Wait a Minute Mr. Postman**

So we JUST sent the invites out at the beginning of this week and we are ALREADY getting response cards in the mail! (*cue my happy dance!!!)

Slowly, but sure things are falling in to place and working themselves out. I just had my first dress fitting, the girls dresses are set to arrive any day now and the guys are all ordering their tuxes. With all these things and more happening it's really hitting me that I'm actually getting married. This day has been almost 5 years in the making and I could not be more excited. I just pray that I don't get too wrapped up in all the craziness to enjoy the moment.

Coming to a mailbox near you....

It was just yesterday (LITERALLY) that we sent out the invitations and we already are receiving called from our guest saying they found theirs in the mail already! :o)

It is such an exciting moment when the invites are sent out and you realize your wedding is actually taking place. I cannot wait until we start receiving the first few RSVP cards in the mail from our guest. :o)

And they're off.....

Yes... that is right... after many tears, frustrations and irritations those pesky little buggers called invitations are out of my hands and off in the mail to their new homes. There were a few speed bumps in the road to the finish product and even sending them out, but we got over it and they are done.

I know you are only wanting to see the pictures, but I think I will keep you in suspense a tad bit longer and tell you why these invites were such a labor of love....

For starters, I decided early on that I wanted pretty (expensive) pocket fold invitations. I KNEW that what I was picturing in my head would more than likely cost me upwards of $500-$600. There is no way in ANY lifetime that Andrew would go for that so I knew I had to figure out another way to get what I wanted while staying in HIS budget. After dozens of Google searches, paper samples and a few less than respectable mock ups, I finally settled on the exact look I wanted.

With our colors being Plum & Champagne, I was afraid of having too much or not enough of either color present in the design to effectively convey the look I was going for. I decided on a Black Linen card stock for the pocket fold, a solid Plum/Purple card stock for the invitation mat and a metallic Champagne card stock for the actual invitation and inserts. It took several tries to find a design and layout that I was happy with but was relentless in the pursuit.

Little did I know, choosing such a thick card stock to print the invitation on was not the smartest idea in the world. It took 3 people, 4 different printers and a bunch of scrap/test sheets to find a printer that A.) didn't think my expensive card stock was dinner and B.) actually printed on the paper without smudging the ink. I finally ended up using our home ink jet printer to slowly.....SLOWLY... and print all the paper needed. I was thrilled when everything was all printed and stacked ready to be cut. I had only a few sheets of the metallic champagne paper left and that was just fine by me. I WAS DONE!! Lol.

I went to FedEx Kinko's the next day, left them to cut the paper, ran to grab some extra supplies to finish this project, picked up the freshly cut inserts and was off to meet with a couple of my girls to put all 100 of these invitations together. When we sat down to start placing the inserts in the pocket folds I realized that less than half of the inserts we cut correctly. There we inserts with complete sentences cut off, inserts with the titles cut in half and even some inserts with the dimensions changed completely. If it were as simple as going home and reprinting them I would have, but unfortunately I was out of paper and honesty out of time. Andrew complained to Kinko's on my behalf and we got a complete refund, but that didn't change the fact that I had to order more paper (that I did not need,) wait for it to arrive, reprint and then trust Kinko's not to mess up a second time.

That was just the first issue I had with the invitation fiasco. But I think I'll save it all for another post. So without further adieu.... here are my completed wedding invitations.

First Wedding Breakdown....

So up until this point I have been relatively calm. There have been small issues that have come up and I haven't gone too crazy about them. Well this past weekend I think it all hit me.

I like to think that I am a pretty crafty person so I decided early on that I wanted to hand design and make our wedding invitations. I spent countless hours and wasted used tons of paper and ink testing the look. I was finally done. I had to do some digging to find the best site to purchase the supplies I needed and once I did, there was no holding me back.

The paper came within the week followed shortly by the box containing the envelops. The only thing that was holding me back was how to print the invites. Most places wanted me to pay almost $1.00 per sheet of paper per side. That was NOT an option. 2 of my girls had taken a few sheets to see if maybe the invites could be printed with their office printer and for some reason both of the printers decided to "eat" my hand picked labor of love #107 card stock. So I tried them in my home printer.... one by one....and after a hour or so of CLOSE supervision, the invites were printed! **Cue my excitement.

