pictures and a CD of all the edited pictures with copyright release.  This would enable to print our own photos rather than paying for prints. 

Many of the packages included bridal or engagement sessions, so we tried to negotiate those out.  The bridal portrait is a very southern tradition, and although I embrace almost all things southern, this is one I just can’t wrap my head around.  I think they always look nice, especially to give to a parent rather than hanging a large photo of myself in our house, but why do you want a photo of me all dressed up in my wedding garb when it wasn’t even my wedding day? 

Anyway… we didn’t need the engagement session either because we won a session with no strings attached at a bridal show in October (yay!).  Well, as it turns out, many of the photographers weren’t willing to exchange these sessions for a reduced fee or extra hours.  Some, but not all.  I had heard many brides say that they were doing an engagement photo just to get comfortable with the photographer, and that made sense, but why not get rid of it if it will save money?  It wasn’t until we came across one photographer who said he required the engagement session so he could get used to the couple and know what works best for them, etc.  Then the lightbulb finally went off and we added that to our requirement list.

We eventually upped our pseudo budget to around $2000.  I wasn’t willing to compromise quality for cost.  We finally had it down to three photographers and two videographers.  There were only subtle differences in the photographers, and I knew I would be happy with each of them.  Our decision was going to come down to who we chose for a videographer and which combonation of videographer and photographer was best for us in terms of dollars.

One photographer offered unlimited hours.  The other two offered 7 hours, but you could add more for a fee, which would put them both out of our price range.  Then it came to videographers.  Record the rehearsal dinner or not?  The more coverage we have, the better, in my opinion, but losing the rehearsal dinner would save about $400.  I resigned and said that I would be ok with no video at the rehearsal dinner if we could contact a local college and see if we could get a photography student looking to build their portfolio to photograph the rehearsal and dinner for a cheap rate.  So that’s where we were.  Then the only difference was one or two cameras at the reception. 

Did we really need two?  I mean, I want paparazzi, but if we went with the one camera, we would get one of the photographers we loved the most.

We were at a loss.  We sat on the couch adding more coloumns to our color-coded spreadsheet going around in circles.  I kept getting hung up on going back to the photographer who offered unlimited hours.  Because I want them there from the moment I open my eyes in the morning.

Finally we had to close the laptop and just make some appointments.  So that’s what we did.  We had two appointments this past Monday (a photographer and a photographer/videographer) and scheduled another one for this coming Monday with the last photographer.  We had yet to make an appointment with the second videographer.

Our first appointment was with the photographer/videographer combination.  I think that we liked them the best before we went.  I say “think” because I’m not sure either one of us knew which we really wanted.  As it turns out, the meeting was very productive.  Not only were they offering a discount of 10% off each service or 15% off of each if you book both, but he also helped us make it more affordable.  Originally we had chosen the package that had the most hours we could afford, but also had an engagement session and a bunch of albums. 

Since we’re willing to eliminate the albums to save money and allow us to get the photographer we want (we’ll just do albums later – maybe with some money we get from teh wedding), he showed us another alternative.  The cheapest package that only had 6 hours and the CD of pics.  Nothing else.  He then added in the engagement session, second photographer and 4 extra hours and it came out much cheaper.  Then you include the 10 or 15% discount and it got even better.  He showed us another DVD sample of the videography and it was even better than some that we had seen on his website.

We walked out of his office very pleased, knowing that we would be basing the next meeting solely on the photog’s personality.  If she blew us away, we would consider her, if not, we’d probably go with the first guy.

The second girl was nice, but after looking at more of her photos, we liked the first guy better, and she didn’t blow us away with her personality either. 

There was a lot of back and forth.  Let’s nix her.  Well, are we sure?  How much are we really willing to spend?  One video camera or two?  If we wanted two, we’d have to meet with the other videographer.  When we got home we took some more time to look at the numbers yet again. 

I am getting really sick of looking at excel sheets, let me tell you.

It still came down to how many cameras.  L did some research and it seems that most videographers we found (just in general, they did’t even have to be local) only had one camera at the reception.  And although I feel like we’ll have a large headcount (about 150), but I don’t think it’s sooo big that one camera wouldn’t get all the dancing and other good stuff.  We slept on it.

Yesterday, as we looked at the spreadsheets, again!, we decided one camera was ok and that we would go with the photog/video guy.  We emailed him to make sure our numbers were correct – and when it came back CHEAPER (his cost for an extra photographer was $100 cheaper than he had told me a few weeks ago), we were ecstatic!  I asked him to work up a contract which he emailed me back within a half hour and we were just about set.

The money for the deposit is in my checking account and I’ll be faxing the signed contract back this afternoon.  We’re getting so close!

A recap (if you’ve even made it this far since this post is like 4 years long):

Venue – check!
Caterer – check! (well, it comes with the venue)
Linens, tables, chairs – check! (ok, those come with the venue too)
Wedding dress – check!
Wedding shoes - check! (thanks L, I love them!)
Bridesmaids – check!
Bridesmaid dresses – check!
Photographer – check!
Videographer – check!

The only big things we have left are a florist, cake, L asking his groomsmen and figuring out what they’re wearing (no, L, black is NOT ok), a band (it’s just picking out of a list of 3-5 now)… oh, and someone to marry us.  I guess that’s kind of important.

The save the dates will hopefully go out by the end of next week and then we just need to decide on invitations.  We’re so close!

