d'oh!

I hate it when I'm unfairly accused of making things complicated. Yes, I have planned a wedding that includes a ceremony in one city, a dinner afterwards that is not the reception, and a reception on a different day in another city, all because I really don't want to get married in Los Angeles, a city that I have no emotional attachment to despite my having lived here for (gulp) a decade, and also because this way I can maintain the illusion that I had a small wedding while still indulging my desire to have a big silly party with all my friends. I will cop to every bit of that, and throw in a cheeky grin that says "ain't I just the darnedest?" on top of it. But this ... this is just silly.

Before we decided to have people RSVP via email, I designed a card to include with the invitations. Since I didn't want my time/effort/creative brilliance to go to waste, I used it as a picture on the website page that tells people where to email their replies. Simple, right? Not so much.

Now I'm getting emails saying that the "form" on our site is broken. People are apparently spending upwards of 20 minutes attempting to type into the graphic. Even though a mere fraction of an inch to the right it says, and I quote, "Please email to the above address & let us know if you'll be able to join us!"

Reading is fundamental people. It isn't that complicated ... well, this part isn't, anyway.

perhaps I was overly ambitious: part 3

cost breakdown of invitations

I fear that these ended up costing more than I thought they would -- if I could even remember what I thought these things "should" cost, when I first got on this crazy ride. Ah, my long-lost naivete .... Nonetheless, I'm thrilled with how they turned out, and pretty amazed with what I was able to make happen within our budget. These figures are for a guest list of approximately 110 people.

cardstock in 2 colors: $81.00
printing: $58.01
envelopes: $25.00
envelope liners: $ 0.87
labels for addresses: $12.98
postage: $70.40
decorative stamping: $25.88
raffia ribbon: $4.20
glue sticks & dots: $7.29

total: $285.63
cost per piece: $2.10

I decided to go with cost per piece due to the one-page & two-page variations of our invitations. The vast majority of them are one-page, since we're able to include everyone at the informal party in Los Angeles. I suppose I could've figured out what percentage of the total were 1- or 2-pagers, and gotten a precise average cost per invitation ... but frankly, that's more math than I care to do.

Some of the things that helped me keep costs down:

* I found the envelopes on Craigslist -- someone had leftovers in the exact color, size & amount I needed.
* I quickly realized that it was cheaper to get cardstock from the manufacturer, even with shipping, rather than buy it 1 piece at a time whenever Michael's had it in stock ... not to mention the gas & time I saved.
* I lined our envelopes with a roll of wrapping paper on clearance from Target and leftover wallpaper I already owned.
* Rather than pay for a liner template I doubt I'd use again, I made my own.
* I bought a pack of full-sheet labels from Office Depot and cut them into wrap-around address labels.
* I taught myself how to use Photoshop, which allowed me to design our invitations, address labels & save-the-dates. It took some time, but I got exactly what I wanted, and there was no charge for proofs when I took my ideas to Mr. UB.
* We emailed our save-the-dates, which saved paper, printing & postage for that.
* All the invitations include our website, where people can email RSVPs -- again, no paper, printing or postage.

I don't suggest that my methods here are the best idea for everyone out there. It certainly helped that I had tons of free time this spring, as the acting biz was slow. I may not have been able or motivated to invest as much of my time as this took if I'd been busier. (Then again, if I'd been busier I probably could've afforded to out-source it.) Besides, I really enjoyed "the thrill of the chase" -- being on a mission that had me swinging by the gift wrap aisle of Target when I was just there for paper towels, or hunting down the company that made our cardstock (which was far more difficult than it should've been in 2009.)

Ultimately, it comes down to this: I'm stubborn. I have very particular taste, and I'm loathe to trust my vision to other people when I have the time & ability to do it myself. But I'm also very proud of myself -- so there.

perhaps I was overly ambitious: part 2

So, after all of that craziness from yesterday's post, these are my final results. I know some people wait until their recaps to reveal the look of their invitations, but I'm not sqeamish about that. If you're invited & you don't want the "spoiler", please skip this post!

There are two basic variations on our invitations: ceremony-&-reception, and reception-only. Without question, the absolute hardest part of our planning process has been deciding who we can afford to include at the ceremony. So it is extremely important to me that our invitations reflect an equal amount of care & handcrafting, whether the envelope contains one piece of paper or two. Also, I didn't have enough paper to line all of our envelopes identically, so I'm including pics of both liner colors.

These are the basic pieces I created:
One-piece invitation:


Two-piece invitation:


And here they are, all bundled up & ready to go.

