Wedding Details

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Awesome Sapphire! I'd love to see the venue!

Our colors are aqua blue and red... Interesting combination but I love it! My sister is a wedding photographer, so to my luck I get her wonderful skills free of charge (aside from paying for her travel expenses, which I was happy to do).

http://charityswords.smugmug.com/

Totally didn't see your reply!

We're having our reception here: http://lejardin.com

It's exactly what I wanted, a room with high ceilings, gold chivari chairs, windows and a somewhat traditional (with some non-traditional flare) menu.

Now I hope that no one crashes!! I'll probably take the link down soon just to be safe!

Sapphire your venue looks gorgeous!

Yes it does! Very lovely, I love it. Its very classy and open! The chandeliers are fantastic. I love chivari chairs, I wish my site had them. Instead they have brownish gold banquet chairs that do not match my theme at all... So chair covers it is.

[July09Bride 1]

So, I'm all about being me and I'm a leader as well as a follower, but I always like to make my own spin on things. So, when a friend of mine used names of lakes instead of table numbers. One day when I was at a teacher training day, I was SO not in the mood to be there, so I jumped on the Internet (gotta love having your own laptop and not a district laptop!!) and went searching for wedding stuff. I eventually ended up trying to think of a way to "organize and label" the tables for the reception other than by just numbers. So, I thought of using the names of cities where we've travelled!

Last summer (when Target was having their "Back to College" sale in August), we bought a bunch of 5x7 picture frames and there is a 1" black border around the glass. We bought metal words and we're going to glue a word on each frame in different locations. The words are words such as... love, happiness, beautiful, kindness, remember, cherish, and so on. Then, originally inside the frame we were going to print large numbers, but as I said before, I have to make my own spin. Numbers just seemed so... passe'. We're going to have the name of the city printed at the top of the paper, with a picture of us visiting that city under the name of the city, and then my fiance is going to write a "blurb" about our adventures in that city/location!!!

Then, outside the reception room, we'll have to 2'x3' frames on easels. One frame will have the table name with the people sitting at the table listed below and the other frame will be a "blueprint" of the room with the room design on there with the names of the tables written on the tables, so people can have an idea as to where they'll be sitting. I'm doing the design for the names frame... omg... if I do say so myself, the "poster" is going to look really cool!!!! I can't wait to see everything come together.

OMG... 78 days!!! YIKES!!!!!

[Hugglebuggles 60]

That's a great idea Krista!! We are doing something kinda similar... We using city names of places we've traveled together, then we are putting a picture we took in that location, the place name, and then a number as well. This way, I will just put the table number on the seating card instead of writing out the place name... that's just me being lazy . This is Bill's special wedding project since he is a computer wizz I'm not sure if we are going to put them in frames, or get a long stick thing and put them on there. It will depend on what we decide to do for centerpieces...

Speaking of centerpieces, Bill's grandmother has a friend who designs and makes centerpieces for weddings. We are going to meet with her soon and possibly just let her take over, since I'm struggling to think of something I really like!

[July09Bride 1]

That's a great idea Krista!! We are doing something kinda similar... We using city names of places we've traveled together, then we are putting a picture we took in that location, the place name, and then a number as well. This way, I will just put the table number on the seating card instead of writing out the place name... that's just me being lazy . This is Bill's special wedding project since he is a computer wizz I'm not sure if we are going to put them in frames, or get a long stick thing and put them on there. It will depend on what we decide to do for centerpieces...

Speaking of centerpieces, Bill's grandmother has a friend who designs and makes centerpieces for weddings. We are going to meet with her soon and possibly just let her take over, since I'm struggling to think of something I really like!

We're using numbers too... but behind the scenes. The wait staff will know the tables by numbers for food choices and we're assigning tables by numbers (takes up less space than words in Excel!). The city names are in a numbered list; that's how we're going to know the number/name. For the head table (if we have extra frames), we're going to put pics of Hawaii and the different locations we'll be visiting... the blurb will be about what we'll do/see there on the honeymoon. I told him he had to make those G-RATED!!! This is a "family show" and no, he couldn't mention the unmentionables for what we're going to do in each location while on the honeymoon.

