You'll know whats in the cake

The wedding cake seems to be one of those things that some people seek out and other people could care less about. BM Naima is a cake seeker-outer. In fact, the cake is kind of a deal breaker for her. Taste seems to be her biggie. But she also likes knowing what flavors of cake she's getting, as she is likely to go back to get a small piece in each flavor combo (am I telling all her business today or what? lol).

This small sign is for the Naima's in the world. Its nothing fancy, but I think it will do the trick nicely. I designed in PowerPoint (where else), and am going to mount it on a piece of folded green card stock. I was going to try and make the cake picture look like our actual cake, but then I figured it wasn't worth the hassle. If people (other than Naima) noticed the sign, they definitely weren't going to care if the pictured cake looks like the actual cake. And since I'm convinced most people won't notice the sign, in actuality this sign is really for me. And Naima. And now you.

♥

Another E-vitation Idea

Remember how I was telling you all about Paperless Post yesterday? Well, I've stumbled upon a better idea. One that combines a my original idea and MamaP's email suggestion. I'm not terribly sure this will work, but for the sake of explanation, I'll explain my original idea first.

Initially, I wanted to either design our Rehearsal Mixer invite myself (surprise, surprise). I hadn't fully settled on the design, but had definitely narrowed it down to a few options.

{found it on Etsy!}
If I didn't design it myself, I would order this (minus the picture, plus green and teal) for our event. I think its pretty cute, yet adult, and the fonts and text can be customized in any way we'd like. How this would work is that I'd be paying for a digital design and the seller will email me the design as a .jpeg. That way we'd be free to print it however we'd like. Or not at all.

That brings me to my current idea. Mind you, this hinges on me ultimately deciding its okay to email someone a rehearsal dinner invitation. But anyway, we could get it designed on Etsy, and then email the digital image. It would look kinda like this:

{thanks again Mrs. Daffodil}
When Mrs. Daffodil did it, she went through Microsoft Outlook and then sent it to her Gmail, and then emailed it to her guests. We use Outlook at work, so I guess that's a viable option. However, I just saw that you can insert images in the body of emails in Gmail now, so I think if we do this, I'm going to just try with Gmail first.

But like I said, its still an idea right now. One I'm warming up to and that I think would work. So we'll see. Still got a little bit of time...

♥

Paperless Post

What are your thoughts about rehearsal dinner invitations?

Personally, I look at them as another opportunity to send out cute invitations...and another non-budgeted line item. Yeah, I guess I feel two ways about them - lol.

But what about you? Any preconceived ideas about what they should look like?

Like I said, I always assumed ours would be paper - requiring a stamp and in a perfect world a rsvp so we'd know how many to expect at the mixer. Particularly since were inviting people outside of the bridal party. However, when I mentioned it to MamaP, she (long story short) assumed they were no big deal, and that we could send notification through email.

Email?
Email.

Up until recently, I would have openly balked at the idea. I mean seriously, how would you feel if you received a rehearsal mixer invitation over email? It would need to be done right, right? Well, what if it arrived looking like this:


This, dear readers is what you would see if your invitation or announcement was sent by Paperless Post. Paperless Post is a new-ish service that essentially sends digital invitations for a small fee (like $5 to send 60) that look like real ones. Ribbon embellishment and all (if you're into that like I am). Think of it as the Bently's of evites.


I like that I can "design" them one night, and send them out the same night. No need to have them printed, address envelopes, or hunt down stamps. And from what I gather, people can even rsvp for your event through the invite itself (like Evite).

I'm not sure I want to go the email route. And I'm not sure if I did I'd use Paperless Post. Part of me wants to have a little more control over what it looks like. Thankfully (I guess) we haven't nailed down all the details for the rehearsal and the rehearsal mixer, so I really have some time. Tomorrow, I wanna talk about another idea I have that involves emailing invitations.

But before I go, back to my original questions. What are your thoughts about rehearsal dinner invites? And what are your thoughts about receiving them through email?

♥

Favors Sneak Peek: Tag Toss-Up

My cousin and BM Melissa is going to be in town this weekend, and I've been instructed to put her to work - lol. Believe it or not, its really been a struggle trying to come up with things she can assist me with. Partly because I'm on track with my to do list. And partly because I'm kinda anal and like to do things myself so I can troubleshoot when something goes awry.

But anyway, there is at least one project that I could use her help with: punching out the favor tags. Yes, I know I've been hush hush about the favors, but lets focus on what you do know. You know that they are going to be filled with green MnMs, and that they have they will have a cute tag attached to them. Considering we're making favors for 150, you can see why I'd pick this as a project BM Melissa could help me with.