Give Me A Beat Boys…

…to save my soul.  I want to get lost in that rock and roll and drift away…

In the ADD-ness that is our wedding planning, we’re now looking at bands to play for our entertainment.  No, we still have not selected a photographer or videographer.  Yes, we are still down to the same 3 photogs and 2 videos.  Yes, we talked ourselves in circles about which combonation to pick.  Yes, we have two meetings tomorrow and one next Monday.  Yes, I had to move on before I went crazy from my indecisiveness.

So, back to the band.  During our pseudo wedding planning back before we were engaged, we said how we both wanted a band, but I knew that it likely would not fall in our budget.  If we got a good DJ, it wouldn’t make a difference either.  Once we started actually planning, the indecisiveness came up again (do you notice a them here?).  We couldn’t afford what we wanted.  Isn’t that the story of everyone’s life?  There is a pretty well known regional beach music band that is a sort of family friend to L’s family and we thought they might cut us a deal.  However, their initial price was higher than we thought.  We tabled the idea for awhile while we chose our venue and worked on some other things.

At a bridal show, we found a DJ that was only $550 for a Sunday wedding with no time limit.  That was certainly hard to pass up.  Especially when another band we found that we liked was charging $2800.  That’s when I decided for myself that we would have to settle for the DJ.  But L was going to do what he could to make this band thing work.  He likes the atmosphere of a band better.  Thinks it adds more to the party.  And will definitely help fill up the room a little. 

Plus, there’s this:

The place has got a great stage!  It just screams “you have to have a band at your wedding to go on this stage!”  There is no curtain to go across the stage to block it completely or make it feel smaller if we were to have a DJ.  I know we could work with the lights to darken the back of the stage and draw attention to the front and mask the empty space if we had a DJ, but doesn’t it just make you want to put a band up there?

We found another band that we loved, but they were a steep $2800.  We were dumbfounded as to how we were going to make this work.  And then Christmas came.  We were fortunate enough to each get a decent amount of cash.  So we decided to put that in the band fund.  It was money we didn’t expect to have and was not part of the original budget, so it’s like a treat to ourselves.  Then, we realized we had a large sum of money sitting in an ING account. 

As much as L’s parents make jabs about us having two dogs, they are EXTREMELY generous.  After Shep’s initial biopsy, his grandmother gave him enough cash to cover that and told us to take the money we had intended to use and save it for any future surgeries he may need.  Then, when it came time for his big surgery, his mom stopped by the vet and paid the bill in full.  I was shocked and could not be more thankful.  So between that leftover amount and our Christmas money, we have almost enough.  If you add in the $550 from our budget that we would have used for the DJ, we’re there even closer.  The other night, I spent three hours counting change that we had been collecting, and with that final number, we were there.

We’re having a band!

But just to be sure, I started looking at other bands in case our first choice wasn’t available.  And oh dear Lord, I found so many I like.  And some of them are cheaper and some of them are just a smidge more.  What do we do?!?!

We want a good variety of music.  Definitely need beach music/shag, but we want country too, and top 40 and great dance songs and classic singalongs.  Because what is a party without Journey?

In our searches, we found the band that played at a friend’s wedding last year.  After inquiring, we found out their price was $3500.  WAY out of our price range.  For the heck of it, L sent them an email explaining that we loved them, but they were out of our price range and asked if they would come down (to our tip top amount).  And they agreed!  But we’re still not sure.  Because there are several other bands we love now too that we’re waiting to hear back from.

This is tough!  I’ve been using a website called Gigmasters.com which is amazing.  You can request a quote from several bands at one time and so far, they are responding very quickly.

So, now we have one more thing that we just can’t seem to make a decision on.  Pretty soon we’re going to start picking from hats.  But in the meantime, at least we know that we’ll have a band and have someone that we love!  It’s a little wedding present to each other and a nice little surprise since we weren’t sure we’d be able to make this work.

Santa Was GOOOOOD

I’m a few days late with this Christmas recap and was absent all of last week – but it’s the holidays and it’s always a crazy time.  Plus, I was busy buying my wedding dress!

I still can’t believe Christmas is over.  Or Thanksgiving either.  Also.  Is tonight really New Year’s Eve?  Wow.  This year has gone by so quickly.  I wasn’t really ready for Christmas this year.  Probably because the whole holiday season snuck up on me so quickly.  I felt like I wasn’t even really in the Christmas spirit.  I did half of my Christmas shopping in July, but left the other half for the week before the holiday.  I knew what I was getting everyone, it was  just the actual act of going to purchase it that I was slow about.  And in the end, everyone seemed to love what we gave them.

And I certainly loved what I got!  L and I exchange our gifts a few days after Christmas since he has worked the last two we’ve been together.  So my lovely gifts started on Christmas eve from my parents.  My mom bought me a Gocco over the summer that was supposed to be for Christmas – we just snatched it when I found one for a good price.  And I was perfectly happy with just getting my usual small stocking stuffers because of that.  But she kepts telling me when we arrived earlier in the week that she only had one gift for me and that was it.  I really had no idea what it was.  Not a clue or a hint or a sneaking suspicion. 

As we sat by the tree on Christmas Eve after dinner with my aunt and cousins, I tore the wrapping paper to reveal a navy blue box.  It wasn’t until I ripped it a little further and saw the logo on the box that I knew what it was.

