RSVP's Due in today

The first half of my RSVP's are due in today - I'm as of right now short 42 out of 107, not too bad I suppose.

My task today is to divide up the remaining people into "familes" and give them to the respective sides - each family responsable for their own. Mr S and I will take the friends and if all all do this we will be done in no time.

The mail has yet to come today, I have another hour or so - I hope there's 42 pink envelopes in there, it will make the day a lot smoother.

REJECTED!?

Okay, I knew it was going to happen. In some cases I prayed it would so I could send out some B lister invites. But, I have to admit that I didn't expect to feel this way when it finally happened...

What am I talking about? Why receiving my first declined RSVP of course.

Sure it's from my dads cousin, who I couldn't pick out of a crowd if I tired. But I find myself wondering...well why the heck can't they come? What could possibly be more important then MY wedding.

Sigh. What a strange feeling. Weirded out by something I hoped and knew would happen. Gotta love being a girl. LOL.

Happiness comes from the Mail Box

Okay, so maybe the mailbox didn't look like this today, but I did get my first RSVP and it certainly made me feel awesome!

My cousin was the first to send it in, the little pink envelope arrived just after 11 with the rest of the mail - Mr S barely made it down the driveway with the days letters and bills before I was hollering out the window scared to death half the invites were returned to me due to poor addressing.

"Are there any invites in there"

He replied with "What's this" looking at a larger envelope

"ARE THERE ANY INVITES IN THERE!?"

clearly still ignoring me, he fumbled through and shows me the RSVP envelope, holding it like a trophy....

"Yes dear, ok are there any invites in there!?" Was I being vauge?

Him: "What?"

Me: "Invites? Huh??? Really I've asked three times now" and I'm still hollering out the window at this point.

He shows me the RSVP envelope again.

"Seriously any large pink envelopes or just the one small one?" I was about to scream.

Him: "Oh this is it"

ARGH, yeah really would that have been difficult to tell me in the first place. I only asked 4 times. Sometimes I think his brain produces a chemical that over rides the sound of my voice. But I love him. Deaf or not.

(photo credit istock photo)

Bye Bye

The invites have left the house. They are on their way all over the country and over seas. I had a mini panic attack leaving the post office, did I address the right? Do they all have RSVP's in them?

I got over it and now I'm off to creating the invites for the next batch going out.

More, you say? Oh yes. Due to the large size of my family, and only being able to fit a certain amount in the reception venue we had to create a "B" list. It's not as bad as you might think, they are actually people we really want at the wedding, it's just that we need some of those "no's" to come through before we can officially send the invite. Otherwise we risk over filling the room and blowing our budget.

Off to have a glass of wine and then stare at my mail box, wondering when the first RSVP will arrive.

Wrapping it all Togeter

When I said that cutting the pieces of paper out that make the invite was the worst part of the invite process.....I lied. I hadn't yet been faced with the "belly band" issue.

I'm sure it would have been much easier if the piece of paper I was using to go around the invite was in fact the same size, as the invite. But no. I'm thrifty and wanted to use scrap from my inserts for it.

So I laid out the belly band like this, and tried as best I could after 2 glasses of wine to make it smack dab in the middle (you'll see the final result, is a bit off center. I blame the wine)

I then folded in the two sides, and using a glue stick applied adhesive to the edge of one of the belly band.Then I applied my square seal, and then put the adhesive to the other edige of the belly band. Doing it this way kept me from gluing myself to my invites - which I assure you could have been done with out any wine at all....

As you can see this one is a bit...off. LOL. But I fixed it before I mailed it out - I just never took the extra picture.


And here they are, boxed up ready to head to the Post Office, where I will double check to make sure I have the correct postage (I know I do, but I like to check things about 14 times...) and the post the ones to Europe to our friends overseas. LIKE AUNTIE NORA!!! HI NORA!!!

So this is 90 of them, I have about 30 more or so to get all together...and then they will leave me and I will be sad to see them go....

Finished 6x6 Pocketfold Invites!

Here they are, in all their glory. Months of work, waiting, freaking out and gluing tiny gems to paper and here they are! And they are almost ready to mail!