I wish that the little gold swirlies (the same ones from our save-the-dates) printed on the address labels showed up better in my pics, but here's a close-up that's slightly sharper:

Please, Mr. Postman, take them away!

perhaps I was overly ambitious: part 1

Here we go: Invitation Construction-Palooza. As I documented each step of this little undertaking, I did ask myself, frequently, "what the hell was I thinking?!?" ... lest you a) think this crap is normal, or b) know me & fear that I've lost it completely. Then again, maybe I have. You be the judge:
That's what I started with. I designed the invites using Photoshop & paper samples from Michael's. Mr. UB and I picked the same 2 colors -- hooray! -- and he really dug my design. I thought about printing them at home, but a) my printer couldn't handle cardstock (I tried) and b) I'm sure I would've spent at least the same amount in ink as I did for Kinko's to print them.

I thought about having them cut by Kinko's, too, but the margins on my screen weren't matching what appeared on the page, and I was too paranoid to risk it. Solution:
Good thing I already own that paper cutter. (Why do I own it? Because somebody decided that even though paper is 8.5 x 11, actor headshots should be 8 x 10. I suspect the same person who decided to label garbage bags in gallons, and garbage cans in quarts. But I digress ...)

So I cut the ceremony invites to 4.5 squares, and the reception invites to 6.5 x 4.5. Then I cut the gold paper backing to 5 x 5 and 7 x 5, respectively, and started glueing.

That's the one that my printer ate halfway through, but hopefully you can get the idea. The next thing I had to deal with was unexpected: they started curling as the glue dried.

Who says book learnin' doesn't have practical applications? So after I left them to flatten overnight, I moved onto the next step: hand-stamping every piece.

Say it with me now: What was I thinking?!? Not only did I have to re-ink between every piece, and wait (again) for them to dry before the next step, but it took me 3 tries to find a level surface that didn't randomly leave blank holes in the middle of the designs. D'oh! Good thing I over-printed by a lot. Here's to not wanting to have to go back to Kinko's saving the day.

While I was waiting for the ink to dry, I cut the ribbon that was going to hold the pieces together (or just fancy things up a little, for the people we can only invite to the reception.)

Also, I discovered on my test piece that glue dots, rather than a smoosh of glue stick, was the way to go. Hello, trip to Target. And since I was already out & about, I took my test invite to the post office to get postage. The woman who helped me weighed it & pronounced it 1 oz. stamp-worthy ... until she noticed the knot in the ribbon. "Oh no," she told me, "if it isn't just flat paper, it's an extra $0.20. You have to take that off."

Oh, you silly Post Office Lady.

Do you realize who you're talking to? I am a Bride on a Budget. I have been researching every detail online to the brink of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have been arguing with vendors that I don't have to pay that much, or even have that at all. I have been defending my ideas, plans and vision for this shindig with friends, relatives, and even my darling fiance -- and holding my own in a non-'zilla way most of the time. And you think that you are going to talk me out of my pretty, shiny raffia ribbon? Ahem.

"Well then let's just pay the extra 20 cents. Yes, I like the wedding cake stamp very much. No, I don't want the red, white & blue star to make up the extra 3¢. Let's find something else. Thank you!" (Use every acting class you've ever taken to insert sincere smile here.)

So each one of our lovely envelopes will have one wedding cake & three Tiffany lamps.
The colors work. And the "extra" cost for keeping my raffia ribbon will be approximately $22. With everything else that we've saved money on, my regrets = zero. (I normally strive to say "us" rather than "me", but I'm the one with the issue here, so I'm owning it.)

Back to the salt mines. The first batch is drying on my floor.
Time to stick a glue dot on the back, tie a freakin' ribbon around it & stuff it in an envelope.

More to come: the final product, the cost breakdown, and why the f*** I did this by myself, despite multiple offers of assistance.

progress report

I have been getting stuff done, honestly I have. Yes, I've been totally distracted this week with getting ready to open a show tomorrow (more on that later) (tomorrow?! holy crap!!) but I finally re-charged the camera battery last night & snapped a few pics of what I've been up to.

First, I finally completed the card box.
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I followed a tutorial on Once Wed for the basic overall form, but departed from it when it came to the birds' nest.

The instructions called for something called bark-covered wire, which I didn't have. I did, however, have that bundle of twigs & crap that I got in my after-Christmas Target raid. (That's also where I acquired the berry things, which I painted a champagne-y color. Mr. UB thought I should leave them bright red ... he's so cute when he's wrong.) I also liked Lincoln Logs when I was a kid -- hello, grown-up version with hot glue gun! I found the two birds in the clearance section of the discount craft place downtown for $0.38 each. The fact that they both have slightly wonky hair pleases me, too, since the Mr. & I are no strangers to that phenomenon ourselves.

cost of materials:
3 boxes = $4
paper = already owned
birds = $0.76
berries, twigs, leaves = already owned
ribbon = $1
flowers = $1.98
Total: $7.74 + 2 minor injuries (1 hot-glue, 1 exacto-blade) ... not bad. Especially for me.