This was the logo I saw:

And I gasped and looked at my mom because I knew that this box contained two items that I have been coveting since I was about 12 years old.

These:

Source

This picture does them absolutely no justice.  I’ve been drooling over these ever since the first time I saw them in a Swarovski store and exclaimed that I would have those for my wedding one day.  I knew they were expensvie, but seriously, I have wanted these for like 14 years.  After we got engaged, I of course looked them up.  And when I saw the price tag, I knew it was going to take a lot of saving to get them. 

There are a lot of little details I am willing to forgo for our wedding to save money.  But let me tell you.  This was NEVER one of them.  I didn’t know how, but I was going to buy these at some point before our wedding.  I had searched ebay and they were always there.  Not for as cheap as I would hope, but definintely a lot less than full retail price. 

Just before Christmas I saw a pair go up for auction for $.99.  I put it in my ‘watch’ folder on ebay, knowing that these babies would go for much, MUCH more than $1 – and then I forgot about them.  When I got an email reminding me that the auction was ending soon, I saw a price tag of over $300.  I deleted it and moved on with my day, knowing I still had months to figure out this dilema.

My mom had played the ebay game as well and got them for a much better price.  And the fact that I couldn’t stop staring at them made her feel really good, I think.  I never, in a million years, would have guessed that that was what was inside the box.  I can’t wait to use them on our wedding day.  Would it be inappropriate to drink Crystal Lite out of them until then? haha.  We’re going to have to invest in some sort of hutch so these can be prominently (yet safely) displayed!

My pictures do them no justice, either, but at least you can sort of see the loose crystal filled stems.  And the beautifully cut base.

 

But that wasn’t all.  And there were more wedding-related Christmas gifts to come.  My cousin and his wife bought us a US Airways gift card that we’ll hopefully be able to put toward our honeymoon travel.

And then there was L’s gift.  My mom and I drove back on Sunday and L and I opened gifts Monday morning when he got home from work.  There were two moderately sized boxes under the tree, but I didn’t know what they were.  We had set a $50 limit this year and I couldn’t think of any of the things I asked for that would come in boxes that size.  He did mention to me that he may have exceede the limit though (I couldn’t be totally mad though because my original gift for him was over the limit – another story for that one). 

I told him to open his first.  I got him 4 shirts from Gap that he wanted (all on sale – love it!) and another tshirt from a restaurant in CT that we love (and have several other tshirts from).  Then I got him one of those Nike+ things for his ipod.  The one where the chip goes in your shoe and syncs with your ipod when you run.  He’s been wanting it and it seems pretty cool.  I might need one for myself.

Then it was my turn.  He handed my one box and told me to open if first.  I unwrapped it and saw a Zappos box.  My first thoughts were that he bought me the shoes I wanted for the wedding.  But those were so expensive.  I thought maybe he bought me a similar pair I found after those.

But when I opened the box, I found a pair of pink shoes from my own collection and another shoe that I had broken the heel off of last year.  Umm, what the crap?

He handed me the other box and I ripped the paper tentatively, wondering if it was going to be another bogus present.  Underneath I found a green shoe box.  Green as in Kate Spade green.  Yes, indeed.  He bought me the shoes!!!  I had to be careful not to get droplets of drool on them as I turned them over in my hands, not believing they were mine.  I kept telling him I was so mad at him for breaking our limit, but my mom said it was hard to believe because of the smile plastered on my face.

I pulled off my socks and rolled up my jeans as I went to slip them on.  I was a little nervous though.  I used to wear a 9 1/2 or 10.  But the last few years it’s been more of a 10 or 10 1/2.  The largest size on Zappos was a 10 and I figured that the shoes might run smaller like most designer anything does.  Plus, when I was searching the internet the week before looking for them on ebay or other potentially discounted places, I saw someone say that they would order a half size larger.

I proceeded with caution and you know what happened?  They fit absolutely perfectly!  They just slid right on.  There was no shoving my foot in.  No getting my fingers caugh in the heel trying to stretch the shoe around my foot.  I stood up and walked around and not only did they fit, but they were comfortable! 3.25″ heels were comfortable.  No wonder they’re so expensive.  I put them on every now and then, but each time they go back in the box when I’m done.  I absolutely can’t wait to wear these on my wedding day and I think they will go perfectly with my dress!

This was the best Christmas ever!

Oh, and you know I’ve taken pictures of these too, right?  These are my own shoe shots and ring shots!

Now if only I could somehow track down 5 pairs of the Nine West Jojus shoes in green for my bridesmaids!  Too bad they’re discontinued. 

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Happy Birthday, Puppy Dogs!

Has it really been that long?  Two years?  730 days?  730 and 1/2 days (for any detail oriented people out there)?

The puppies turned two years old this past Sunday.  December 13.  I really can’t believe it.  That means that as of January 27th, we will have had them as a part of our family for two years. 

I really can’t believe it.  They have brought such happiness to us (I sound like a new mom, you would think I was talking about human beings!) and we love them so much.  And God knows they’re spoiled (as Shep is laying on the couch with his head on my lap snoring).

Sometimes it feels like we’ve had them for forever and ever.  And other times it feels like it was just yesterday we drove the 8 hours to go pick them up in southern Georgia.

L worked on Sunday, so we threw a puppy birthday party on Monday instead.  It was complete with birthday hats, singing and presents.    They each got a special chew bone treat and posed so nicely with their hats on.  It’s really quite funny how well they cooperate for photos sometimes.