[July09Bride 1]

Huggles... I didn't want to pay a calligrapher either, but was going to have a friend do it. But, nope. Now, we're buying a color laser printer (less than $200 for a pretty good one, too) and we're going to print our own invites, then I'm going to cut them (I'd rather pay a company to cut them instead... we'll have to see about that, though!). The invites will be in the mail in... OMG... 11 days!!! HOLY COW!!! *shakes head in disbelief* There's 78 or 77 days left until the wedding... 11 days until the invites go out... 53 days until he moves here... 26 more days of school (not counting today (Friday) or weekends)... 7 days until my dad arrives... 12 days until my mom arrives... this is getting kinda scary... 78 or 77 days left to get myself in better shape - I'm getting there, just not as fast as I want. I so can not believe how fast time goes by! I think I need to go check and update my "The Knot" checklist...

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Huggles... I didn't want to pay a calligrapher either, but was going to have a friend do it. But, nope. Now, we're buying a color laser printer (less than $200 for a pretty good one, too) and we're going to print our own invites, then I'm going to cut them (I'd rather pay a company to cut them instead... we'll have to see about that, though!). The invites will be in the mail in... OMG... 11 days!!! HOLY COW!!! *shakes head in disbelief* There's 78 or 77 days left until the wedding... 11 days until the invites go out... 53 days until he moves here... 26 more days of school (not counting today (Friday) or weekends)... 7 days until my dad arrives... 12 days until my mom arrives... this is getting kinda scary... 78 or 77 days left to get myself in better shape - I'm getting there, just not as fast as I want. I so can not believe how fast time goes by! I think I need to go check and update my "The Knot" checklist...

wow what a list!

I could have printed them myself but I wasn't that brave... I have a good laser printer, and I just figured out I can print the addresses on the envelope with it! So much easier. I downloaded the font they used on the invites (under a different name but its the same dang thing!) and so far it looks pretty good. Printing your own invites is smart! You can save so much money that way. How far in advance are you sending them out? I was thinking 2 months before the wedding? Is that too early or maybe I should do it even earlier? Usually its like 6 weeks, but since people are traveling they should get the extra warning!

97 days for us! I should hit the gym...

[Marilyn. 340]

with the help of my SIL I made my own invites too... The invites weren't anything fancy but I thought they were cute....

they had one of our favourite pics of us on the front and we printed them off on blue paper that had clouds on it... the inside we did on a seperate sheet of paper and then we just tied the pages together with blue ribbon...

[July09Bride 1]

Huggles... I didn't want to pay a calligrapher either, but was going to have a friend do it. But, nope. Now, we're buying a color laser printer (less than $200 for a pretty good one, too) and we're going to print our own invites, then I'm going to cut them (I'd rather pay a company to cut them instead... we'll have to see about that, though!). The invites will be in the mail in... OMG... 11 days!!! HOLY COW!!! *shakes head in disbelief* There's 78 or 77 days left until the wedding... 11 days until the invites go out... 53 days until he moves here... 26 more days of school (not counting today (Friday) or weekends)... 7 days until my dad arrives... 12 days until my mom arrives... this is getting kinda scary... 78 or 77 days left to get myself in better shape - I'm getting there, just not as fast as I want. I so can not believe how fast time goes by! I think I need to go check and update my "The Knot" checklist...

wow what a list!

I could have printed them myself but I wasn't that brave... I have a good laser printer, and I just figured out I can print the addresses on the envelope with it! So much easier. I downloaded the font they used on the invites (under a different name but its the same dang thing!) and so far it looks pretty good. Printing your own invites is smart! You can save so much money that way. How far in advance are you sending them out? I was thinking 2 months before the wedding? Is that too early or maybe I should do it even earlier? Usually its like 6 weeks, but since people are traveling they should get the extra warning!

97 days for us! I should hit the gym...

We're sending them out at 8 1/2 weeks, I think... going in the mail on 5/11 and the wedding is on 7/17. I think the average is 6-8 weeks prior to. I believe I read somewhere that 8 weeks is nice and gives you an opportunity to add names if needed/wanted and send those invites out around the 5-6 week range and it won't be too noticeable... unless other people who received their invite at 8 weeks blabbed. You can ALWAYS blame it on the USPS!!! POSTAGE NOTE: Remember, stamp prices go up on 5/11 and take your invitation to multiple post offices... some measure differently than others. Go figure.

There are SO many from out of town on the list. I mean, the invite list reads like a list of almost all 50 states in alpha order! So, we're hoping that with so many out-of-towners (and most will have to either fly or drive over 12 hours to get here), that they'll be able to scope out decent airfares and make the hotel reservations. Plus, this way, if (for some reason) we run out of hotel rooms, I can add more to our room block.

with the help of my SIL I made my own invites too... The invites weren't anything fancy but I thought they were cute....

they had one of our favourite pics of us on the front and we printed them off on blue paper that had clouds on it... the inside we did on a seperate sheet of paper and then we just tied the pages together with blue ribbon...

