The Big Invite Post

Phew! The invites are out, and based on initial reactions, I believe we have a success. And I have many tips and lessons learned to boot!

Here are the hard facts on the invites for those who are curious:

 - Pocketfold: From Cards & Pockets, in Sand

 - Invitation mat: From Cards & Pockets, in Sparkling Merlot

 - Invitation envelope: From Cards & Pockets, in Snow White

 - RSVP envelop: From Cards & Pockets, in White

 - Invitation envelope liners: From Cards & Pockets, in Sparkling Merlot

 - Invitation and supplement inserts: Printed by TGI Direct on bright white 100# text on an iGen digital press

 - Ribbon: Michaels, in gold

 - Flowers: Michaels, various colors (all on clearance so I'm not sure they're available anymore)

*I have to apologize ahead of time, because my pictures aren't the best, but hopefully they do them a little bit of justice.*

Ordering of all of the supplies, as I mentioned in my previous post, was a bit of a stressful process. Not because of issues from where I ordered them (which, by the way, was all from Cards & Pockets - I have used them before and love, love, love them!). I had previously purchased swatch books from the site so I knew what colors would work best with what I wanted for the invites. So I go, I place the order, I triple check my quantities (ordered about 10% extras just in case...which came in handy) and my order comes quickly in the mail. All was great except for one small detail - I ordered my invite liners in the wrong color.

Doh.

Thanks to the wonderful customer service of Cards & Pockets though, I was able to return them and get a refund, while the shipment of the correct liners shipped out to me. Which, brings me to:

Tip #1: Double, triple, quadruple check any order you place for this kind of stuff.


It kind of goes without saying, but even when I was feeling super duper careful about this stuff, I still mistakenly chose "Sparkling Sapphire" instead of "Sparkling Merlot" and was so concerned about my quantities of materials and not on the colors. Oh well, all fixed.

Then I invited all of my local ladies over to help with the invitation assembly process. I had all my materials, I had sent my files to the printer and all was looking good so I figured, hey, let's at least have a party about it! Wrong. The invites weren't ready. Due to a couple of issues with my files (fonts, stuff not lining up, sillyness), my actual printed invites were delayed. Which, brings me to:

Tip #2: Don't freak out about things you can't control.

Not easy to say to a bride on the edge, but I was freaking out about the fact that I wouldn't have the company of my friends to help assemble every last bit of the invites with me. But after taking a step back (and getting talked off a ledge from my wonderful fiance), I realized that everything I needed my friends to do wouldn't get done in one day anyway. So while I didn't actually have invitations for my friends to assemble, we still had plenty to keep us busy.

Now here is where I would show pics of my beautiful friends helping me assemble these things, but in the throes of wine, food, and a lot of fun (at least for me), I forgot. But here is what we ended up with:

Alright, so it doesn't look like much. But that's a lot of gluing of invite backers to pocketfolds, cutting of ribbon, and gluing of flowers to the ribbons. Within the next couple of days, the rest of the printed materials arrived, which brought much joy and happiness to my heart:

Obviously not all of them, but you get the idea.

The invites were variably printed, which means I sent a data file to TGI to tell them everyone who was coming, and they essentially did a mail merge of sorts (I am totally, 100% over-simplifying that process by the way) so that all of our guests invites were individually personalized for them. Like so:

(Yes Jill, you were my example) :)

And, as a nice convenience for us, everyone's names were personalized on their Response card as well, so we didn't have to worry about people forgetting to put their names on their cards:

There was also a spot for people to let us know a song that would get them on the dance floor. Love. Love love love!

There was also this little gem, that took me foreverrrrrr to do, mainly because I hand-drew the map of Traverse City:

Then came the gluing of the envelope liners to the pre-printed envelopes (TGI was also nice enough to print the addresses for us), which literally involved taking some glue, putting it at the top peak of the liner, inserting them in, and pressing down. Easy peasy:

After this, our dear friend Leslie came over to help finish with gluing the invites to the purple backers, and then inserting all of the inserts, while I stamped the RSVP envelope and invite envelope with my parent's return address and put mailing stamps on the envelopes. Unfortunately, I'm a big dummy and I don't have a picture of us putting them all together. Yeah, I know. But we were definitely in the letsgetthisdoneplease mode. Look at my little helper all nice and focused:

That's Allen putting glue dots on the pocketfold so they would seal, and also on the ribbon so it would stay put. Those ribbons are crazy little fellas. But if you look closely you can see it all nice and put together. Sorta. More detail on the design to come at a later date.

Then we stuffed them in their proper envelopes (because the invite name had to match the response card name, which had to match the envelope name). There was a whole lot of quality checking on these babies:

Which brings me to my next tip:

Tip #3: If you're going to individualize your invites, double triple and quadruple check them.