Dixie wore her hat, but wasn’t as keen about it.  She even had her tail tucked some of the time.  Who knows why, she can be so strange about stuff sometimes.

Dad, why do you do this to me?

I still love you though!

Poor Shep has had a rough year of people poking and prodding at his eye.  Getting good news, then bad news, then ultimately good news.  And it seems to be staying that way.  The tumor was successfully removed, he got to keep his eye, and as of right now, it doesn’t look like he’ll have to have any more surgeries.

So, Happy Birthday to our puppy dogs, we love you!  And they may even make an appearance in our wedding.  Because how cute would Shep look wearing a bowtie like this?

Source – somewhere on this site

Devil in a Blue Dress

Ok, so that title has nothing to do with this post other than it says ‘blue dress.’

The search for bridesmaid dresses has been one of the easiest things we’ve done yet.  For quite some time before we were engaged, L and I talked about our colors being navy, pink and green.  Of course I was thinking about lots of other details for our wedding too, and I thought about dark pink dresses, maybe with a navy sash – similar to the dress I wore to the Steeplechase this past spring.  If we were having a beach wedding, that dress would be appropriate, but we really wanted something slightly more formal.  I love wedding parties that have these bright colors – either that or maybe a green dress, but I didn’t want my girls to look like they were wrapped in bubble gum and I really wanted it to be rewearable.  Actually rewearable, not ‘it’s rewearable, but really it’s not because it looks to bridesmaid-y’ like a dress for a friends wedding I was in a few years ago.  Anyway, I shelved the topic because, well, we weren’t engaged so it didn’t matter.

Then when a friend of mine picked out navy dresses for her wedding that took place this past summer, I fell in love with them.  They were simple, yet very classy.  Flattering on any body type and most definitely rewearable.  Even though I was still not engaged, I knew that I wanted these to be my bridesmaid dresses as well.  As long as my ‘maids agreed.

When I showered and changed at E’s house on evening after a fun girl’s day before going to a wedding that night where I wore the above mentioned dress, she commented on how much she liked it.  In my head, I did an imaginary fist pump.

The dresses are from J. Crew and are $165.  I know that’s not all that expensive, especially considering they likely wouldn’t need alterations, but that’s still a lot of money no matter which way you look at it.  I would occasionally stalk the website to make sure they were still available in navy and to see if there were any sales.  Of course, lots of the other colors were on sale, but never navy. (although, I was tempted to buy some of the other colors for myself.  I told you, I love this dress)

Fast forward to two months later when L proposed.  Now, I could really stalk the dresses.   I saw them on Ebay, in an assortment of sizes and in navy, for a very reasonable price, but I hadn’t asked anyone to be my bridesmaids yet.  Once I asked my girls if they would be my bridesmaids and everyone responded, I sent them all an email thanking them and giving them the details we had nailed down so far (which was basically just the date, place and colors).  I also sent them a picture of the dress and asked them what they thought about it.  Unfortunately, they were no longer on ebay.  There were some, but not as many in navy, which was disappointing.  I was sure to tell them that if they didn’t like it to just say so, to feel free to look on their own, and that I didn’t want them to spend so much money so we would keep an eye out on ebay and for sales.  They all responded saying they loved the dress and that they were ok with the price. 

Source

I then realized that I had missed a J. Crew sale of 25% off any purchase of $150 or more.  Damn!  That would have brought the dress down to around $125.  Oh well.

Days later, I got another email with a similar sale.  25% off $150+ and 30% off $250+.  The sale was only three days long and I contemplated talking to everyone to see if they would be interested in buying it.  I know that Christmas is just around the corner and that not everyone has extra cash laying around, so I didn’t want to put any one out.  Plus, I also didn’t want to rush them.  They all said they loved the dress, but I didn’t want them to feel like I was pushing them. 

I was telling CR, my maid of honor, about this when I saw her on Saturday, and her reaction of, “Oh my God, I love the dress, yes, let’s definitely order it!” told me that most of the other girls would probably feel the same way. (There’s a reason this girl is my MOH .

Finally, on Sunday, the last day of the sale, I emailed them all telling them about it and asking if they were interested in moving forward.  I made sure to note that if they wanted to look around some more, that I was TOTALLY ok with that, but just wanted to mention the sale since they initially said they liked it.  Additionally, I told them that I would buy all the dresses, which would give us the 30% discount and they could pay me back when they had the money because I know this is an expensive time of year.

Each girl replied back saying they loved the dress and would like to order it – and they loved the sale price even more.  Since I would be ordering all of them at one time, we would receive the larger discount bringing each dress down to $115.  Yes, that’s right.  The dress that is normally $165, we got for $115!

I gathered their sizes and placed the order Sunday night.  I decided to cover the tax and shipping on the dresses.  I wish I could put more toward the dress for them, but unfortunately it’s just not in the budget at the moment.  I received an email yesterday saying my order had been shipped and today, they are in my hot little hands!

You’ve got to give J. Crew credit, they always ship so quickly.  I paid for standard 3-5 day shipping, ordered Sunday night and received it Tuesday afternoon!  I’ll be dropping them off to all my girls this week so they can try them on and make sure they fit.  Hooray!  A big task done and one less thing for them to think about!