The next day I took all 180 sheets of card stock to FedEx Kinko's to be cut to size. I was told it would only be 20 mins until they would be done. So I left my precious invites at the store, went to Jo Ann's to grab some last minute items needed to complete this project and came back to pick them up. I took all of the supplies and freshly cut invites and inserts over to one of my bridesmaid's houses so that we could put together the completed invitation. Once everything was laid out I noticed that some of the inserts seemed a bit...off. The wonderful people of FedEx Kinko's some how missed the dotted line I had for them to cut on and COMPLETELY messed up my inserts. They cut right through the words on some cards and completely cut off a whole sentence on another.

Here I am the ready to put these pocket fold invites together and in the envelops and I can't because I don't have enough correctly cut inserts. Now the thing is, I cannot even go back and reprint and re-cut the inserts because I do not have enough paper. I purchased just enough to complete this project and allow for a few test sheets. So right now, I have to go back online, buy more paper than I even need (only comes in counts of 100) print and re cut the invites and still hope to get these invites out by my deadline date.

I cannot even express my frustration at this point. I just pray to God that the paper ships fast and I can get a move on it.

Today was a good day

Today was a great day!!!

With only 99 days until we say "I Do" I have finally found a dress!!!! I am soooooooooo happy, so excited and so anxious for Drew to see me in it. It is NOTHING like what I thought I wanted, but it is so beautiful.

Also, we received our engagement pics today!! They turned out so good. Here is a small sneak peak :o)

E-PICS!!!!

Andrew and I got engaged on August 6, 2011. Since August 7th I have been bugging him, begging and pleading even trying to barter the chance for us to get engagement photos. Yes I know we have other photos around that house of us and YES I know they are not required just because we got engaged....but I REALLY wanted them.

I see ideas all over Google and the boards with different things to do with a couple's e pics and I wanted to do the same... or at least something similar.


In the past 4 and a half years Drew and I only have about 10 pictures that are frame worthy... and even that is pushing it. So I never gave up hope on this fight. FINALLY I wore him down and he said "Okay." So I started researching and found several options who all wanted too much money for 2 hrs worth of work. So I had to go back to the drawing board, get creative and use my resources. 


After a few more months of negotiations and just short of blackmail, I was able to convince one of my Bridesmaids, Candace, to do my make up and my Maid of Honor, Shauntae, to take the photos. Many people don't know this, but Tae has a passion and a gift for photography. She really does not like shooting people and much prefers inanimate so I really was twisting her arm to get her to be our photographer.


When it was all said and done, we had a great outing. Andrew's best man, Anthony, and groomsmen, Sam, and my bridesmaid, Candace, came with us and really helped to make it a great afternoon and fun time for all. I can confidently say that 80% of the smiles in the photos we took were genuine.

Now for the waiting..... I cannot wait for the editing to be done and see how they turned out!

Our Save the Dates!

So I wanted to do a post to talk about our Save the Date cards.

Since the day we set our date I have been brainstorming ideas for STD cards, magnets and/or notes. I REALLY wanted magnets so that they can go on the refrigerator and not get misplaces. I really didn't want to spend money on something that would just go right in to the trash can. The only issue is the cost. Some sites wanted as much as $2 and change per magnet... that's crazy!

Then I thought "well I can just make my own with the help of Microsoft Publisher, so magnet backing and a little patience." Cue my surprise when they didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned. lol. So I gave up that idea. I went back to Vistaprint and found a really nice save the date care and envelop combo. They matched my color combo, there were right size and they had fast shipping... BUT they wanted almost $90 for 70 cards! So there goes that dream.

In my final search I came across 123Print.com. They seemed like a decent website and they had GREAT prices. Although I couldn't find a pre-made design in my colors that I liked, I was able to find another color combo that still fits. It was more than half the price I was quoted at Vistaprint AND it was for 100 cards. That was a done deal. From placing the order to delivery it was only about 4 days and they quality was great. I did pay a bit extra for nice paper, but it was only a few bucks and it was worth it!

So without further adieu... here is a picture of the Save the Date :-P

                  

Sorry I'm not sure how to rotate the pictures...

The Paper Chase...

Things are finally moving along!

Our Save the Dates went out in the mail on Monday, I ordered all of the paper needed to make our invitations this morning and I am in the process of designing our programs. 

