April 2010 Brides

[echo2_62]

Having gotten to the assembly stage of my own invites, I can say that DIY are a good way to go, but with the understanding that while most tasks involved are not difficult they can be a little time consuming depending how many you have to make.

 

I found that doing a little bit every night has worked fairly well and I'm finally seeing the results! Invest in a good trimmer!!!!! The rotary one I got wasn't the same brand as my regular trimmer and I really wasn't impressed with the quality. And Tracy has it right - a home printer is a big help if your ink is all topped up! There are so many great ideas and advice in the Invitations section here that I'm sure you'd have no problem doing them!

[ebredhawk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by taratoons Hi guys! I've been MIA lately (we bought a house, and we move in less than a month, so wedding planning has been replaced with house planning!). Everything is looking great on here! Thanks for sharing photos of centerpieces, bouquets, etc, they are very inspiring! Ebredhawk, where did you get your towels/bags? I want to do something like that instead of a favour, like a customized mug or something, but I'm having a hard time finding anything reasonably priced.

welcome back!! i got my towels and bags fdone rom a local embroidery lady actually. i ordered my towels from Beach Towels wholesale manufacturer of custom embroidered monogrammed bath towel for corporate events and the bags from the actual lady. if you have a shop near you that does things like that you could easily do something similar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by doblauvelt erin- congrats on your ring being done! did you design your ring? my mom wants me to have a shower but fi and i have decided on a no-gift policy... is anyone else doing this? how is a shower possible with no gift giving?

i didn't design my own ring, but the jeweler helped me find the right one for my e-ring. it's a unique shape and they thought they were going to have to make one custom, but he ordered a similar shape that was meant to be paired with a different e-ring and it fit perfectly. total fluke, but it saved me about $500.

my wedding planning philosophy is: forget tradition, anything is possible. if you don't want gifts, tell people that.. you can always suggest something else instead (echo mentioned bringing a dish to share). FI and i already have a lot of what we need, so our registry will have a LOT of giftcards

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerseykitten right now I have my invitations in my living room and need to address them but I can't get motivated to do it!

you can do it!! as soon as you send those bad boys out your guests will be lining up to book!

Quote:

Originally Posted by echo2_62 First - I apparently am the poorest person with etiquette so I can see why its suggested that you don't even mention it. I guess it all depends on who is planning your shower and how good they are at passing on messages to your guests verbally.

i'm glad someone else is in my etiquette boat!! call me tasteless or tacky, but i can't tell you how much i would love for people to just give us cash instead of gifts! (so as to not sound greedy, my parents are paying for everyone to come to our wedding so my guests don't have that expense... if they did i don't think i'd want them to get us anything)

we have dishes, we have appliances, what we need is to pay our mortgage, get FI a new car to replace his hunk o' junk and put a new roof on our house!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregsBride Thanks for all the encouragement on the home-buying process... That has been a whirlwind in itself!! I never knew we were going to move so fast with the process... Within a matter of a week my FI and heard about a program our county was doing that gives up to $20K in down-payment and closing assistance to First-time buyers in order to rejuvinate the housing market. So we met w/ a realtor, looked at homes, found the one, got a pre-approval, and put in a contract in about a week's time!! Needless to say I had to get educated about the process really quickly!! We are still waiting to hear back to see if our offer has been accepted, and we hope to hear something soon!! Before my hiatus I did get a few things accomplished, I hope to soon have a list as long as the rest of you soon. As of now I have: My dress (which is being kept at a friend's house) My shoes My jewelry Ordered flowers Booked photographer/videographer Bought FI shirt and tie Picked out BM dresses Bought most of the BM gifts I'm sure there are some things I'm missing, but all my wedding related info is on my laptop at home!! The next item on my agenda are my formal invites which need to go out immediately... I planned to DIY them, which will defintely be a huge undertaking!! Am I crazy for trying this?? I just don't want to spend tons of cash on them...

not too bad for taking a hiatus!! and sign me up for wherever you live!! we bought our house last year so i completely missed out on the first time home buyers credit (at least the one you don't have to pay back) and we def don't have anything awesome like that around us! fingers crossed your offer gets accepted!

also, DIY invites are excellent.. you'll save money and be proud of yourself when you're done. the forum has all the info you'll need!