L’s sister, J (another of my bridesmaids), may also be using this dress in her wedding.  Except in black and in a different material.  It is just me and her fiance’s sister in her wedding and she initially told us to just pick black dresses.  I wanted to buy this dress in black for her wedding, and found it on ebay for $20, so I grabbed it.  J later came back with some dresses she wanted us to pick from so we could maybe wear the same one and this was one of the choices.  When I told her I already had it in black, that seemed to make her decision for her (although I did tell her that I didn’t mind if she didn’t want to choose it).  Anyway, I believe we are wearing pink shoes for her wedding, which is what I am thinking about for my girls.  Looks like our BMs might be slightly similar.

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Where Has the Time Gone?

Ed. Note: This is the post that I wrote and lost the other day.  I stumbled upon it saved in my drafts folder – I had no idea it was there!  The dates are a little off because I don’t feel like editing this from when it was written on 12/9.

Wow, my poor little blog has been ignored since November 19.  And before then, it wasn’t very much better.  You would think that since I haven’t had a job for, oh four and a half months now, that I would have plenty of time on my hands.

In those months, I have found plenty to keep myself busy with – especially now that we’re engaged.  If I wasn’t spending every waking moment searching for a venue, then I was mailing cupcakes or making envelopes (more on that after Christmas).  In anycase, I’ve been busy.

After driving to and from Connecticut and only spending two days there (that’s a 12 hour drive for anyone that’s counting), December was right around the corner.

We had planned to get our tree on the first Saturday inDecember – the same as last year.  We drive up into the mountains so we can cut our own.  Well, Saturday came and we had been to a Christmas party the night before and after consuming one too many root beer float shots, I slept later than we had planned.  And it was kind of gross out, so we postponed to the next day.

Sunday we drove up to Boone, NC (where Appalachain State University is) and cut down our tree and came home (more on that soon, too).  We hung out at the house for 2 hours while L worked on homework and I finished making envelopes before heading to a friends house that night for dinner where we stayed until 10:30.

Then I started thinking… when the heck were we going to put up the tree??  Or the other decorations for that matter?  This is our schedule:

Monday (12/7)
Day: L works at part-time station till 6; I run errands getting stuff for a party that night and prepare
Night: I have ornament exchange party at a friend’s house; L goes for drinks with all the husbands who weren’t invited to the party

Tuesday (yesterday)
Day: L works 24 hours at full-time job; I run errands to get supplies for a banner he asked me to make for a retirement party they are hosting at work next week and then clean the house so I can put out Christmas decorations.
Night: This is when I was going to decorate inside the house (minus the tree that was still in the garage in a bucket of water)

Wednesday (today):
Day: L works at part-time station; I finish any decorating I can do on my own
Night: We go to an award ceremony and dinner for his captain at work

Thursday:
Day: L works 24 hours; I start making cookies for the retirement party they are hosting next week.
Night: L is still at work; I do wedding research stuff.

Friday:
Day: L works till 6 at part-time station; I work on wedding stuff, etc.
Night: We have L’s work Christmas party at 6:30 and have a co-ed baby shower at 7.  Hmm, the Christmas party is 45 minutes away and the baby shower is in town where we live.  We will obviously be very late to the latter.

Saturday:
Day: We were supposed to run in a 5k, but L is working 24 hours for someone else.  I am no longer running because I didn’t register early enough and now it’s like $40.
Night: L is still working, but we have also been invited to a graduation celebration for his friend’s wife.  I may still go bc the friend’s wife is friend’s with CR.

Sunday:
Day: L works 24 hours for his normal shift

Monday:
Day: L works till 6 at his part-time station
Night:  Nothing.  Wait, what?  Did I just write ‘nothing’?  One night that we don’t have planned.  I guess we can decorate the tree this night!

Tuesday:
Day:  L works 24 hours
Night: L still working.  I’m going to dinner with CR.

Wednesday:
Day: L works till 6 at his part-time station
Night:  We have the monthly business meeting at the VFD.  Big meeting because we’re voting on a lot of positions.

Thursday:
Leave for his parent’s house and go to a beach music party that night

Friday:
Spend some time seeing family in friends near his parents’; drive back Friday night for a friend’s party.

Saturday:
Attend E’s graduation (she got her Master’s!), then drive back to L’s parent’s house to go to a family dinner party that night.

Sunday:
Attend a second family dinner party with L’s family.

Monday:
Drive together to CT

Tuesday, Wednesday:
Enjoy CT

Thursday (Christmas Eve):
L flies back to his parent’s house and has dinner with them.  Then drives to Charlotte to work to let someone go home early that night.

Friday (Christmas Day):
L works his scheduled 24 hours; I’m in CT with the fam

Saturday:
L works his part-time job; I’m still in CT

Sunday:
L works 24 hours; I drive back from CT

***

So, there you have it.  We would be able to put up and decorate our tree on exactly one day.  and that happened to be 3 days before we go out of town.  Well, that’s not very much fun.  And a waste of a very pretty (and expensive) tree!

The other night, L said he would put in for a stand-by vacation day for yesterday so we could get some stuff done around the house.  When I texted him yesterday morning at 8:30 to see if he got it, he hadn’t.  It’s all dependent on how many people have also requested a day and how many other people are already on approved vacations or call in sick.  It didn’t look like he would get the night off either.

