THIS JUST IN! (another FAIL)

Our invitation paper just came in the mail!!!! Who's excited?!?!?

THIS GIRL!!!

The only catch is- we didn't get enough. (::smacks self in forehead::)

So, here's a tip for all of you DIYers, if you ordered your paper at two separate times like me, refresh your memory before you order the second batch. We bought extra paper for invitations when we ordered the save the date paper a while back- and I just assumed I had enough eggplant colored paper to make the invitations.

Well, you know what they say about assuming, right?

Yep.

So, now- I just called my paper supplier and left a message about my sad story and ordered more.


On a lighter note----- isn't this gorgeous?!?! I love our color scheme- and I love that I don't know anyone else who's ever used it. Trendsetter? I think yes. :)

White, Natural, Orange, and Eggplant
YUM!!

Decisions. Decisions.

Tonight future mr. and I decided on all of our invitation paper... finally. I have been procrastinating on this task for over a month now. We both took vacation next week to go to a Christian rock festival we go to every year... but can't afford the week's ticket + food + gas to get there so instead we're looking for free/cheap things to do in the area. Not to mention, Tuesday is his birthday!!! :)

So, hopefully paper comes in time and we can have an invitation making partay!! haha- just what we want to do on vacation! He was actually really excited to be part of the paper-ordering process. He came up with an awesome idea to incorporate more orange paper into the design, and I'm so happy with how it looks! Once they're done and being delivered I'll post pictures- I'm pretty sure they're going to look waaaaaaay better than anything I could have ordered online. (for only about $1.25 a piece- I'll do a more accurate breakdown later!) These puppies would cost at least $5-7 online somewhere. Hot dang!

Tonight's big task:
-Finish compiling addresses of everyone. (which I've also been procrastinating for over a month)

Anyone else procrastinating anything big?
And are your future misters decision makers?? Jeff wants to be an active part of wedding planning, and I love it!! :) (He actually likes talking about decisions and details! So cool!)

To Do List FAIL(ish).

So, lately other brides I follow have been posting their to-do lists. I have my all written on paper:

I thought to myself... I'm such an organized person... I should have a digital file with all my lists on them! I attempted this tonight.

I got the major DIY projects listed on an excel file and got extremely tired just THINKING about all I have to do. (This is not ALL my projects either.) HAHA...
So- now I have just a page of my DIY projects, but I think I want to make a Word file with more of a list of steps involved in each project...

Here is my insight on my typical daily to-do lists that I enjoy making:
1-I like to start the list off with something I've already completed. (So, I get to start my list by crossing something off!)- It makes me feel accomplished.
2-I like to add on simple tasks that I know I'm going to complete even if it's a daily task... like "eat breakfast". Done.
3-I like to break things down to multiple items... so when 1 task is done I can cross off 4 things---
i.e. Run Errands would look more like
- Get book from Library
- Get supplies for dinner
- Stamps from Post Office
- Get gas in car
(So, as soon as I get home- BOOM!- 4 things scratched off)

The point of this being: my DIY tasks are BIG things- like "Invitations"... so the next to-do list I'll make will say:
- Design Invitations
- Order Paper
- Order Envelopes
- Print out Invites
- Plan Assembling Partay with MoH and BM!!!!

(So I can check things off as I go and feel better about the progress I'm making!)

Anyone else feel defeated just looking at their to-do list? I have 96 days to complete EVERYTHING!!!!!!

Paper Love.

So, having earned my undergraduate degree in art education, it's fair to say I have an appreciation for certain details that other people simply overlook.

In searching for the perfect paper for our invitations I was quite unimpressed with cardstock weight paper in dark purple/ eggplant. I hit up A.C. Moore and the only thing they had was something resembling a grape. No, not quite what I was going for. I wanted elegant deep rich purple.

^this is what A.C. Moore had to offer

And then I stumbled upon www.papertemptress.com . I'm not sure how I got there... but I'm quite thankful that I did. She has so many different selections to choose from in categories like "heavenly" or "dropdead gorgeous"! This is my kind of woman!

^And this is what I found at www.papertemptress.com
(yummm!!!!)

After ordering paper for our Save the Dates I knew I'd be back to her for our Invitation paper. I sent her an email asking about certain styles of paper and told her the look I was going for. She called me and talked to me personally about her favorites and even offered to send me samples of what she thought would work well, and what prints the best in an ink jet printer! I was amazing at her personal service to me- and we talked about the beauty of paper.

It was wonderful.

I would highly recommend her to anyone else who is DIYing their invitations... or even if you just like being crafty with paper!!

Not sure what's next.

Okay, here's the predicament:

I have 101 days until our wedding day. I have about 1 billion decisions to make/things to do... and I have no idea of what order to do them in!!!

I sold school books to amazon.com giving me a $112 credit in my account... and there are a number of things I could purchase with it.

We need:
-Burlap bags for trail mix bar and for s'more favors
-Polaroid PoGo instant printer and film for our photobooth/guest book
-My jewelry (from amazon)
-Votive candles

How do I decide what to buy when? Or who to pay when? Most of our vendors want the money the day of the wedding... so we're going to go broke on September 24th. haha...


And the main thing I need to do is... PLAN MY INVITATIONS!!!!!!!



It couldn't be as bad as that, right?

Once I have the invitations planned out I can officially order the paper. This is one project I should NOT be procrastinating on. Yikes.

Anybody else feel like they occasionally hit a brick wall with planning?

