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 :)

It's been a busy, busy week!

In the midst of getting over a foot of snow this week, there has been lots and lots of excitement around here!

Exciting event #1: Mel and Scott are engaged!!

Scott was kind enough to include all of us in his big moment by having us appear at the Ren Cen downtown right after he popped the question. While I didn't get their first grand entrance on video, I did manage to score the slow clapped entrance when they came downstairs to meet us:

(Video all thanks to my amazing sister - she got us a Flip video camera for Christmas!)

It was all very exciting. And then things got even MORE exciting when I got a phone call Sunday morning saying....

Exciting event #2: Jill and Michael are engaged!!

As if one amazing engagement wasn't enough, now my best friend in the world calls me and tells me that she is now engaged to the love of her life (who, just happens to be another one of my most favorite people in the world...and Allen's too. There's a bromance involved).

Awwwww, love :)

So it's been a crazy, amazing, really exciting time with everyone! I couldn't be happier for my friends, and it's been fun to be part of all of it. Plus, now I have fellow crafters to help me with my wedding stuff (and I will totally return the favor for you guys too - this crafting bug won't be going away quickly!).

Speaking of the crafting bug...a little sneak peak of our save the dates:

More to come on those once people start receiving them. Needless to say, Allen and I have been extremely productive on this crazy snowed in day of ours. 

A Very Happy Birthday

Wishing a happy, happy birthday to the love of my life today!

We celebrated this weekend by going up to Traverse City, and then playing hookie from work today and relaxing around the house. While we did manage to get quite a bit of wedding planning done up in Traverse City (secured our DJ, taste testing for caterer, meeting with the priest, putting in a bunch of deposits), we definitely managed to balance work with play. We hit up one of our new favorite restaurants up there - Red Ginger. And when I say that it was the best sushi I think I've ever had, that is quite an understatement. We were ready to lick our plates! I can't wait to go back again :)

It was a very productive and fun weekend for both of us. It definitely solidified why we're having our wedding up there - the entire Traverse City area is so fantastic, clean, filled with happy and kind people, and a ton of amazing food and wine! I am so excited for even more trips up there, but more importantly, I can't wait to marry this guy :) Happy birthday baby!

3-Day Recap

The walk was two weeks ago, but it is still really hard for me to put the entire experience into words. There are a few words that come to mind: Inspiring, motivating, humbling, exciting, emotional, amazing, exhausting...but those don't even seem to do it justice. The people who had done the walk before had told Allen and I that this would be a life-changing experience.

They were right - without any doubt in my mind.

First and foremost, we walked with over 1900 of the most amazing people I think I have met in my life. We were crewed and tended to by over 500 volunteers who came out just to make sure that we, the walkers, were kept comfortable and healthy. I've never seen anything like it! Crew members up at the crack of dawn making us breakfast; medical staff tending to every blister, headache, ache and pain; and a security team made up of big guys on Harley's with pink mohawks and beards.

The one unfortunate piece of all of it was the extent of the blisters that I ended up getting due to the 90 degree heat for three days in a row. My feet are still in recovery! The heat made a lot of things unbearable for a lot of people - the blisters, heat stroke, dehydration, etc. We saw at least 7 ambulances take people away from camp because of how extensive the heat was. Those blisters also prevented me from doing the entire walk - I was only able to do about 45 miles in total. I know, I know, only 45 miles. But when you have a 78 year old man who is doing the walk with you, and beating you into camp every day, you realize exactly how humbling of an experience this is! However, crew members definitely made it a point to remind us that we already did what we came to do - raise the money, and bring awareness to the cause. The walking was just icing on the cake.

Downtown Plymouth - our new favorite city

The best and coolest part of the entire walk was the amount of people in the community that came out to support us. It was as simple as walking by a house on the route that had a sign up saying "Please Run Through Our Sprinklers" (something that was very much appreciated at high noon!).  There were families that sat out in their front yards handing us cups of fruit and bottles of water. It seemed like the entire city of Plymouth came out to celebrate our walking through the downtown area - they had to put barricades up so we actually had room to walk! There was a woman (we called her the dancing lady) that comes out to the walk every year with a giant speaker and an iPod, and she just stands out there every day all day blasting her music for us along the route, dancing and singing. She's a 28-year survivor. And just the amount of people that came out to support us, telling us we're making a difference, holding signs that say "You Hold Our Hopes" - it's hard to hold it together even thinking about it now.