I continued on with my day.  Made his retirement banners, got a gift together for the baby shower and cleaned the house.  He texted me letting me know that he was getting moved to a different station for the night and I was bummed that he wasn’t able to come home.  I had just finished cleaning and sat down to watch a rerun of the Gilmore Girls when the doorbell rang.

Finally!  The kid I bought a wreath from for a school fundraiser was finally delivering it.  I opened the door and it was no pimle face teenager – it was L!  He had gotten the night off.

He did admit though, that he didn’t think it was going to happen and he actually was moved to a different station.  But just before he left they called him back and told him he could go home.

So, we put up the tree and decorated it and put up some of the outside decorations.  Unfortunately, it was raining really hard, so we couldn’t put them all up. 

Our tree is so pretty and I”m so glad we got it up!

I am really going to try to be a better blogger and post everday like I used to.

Cinderella Slipper

I feel very disorganized with our wedding planning.  I’m surprised by this, especially since I have so much spare time on my hands, but I feel like I just keep jumping around from task to task.

Tonight’s ADD task of the moment is shoes. 

I’ve known for quite some time that I would most likely  not be wearing traditional white heels. 

And maybe I wouldn’t wear heels at all. I am 5′ 8″ and L is between 6′ 1″ and 6′ 2″.  He’s taller than me, even with my highest heels, but not by much.  My favorite time is when I am barefoot and he is wearing either his work boots or the shoes with his dressy uniform for work.  He towers over me and envelopes me in his arms and it makes me safe – and little.

I thought about wearing a pair of Rainbows and spray painting them white.  1. They are amazingly comfortable and 2. They are ’me’.  You can find me in Rainbows for probably 2/3 of the year.

Then I saw in the store one day that they now make white Rainbows with Swarovski crystals on the straps!

Source

But for Rainbows to be comfortable, you have to wear them a while to break them in and if I wear white ones for awhile, then they’re going to get dirty feet marks on them.  They were still an option – long before we were engaged.

I also threw around the idea of wearing plain old ballet slippers.  Not ballet flats, but good ‘ol ballet slippers. 

Source

You can’t get much shorter than in these.  Plus, since I danced for 15 years, it would be personal as well.

But I really like the “shoe shots”  and let’s face it, heels just make you feel prettier.  At least they make me feel prettier.

Source

I don’t want to feel “stumpy” on my wedding day either.  So I’ve gone back to the idea of pretty heels.  I can always switch into flip flops, or let’s face it, just go barefoot, later in the evening if I want.

For anyone that knows me, you know I’m going to choose pink.  I haven’t looked extensively yet, but have perused a couple shoe sites here and there (I told you, I keep jumping from one task to another).  I had looked at Zappos before, but sometimes that site overwhelms me.

Anyway, I was reading Weddingbee tonight (it feels so good to be back, by the way.  Although I haven’t read it as much as I used to, but I think it has to do with my new found ADD.) and saw Ms. Potato Chips’ post about finding her shoes.

I saw a pair of pink lovelies at the bottom of her post and immediately went to Zappos (where she found hers) to get a closer look.  But before I ever found the ones in her post, I found these and decided I HAVE to have them.

Source

They are exactly what I’m looking for – although at 3.25″ tall, they’re a little high.  Not that I can’t handle that, I’m a high heel girl (and can run at lightning fast speeds across Grand Central Terminal in them if it means catching the last train of rush hour), but it just means I’ll be that much closer to L’s height.

There is one other itsty, bitsy, tiny detail that puts them out of my reach.

$289.

Yup, that’s the price tag associated with these beauties.  Unfortunately, that just doesn’t really fall into our budget.  But they are sooo perfect.

I sent L a picture of them, sans price tag, and asked if he would buy them for me.  He said, and I quote, “Sure sweetie, I’ll buy them for you.”  It wasn’t until I wrote back, “really?” that he asked how much they were and then said probably not.

Sad face.

He then said that I could have the shoes if he could get a new leather helmet if he makes assistant chief at the volunteer department at next week’s meeting.

(Quick helmet back story: they are different colors for different ranks.  It varies by department, but here is is black for a firefighter, red for a captain and white for an assistant chief/the chief.  You can paint them, but L bought a new helmet when he made captain and wants another if/when he makes asst. chief.  Really so he can hang them all on the wall one day and see his journey through helmets.  Sounds cheesy, but I actually understand where he’s coming from even if I do give him a hard time about it.  The kicker is the price tag.  Brand new, these helmets are about $500!  You can get them on eBay for less, but they’re still around $200-300, I think.)

Hmm… maybe I’ll have to consider him getting that helmet if it means I can get the shoes

But perhaps I’ll keep looking for a more reasonably priced pair. 

A girl can dream though!

UGH!

I just wrote a whole long post about how busy I’ve been and giving a bit of an update and when I hit ‘publish’, the whole thing disappeared.  Damnit.

Now I Get To Pop The Question – My How To

I’ve been waiting and waiting to ask my girls if they will be my bridesmaids.  L already popped the question to me, now it was my turn to pop a question to them.  I wanted to come up with a cute way to ask them, and in a previous post I mentioned that I was tossing around the idea of a wine bottle with a customized label (I would make the label, not buy) or getting them a cupcake and creating some sort of note.

I couldn’t wait any longer – I had to do this.  There have been so many times when I wanted to call or email them with a question or suggestion, but couldn’t because I haven’t asked them yet.  Not to say that I haven’t already asked them for advice and opinions, because I have – I just haven’t been able to ask them bridesmaid-related questions like, what do you think about this dress for you guys?