Going through at the last minute, there were a couple of oopsies (people who had Rehearsal invites in theirs that shouldn't have, people with same last names getting mixed up Response cards) so I'm definitely glad we were going through them all just one last time at the end. But there could still be some oopsies out there, so if there are...oops.

In the end, I absolutely love our invites. Not only the design of them (which I'll get into in another post because this one is already long enough), but the fact that all of them were individually touched, put together, and personalized for each of our guests. And the feedback I've been getting on them has been absolutely awesome so thank you to everyone for their kind words! I promised they were put together with lots and lots of love :)

Creative Block

I've been spending the last few weeks starting to work on the creative for our invitations. Here's where I'm at so far:

Haha :)

The problem that I'm running into right now is the same one I've had all along - I have TOO many ideas! I've really been trying to narrow them down, and I know that I have the right "look" at this point for the wedding overall...but where to go from there? Yes there's inspiration boards, etc etc and I have all of that, but pulling all of those into a piece of paper tends to have its difficulties.

This weekend, my mom and I are going to meet with my aunt to discuss flowers - logistics of getting everything up north and cost to do so, overall look of the flowers (some of this is obviously limited by the transport up north, but I know it's all going to look amazing), and really nailing down the details of the day. I have a feeling that this will be a HUGE help in getting an overall picture of the day, especially because I know my mom and aunt will have a lot of great ideas to get everything executed. I just hope that all of those discussions get the creative juices flowing for me afterward!

Hotel Issues

A little wedding notification:

So for people who are planning on attending our wedding, but more importantly, planning on booking at the Bayshore Resort (the hotel that is within walking distance of our reception), we've run into a bit of a problem. Apparently our families are early bookers, and we've already booked almost 30 rooms through our block. This is awesome, but the problem is that there are other events that have blocked rooms for that weekend at the same hotel, so they are occupying the other available rooms at the hotel. So, there are a couple of options:

1. Try one of our other hotel blocks (see www.allenandkaitlyn.com for details)
2. Wait until the beginning of August when they release the other room blocks to book your room
3. Book an upgraded room now, and then downgrade to a standard room in August when the other rooms are released.

We have the sales guy working with us to see if he can release any other rooms from the other blocks, but he's apprehensive to do so with the events so far away at this point. We will keep working with him and I will try to keep you posted to make sure that we can get other rooms released.

Sorry for any hassle that this has caused, but I'm really glad that people are so excited and are booking their rooms already! I promise to keep you all posted! Please get a hold of either Allen or myself if you have any questions!

Adventures in Save the Dates

Last weekend, Allen and I were able to finally finish our first crafty wedding project. Success! While it was definitely nice to see it all come together, there were definitely a few bumps in the road. Since I am not even close to an expert when it comes to all things print and crafty, I am happy to share my mishaps with all of you to avoid in the future.

First - the design. As always, never an easy process for me. I started out sketching, mostly trying to work on the "logo" for our wedding. I wanted to have an image that we could carry through all of the pieces of our wedding (with some variations), and finally came up with something that was both typographically and aesthetically pleasing (to me), with about 4 different designs and layouts. Then, I started working with photos that I thought represented the Traverse City area a bit - I wanted people to look at the save the dates and get excited about the possibility of going up north for the wedding. The final product turned out like this:

(Under the 9.10.11 it says "traverse city, mi" and on the back is the hotel and website information)

My mom had seen the photo on one of the sites I had looked at (I used istockphoto.com for this particular photo) and was immediately on board. Once I showed it to Allen, he was in love and instantly wanted a glass of wine. Success! I decided on the square format based on some free leftover envelopes I had from a job at work, and definitely couldn't throw those babies away! They were a clear vellum so the recipient could see the image through the envelope. Love.

However, the full layout of the card was actually on a 5 x 7" card. I did this because I used a site called Vista Print to print the cards. They're one of my favorite sites to use, especially for down and dirty printing - even though their options for specs can be a bit limiting, the printing always turns out really nicely. So when we got them, they looked like this:

(We need a new camera - sorry for the blurriness)

This meant that Allen quickly became my go-to cutter buddy, and he used my paper cutter to cut them down to size. I had this from previous art projects in school, but you can get them for super cheap at Michael's, and they come with different cutters so you can perf, score, etc.

The next step was inserting into the envelopes (an easy while-watching-Jeopardy activity), and then we affixed the return address labels. I purchased a return address stamp from Paper Source to save on cramping and cheesy return labels. I figured that since we'll be sending out a lot of wedding-related mail in the near future it would be worth it. Top that off with a handy $10-off promotion, and I grabbed this guy for $25 worth of hand cramp savers:

You can change out ink colors, and if we ever move, we can replace the plate with a new address

Then we stamped our return address onto some round sticker labels to use as our sealers (saving precious taste buds and preventing tongue paper cuts - always a plus):

Ta da! Love those envelopes.

