There's no backing out now...

Well, it's official...our invitations were dropped in the mail today.  So I guess there's no way that Mr Fix It and I can back out now ;)

Here's a few final photos of the finished product.  I showed the original invites when I received the mockup back here.   However, after showing them to Mr Fix It, he had one main request - change the font on the invites to something a little bit more 'formal' and not so simple and plain.  Whatever...I accommodated his request and here is the final invite as we sent it out:

* As always, note the colors are not represented well at all...they look green in this pic instead of the aqua color.   :(

Did you see that I added some little crystal rhinestones to the invites to bling them up a bit...love it! 

And here are the envelope wraps my sister and I created as well as the fun little personalized photo stamp I bought from stamps.com.  Yeah, they're heavy invites and so we had to pay $0.61 per envelope.  BE SURE TO TAKE A SAMPLE OF YOUR INVITE INTO THE POST OFFICE TO HAVE THEM WEIGH AND CONFIRM POSTAGE NEEDED BEFORE YOU MAIL YOUR INVITES!!!

I didn't take a pic of the back side of the envelope but it wraps all the way around to the back where our return address is on the back side.  The graphic also wraps around to the back as well.

Sorry the stamp pic is blurry...I really need a new camera.

All boxed up just before I left for the post office:

Well, that's it...98 invitations from our 'A list' have been dropped in the mail today.  This is 11 weeks before our wedding...about 3 weeks earlier than when they typically suggest you mail them out (6-8 weeks).  But we are giving them 5 weeks to respond.  I know that's early to respond to a wedding that's still 6 weeks away, but we won't be sticklers about people absolutely returning their response by that date.  We just needed to do this to assist with confirming those that absolutely will not be coming (most likely because they're out of state).  This way, it allows us to confirm those that cannot attend so that we can still mail out a few 'B list' invites to local friends we had to cut :(  At the same time, it gives us plenty of time to call people who are lazy about returning their RSVP card.  Especially since our caterer needs the final head count 3 weeks before the big day.

As the no's roll in, we'll mail out a few additional invites to our B listers (hopefully) and then give them an extra 4 weeks to respond (since they didn't get their invite as early).  Either way, the guest list is stressing me out big time...but that's a post for another day.  All I will say for now is let's just pray that at least 23 people out of 221 will respond that they cannot come.  Fingers crossed!

What do you think of the finished invite?  Are/Did you go the envelope wrap route or did you use calligraphy, handwriting or computer printed envelopes?

The DRESS(es)!!! And some help for those of us who are less endowed

Yes, I am a two dress bride and proud of it!  Why you ask?  Well, because once you see my wedding dress (hold on a second), you'll realize that it's just not fair to make a woman 'carry' around a dress that weighs just as much as she does for over ten hours!

That said, I am about to show you the first of my dresses - the photo/ceremony/cocktail hour/dinner dress.  And then tomorrow I'll show you the reception/first dance/dancing dress.  But first, I have not told any of my family or friends about the link to this blog.  Most of them don't even really care...but just for the sake of safety, if ANY of my family/friends or Mr Fix It happen to do some detective work and come across this blog...LEAVE NOW!  This post is not for you - you can fix your pretty little eyes on these beauties come April 16th! 

Are you gone now?  Good!

So, let me first put in a few disclaimers before I post these awful photos:

1)  The lighting suh-ucks!  The camera is actually my videocamera that doubles for photos and not well.
2)  I am not tan in the photos which does actually make a difference in how photogenic I am.
3)  I do not have hair or makeup done in these photos and they were all taken at the end of my work day.
4)  My sister is not into blogs like I am and therefore, she doesn't have the passion to shoot everything perfectly or at all angles to share with all you lovelies, so please excuse these if they do not give due justice to the items.
5)  The dresses are fresh out of their bags...no steaming or pressing yet.  So they do not look 'pretty' yet.

That said, up first - the main wedding gown - my gorgeous Maggie Sottero SaBelle!

Don't let those wedding shoes ruin your big day!

Wedding planning at the 4 month mark:  As the holidays pass and the invites go out and alterations and all that jazz begin, I am sure I will have plenty going on to share about.  But for now, I thought I'd take advantage of this 'down' time to share some tips with all of you.