I’m sure that they all know that I am going to ask them, because we’ve talked about it in the past and these are my very best friends, but I am no way going to assume they will be my bridesmaids.  We were all in another friend’s wedding a few years ago who never actually asked us.  She just started sending us stuff for dresses and asked us when we wanted to go try them on, etc.  We all would have said yes regardless, but it was a little annoying that she didn’t ask.

Back to deciding how to do it.  I ended up with the cupcake idea.  There is one that I have to mail (A lives in CA) and two others that would be easier to mail so I could ask sooner.  I figured mailing a cupcake would be a whole lot cheaper than mailing a bottle of wine.  And cheaper to buy or make too.

I was going to make the cupcakes so it would be less expensive, but then I would still have to hunt out boxes that would be appropriate to mail them in.  So I went to a new cupcake bakery in town and they sell individual boxes to go with the cupcakes for $2 – so I just decided to get those and buy the cupcakes while I was there.  They’re definitely prettier than mine would have been, they are super tasty and really, not that expensive.

When I walked in and ordered 5 cupcakes with gift boxes and then a 6th cupcake (there is no way I could walk out of that store with a bag full of cupcakes and not be able to eat one!) the woman asked what the occasion was.  When I told her I was asking friends to be my bridesmaids, she thought it was absolutely the cutest idea ever.  She spread the news to the two other women who worked there who were equally as giddy.  The thing about these guys that work at SAS Cupcakes is that it didn’t seem fake.  One woman suggested putting small little penants in the cupcakes.  She came back with two options.  One had a ring on it and said “Congratulations!”, but I didn’t like that because it felt like I was congratulating myself – or congratulating my girls for asking them.  It was really meant more for someone to give it to a bride.  The second was a Valentine’s one that said “Be Mine”, she suggested that one so it was like, “be my bridesmaid”.  Plus, it was pink and black so it wasn’t too Valentine-y.

I chose cupcakes that had pink icing, they boxed them up for me and sent me on my way.  The whole time they made a fuss about me being a bride and it was cute.  I’d lie if I said it didn’t make me feel special.  They normally charge for the penants, but gave them to me for free – plus they gave me the 6th cupcake for myself for free .

When I got home, I got started on making the cards to go with them.  I already had an idea of what I wanted to do.  Our colors are navy, green and pink.  I found some navy postcards on sale at Paper Source the other day.  It was a pack of 50 for $3.00.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but figured for that price I would pick them up and use them for something. 

Each card was going to start with the navy postcard.  I was going to add a pink layer and then a green and white polka dot paper as the top layer.  I then would use my Gocco to print the phrase on the green paper.    Pretty exciting because I already had everything I needed for this. 

The navy postcards were previously purchased with no purpose in mind.  The pink was a roll of wrapping paper (also from PaperSource) that I bought to use to line the envelopes of our save the dates.  And the green was a random piece of 12×12 scrapbooking paper that I bought awhile ago to use for something else.  I had one sheet and wasn’t sure it would be enough since I had used small pieces for other stuff, but somehow I managed to get 5 pieces out of it.

So, without further ado, here is the step-by-step process and the finished product at the end.

First I started by designing the text for the card.  I use the term ‘design’ loosley, because all I really did was type it up in Word using the Curlz font.  I did, however, know how big it needed to be.  The navy postcards are 6″ x 4.25″.  I wanted a small border showing, so I would cut the second layer (pink) a .5″ smaller: 5.5″ x 3.75″ -  and then the final layer (green – where the text would be) a .5″ smaller than that: 5″ x 3.25″.  I think the text came out to somewhere around 4″ x almost 3″.  I used a font size of about 40.  I printed it on a laser printer so that it would be compatiable with my Gocco.  (To burn a Gocco screen, the image needs to be carbon based.  So, printed from a laser jet, copy machine or drawn/written using a carbon based pen).

Since the Gocco screens are hard to get and can be expensive, I burned both messages on one screen.  This is me aligning the two pages on my Gocco getting ready to burn the screen.

I closed the lid and checked to make sure everything was lined up correctly and there were no overlaps or letters getting cut off.

I insterted a screen onto the bottom side of the glass and then screwed in the two flash bulbs into the separeate “bulb house” and inserted that part onto the top of the Gocco.  Press down firmly in one motion and let the bulbs flash.  This is what burns the image onto the screen.

Open the Gocco and peel back the papers that are most likely stuck to the screen (that’s a good thing).  You can see my text on the screen now.

Next step was to cut the green paper to the correct size (5″ x 3.25″).  I was really surprised that I managed to get all 5 pieces out of it – and just barely.  I’ve realized that I am a messy crafter.  This is surprising because I like to be neat.  I start off good, but a mess always follows.  I need more of a system.  For instance, I probably should have cut all the paper first, then got out the Gocco and done that.  I had stuff all over the table and scraps everywhere.

Next, I lined up the paper I would be printing on.  You can see through the glass on top of the Gocco so I could match everything up.  Then, I inked the screen and insterted it back into the Gocco.  I only inked the “will you be my bridesmaid” part first because it was hard to line up sheets for both messages and I didn’t want to risk messing it up.  I used the white paper to mark where the bottom of the green paper would be so that I could easily line up all the pieces.

Press down firmly to make a print.

