Place Settings

As I write this, my hands are antsy to stamp. I know... what a weird way to start off a post... but hey, welcome to my world. I was out of the DIY-land there for a while and tonight I HAVE RETURNED!

First of all, an ode to stamps... holy moly, they are just awesome. I know I've said it before, but I can't stress enough how much they have come in handy for the wedding. In fact, with my horribly long absence from this blog I should have dedicated a post to the invitations (I'll try to post on them soon) and the crazy amount of hand stamping that went into them. On top of the fact I am gaga for hand stamping, I am also really picky about how it's done, so I don't let anyone touch them. I'm like a man about his tools... Those are my stamps, and my stamps only. No touchy touchy! So... I had some close calls with carpal tunnel syndrome during the invitation stamping fiasco since I tackled it on my own, but I think they turned out awesome and then I laid my hands to rest. That is, until tonight when I decided to see how I want my place settings to look. I then got ink happy and now have about 50 stamped forks. Is it weird that I think it is completely addicting, and maybe even fun?
So anyhow... this is what I'm looking at for place settings:

*Sidenote: Sorry for the bad photography skills... I'm getting lazy with my picture taking... also what the heck is up with the coloring on my photos lately?! Not sure why it's in weird layers...

But anyhow, I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I haven't decided if I will do all the flatware with "A & W" or if I will just leave the top fork with it since that's what is visible. I'm feeling like I may just go with the top one since I'm 3 weeks out (gasp!) and I have about a zillion other things to accomplish, but for now, THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

I like this hair style!

My sister and best friend (MOH) decided to give me a hair and make up package on the day of my wedding as my shower gift. I am so THRILLED that they did this for me because I was pretty worried about what I should do for the beauty part of our big day and now all I need to do is pick out my make-up "look" and my hair style! I just saw this on Oh So Beautiful Paper and I loved it! I need to go get a trial so I can see what looks good on me! Eeee thanks so much Andi and Sarah, you guys are the BEST!

What shall we eat with?!?!

Alright, I come back to you full of more excuses on why I have been absent in the blogging world. Siigghh... are you ready? Welp, okay. I packed up my entire life in Richmond and moved it all to NOVA. My last day at my (now old) job was March 12th and it was pretty sad... I already miss it a lot! I moved everything up to NOVA and then began a new job a few days later. My new job is quite different in all aspects from my other job and it is taking quite the adjustment. Luckily, I now have AJR by my side everyday so I feel ready for anything!

Anyhow... if that isn't a good enough excuse, well. I guess I got nothin! I figured I would come back with a post about a lovely little discovery I mad a few weeks ago. The past few months I had been on the hunt for figuring out the dinner ware for the reception. Because it is outdoors, it will be much easier to have disposable plates and silverware... but how do we do this in a wedding appropriate way? I certainly don't want anything styrafoam at the wedding! There are a lot of high quality disposable plates online, such as this one from Party at Lewis.

You can get plates that are clear and sturdy, plates that resemble fine china, and all sorts of cool stuff. One thing to remember though, is this stuff isn't all that cheap. It runs a little less than a dollar a plate, plus you have to pay shipping! Another factor, is that it isn't even close to being environment friendly, which is something that is important to me, especially with the wedding. I did go ahead and order some AWESOME eco-friendly utensils from EcoWare Products that I am so psyched about! I literally HAD to have them when I came across them online, and they are awesome.

They are made from birchwood... how cool is that?!?! You can also buy similar ones made from bamboo, which is the ultimate up and coming way to be green. I considered doing bamboo plates, which are also extremely eco-friendly, but I thought with the burlap runners and the wooden utensils, that might be a bit TOO natural and not enough pizazz for a wedding reception. Afterall, your dishes provide a lot of visual impact on the overall decor.

After hours and weeks of searching online, I decided to give it a rest and come back another time when I wasn't so burnt out on it. This was one of those horridly boring wedding tasks I mentioned a while back. Then one night the week before I moved, I stepped into the Dollar Store around the corner from my apartment to ask if they had boxes I could use for packing. While in there, I opened my eyes and BEHOLD! There were really nice glass plates for... a dollar each! As in real glass, reusable, nice plates. I inspected them and thought to myself, hmm. These would work for a wedding for sure! I knew I didn't particularly want clear plates (remember the whole visual impact thing?) so I came home and got online. Who knew the Dollar Tree has a website? With a plethora of awesome wedding worthy products!

