breaking my radio silence

Yes, it's been about a week since my last post. I've noticed an inverse corrolation between how busy I am and how frequently I blog. (The eternal conundrum: only having the time to write when you have nothing to say.) But some of that busy-ness has actually been quite productive. In the past few days we have:

1) made the official cake decision & put down a deposit

2) "paid" our lovely photographer

3) gotten almost all of the spelling/non-nickname/street address questions about our guest list answered, and begun printing the labels for our envelopes:
The red slash is marking one of the ones I had to re-do ... which is a surprisingly low number if I do say so myself. You can see the swirly design detail better here:
We always knew that hand-calligraphy wasn't right for us -- too formal and too expensive -- but we really like the wrap-around labels that so many people have designed. Problem: none of the free ones available were even close to working with our invite design. Solution: well, since I'd already taught myself how to use Photoshop in order to make said invite design, I just kept going & made these, too. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. They look really cool against the lined envelopes, too.

4) I've been working on a card box.
As you can see, it's still very much a work in progress. You can also see where I got the green paper on the wall to the left of it. I'm following a tutorial found on Once Wed here. (And how much do I love their new site design?!) The basic structure was pretty simple, once I got used to the smell of the mod podge (and opened a window). The "design" elements are proving to be a bit vexing. Oh well, there's no rush and so far I'm only out about $4 in materials, plus stuff I already had. Bonus: it's a pretty good echo of the real cake we're getting, minus one layer.

5) I've done all the reseach I can do to find the least expensive fillings for our candy buffet, so I've started to make purchases. I'm buying locally as much as possible, because anything that we have to get shipped will likely need pricey express shipping. So far:
Butterscotches are sleeping soundly in my fridge (it's not empty -- I cleared a shelf) ...

and gummi grapefruit & Hershey's kisses are nestled in the freezer. (Side note to my mom: if you come by my apartment before the wedding, I'm going to hide these. Just sayin'.) I'd intended to get almond kisses from a website, because they're gold. You know, fitting in with the uber-important candy palette. But those cost almost $60 + delivery, and these were less than $30. So our palette now includes silver, in addition to cream, white & gold.

All of these so far = $66, from Jack's Discount Warehouse in downtown L.A. (They don't have a website, so google 'em if you're local.)

6) I grabbed 6 gold frames from the clearance aisle of my favorite discount craft store, for $2.50 each.
We can use them to label the dishes on our buffet, and toss them into the stuff I intend to re-sell after the wedding.

7) We gave our deposit to the designer at our reception venue. She's already asking about stuff we intend to sell that she'll buy off of us/ take in trade against our balance. Woo hoo!

8) My friend Meg has agreed to make table runners out of the fabric I bought. That's 15 runners out of $5 worth of fabric + one round of drinks & girl talk at The 3rd Stop.

Oh, and this arrived ...
... and it was so beautifully wrapped that I didn't open it for two whole days. It's perfect. It's also my gift to myself for booking that commercial last week (aka outside the wedding budget.) Go and love its maker on Etsy here!