Voila!  I removed the paper and set it off to the side to dry and inserted the next piece and printed. Etc.

The instructions say to liberally ink the screen, but I did it minimally since I was only printing 5 cards and didn’t want to waste ink.  Speaking of not wanting to waste ink, I took a scrap piece of card stock and scraped the unused ink and spread it on the “will you be my maid of honor” text. 

This is the screen once I scraped off the excess ink and moved it to the second phrase.  I had to add a little extra from the tube too.  I didn’t want to risk the print not coming out dark enough since I didn’t have any extra pieces of green paper in the event of an error.

Next, I cute the pink pieces from the roll of wrapping paper.  It is PaperSource wrapping paper in fuschia.  I love it because it doesn’t have the shiny finish on it.  I must admit though that it was much harder to cut out the small pieces than I originally thought it would be.  Since it’s rolled up it was hard to keep flat.  Plus the length of the paper was larger than my paper cutter, so first I had to cut the length of and then cut it in half so it would fit on my paper cutter.  All the while, trying to cut as straight as possible.  Then I had to trim all sides so that I knew it was straight, and finally trim down to size.

These are the PaperSource postcards in Night that would serve as the base of the notecard.

I started using a glue stick on the pink pieces to stick them to the postcards because I didn’t want to waste my Xyron adhesive.  Then I thought to myself, isn’t this exactly why I bought the Xyron?!  Why yes, yes it was.  This was one of those purchases I made over the summer when I was anticipating the engagement.  I have the Xyron 5″ Creation Station.  It puts an even layer of adhesive on the back of anything up to 5″ wide.  I wanted one of the bigger ones, but they were just too expensive.  I bought this one with a 50% off coupon from AC Moore.  I had used a smaller Xyron before and liked it, and this one didn’t disappoint.  It’s so fast, easy and mess free.  No more having to use multiple pieces of scrap paper to put under the piece I’m using the glue stick on.  No more getting glue all over my fingertips (I told you, I’m a messy crafter).  Plus, I was able to put it down and smooth it out easily without any of the weird creases that I got with a glue stick when using thin paper – and no glue clumps either. 

Simply put the paper in the feeder and turn the crank and watch it come out the other side.

It’s got a handy-dandy little cutter on the other side that slides across easily to cut your project off the roll.

Once you cut it off, peel back the celophane paper.  The adhesive is on the white, waxy paper which gets stuck to your project.  The celophane pulls the adhesive off of the white part where your project is not.  Make sense?  Sort of?

Once you peel the celophane off, easily peel off your project.  I did that and then stuck it onto the post card.  This one is a little off center, but the others are better.  There are a few different kinds of adhesive you can buy for the Xryon.  I was using the permanent kind because that’s what came with it.  They also have a removable kind, a laminate and a magnet/laminate.

After the Gocco ink dried, I repeated this process with the green pieces.  Rather than doing each piece individually and cutting it off, I kept feeding them through one after another to save adhesive.  Every time you cut a piece off, you get at least an inch of wasted adhesive (you can see in one of the photos above).  I wanted to get the most for my money so I put them close together so I wasn’t wasteful.

I then positioned them on top of the pink layer to finish off the front.  I think they look really great!  I was really very happy with them!

I added a piece of the pink in the same size as before to the back so that I could write a note to each girl.

This is the cupcake all boxed up.  They suggest wrapping the box in Saran wrap if you’re not going to eat them that day.  Since it could be a couple days before my girls get them, I went the extra mile.  Each box has a small elevated cardboard piece in the bottom with a circle cut in it meant to steady the cupcake.  Well, I cut some wooden skewers and put two in each cupcake to help steady it even more.  I know they’ll get tossed around in the mail and the icing will smush, but every little bit helps.  Plus, even if they’re smushed, they’ll still taste good.  I also took out that cardboard piece and wrapped saran wrap over the cupcake and underneath the cardboard and placed it back in the box.  Then I wrapped the whole box in Saran wrap like they suggest.

Note cards with personal notes on each one.

I was sad because the notecards were bigger than the cupcake box which was a challenge when I wrapped them to mail.  There was no way around it, they had to get bent a little.  But luckily the wording lined up perfectly and was centered on the box!

All wrapped up, addressed and ready to go!

I dropped these babies off at the post office this morning.  I think most girls will get them tomorrow (fingers crossed), and A will probably get hers Saturday.

Here’s a breakdown of the project:

PaperSource Postcards – Pack of 50 in Night – onsale for $3.00
PaperSource Wrapping Paper – Fuschia – $5/roll (bought to actually use for Save the Date envelope liners)
PaperSource Green and White Polka Dot Scrapbooking Paper – one piece – I don’t remember how much it was because I randomly bought it weeks ago.
5 Cupcakes from SAS Cupcakse – $2.75/each
5 Cupcake Gift Boxes from SAS Cupcakes – $2/each
5 “Be Mine” Cupcake Penants from SAS Cupcakes – they were ‘on the house’, not sure how much they charge for them
Brown shipping paper – already had
Gocco screens, ink and bulbs – already had
Shipping for 5 cupcakes – $24

I think my girls will be happy to get a cupcake in the mail – and I sure hope they say “YES!”

Since I was so happy with the way the notecards came out, I’m going to sell them in my Etsy shop.  Check back, they’ll be up soon – and remember, everything in there is customizable (colors, set ups, etc.).