project: wearables !

gina was in town this weekend and i found a dress for the rehearsal dinner. now i just have to wait five months to wear it (although, i am itching to wear it to annette's bar birthday bash this wednesday..)

photo: anthropologie

isn't it lovely? the fitting room attendant actually said, "these are selling like hotcakes, they just look great on everyone!" and i have to agree.

my mom was in town last week and we bought two wedding dresses. details and photos to come.

project: save the date cards ! (pt. 2)

it's been a long, long couple of weeks. the bronchitis is finally gone, however my hacking cough seems to want to linger a little longer. my mom is visiting from the bay area this weekend to go dress shopping with me, i have been talking with a great dj, we have our "ceremony musician" confirmed, and our save the date cards went out last week (although all six that were sent to friends in our own zip code got returned and had to be hand delivered this week)!

here they are, in all of their home-made diy glory:

actual card
(this one is a bit crooked, but i took pictures after i sent out all of the good ones)

back of envelope (showing off our wee little moo sticker!)

when i first set out to make these cards i made several costly mistakes:

- if i had more time i would have ordered cheaper paper and envelopes online. i probably would have made them regular sized instead of square which would have saved me $12 in postage (not a huge difference but with the paper and such it does add up!)

- i originally planned on only using two gocoo screens, but the first one i printed was blurry, so i had to redo. then my second design (a fern for the envelopes) didn't burn fully when a lightbulb didn't go off, so i had to redo that. that wasted $20 worth of gocco products.

-the place we ordered magnets from only sold them in 50, 100 or 250 sets. we needed 60. so we had to order 100. i know if i had searched around some more online i could have found a source that would make me 60. i just didn't have time!

all in all if i had more time and had successfully used the gocco on the first try, this project could have cost about $100, which is a pretty reasonable $1.66 per card. unfortunately, it was about double that. i am glad i did this trial run of sorts, before the actual invitations go out in a few months. i know i need to start planning those out soon. i spent a few hours yesterday with my wedding invitation helper and the design looks amazing so far!

words: six months to go

the six month countdown begins today! i can't believe i have to wait that long.

photo: hazelnut photography

project: save the date cards ! (pt. 1)

these are the cards that almost weren't. there is some universal force that does not want these save the date card made, but i pushed through it, and they are almost finished.

here is what went wrong:

*our magnets were delivered to the wrong address, and then mysteriously appeared (opened up and fussed with) on the hood of our car in the middle of the night.

*when i finally got around to opening up our (free!) 100% recycled cards and envelopes, i absolutely hated the texture. i am not at all a texture/paper snob (i am so new to this paper crafting world) but even i knew these were crappy cards (no wonder the ebay seller didn't use them!)

*after panicking and trying to school myself in the ways of paper (weight, size, cut, cardstock ugh ugh ugh) i went to paper source in pasadena. the colors completely overwhelmed me and i left with nothing! i did some more online searching and finally figured out what colors and such to buy. made a second trek out to pasadena (and i hate wasting gas and time, i prefer to stay in my neighborhood!) and paper source was closed for a private event!

*i have no computer design programs. i have never designed anything in my life, i don't know why i thought it was such a great idea to do all the wedding design stuff myself! designing these cards was incredibly difficult for me. hopefully it will get easier (and i will have help!) when it comes to the actual invitations. i went through two different versions and i am still not sure i picked the right one.

*i do not read japanese, so the the gocco directions were useless to me! i had to do much googling and tutorial reading to figure it out. weddingbee is a great place for gocco help!

i plan on showcasing both of my save-the-date cards here this weekend. the ones that made the cut and the card design that will be saved for another project, another day. check back soon!

until then..
xo
mm