Those do sound lovely! I love blue... but the black and white won out. I really wanted to incorporate blue somehow.

[Marilyn. 340]

my whole wedding was shades of blue (I didn't want to pick a certain shade of blue because I knew it would be impossible to find the exact shade of blue for everything) and I used silver as an accent colour...

the groom even wore a blue shirt...... my SIL wasn't to sure about that idea she thought the groom should wear a white shirt but I wanted him to wear blue because he looks so good in blue

[Hugglebuggles 60]

What? Stamp prices are going up?! I didn't hear about this! I was just going to take the pile of invites to the post office and ask them what I need... that's my usual system. Its better then educating myself Why do you think we should go to multiple post offices? To get the best rate or to insure we have the right postage? Gah, I don't want to worry about any of that, I don't care if they want to charge me $200 (OK maybe that's a little steep...) I'm already trying to figure out the return envelope stuff. I'm sending them out up here, but the return address is Bill's house in Colorado, and all the response cards are going to Colorado, so I need him to send me American stamps to put on the response cards that are going from the US to the US, but then I need other stamps to put on the cards that are going from Canada-US. Then I need to get regular Canadian stamps to send the actual invites from Canada-Canada, and different ones to send them from Canada-USA...

Marilyn I think the blue shirt idea is cute! I'm finding that different shades of blue are hard to match, you're so right. We are using an aqua blue but there are so many variations... Its "pool" from David's bridal, which is similar to Tiffany blue, and similar to turquoise, but different at the same time! Its getting a little frustrating, I think I'm just going to give up and rock different shades too.

[Marilyn. 340]

just do it...lol

I did try to pick shades of blue that went together..

I got lucky because my SIL who was also my matron of honour had just bought a blue dress a few months before the wedding....

oh and this lady my SIL knew did the flowers and she found these beautiful blue roses that I used in my bouquet (they were dyed blue of course).. only thing I was upset about was that when I talked to the lady I told her I wanted the bouquet to be mostly blue with a few white roses but when I got the bouquet on the day of the wedding I noticed that it was the opposite.. and my SIL said that the lady had thought it was too blue the other way... well yeah that is what I wanted .. it still was a beautiful bouquet though.. I just didn't want the bouquet to blend into my dress in the pictures, which it kind of did

the flower girl and my SIL carried white tulips, warped in a blue ribbon..

Edited May 1, 2009 by *Marilyn*

[SapphireDreams 71]

I love the table naming idea!!

My cousin and his wife did something similar - she has an Italian background and him German, so they did Italian and German cities...

I think I'd like to do neighbourhoods/landmarks in Toronto/NYC.

The stamping stuff is so annoying.

[JillA 2]

What? Stamp prices are going up?! I didn't hear about this! I was just going to take the pile of invites to the post office and ask them what I need... that's my usual system. Its better then educating myself Why do you think we should go to multiple post offices? To get the best rate or to insure we have the right postage? Gah, I don't want to worry about any of that, I don't care if they want to charge me $200 (OK maybe that's a little steep...) I'm already trying to figure out the return envelope stuff. I'm sending them out up here, but the return address is Bill's house in Colorado, and all the response cards are going to Colorado, so I need him to send me American stamps to put on the response cards that are going from the US to the US, but then I need other stamps to put on the cards that are going from Canada-US. Then I need to get regular Canadian stamps to send the actual invites from Canada-Canada, and different ones to send them from Canada-USA...

Marilyn I think the blue shirt idea is cute! I'm finding that different shades of blue are hard to match, you're so right. We are using an aqua blue but there are so many variations... Its "pool" from David's bridal, which is similar to Tiffany blue, and similar to turquoise, but different at the same time! Its getting a little frustrating, I think I'm just going to give up and rock different shades too.

Yep stamp prices go up in the US May 11th! Maybe ask your fiancee to get "forever" stamps, they're like the "P" stamps in Canada, so even when the price goes up it won't affect the stamps you already bought.

[FormelyCA 0]

Man I miss planning a wedding Jealous! Have fun and enjoy it

[July09Bride 1]

I love the table naming idea!!

My cousin and his wife did something similar - she has an Italian background and him German, so they did Italian and German cities...

I think I'd like to do neighbourhoods/landmarks in Toronto/NYC.

The stamping stuff is so annoying.

There is SO much in those two cities... that is an awesome idea!!!