I have to admit that of all the steps: Designing, Printing, Cutting and Assembling - cutting was by far the worst part and the most time consuming!!!

Here's a quick run down of how it all came together.

• After the jewels were glued onto the invite and the invite stuck to the pink backing piece, I then stuck that whole piece into the pocketfold.
• Then I handed off the pocketfold to Mr S, who stuffed in the Drections/ Information card and the Reception/Accommodations cards and set that off to the side.

Now it was time to get the RSVP's in - and since I had 6 different RSVP's, and each one had to be numbered to coincide with the guests number on my Excel spread sheet this step tooo a little longer then expected.

• Mr S would read me the name off the mailing envelope (which I printed up months ago) I would find them on the list, write the number on the back lower corner of the RSVP and he would stuff it in, then lay the whole thing with it's envelope, in a big white box to wait for it's belly band.

The belly band will be the last thing to go on, I tried making the seals at home and honestly gave up cutting them out and simply ordered some sticker ones instead. Sure it was an added $40 for 250, but I'll use them all through out the wedding planning and what not, and it will save me a load of time.
I'm still finding time to take on design projects, be they for invites, programs, thank you cards, Let me know and do it soon if you're thinking about it. Soon I'll be shutting down design until after my wedding and honeymoon - so mid-Sept!!!

Putting On The Glitz!

I started this task last night, as I received the 1's, 2's and 5's RSVP's from my step dad.

I cut it all up, and then realized I still needed to put the crystals on the invites, so I shifted gears and started this process.

In the absence of my actual craft tweezers, I grabbed an old pair of my eyebrow ones, because grabbing the gems and dipping them in glue and properly placing with your fingers is IMPOSSIBLE!

• STEP ONE: Squirt some glue, about a dime sized amount onto a scrap piece of paper. It will be easier to apply the glue to the gems this way.
• STEP TWO: Pick up gem with tweezers and dip lightly only the back, in the glue.
• STEP THREE: dab back of glue covered gem on scrap paper to remove excess, a very little amount is needed and you don't want the glue oozing out the sides.
  

(forgive my photos this time around, camera was having an off day, as was I! UGH!)

When all finished lay the items out to dry, it shouldn't take too long. Especially if you don't use too much glue. Be sure to lay them out flat, do not stack they can and will stick together!

And with Elmer's or the Jule glue I used, you will find that excess will dry clear but it's still better not to have a whole lot because you will still see the clear lump if it's too big.

And then you're all done adding the glitz to your invites!!!

Crazy.....about designing

Because I'm a total nut case I decided to take on a huge task during my own wedding planning - create and design from scratch someone else's wedding invites and stationary. Someone I didn't know, never met other then on the computer.....

Luckily I got to work with a really fun, and understanding girl, who wasn't one of those demanding Bride-Zillas! Phew! Seriously, if I had to deal with a bride...like me for instance, I would have flipped!

My Bride had a very specific design in mind, one that I couldn't find a graphic anything even close to use for her design - so I had to draw it from hand, by looking at some sample invites she sent me for inspiration. That was one of the most time consuming parts of all this.

Here's a little sample of what her dream and my designing came up with.

She's making a type of pocket fold invite, something similar to mine. And since she decided she wanted the same script font as me, and the same RSVP - they look similar in a few way! But it kept at least a few things easy for me!

The Main Invite

The Thank You Card

Inserts, as they will appear once printed and stacked

The Menu

I had a great time making these for her! I can't wait to see what they look like printed on Opal Star Dream paper and accented with the champange and blue!


Credits:
*Design Idea sent to me by Bride,
*Thank you Mrs Lemon again for your Awesome RSVP - it goes onto please even more!!!
*All other design created by myself using PhotoShop CS2

Need Help With Save The Dates,Thank Yous, Any Wedding Stationary!?

Well, let me help!

It completely escaped me until today that (ohmygosh!) I create and sell photo cards! I have a home business that I put on the back burner to plan the wedding and care for my daughter, but I have the great talent that I can hand over to your guys for a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere.

