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.