Last weekend, I spent a good portion of my Saturday working out what I call tag logistics. If you remember, I originally had the tags designed by a seller I found on Etsy. I loved them. Absolutely loved them. But when I printed them out, I did not like how the green printed. My bad for not printing them before I accepted the final project. Dont ya'll make that mistake, okay?

That mistake is really where today's story begins. After I got the logistics all worked out, it occurred to me that the greens wont match. Like they will clash. Not even remotely coordinate. Its something that even the guests might notice. And if nothing else, I would notice. So I opened up my BFF PowerPoint and worked to recreate the tag. After I accomplished that, I was left with the following options:

Option A: Leave the tag as originally designed.
No extra work but prepare for the icky clash.

Option B: Print it in black and white.
This would be easy - no need to coordinate if there are no colors, right? Well what about the teal? The favors would be green, black and white, no teal? That doesn't seem right.

Option C: Just make the tag teal.
Ultimately, this is what I decided to do. But for some reason I was very hesitant to do it. I printed it out several times to check and make sure that the tag looked cute in teal, and that there would not be too much teal on the table. I don't think there will be, and at least I know it definitely matches the other teals.


So there you have it folks. The real favor tag. I really wish I had thought about clashing when they were initially designed so that I wouldn't have had to go through the process of re-creating them myself. I cant wait to get these suckers printed and punched out so that I can run them through my Xyron. Then there's attaching the labels, filling them with the MnMs and figuring out how to get them to the venue.

Geez, now that I think about it, I cant wait until I can check favors off my list for good!

♥

Alchemy for Arshela

See this little dress? This is the dress I ordered off Etsy for my little cousin Arshela who is unofficially serving as our Head Flower Girl. No, I haven't decided If I'm putting that title in the program yet, so she's still unofficial - lol. What happened was, remember those adorable flower girl dresses I found at The Children's Place? The ones that were $25, but by the time we ordered them, they had gone down to $18? Well, one look at the dress ordered for Arshela proved that her's would be too short. She's long and lean, so the around part is rarely an issue. Its the length. And for her, extra length is always appreciated.

At this point, the dresses were no longer available on the Children's Place website, so I knew it was time to exercise my original option: having the dress made. And I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. White (like the other little girls) with a teal sash (like the 'maids). In my mind, Arshela's dress would be the imbetween point, and the dress that brings the ladies dresses together.


As I mentioned earlier, I turned to Etsy. I used their Alchemy function, which basically lets you put in a request for an item. Any and everything can be requested: jewelry, clothing, wedding stuff, artwork, you name it. How it works is you set up a request, outlining what you want and providing as many details as you know, including how much you want to spend. After you complete your request, Etsy sellers (think: members that have stores on the site) bid on your project, outlining their store policies, the details of the item and the sale, and the projected cost. You can also designate how long you have your request is active, as well as shut your request down when you think you've gotten enough bids. At that point, the choice is yours. You have conversations (think: emails on the Etsy site between you and the seller) to ask further questions or get more details, and (hopefully) ultimately find a seller that can make your item.

I went through the Alchemy process with Arshela's dress, and I was very specific in my request. I wanted a solid white cotton dress that looked like the other flower girl dresses, and a teal satin sash to adorn it. I wanted the cost to include the material and labor for the dress, and I would send the satin material for the sash. Its the same material that were making the table runners out of that matches the 'maids dresses marvelously. I was looking for the best price and spent some time looking through potential bidder's sites to see examples of their work. I ended up going with Cissy of CissysSewnSew. She was a dream boat to work with and made exactly what I wanted.


Here's a closeup of the bodice. The benefit of having the dress made is that I was able to provide Cissy with Arshela's measurements, and it be made to fit her: long and lean. She's bound to grow a little between now and October, so we added a little extra to accommodate that.

I love this little dress on so many levels. I love that it bridges the gap between the big and little girls. I love that it was budget friendly. I love that it will be long enough. I love that it looks exactly like I imagined it would. I love this little dress so much that I almost wish I had all the little girls' dresses made.

Almost.

Thankfully MamaP took the lead and arranged with Granma to get Arshela's measurements. If it weren't for her, or if we had to do this times 4, it would have been a much larger undertaking. And maybe not quite worth it. Overall, I am very happy with the way this dress situation turned out. I'm even happier to check female bridal party attire off my list. And trust, all a bride in the double digits (87 days to go) wants to do is check things off her list.

Checkety check check!
♥