So here's my offer to my fellow Hive members and my blog readers:

I'll create you a personalized Save The Date, Thank You Cards, hang tags for your favors, EVEN Wedding Invite for you to print as you wish, where you wish - for the low low price of $35.00!

So instead of paying per card at other places for up to $1.75 -$2.00 each you pay a flat rate with me and print it where you want - saving HUNDREDS!

EXAMPLE:
-So say you buy Save The Dates at Lil' Duck Duck on line and you get 100 - You would spend $220.00 for 5x7 cardstock Save The Dates. (NOT including shipping)

Me Design it for you, with Kinkos printing and paper cost you would spend about $90 total!

OR

Me Design it for you and you order from a photo printer (like a photo card in a 5x7) www.mpix does them for .89 - for 100 that's $89.00!

That's a saving of $130 either way!!!


Here's a few of my samples, remember everything is 100% customizable, change color, font, wording - whatever! And I'll send more samples by request.

I can do anything you like, so find me samples of what you want and we'll talk! E-mail me at acgrundman@gmail.com

*Please note that prices quoted are approximate. Kinkos prices and mpix prices are located on their web site. I am not responsible for price changed made by them.

Holiday Card shown here but this is an awesome layout for Thank Yous as well!

Change any wording to suit your needs! Need a Thank you, but like this lay out - you got it!

Babies, Parties, Bridal Showers, Thank You Cards - ANYTHING!

Please e-mail me with questions.
Note that the $35.00 does not include custom designs from scratch (meaning no layout to look at or design I already have), or elements I do not already have (i.e trees, blossoms - things of that nature)

Suddenly Stationary

I've been designing our stationary for the past few days. It's been a lot of fun, and much cheaper then ordering it from high priced catalogs!

I started by searching for fun, thank you cards and found nothing I liked. Well, nothing I liked that I would shell out $45 a set for! Sheesh!

So I started up my trusty Photo Shop CS2 and started creating. A bit later I had the card to the left.

It matches our invites, and every other aspect of the wedding and it's both simple and elegant!

I am ordering 2 sets of 10 from Vista Print to see if I like the matte or linen finish better. I can get 100 of them for under $100 which, from what I found price wise - is a steal!

I also took advantage of their free return address lables, designed up some to match and ordered away! I probably won't use them for the invites, but Alex and I don't have any return address labels, so for the low, low price of FREE - why not?! Check it out:



Lastly, I've run into the issue of getting the return address on to the wedding invite envelope. My printer has a temper and I don't like dealing with it. Envelopes come out with the printing not straight and sometimes with streaks and such. And since I'm planning to use Stardream brand metallic envelopes - I am not going to even attempt it more then likely. My issue was that I wanted the font to match the invite and custom rubber stamps with script fonts on them can be tricky and hard to read.

To help solve the problem I created this label and ordered 250 for $24 from www.uprinting.com, if it doesn't look right, then I have some more great post wedding address labels!! I have a feeling it will be more then fine however.

These particular labels are 2x2 inches. They do all custom
shapes and sizes and their prices are unbelievable!

Now my last issue is getting the address on the front of the envelope with out using my printer. Looks like I'll be either buying a new printer (not an option! LOL) or spending a lot of time at my step dad's office and my future MIL's house running things off!

And lastly I'll show off my RSVP card I am IN LOVE with. I can't take all the credit for it though, Mrs Lemon on Wedding Bee was the original creator and I used her layout and made it work for me. THANK YOU MRS LEMON!

We had some issues to cover with the RSVP, I needed to know specific names and what food choice they were having because our hall requires us to label the place setting for the waiters sanity! However I also needed to make sure that I didn't get back those "I'll be bringing my entire extended family" response. So, thankfully Mrs Lemon spent a lot of time studying the success rate of questionnaires based on how easy they were to understand and follow. She had a good success rate with her version of this and I hope to as well.
Of course the food choices are not complete yet as we've not done the tasting, but this give the idea. And now when I do have the final menu items all I have to do is input them and I'll be done with the design process!!!