I was also busy last night with those envelope labels I made. They went from a neat stack of these:
to looking like this:
which then got turned into these:
which made another pile of this:
that finally became a nice, neat stack of these:

Now I just need to make about 30 more lined envelopes. Thank goodness for Law & Order marathons.

Oh, and the piles of sugar in my refrigerator have grown.

I had nothing to do with it ... must be osmosis. Or something.

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!

plodding along with paper products

I've been wanting to make lined envelopes, to fancy up our invitations a little. And I finally figured out how to do it, without spending $$ plus shipping to order a template that I'll never use again.
All I needed was this stuff, a roll of wrapping paper from the clearance aisle at Target that cost 85¢, and a box of 150 leftover Ivory A7 envelopes bought from a girl in Westwood. (Again, Sir Craig, I salute you.)

Step 1: grab a used manila folder
Step 2: carefully measure one of the envelopes you'll be lining, and subtract about 1/2" from the width & height for the ideal liner size. Cut the manila folder into a template to trace onto the wrapping paper.
Step 3: dig remainder of manila file from trash for when you screw this up the 1st time, and try again
Step 4: start cutting!

I'm not sure exactly how long this took, but I watched most of "The Biggest Loser" last night, and listened to a fair amount of Jim Rome's radio show this morning. (Yes, I'm demographically schizophrenic. What of it?)

How many envelope liners does one average-sized roll of wrapping paper make?
About 60.

I made an assembly line to keep from losing my place (and mind). First, I cut the wrapping paper & placed each liner inside an envelope. Then I went back through my stack & glued the liners down. Finally, I used a bone folder to crease the liners along the envelope fold.

The best part is how well everything is matching so far.

That sheet of paper is the stationary for our invites. The ribbon below is what's going to bind the various pieces together.

The colors of the liner look a little grayer on film than they are in person -- everything's a really nice, creamy palette.

In the rest of my spare time, I've been working on these:

I bought 12 styrofoam balls, but only need 6 to hang on the chairs at our ceremony. The decorator lady from our party venue suggested re-using them to decorate the patio at the party, which I think is a great idea -- so I'm just going to make all 12 into these paper pomanders. (Original project how-to found here.) It occurred to me that we could hang 2 from each chair at the ceremony ... but I'm wondering if that won't make it appear as if our chairs have testicles. Thoughts?

... Is all of this starting to erode my sanity? Why do you ask?

dear Craig: luv ya, mean it!

I've been trolling Craigslist again ... and buried in there, among the amusing ("used wedding dress --- paid $5000, asking $4900") and the downright baffling (a screenplay listed by some guy in Wisconsin for $2,500,000 with the opening line "Actually I want more but I can't post any more digits", which then devolved into a rant about Jesus) ... I found some more goodies.

7" tall vases, 15 for $20. Thanks, Sara in Valley Village!


4" tall wide vases, 10 for $25. Thanks, Adrienne in Manhattan Beach!

I also got these care of Bravo Bride. Votive candles holders, 33 for $16 + shipping. Thanks, Terri in Oroville!

All together, I think the reception tables are just about kitted out. I'm planning to fill the tall vases with water, drop a single flower at the bottom, and float a candle on top. These images capture the essence of what I'd like to create:

(images from The Knot)

With the lower ones, I can either try the same thing, or do this:

All this for around $80 so far, with only flowers (one per vase) left to purchase. I'm not going to break my arm patting myself on the back, but I think I did good here.

My last CL find this week was at a garage sale. Somewhere between 10-12 yards of ivory fabric. Hello, aisle runner! All I have to do is hem the edge, and I can even use that iron-on tape if I have to. $20 -- thanks, nice lady in Studio City who's name I didn't get, but who's lovely Australian Shepard puppies slurped me!

And over at the Shameless Pandering Desk: I've read on a few sites about blogging brides who received free printers from major companies (Epson, HP, etc.) to do their d.i.y. projects, in exchange for blogging about the results. Maybe it's because I go out and audition (translation: try to convince people I'm swell) just about every day, but I decided to see if I could get some of that action, too. Everyone I've approached so far has been extremely polite in their rebuffing me ... and HP even sent me a lovely little gift in lieu of my own machine:

I'm now the proud holder of a gift certificate to their new collaboration, hp.com/create and TinyPrints.com. They do all sorts of pretty paper things that you can customize, and they're working with some really great companies like Wedding Paper Divas, moo.com and stamps.com. I can't wait to see what we get from them -- based on what's available & what we need, I'm thinking either Rehearsal Dinner invites (if we have one) or a Directions Card to go with our invites. Either way, free = my favorite price!

edit: Since I don't think we'll have use for so many vases in our home, after the wedding it's all going right back on Craigslist. So's the aisle runner, since I have no plans to monogram it.