Quote:

Originally Posted by echo2_62 I found that doing a little bit every night has worked fairly well and I'm finally seeing the results!

you've got that right!! can't wait to see what yours look like! hopefully seeing them come together will help motivate you to finish and get those bad boys out!

[jk1101]

Ok, I just addressed my invitations, by hand....I got so nervous right before the first one...I have no idea why but I did. So Now I just have to wait for my address labels to get here, get them weighed and put stamps on them and HOPEFULLY people will start booking!!!

[caribbeanLover]

yaaahh!!! Good for you.

I hope your guest respect your rsvp date. Cause mine haven't, and no one has booked yet.

We are booking today-Tomorrow depending on my e-mail I'm waiting for from the coodinator.

[jk1101]

What RSVP date did you put? I gave them till December 31 but they have till Feb to book through my TA...I just want somebody to book!

I just went to the Post office and it's $.64 to mail the invitations and they don't have a wedding stamp in that denomination, only a dolphin, but what am I going to do? At least the response cards will have wedding stamps.

[caribbeanLover]

I sent my invites out In June, I ask ppl to rsvp by Oct 1 (Ok I know they still have a week, but I only have 8 rsvp back, I sent 47, so I guess allot of ppl are waiting to the last min, or my feelings, they will not respect the date) and told people they had the first week of March to book. I am not working with a TA, I set up a website for the guest to check and get all their info.

I never thought of DW stamps lol. I just sent normal ones out.

Don't stress it to much, allot of ppl wont even notice unfortunately.

[mskimmy]

Hey guys I am a April Bride kinda new to all of this... We are getting married at Sandals Montego Bay on April 17th at 3:00. Just kinda figureing out what to do now

[caribbeanLover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mskimmy Hey guys I am a April Bride kinda new to all of this... We are getting married at Sandals Montego Bay on April 17th at 3:00. Just kinda figureing out what to do now

Welcome,
This site will help you out so much. All the girls on here a very nice so just make a shout out if you need help. Congrats! Happy Planning.

[ebredhawk]

welcome kimmy!! tracy's right... you need anything, let us know! that's what we're here for!

 

michele, i can't believe you addressed those suckers by HAND! you're nuts! did you order address labels from vistaprint? at least the dolphin stamps still have a beachy feel, right??

 

tracy, have you sent a reminder to them yet about the deadline? i'm honestly so surprised by how people just sit on RSVPs and wait till the last minute! these people won't realize how rude/annoying that is until they plan something like this!

 

so my flower lady just put together a trial centerpiece for me (since my own trial was an epic fail) and i LOVE it! she said the vase needs to be bigger (hers is an 8 in. cylinder vs. the 11 in. square i have) so just imagine more space in there! plus i'm adding the floating candles too. what do you think?

 

[doblauvelt]

Michele- have you thought of custom stamps for the invitations? zazzle.com allows you to make your own, i don't know if they do them in $0.64 though.

 

Christina- I think it's awesome your county is holding a $20k incentive for people to start buying homes. I hope they accept your bid! Goodluck!

 

mskimmy- Welcome! Don't worry about where to start, this forum can help you with that. At least you have the time and place ready lol. For the longest time FI and I had no idea where or when we wanted to hold our wedding.

 

Overall, I think DIYing any project is a good idea. It does take a lot of time but the difference in price will justify any DIY project. I am just starting to gather ideas for my DIY invites and AHR invites. From the looks at the pricing so far, it'll come out to about $2 per invite, wo0t!! It also helps that I have a lot of the tools I need from making my STDs

 

As far as RSVP'ing, I just kindly asked in an email that people start booking. Some took me serious and others didn't (but I eventually got them to book lol). My parents and FI parents still haven't done a damn thing though lol.