breathless

We are trying to get our invitations out, trying to get them addressed and mailed. Everything is "falling into place" but trying to get them to do that without letting them fall apart is challenging.

Yesterday we met the dance teacher at a local community center. She seems actually to be pretty good. Cheerful, enthusiastic, energetic. I liked her. We decided to go with her even though there was an okay offer from a lady in Manhattan. Yeah, this is a little more accessible.

My dress arrived last Friday. Now all I need are my foundation garments and my shoes in order go go try it on. I actually need 2 pairs of shoes. The outdoors is not good for heels. But I'll need heels for the reception I think--so that the dress won't drag? Maybe a wedge heel? That's a good compromise between flat and heeled.

I've spoken to 2 out of 3 potential day-of coordinators. I am looking to pay between 600 and 800. One lady will try to work with me. The other lady, I don't know her price. So I'll have to call her. Maybe even this evening.

I need to reserve rooms at a local-ish hotel. That would be good to do. There's a place right off the highway that might be good. But I don't think there are that many people who will want a place to stay. Wait, update, I just called. They only reserve in blocks of 10 at a minimum. You would have to think you have people needing at least ten rooms! In this economy I think there will only be need for 5 rooms probably.

Wow. There's enough to do.

Scream

Remember the song by Michael Jackson? I don't remember if it was a duet with sister Janet but it went something like "I just can't take it no more, stop pressuring me, you make me want to scream"!

People need to chill with the pressure! Every now and again I'll run into someone who will want to know about invites. Did you send out invitations? How many people are you having? blah blah blah. Why are they stressing me like that? It's totally not necessary.

The rule of thumb is to send out the invitations six to eight weeks before you need a headcount. Eight weeks is 2 months. If we need a headcount August1, (which we don't), then that would be the invites should go out maybe the last day of May. It's still April. It's not even tax day yet. What is with people?!

The other interesting thing is that some people who are being asked to do a) b) or c) were asking asking asking for info. Now that I've sent it (both a warning email and a letter by the post office)--I can't figure out if they received it or not. Out of 4 people contacted, only 1 said, "hey, I got it". Another I just broke down and called because I just couldn't quite get over it.

And now on to another topic: rudeness.

Stop me if I've blogged this before.
I have shared a photo of my dress on my blog. It's no big deal to me. However, for lots of people, it's supposed to be a mystery until the day of. . .
I emailed a cousin of mine who I felt I could talk to--I shared with her some of my little jitters, and also included a pic of my dress--this was a while back. Rather than reply, she hit forward and sent it to both her sisters. Up to now she has not responded to my email but both her sisters contact me about it on facebook offering their advice and comments.

It was months ago, but I'm still mad. Yeeesh.

and then I got lazy

I've received some books which I ordered both purchased and borrowed. I wanted to learn more about wedding papercrafts.
Well, one book was from the early nineties which I borrowed from the library. Some of the looks were frightening.
Two other books were purchased second hand online. They were published more recently. They had some good ideas but mostly it seemed like a lot of work for invitations--especially since there were going to be so many and in the end, people would likely not know where they wound up.
Perhaps buying invitations pre-printed, or buying invitation kits might not be a bad deal.
I looked at some designs on the big warehouse website (you know--the wedding dress people) and came across some that weren't all that expensive. Maybe 120 for 100 invitations and envelopes printed thermographically. Response cards are separate but those don't even have to be exactly by that company.

arts and crafts anyone?

I've been coming across a lot of ideas. I can't keep up.
Right now I'm thinking about invitations, invitations, invitations
I even bought 2 books from half dot com for creating your own paperie for a wedding
I wouldn't go so far as to make the paper myself but I'm finding one can get a little creative
and still do a lot of fancy things
such as
1. use card stock backing and a printed heavy paper--photo copy, trim, and assemble
2. alter blank note cards with your announcement on the inside--add stamping, ribbons, sealing wax, whatever
3. buy parts from a diy invitation company--it's not really diy since they are selecting the range and trimming the paper--but you have to print and assemble

I saw some good advice on the back of one book I borrowed from the library. It said, spend your time dreaming, not shopping. Don't spend a lot of money on things that aren't quite perfect.
I thought that was good advice. I don't want to wind up with a lot of supplies that aren't exactly what I'm going to need.
Images ripped out of a magazine actually.