While searching I found these and I was instantly excited... this was the EXACT look that matched my whole wedding theme! And how perfect would they look with the wooden flatware? So I headed to the Dollar Tree the next day and bought everything they had! Here is what one of them looks like:

So that my friends, is what we shall be eating with. No, they are not disposable, but they look awesome and they are decently priced, and I can donate them when the wedding is over! Or, let friends and family take a few if they want them for picnics and such (as AJR's dad suggested).

Bridal Jewelry, so fun!

I receieved my earrings in the mail yesterday! Naturally I got them from Etsy and I am so impressed with how PERFECT they are for my overall look!

I love the filigree... and the nice little drop of crystal. Eeee I am getting excited as each little piece comes together!

I ordered them from RebeccaJDesigns

Another darn cake

People are going to get tired of seeing different versions of virtually the same style cake, but I keep coming across these plain white cakes with a little rustic spin and I get all mushy inside with feelings of confusion on which one to choose.

Why are they all so cute!?!?

found here

The good news is we got our cake stand in the mail! It is GORGEOUS! It looks almost identical to this one here...

Bamboo Heart Picks

It's the little details that are dragging me in (and making me spend too much money). I can't help myself because I want there to be fun little things in the reception that make people smile.

I was looking for a cute cocktail pick and came across these heart ones. I couldn't resist. First of all they are economical (can I get another what what) and they look so adorable. So I splurged and ordered, they look just as good in person.

I bought them on Amazon. Yay for drinking vodka tonics with a nice little symbol of love :)

RSVP's are the devil.

I can't tell you how long I took to create the RSVP wording. In fact the reason I can't tell you is because of the shameful face I would have to make while telling you.
First of all, I knew I wanted postcard RSVP's. (Economical, what what) But the person doing our invites keeps one side blank, free of design or wording. So then I thought we should ask people to write a message on the blank side (you know, a "Please feel free to send a message to the bride and groom" kind of thing. That way it wasn't such a lonely barren side of the RSVP (they have feelings too ya know!) But that would have cost 35 dollars to print. I passed because every time I turn around we are spending 100 dollars here or 50 dollars there (luckily the thousands of dollars here, thousands of dollars there thing stopped a while ago) and my sister said "Save that money for a nice bottle of wine on the honeymoon!" Well said.
So then I was worried about the actual wording. Do you just have a line for regrets and accepts? Do you get a little wordy for fun like this:

____is/are looking forward to dining, dancing, and celebrating

____has/have to miss the fun



or even this:

__ Yes, we look forward to dinner!

__ Sorry, we're unable, our plate is full.



oh, and there are corny themed RSVP's as well, such as if you were to be married at a golf course:

__ Yes, we'll see you on the green!

__ Sorry we can't swing it.


Anyhow... point is... a zillion options. Plus there is the whole +1 issue. Sadly, we are not able to allow our guests +1's (we have 150 chairs that fit under our tent and our guest list is currently well over that, so it's just a matter of space! Plus, have you ever had to feed tons of people? Sheesh it's expensive) and honestly I knew I didn't really want +1's to begin with because I am not comfortable having people that I don't know as guests at the most special day of my life. That might come off as rude or weird to others, but when I picture my wedding day, I want to look out at the church and see people that know and love us and are there to celebrate our union... not just come for the free beer with a date. So, we decided to only allow people who are in relationships to bring their boyfriend or girlfriend as a date, since chances are we probably know them anyway if they are dating our friend that is invited. My exception is that a few way out of town friends can bring someone if they don't know anyone else at the wedding... and of course the bridal party. I know it might not seem fair to some, but this is what we are comfortable with and so that's just the way it is!

So how to convey this on the response cards? Well... I have read some horror stories where people just automatically add names on their response card without checking with the bride first, and I really wanted to avoid awkward situations like that at all costs, so I did a little research and I found two options. One was that you can put an asterick and small font below the response part that looks something like this: *__ seats have been reserved for you. And you fill in the number for each person before mailing them out, so Uncle Bob sees he only has one seat reserved and isn't going to bring his stripper girlfriend. However, that seemed a little too blunt. Plus, you have the family of 5 that might possibly only have 3 coming to the wedding. Now where to fill in how many out of their party might be attending?

SEE WHY I HAVE HAD SO MANY ISSUES?!?!?

So here is what I decided, in my own nice wording with a way for people to know how many people in their party are invited and a way for them to tell me how many they will be bringing. Whew.

__ out of __ will be attending with glee! (and yes, I fill in the second line with the number)

__ will not be attending, but shall celebrate from afar!

Crisis averted. And I kind of like knowing people can still say they will celebrate from afar. It makes their "no" seem warm and sweet, even if the no is from grumpy Uncle Bob who is mad he didn't get a plus one.