Better later than never?

So, tonight I found myself complaining about everything in life. I even found a Bible verse to complain about- that's how negative I was being.

I couldn't find much positive so I started thinking about the wedding... and thinking about some things that I really always wanted to do with planning but never got around to. One thing was to make an inspiration board. So, alas, I spent a little time playing around on Google image search and Adobe Photoshop tonight to finally make a board for my brightly colored, rustic, outdoorsy, September 2011 wedding.

I'm happy with it- but I think I might need to make one or two more just to get my whole intentions across. I know how I want the day to look in my mind, it's a little hard translating it on a digital image. Just know that 107 days from now, all my dreams will be coming true, it will be the best day of my life, and from then on I will spend it with the man I love. Who cares how the inspiration board turns out! ;)

DIY table numbers

So, this morning I have a huge stack of stuff that needs labeled for a yard sale that I'm setting up tonight... so, naturally- I'm procrastinating.

And what better way to procrastinate than to plan my wedding, right?!


I was on www.weddingbee.com earlier and one of the blogs was about table numbers. I've had my table number idea planned for months, I just haven't started it yet. It's such a nice sunny day, so I just took a walk around our property looking for inspiration naturey items.

Found: weeping willow tree, a pile of rocks my dog collects from her walks, sticks, and hostas.

So, here are the results of my nature walk:




p.s. I love them. :)

Not the dress. :)

So, I have these pictures on my computer... and I know no one else has seen them other than my two ladies and my mom that went dress shopping with me. I thought it'd be fun to post pictures of the dresses I WON'T be wearing on my wedding day. Some were close calls... but I knew "the one" as soon as I put it on!


*First dress of the day. Felt a little surreal seeing myself in a big white gown. :) By the way- not a fan of this one... it was a little too modern and fashionista for my tastes.


*Gown 2- frilly flowy bottom. Meh.
*This one was alright... and even got to the point where they added the veil... which is when they try to lure you in. Still no tears of joy though...
*Good for a beach wedding I think. Flowy and soft...
*This was the runner up... and probably would have been "the one" if I was getting married in a church and having a more traditional wedding. I felt like a princess, but ultimately, I wanted something that was suitable for the outdoors and not fussy. This was more of a ball gown...As you can see... I was confused... because I thought everyone said, "You'll know which one is 'the one.'" I had a closet full of dresses and my heart wasn't fluttering...

But then, everything changed. There was one dress that I had picked out online that I really wanted to try. It had all the components on it I was looking for and the attendant couldn't find it in the store. I was bummed. She took one more sweep through the store and came shuffling (quickly) back to our little corner with a dress in her hand looking while looking back to see if she was followed. haha... here she found it hanging on another bride-to-be's "try on" stash.
She grabbed and ran.

I don't know how to explain it, but before I even opened the dressing room door and saw my reflection I just knew it was the dress I wanted. As soon as the door swung open I had tears in my eyes. :)
I would also like to note- that the dress was in my size so I got to walk out of the store with dress in tow. :)

Yep yep.

Thriftiness FTW!

FTW = For the win!!

I'd just like to start off by saying, "I LOVE YARD SALES!!!"




Seriously- one person's junk is another's treasure. Every yard sale I pass I stop by and check for vases, mason jars, burlap, and white christmas lights!

So far I've spent about $10.50 and have
-14 large vases (for centerpieces)
-12 mason jars
-3 strands of Christmas lights
-6 small votive jars
-3 woven baskets (for Trail Mix bar)

(My budget for all of these things was originally in the $150 range.) :)

Awesome. I know.

This Saturday I have a date with my mom to hit up another community yard sale close by! I'm still on the search for mason jars and as many Christmas lights as I can find! I thought I found the motherload at another yardsale... but they were icicle lights. (dislike.)

STD's and Invitations. :)

The first time I read STD's on a wedding blog it threw me off. So, alas, if you're confused: STD's = Save the Dates.

Jeff and I spent a few hours one night and banged out the first round of them for family and friends. We made 30 or so and then called it a night. We make a good team. And it was all his idea for our "date night." :)

I used Photoshop to design them. I scanned in a topographic map of the part of the Appalachian Trail that runs through Caledonia State Park, then searched for hours for the perfect outdoorsy font online. I found a leafy one and loved it!

I also bought some circle Avery labels and printed them in orange, purple, and green-
Jeff and Heidi / 9.24.11 / <3 <3 <3

They got tucked under the twine we tied around the STD then.

At this point not everyone got an STD... but most people know about the date- so I'm not too concerned. I also personally handed out all of them (which I know is semi-tabboo), but it saved us postage- so I'm not complaining. And guess what- the invitations are being hand delivered as much as possible as well! Bam- that saves me $50 :)

So, I'm working on the tedious task of designing the whole invitation suite using Photoshop. It will use the same Eggplant paper from the STDs, and we're going to create pocketfolds with them.

I have to zoom in to 300% and then touch up every little leaf... erased the blurred gray edge... blahh blahh blahh... time consuming blahh blahh blahh... :P But saving $$$$$$$!!

My woodburner is my new favorite toy! These puppies are going to go on the outside of the pocketfold invitation with some burlap and twine. :) I'm pretty darn excited.

I have my MoH and a BM that have offered to help assemble invitations... provided that I have Mountain Dew and Elios pizza at their disposal. :)

This week I'm ordering the last of the paper I need- and then in two weeks it's invitation time!!! Woot woot!