Today's tip:  How to keep your feet from aching on wedding day.  Everyone knows that you should buy your shoes (especially heels) well in advance of the big day and wear them around your house to break them in.  Well, here's a great little inexpensive item to assist with that process courtesy of advice given to me by my alterations guru, Janet.

Go to any drugstore or grocery store and find the first aid / band-aid aisle.  You will see a little item that looks like a mini deodorant made by Johnson & Johnson called FRICTION BLOCK.  It looks like this:

All you do is roll this on your feet around where any edges, straps, etc from your shoes will touch your skin.  It helps your feet from getting blisters, red marks, etc.  It runs about $5-$10 and would be a great little gift to throw in with your bridesmaids gifts or emergency kits on the wedding day.

Another favorite to ease your barking dogs is the web site Foot Petals.  This site has just about every type of insert, cushion and heel slip pad you can think of to help with whatever little problems your sexy little beauties are causing you.  I personally am looking into the Tip Toes which keep your feet from sliding forward or your toes from scrunching up through peep toes when you wear taller heels.

They even have cusions with lavendar and aromatherapy scents and cool little videos to show you how to use the products and what each product helps you with.

With these helpful little products, you can take the time to invest in yourself and make sure that the 8 to 12 hours you spend on your feet taking photos, walking down that aisle and dancing the night away does not get ruined by achy feet.

How to keep your guests dancing all night long

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  If your guests are not enjoying themselves and comfortable, they will not be partying with you all through the reception.  In planning my own wedding, I am always making sure to remember what it felt like to be a wedding guest.  So I am very excited about one of my purchases for my own event: I want to be sure that my guests are enjoying themselves and comfortable.  I have lots of ideas to keep them moving and entertained all night.  But one of my favorites comes from my wedding coordinator's portfolio.  She suggests that brides provide a 'Kick your heels off' basket filled with inexpensive flip flops for the ladies (or anyone) to remove their tight fitting dress shoes and dance the night away without being in pain.

She suggested hitting stores like Old Navy or Target at the end of the summer when they are having their sales to get rid of these type of items.  But I found a wholesale site Dollar Days that sells these items to you at super great deals!  I bought 72 pairs of various sized flip flops (we have 200 guests total) for our event at the cost of about $1.51 each including tax and S&H.  You can get them in your wedding colors if you want, but I opted for a variety of colors so that they can maybe find a pair they'd wear again.  And the best part is, your guests will know you're thinking of their comfort and they get to take home an extra little favor at the end of the night.  Here are some sample images courtesy of In the Now Weddings.  But first, here is a picture of the flip flops I purchased for my own event:

And some ideas on how to serve them up:

Photos courtesy of In the Now Weddings

So ladies...what do you think?  Are you doing anything to show your guests you are thinking of their comfort and enjoyment on your big day? 

Got the wedding shoes

So a few months ago the fiance and I decided to hit South Coast Plaza here in the OC to look at some jewelry stores and start the search for HIS wedding ring.  But really, I was also looking at the trip as an opportunity to browse for my wedding day shoes as I had been looking online and in shops and malls for a couple months and had not found anything that jumped out at me.

I knew I wanted something unique, different and red...I was looking for a deep cranberry red but only found one simple pair of nice heels in that color and I was not doing flips over them.  So I mentioned to the fiance that I wanted to check out some shops in South Coast for my shoes as well.  He said he guaranteed I would find something at Nordstroms so we went in there before heading into the main mall.

I browsed the shoe department and found a super cute pair in purple that I thought would have been perfect for my dress because they had a rose on the toe that would have matched the flowers on my dress.  But purple was obviously the wrong color...though I later found out that I could have bought them in red online. 

Didn't matter though, because the fiance was not feeling them.

Didn't find anything in the shoe department so decided to just walk down the clearance aisles on our way out of the store for fun...and there in my big ole size 10 shoe section was a pair of gorgeous red shoes just sticking out like a sore thumb...but in a good way.  :)  I put them on and they felt comfortable, sturdy and still sexy and unique...and the fiance was loving them.  Plus, they were 1/3 of the price of the other shoes I really liked...can't beat a bargain deal!  So here they are: