You Are Invited

You're right.  Some of these posts are not going exactly in order.  There was a lot of planning that happened between engagement photos and actually putting the invitations together.  Plus, if we were doing real time, the photo shoots were two weeks apart...but that's the great thing about being a reader: I had to live it, you get to read about (which is much quicker!).

The invitations.  Let's just say it took a village. 

Here's the recipe:

Start with the Cricut I got for Christmas.  Remember the one my mom got me because she figured I'd need it for making wedding invitations sometime in the near future? 

Add to that this amazing invention called a Jigster (Google it, it's cool), which I won from DIY Bride, that allows you to do perfect mats.

Take one fabulous friend named Leah Weybright, who is a pro at computer design stuff and can take a copied Internet picture, a couple of emails, and some color samples and create a beautiful design from across the country.

Give that beautiful design to the fantastic owner of Marathon Business Machines, Bill, who spent an hour with me getting the design ready for printing on his machines and more hours trying out papers, and more hours doing the actual printing and folding and cutting.

Make an infinite number of trips to West Coast Paper Supply to talk to Brandy (she may have recognized my voice over the phone by the time we were done) and pore through sample paper books.  Pick up an infinite number more samples of paper after forcing Danny to narrow down his favorite shades of gray and white out of a couple hundred.  Force Danny to then choose the gray and white he likes best out of the narrowed down favorites.

Go to the Culver Post Office and talk to Beth.  Have her weigh a sample invite to determine postage.
Special order stamps online after forcing Danny to choose his favorite.  Pay shipping and handling because they are pretty and the post office couldn't order them.

Sort through every piece of scrapbook paper owned to find all the burgundy ones.  Cut out 150 "Loves" on the Cricut.  Throw in this amazing bridesmaid named May, who between puking spells (she was pregnant), scraped all those very delicate "Loves" off the sticky mat.  Make one mad dash to Kelly O'Rourke's house when you run out of burgundy scrapbook paper to raid her supply.

Spread out all pieces over an entire dining room table for one week.  Assemble an assembly line consisting of Mom, Grammy, May and me.  Arm Grammy with a paper cutter and the task of cutting 150 4.5" x 6.5" white rectangles.  Use Jigster to mat one of five different engagement photos (that's what we narrowed it down to) to the white rectangles.  Then use Jigster to mat matted photos to invitations.  Glue on 150 "Loves" to the inside flap.  Label RSVP cards with self-addressed address labels.  Stuff invitation and RSVP card into envelope.  Hand envelope to Mom to address.  Seal envelopes.  Label back with address label.  Stamp.  Take to post office so they stay as clean as possible.

Repeat for announcements swapping "S's" for "Loves," and Erin and Michelle for Grammy, Mom and May.

Heave a big sigh of relief because now people can come to this wedding.

Smile for the Camera

Click here to view this photo book larger



Realizing that blogs are usually quick reads, and also realizing that you, my dear reader, probably don't want to pore over hundreds of photos, I am putting our engagement book that I created on. Enjoy as many pages as you want! :)

Danny and I did engagement photos two different times. The reason: I wanted options! The first afternoon we went to Smith Rock so that we could have the place Danny proposed in the background. We reenacted the proposal only in dressy clothes and without hiking for a few hours first. The second day our very wonderful photographer, Meagan May of M. May Photography, came to Bend and did some shots at The Old Mill, some railroad tracks, and Drake Park. Again, the sole reason being options, people. I am not very photogenic, but I figured if we had hundreds of photos, there were bound to be a couple that I looked good in. It's the nature of odds. Well, turns out you don't even need hundreds when you have a great photographer. Then throw in the husband of this husband/wife team who is a pro at photo editing and voila! I became photogenic just like that! I had to look good in a couple, and Danny had to look good in those same couple because we were planning on using them on the invites...but that's another story.