The Dancing Lady! Still there on Day 3

Looking back on the walk, it's hard to pick a moment that is really my favorite. It could be walking through downtown Plymouth, or the rainbow that came up over camp on Saturday night, or maybe all of the walkers raising our shoes to the breast cancer survivors that walked with us. But if I had to pick one, it would be walking into closing ceremony with Allen. Just him and I, walking through the field in front of Ford Headquarters, overhearing on the loudspeaker that we had finished. I wouldn't have made it the entire last day without Allen and his support. We laugh trying to think about it now, but it's hard to look back on the walk and remember every mile - mostly because I think we blocked most of it out! But we do remember snippets, snapshots, and flashing moments that I know will stay with us forever.

Team Juggernauts

Rainbow over camp on Day 2

Raising our shoes to the survivors

Everyone keeps asking us if we're going to walk again next year. I can say with all honesty that we wouldn't be able to walk next year because of the wedding, but we will be out there supporting. This year's Michigan event alone raised over 5.4 million dollars toward breast cancer treatments, research and community outreach programs - but it still isn't enough until there's a cure. So yes, we will be financially supporting, but we will also physically go out and support those that choose to walk again. The people that came out and supported us on the walk are incredibly selfless and amazing, and we would like to give back what was given to us throughout the walk - inspiration.

The love of my life :)

Thanks again to everyone who followed and supported us on this amazing event - you guys are all incredible :)

Things going on

Why hello, strangers.

I have definitely been MIA lately (my apologies, for those who actually read this thing), but life has been busy busy busy! A few of the highlights:

School: I'll be done with my third semester of school by next Tuesday. YESSSSSSSS! I'm in serious need of a break, and luckily because I busted my butt for the past two months, I'll be rewarded with July and August off of school. I'm really excited, but I know this means I'll be dragging myself back to school in September. Temper tantrums will be involved.

Fun Stuff We've Been Doing: This past weekend was especially fun for me because we got to have our first Top Chef cooking night with Elaine and Paul. We've decided, since we're all fans of the show, that we're each going to take turns cooking fabulous meals, and then we will eat the meal while watching that week's episodes. I kicked off last week by cooking fillets with blue cheese butter on top, tomato and goat cheese tarts, and asparagus. It was straight yummy, don't be too jealous.

Another fun activity this weekend was our pig smoke-out with a bunch of the crew. Here's Jeff with his slab of pig:

Again, yummy. Luckily, there's more pig for us to cook up, so we'll probably have another event soon. Oh, and here are the flip cup champs after their victory on Saturday:

so gangsta

Fun Summer Plans: Allen and I have many fun plans coming up in the next few months, which I am super excited about (as soon as I can get out of school). A few tidbits:

• Over the 4th we're going to head to St. Joseph's with a few of our friends that we rented a cottage with 
• Trips planned for Traverse City, Chicago, and Vegas
• We have our 3-Day walk coming up in August (yikes!), with plenty of training and a fundraising event splashed in there as well
• Finally, my old next door neighbor and sudo little brother is getting married (yaaaay!) and so my family and I - sister included, yay! - will be up in Grand Rapids celebrating that craziness in August

Busy busy busy!

Wedding: So one little step of progress that we have made in our wedding planning is that we already completed our marriage class! Finally, one thing checked off the list. It was done through a local church, and it was actually really well put together, I have to admit. I really didn't know what to expect going in, but the one thing that I appreciated was that the speakers had an understanding of where the couples were today and not 50 years ago. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience, but it was 5 1/2 hours long so we're definitely glad we have that out of the way :)

Ok I promise, soon, eventually, I will have an official "this is what's happening with our wedding" update for everyone. I just don't want to put anything out there until it is signed, sealed, and deposited. We're close. We'rethisclose. Just have to get the paperwork in close. After that, I'll be happy and willing to dish :)

Hey Buddy!

Hi everyone, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of my family.

My brand-spankin'-new, 15" MacBook Pro:

Hello, lover.

How did I come across this prized possession? Well, Allen and I went out for an early birthday dinner on Friday out at Partridge Creek. If any of you were in Michigan on Friday, you would remember that there were tornado and storm warnings going on all night, and it basically looked like a monsoon through the restaurant windows. After we finished up at Brio (ps - soooooooo yummy), Allen decided that he wanted to take a walk around the mall to "walk off dinner." I gently (ha) reminded him that it was a disaster outside, so he said we would stop and get an umbrella somewhere. So we walk out, it's only slightly drizzling...and then suddenly pouring all at once. So I gently (ha) again tell him we need to get inside now and we duck into the Apple store that was nearby. I then told him that I didn't think that the Apple store sold umbrellas, and then he suggested that we get my birthday present instead.

So, basically, I felt like a jerk for my ranting about the weather. But I don't think I've complained about anything since! :)

In true form, I moved on to the next important step: Naming the laptop. For those of you who don't know, my friends and I have a tendency to name many of the inanimate objects that we hold near and dear to our hearts. From cars, to computers, to laptops, to even purses or sunglasses, naming provides another level to the said object. With this in mind, I shall call him...Buddy!