The final step was addressing these suckers. This is where we had some problems. Again, I used my trusty Paper Source to find some fancy address labels, and ended up finding vellum labels that would allow for the wine image to be seen through the envelope without a chunky label covering everything up. Amazing! This would have all been great, except that the template that I downloaded from PS was incorrect. Twice. I set up my template in InDesign to allow for use of a scripty font that I had used on the invites. Due to the vellum, it was difficult to see on the actual label sheets where the die cut of the label fell. So it wasn't until we were pulling the labels off to affix to the invites that we actually realized that half the labels on each sheet printed off-center or completely off the label.

Epic fail. This would be where I would show you a picture of this monstrosity, but we were so frustrated in trying to re-work them that I never got around to it. After trying to re-layout the labels for the cut off addresses, and after going through way more labels than we had intended, we ended up getting the save the dates out in two batches - first were the ones that were at least still mailable (even if they were off-center), and the second drop was of all the people from the first batch that their labels didn't really meet my standards. The second batch went out about a week later after procuring more labels. So, if you got your save the date late, that's why! And even the second batch still didn't turn out 100% the way I would have preferred. But, it's done, and lesson learned - measure the template yourself, and get labels with a clear die cut so you can see mistakes right away. Done and done for next time. At least it wasn't for the invitations.

Overall, despite some serious address label frustrations, I am really, really happy with how they turned out. I think they portray the overall tone of the wedding with the bay and the wine (naturally), and I'm proud of the work we put into them together. Hopefully everyone else enjoys them as much as I do!

House trouble and scammers

As some of you may know, Allen and I have been playing around with the idea of buying a new house these past few months. There are a few reasons for this, including practical things like low interest rates, preferable things like a shorter commute for him (he drives 40 miles to work everyday - ugh), and other nice to have things like more space, bigger kitchen, etc etc. However, since we are incredibly under on our house right now like most people are, we are looking into the option of renting our house out instead of selling right away so we don't have to cut a huge check.

All good in theory, until last week. We had posted our house on zillow.com and got a message that someone was interested in setting up a walk-through! So we're all excited, and I call the woman last week hoping to schedule it up. She answers, and proceeds to tell me how she has been hunting around on other sites like Craig's List, and actually had found something in Southfield that she really liked (I know, I was wondering the same thing you probably are - why on earth is she telling me this?!). Well apparently, the guy who was renting out the Southfield house told her that it wasn't for rent anymore, but that he had another house available to rent while he was on a missionary in Africa. The address he gave her? OUR ADDRESS. This guy had apparently seen that our house was for rent on Zillow, or had just randomly picked an address, and it happened to be ours!! He let her know that since he was "out of the country" that she could just go to our house and look in the windows and if she liked the house, he told her that if she sent him a $600 security deposit with the first month's rent of $800 that he would mail her the keys.

*#$*)!&^@%#$)*(&$#)(*@#$&#$)(*!&$]

So this woman was kind enough to forward me all of his emails so we could properly file a consumer fraud report, file a report with Craig's List, and file a police report. Also, I flagged his ad on Craig's List so hopefully no one else gets scammed by this.

But there is a bigger question out there: Who the hell do these people think they are?! I mean really. REALLY?! Sending someone to trespass on another person's property? Scamming people out of money when the economy is hard enough as it is? Those people are the scum of the earth.

Needless to say, I was in a bit of a rage over this. The woman agreed to still come see our house this past weekend (especially now that she knew we weren't in Africa), so we were at least excited about that prospect. Allen and I woke up at 6:30 am Saturday and spent about 6 hours cleaning our house from top to bottom. So we were prepped, ready, and excited for this woman to come over so we could make a smashing impression on her....and she never showed.

Sigh.

We're both trying not to be too disappointed about things, since the house really needed a good cleaning (clearly since it took a long time), and we were still able to get our Christmas tree up and everything. I think that if the woman had at least shown up and decided that she didn't like the house that we would have felt better that we had at least gotten someone to come see it. Hopefully we start to get a few more prospects after the holidays so we can really get to the good stuff - finding the house of our dreams!

Let the countdown begin

In a little over 60 hours, Allen and I will be starting our journey for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure. The 60 mile route starts us at Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills on Friday, has us looping and camping in Livonia for two nights, and ending at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn on Sunday.

Everyone, repeat after me: Please don't rain, please don't rain, please don't rain.

Thank you.

I'll be trying to report in from the walk (at least through Twitter or Facebook) to let everyone know how it's going, but I will for sure be keeping track of the entire experience while we're there, and I can't wait to share it all with you guys.

So far, I can tell you at least this much: This has been quite a commitment - and we haven't even started the walk yet! Ironically enough, that actually feels like the easy part! The fundraising piece of it has definitely been the most exhausting, stressful, and trying piece of this so far. A $4,600 required donation to raise between Allen and I is a lot of money. The rest is just endurance. We're not quite at our goal yet, (and you can still donate at the links above!) but I have hope that we'll get there.

A quick note to those who have supported us so far:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

We know our emails out to everyone have been annoying, along with all of the events, the Facebook alerts, Evites, raffle tickets, everything. But many of you not only supported us emotionally through all of this, you have put in your own time and money, and that has taught Allen and I lot about what great friends and family we have. We are very, very lucky.

If you're here in the metro Detroit area this upcoming weekend, and would like to come see what all of this is about, please click here to get all of the spectator information you need - including cheering areas all throughout the Farmington Hills, Livonia, Plymouth, and Redford areas. Also, from what we understand, the Closing Ceremony is a very cool and emotional experience, and friends and family are also welcome to that. All of the information is in that link.

Everyone I know who has done the walk has said it is an experience that changes your life. I'll have to wait to see that for myself, and I know that we'll have lots of pains and blisters when we get done with this thing, but I also know we'll also have a lot of love to carry us through it. Wish us luck!

THE update

Alright guys, the blog post you have all been waiting for. 

We have a venue.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Ok, WOO again! So much to update on! After much, much, MUCH searching, and then re-searching, and then going back to our original thoughts, and then wiping all of those clean and making a fresh start of it, we have a venue. This was, by far, the most painful part (so far) in the wedding planning process for us, but I can honestly say that we are so happy with the decision we've made, and it's going to be a blast for everyone.

My dad said one thing to me during this whole process that really stuck with me: "You know, you're having all of these people come up north for your wedding - don't you want them to feel like they're up north? Or feel like they're on vacation?"

And BAM! The tone was set for our wedding, almost instantly. I couldn't get that thought out of my head. Then my mom stepped in with those thoughts in mind, and with all of her awesome connections and creativity, found us the link (and the people) that made that thought turn into reality.

Where is the venue, you ask? Well, it's still in Traverse City (downtown, actually). It's a private property that sits right on Grand Traverse Bay with about 200 ft of waterfront. Yes, we're rocking the outdoor reception. Yes, that's scary, but I love it. There is no other way to bring everyone up north and make them feel like they're up north without actually feeling all of that - being outdoors, being on the water, hanging out with the people you love, watching the sunset, and then partying the rest of the night away :)

Also with this venue officially solidifies our date. It was actually already solidified with the church, but now that the venue is booked, it's official official. And that date is...

September 10, 2011

Mark your calendars, it's going to be legen...wait for it...dary. 

Do you know what this means?! This means that the date is settled, we have a venue, we have a caterer, we have a bar, we have a church, and now we can start booking all of the really super fun stuff like photographers and DJs, we can start talking flowers, do invites, everything else that we've been looking forward to! How awesome is that?! That's what this weekend will be dedicated to - we're heading up north with Allen's parents to get as much of that done as possible. Also, I will take more pictures of the reception site. I can't wait for you all to see it :)

I feel like we're finally making progress on all of this now. We're checking things off the master list (and trust me, it's a long one). Finally we get to breathe a sigh of relief, and all of the really super fun stuff can start coming together. I can't wait to share the rest of our progress with all of you!!

The One That Got Away

So our trip up to TC this weekend proved to be not as productive as I would have really hoped for. We went to a lot of appointments and met with a lot of people who had a lot of things to say, and came up with this conclusion:

We got nothin'.

We saw the only 3 venues in TC that can hold all of the guests we're inviting, and the one venue that had been the forerunner for me this whole time is really not our best option. The other two are...well, "eh" puts it lightly for me. The one I liked the best, the Traverse City Opera House, is the one that I am now going to refer to as "The One That Got Away."

 bye bye Opera House :(

There are a lot of reasons behind this. First and foremost, it's expensive. Secondly, we didn't really get the greatest customer service from the people/vendors that we would have to use to go there, and that is just the makings of a impending bad experience in my opinion. Yes, it's gorgeous, and yes, it would be fabulous, but I (and the rest of my family and Allen) am big on the customer service aspect. If you don't feel like the venue is going to do everything humanly possible to make your day extraordinary, time to go elsewhere.

So we're kind of starting from scratch now. I'm still hooked on Traverse City, but we have to look at other options that might be hiding around us. I'm trying not to get discouraged on any of this, but I have to admit it's pretty frustrating when you have your heart set in one place, and then realize that it really just isn't the best thing for you. So we move on, hopefully with more stellar results.