I sincerely hope my bridesmaids love me as much as I think they do, because I see inevitable paper cuts in our near future. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another note: I am finally feeling accomplished. Deposits have been paid, contracts signed AND I FINALLY met with a photographer I like. He has the same photo journalistic mindset I have been wanting and he has been in this business longer than I've been alive. My only concern now is the price. I want nice pictures, but if this man thinks I'm going to spend more than 1/3 of my wedding budget on it then he doesn't know my future husband. lol. Andrew is not going for that. 

I have another meeting with the company that stood us up so hopefully they will give me a discount that's worth mentioning and MAYBE I can take that quote back to the initial photographer and he may be willing to make a deal. Soooo let the negotiations commence! 

Yes it's on a Friday

Our Save the Dates are in!!! It really has been a long time coming. I have been eyeing and designing different Save the Date cards for months now. I was actually waiting to take our engagement pictures so I could include them on the cards, but that was a big can of worms. So after browsing the wedding boards I found a great design and low and behold they wanted too much money. So I kept looking and found a GREAT deal on 123Print.com. I took a risk, ordered the cards and hoped for the best. They came in the mail yesterday and look great! While they were not exactly what I had had in mind originally, they look good and they'll get the job done. So keep an eye out because they may be coming to a mailbox near you.... (<-- too corny? Oh well. Lol)

Stood up?!?! Me???

**deep breath**........AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is it so hard and stressful to plan a wedding?!?!?!?! Last time I posted I talked about the disappointment over not beig able to hire my either of my top 3 photographers to photograph my wedding (for varying reasons.) Well in an effort to be more open, my mother suggested I take a meeting with a company whose advertisement I found via Facebook. I wasn't completely against it, but I also wasn't overly thrilled with the idea either. I had of course done a bit of research on them and was only able to see a few select photos. At any rate, I sent in the online inquiry form and was IMMEDIATELY bombarded with 1-800 phone numbers calling me, leaving voicemails and a bunch of emails. Needless to say, I was completely turned off. I'm not really one for big companies. They tend to be generic, impersonal and have big company pricing. Anywho, I took the bait and set up an appointment for this afternoon to meet with one of their " Wedding Specilist." (Red flag #1: I'm meeting with some random person and not the photographer.) Due to traffic and just being Kim, I'm a few minutes late. I arrive at some random Panera Bread in Canton at 4:36 for our 4:30 appointment. The "Wesding Specialist" is not where to be found. I wait a few more minutes then search my email for her contact number. I call and leave a message. I call my mom to side if she had heard from the woman I was Supposed to be meeting and she hadn't. So I call Andrew to tell him how mad I was about beig stood up by a potential vendor. He has the genius idea to email her (not sure why I hadn't thought about it,) so I do. At this point is about 5pm. She responds immediately that she waited from 4pm - 4:45pm, called me and left a voicemail and had thought I just wasnt coming. We went back and forth through EMAIL with the end result being she had the time wrong and she was meeting with another potential client at that moment and could not come back to meet with me. Are you kidding me?!? Who sets an appointment, calls and confirms the appointment on Friday, sends an email on Saturday to change the meeting location due to the "Sailabration" in Baltimore and then STAND ME UP! Can it really be this difficult to find and hire a photographer?!?! So I guess I'm back on the search... Hopefully I can find someone who can deliver what I have in my head and make it in to something tangible.

Pose for the Camera Now... Flick...Flick!

When a person plans their wedding, they always have a certain list of priorities. For some the venue is above all the most important aspect of their day. For others, it's the food...music or even the dress. For me it's the memories. Yes I will be disappointed if the DJ forgets to play "Who Let the Dogs Out" for the garter toss or if my Dad steps on my veil right before I walk down the aisle, but those disappointments will be forgotten as time passes by. The only way to preserve a moment of time forever is in print.

Photography is an important part of any wedding. For me it's one of the top. I want to be able to look back on the day I stood in front of God, family and friends and told the man that at makes my heart sing that I will be his forever. I want to have THE best photos to capture the love, emotion and raw energy of that day in the most artistic way possible. For some reason, I am really impressed and stuck on a photo journalistic approach. Most places claim to specialize in this style of photography, but really only few master it.

Months ago, I came across an AMAZING photographer and have secretly been pinning over his albums for some time now. Unfortunately he is not available to shot my wedding and I am not the least bit happy about it. He even referred another photag buddy of his who's work I also love and OF COURSE he is unavailable as well. With the help of my lovely planner mother we have contacted a number of photographers whose work is up to par with my standards (they are high) and they are all either not available or over priced. One of them even has the audacity to be getting married on the same day... :-) (Just joking. It's a great day to get married!) 

All in all, I am still on the search to find the right person who can turn what I have in my head to actual works of art. I have a consultation with a new photag company scheduled this weekend and also sent off some more inquires this evening...so hopefully something comes of it.

To show you I am not expecting TOO much I'll leave you with some of my favorite pics taken by my 3 top photographers, all of whom are no longer options.

Scrole Vision: 

                 

Colville Heskey:

          

Ann Pak:

         

STDs!!

Save the Dates that is!! (what else could I have been talking about?!?)

With just  under 5 months to go until wedding time, it really is now or never with this pesky little buggers. Do we do them? Do we not? If we do, how much do we spend? It is too late to send them? So many questions!!

A few months ago I had a couple of great ideas for some STD magnets, but when it came to turn the images from my head to a tangible item...well let's just say some ideas are best keep to yourself.  '

Recently, I have seen a few new(er) trends and discussions popping up on the boards about video STDs. They seem pretty easy but time consuming. Some people have gone all out and made mini movie trailers or spoof music videos and some others have used the great art of stop motion. I think I really like the idea of the stop motion videos best. Which would you choose?

 

And so it begins....

There is a VERY good chance that we have found our venue! I could not be happier because once the deposit is paid for the location it's only the small stuff left. We have been able to finalize the guest list, set a realistic budget and even picked out our wedding bands. I am happy that things are starting to fall in to place.

Where to begin......????

That really is an honest question. SO much has transpired in the past 6 months that I could write a bestselling novel, turn it in to an Emmy award winning daytime soap opera and/or Broadway musical and turn that in to a blockbuster movie with a cult following of love starved teenage girls. For the sake of time and my sanity I'll give you the VERY brief synopsis by way of an extremely long run on sentence. :o)


Got engaged in August 2011, started planning a wedding to rival Kim Kardashian at a GORGEOUS museum in downtown Baltimore, got invited to a free tasting by the exclusive caterer of the venue, HATED the food, sulked, stressed, moved wedding plans to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, rejoiced, found a home to purchase, debated on closing on a house or having extravagant wedding, decided on the house, canceled plans with the Aquarium, deal on house feel through, tears and hair pulling, decided to "elope" to Italy, planned and paid for trip to Europe, decided a wedding is the joining of two families-its not possible to join two families if neither of them are present, canceled European wedding plans (but not trip,) relinquished planning responsibilities to someone more capable and knowledgeable (MY MOM,) taking deep breaths and am now enjoying this experience.


So now that we are all caught up, lets talk business.


With less than 5 months to my wedding date NOTHING is set in stone. I kind of want to freak out and run around like a chicken with his head cut off because there is so much to do, but I won't. I have an AMAZING support system behind me and they are helping to make this day happen as smoothly as possible and I am sooooooo grateful. As soon as I called my mother and MoH to tell them that Drew and I decided that we really do want a wedding with all of family present, they took off like a speeding bullet. With in 24 hrs they have venue options and caterer meetings scheduled and who knows what else. I am excited at the prospect of having my dream wedding but I am even more thankful to not be planning this wedding alone.


Word to the wise: Hire a wedding planner..... EARLY on! 


So we have alont of great sites to hold our wedding, but the questions I have to ask and take in considerations are "Are they available for September 29th?" "Are they available at all?" "How much is this going to cost me?" etc...


These are a couple of the ones that I am fond of and seem to be in our price range.

Chesapeake Bay Beach Club

Harbor Magic 

Kent Manor

The Word Trade Center in Baltimore

The Great Room at Savage Mill 

I have seen each of these places in person (with the exception if Kent Manor) at least once in my life. My junior prom was actually held at The Great Room (I, however, was on punishment and not allowed to attend :-/ ) An any rate, my fondness for these places doesn't matter if they don't have my date available. So we'll just have to wait and see.