Now I realize that this is a really crazy, extravagant gift from basically the best guy in the world (yeah, I said it). I'm a lucky girl, without a doubt, but don't think I didn't call Allen straight crazy for doing this, and that I didn't practically fight him on our walk over to the laptops. Of course, once I realized that he wasn't changing his mind, I easily gave in. He did say that his reasoning for getting me the laptop was three-fold: 1) My grad school classes are becoming increasingly Mac-driven, and it would be really helpful for my coursework and projects to have a computer that is compatible. 2) I'll be designing a lot of stuff in the near future, and Macs are obviously very design-friendly, so this will just make life a little easier. 3) He knew I really wanted it :)

Now I'm excited to dive into all of the capabilities of the laptop, utilize all of the tools, tutorials, videos, and tips that my fellow Mac-crazy comrades will share with me, and start some new projects!! More to come on that end!

It's been so long!

I'm sorry I've been MIA! I finally just finished up my second semester of grad school this week, so needless to say, I've been busy. On top of that, work has been super extra busy, so I have pretty much taken the opportunity to decompress for the past two days. Today begins my productivity once again. So what's been happening, you ask? Well you probably didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway.

So, I created a website for one of my final projects for school. Well, Google Sites was kind enough to help (seriously, so easy too!) For those of you who were kind enough to vote on my poll (and let's be honest, there weren't many of you), I thank you! You actually made my project look somewhat legit. Basically, I was studying the affect that the Internet has had on the Television industry - including advertising, cable companies, and broadcasting companies. Needless to say, Internet is winning. So my question to everyone was whether or not they would consider cancelling their cable service because the Internet has all of their shows anyway. Check out the results on my webpage: http://sites.google.com/site/televisionandnewmedia/ Visit, but do not critique, cuz it's already turned in and there's no going back.

Other fun things: We got to celebrate one of Lisa's last weekends as a single lady! Chicago was our city of choice for the event, and to say we had fun would be a clear understatement. We had a BLAST and got treated like VIPs everywhere we went. It was so much fun. We went through a company called VIP Bachelorette, which included a limo van thing to take us around, exclusive specials at a few bars, express entry, and no cover anywhere we went. Eight kinds of awesomeness. Some of my favorite pics of the weekend, thanks to Bridget's amazing photog skills throughout the evening:

All the ladies

Lisa & I

Bridget & I

Molly, Lisa and I

Lisa & Bridget

All in all, a great time was had by everyone. The whole weekend we kept saying how lucky we all are because all of our guys have such great girls in their lives for us to hang with :) And a few toasts were made to Molly for her mad match-making skillz!

Other updates: Did my first pass at wedding dress shopping, wasn't super fantastic. None of the dresses really stood out to me and I think it may have been a little too soon to go. We'll try again eventually. We're also having a wedding coordinator up north help us in our search for the perfect venue. We have one that is in the back of our minds as a standby, but we want to see what other options are out there as well. Hopefully we'll be able to find something that works for us!

Pretty Things Part 1

Ok so while I have tons and tons to update everyone on, I don't really want to talk about all of it until it's completely, 100% set in stone. So, in the meantime I will be dedicating the next couple of weeks to all of the pretty things I've been finding on the wedding blogs lately.

Today's post: Pretty Flowers I Love

Boutonniere - source: SMP

Bridal Bouquet - source: SMP

 

Bridal Bouquet - source: Karen Tran Florals

Centerpieces - source: SMP

 Centerpieces - source: SMP

I think you can tell the themes I'm currently already loving on ;) 

Remember, if you get a chance, please help donate to Allen and I for the Susan G. Komen 3-day walk! Links to our pages are in the upper-right of the blog. Thanks so much!

Colorstrology

So I've already picked out the colors for the wedding (for the most part) and actually used Pantone chips to help me have an accurate color match - I know, I know...nerd alert. Something kind of awesome and fun that I discovered on the interwebs today comes from www.colorstrology.com. It ties together two of my favorite things - astrology and Pantone colors! Woo! This site is totally perfect for showing what Pantone color is representative of you and the day that you were born! It also gives a pretty cool discription of your personality as well, which I still think is cool whether or not you believe in astrology.

I did a couple dates here that reflect a few of my friends that I know read the blog, just as a special shout out to them :) Enjoy ladies!

Jill















Elaine

Ms. Bunny

Amy

Me!

I have to say, I think Jill's is my favorite. That one seriously screams "Jillian" to me when I see it with the pink and purple! I love all of them though. Elaine's and mine are pretty much identical due to the fact that our birthdays are a day apart. 

I also did the Pantone color match for our wedding day...hmmm...very interesting ;)