Wed Recap: All the deets! (photo heavy post)

I'm not gonna say much in today's post.  Honestly, I have had some major stressful things happening at work lately.  I don't want to go into all of it but we're talking about my boss losing millions of dollars due to an issue with a lender.  :(  This means I haven't been able to spend much time on the net browsing through all of your lovely blogs I follow.  Don't dismay - I am totally still here!  Those of you who have noticed I haven't been commenting much lately, please know that I will be back over there to more thoroughly digest archived posts and catch up as soon as things are resolved here in the office :)

Thankfully, I schedule most of my posts months in advance so I have still been going regularly over here.  And I can honestly say that the wedding recaps will finally be ending this month!  Five months after the wedding, I will be wrapping it up with a few more pics and videos to share with all of you as I finalize my memories of our big day.  Thanks for hangin' in there with me.

Today, I wanted to share this cool little recap video that our videographer included in our wedding video (note that the song is not the song used in our wedding video, I had to change it due to YouTube copyrights).  It is a recap of the cocktail hour but I love it because it shows a few of the little details of our event, specifically the reception tables.  So after the video, I'll share a bunch of photos as well:

One of the two door hangers that my sister made for our day:

Our Flip Flop basket covered in red silk fabric holding 72 pairs of multi-colored flip flops:

Reserved seat signs designed by Serendipity Design

Red chinese take out Favor Boxes containing little red or turquoise key chains with a 5 ' tape measure inside:




Place cards were tucked into the napkins with each guest's name sticking out at the top.  The card was not a menu card but rather a list of activities and favors that we had available for the guests:

Personal photo

Cake table:  Our cake was made by a family friend and if you remember, Mr Fix It tried to recreate the stand from a professional picture we found.  It didn't turn out the way we envisioned it but it was amazingly good!

Our Gift Card box was the one thing I did NOT want to sell but Mr Fix It said we didn't have room for it in the house :(  So I took it to a wedding swap meet where other girls fought over it :)

A photo of my friend's guitar which he played during his solo at our ceremony

I loved this simple poster board of our room layout which made it easy for guests to locate their tables when they picked up their escort cards.

Cocktail tables (without the pen holder and votives that were also on them):

I absolutely adored the way that my coordinators tied the linen around the high standing cocktail tables!  I had shown them a picture of what I wanted and they recreated it perfectly!!!

By Amber Marquez

These Parasols were part of my gift to my BM's...loved them in a few photos.

By Yan Freedline

5 page Fan Programs designed by Serendipity Design

Gobo light

Kleenex tissue packs:  A last minute ceremony favor idea that I quickly threw together on the cheap:

Personalized water bottle labels that I designed and placed over bottles for our wedding party (unfortunately the photographer did not get a better shot of just how adorable these were...they had a custom ingredient chart on the back, too):

Our Unity Cross:

Each younger child (and some younger teens) place settings had a personalized menu under their napkin which had a word search, maze and even a scavenger hunt for the reception:

They also had a circus favor box full of goodies with a little thank you message label on it:

 The label reads:  A basket full of treats and fun, especially for the younger one.  Color, draw or play a game...just have some fun, so glad you came!

I won a free print via blog giveaway months before the wedding and had this engagement photo printed on a canvas which we displayed on an easel next to our gift table:

Some of the many little signs that we place around the event for the guests' convenience:

Photobooth table signs and baskets:

Our super cool and unique toasting flutes which I can't wait to use on future anniversaries!

Share Time:  What was your most favorite detail, DIY item or decor item from your big day?

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography

Saying thank you is not nearly enough

I knew it would be a while before I'd be able to send out thank you cards because I wanted to create them with a picture of us on the wedding day holding up our Thank and You cards and with pictures from our honeymoon since so many of our guests gave us cash and checks either directly or through our honeyfund.com site.  That said, when I finally got our pro pics back, I found the best pic I could of us holding the Thank and You cards (remember almost all the shots our photog took of us holding them had my sign covering up Mr Fix It's!) and then added in some of our best honeymoon shots.

This is what I came up with via http://www.shutterfly.com/.  I truly love this site.  They have a lot of templates and color/style options and are so user friendly and somewhat affordable.  You can often find coupon codes by doing a google search for a percent off your order or free shipping.  Which I of course did :)

The inside of the card looks like this:

I then would write little captions next to each of the pictures above saying things like "On our balcony" or "Hiking in the rainforest" so they knew what was going on or where the pic was taken.

The bottom half of the inside of the card was where I would write my message.  My sister laughed at me when she saw that I was 'writing a novel' to every one of our guests filling the entire bottom half of the page.  But what can I say?  I do not like thank you cards that say something like:

Dear John,

Just wanted to thank you so much for the wonderful gift of the toaster you gave us at the wedding.  It really was something we both wanted and we really appreciate it.  Thanks for celebrating our special day with us.

Love, the Beevers

Nah, that's boring and while nice and to the point, I like to write something a little more personal to each guest.  So most of my cards looked something like this:

Hi, Omar & Tracy!

John and I just wanted to let you know what a joy it was to have you there celebrating our special day with us.  We had so much fun at our wedding and it looks like you both did, too from the photobooth pictures we saw!  I heard you saw an amazing trick the magician performed for you, too.  And I so appreciate the photos that you posted on Facebook to share with us.  We love them!  And we love you, too.  We were overwhelmed by your very generous gift of $100 to help make our honeymoon dreams come true.  We shared some pictures above to show you how great it was.  Hopefully we can get together soon to catch up.  Take care and thank you again so very much.

Stacey & John

Or for an actual gift, I would switch out the line about the honeymoon dreams with something like:

I can't tell you how grateful we were for the new Martha Stewart knife set you gave us.  We really needed a new set and I use it every single day...especially to slice the veggies for my famous garlic roasted potatoes that John loves.  We'll have to have you over for dinner some time to catch up.

Or you can switch out the line about the magician with something like "We loved seeing you tear it up on the dance floor which just made us enjoy ourselves so much more!"

So, what do you think, ladies?  Am I truly anal and an over achiever?  Because it takes me forever to write these out and my hand is killing me after only a few! 

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Start writing thank you cards as soon after the wedding as you can..maybe even on your honeymoon while lounging on a beach somewhere?  I don't like the old idea that you have up to a year to send them out...but since it is a daunting task, I have allowed myself the option to only write 5 or 6 thank you cards each day or two (or three).  I started about a couple weeks ago and I seriously have about 85 cards to write!  UGH, thankfully, I've only got about 37 or so to go!

I'm a big fan - of our FAN programs!

Thank you SO much all you lovely ladies who overwhelmed me with wonderful encouragement in comments on yesterday's post.  Though the rest of the day led to more wedding related frustration (post tomorrow), the night ended with us having our final menu tasting.  We do in fact LOVE our caterer, Steve of La Finestra and are excited for the yummy food he's providing as well as how amazingly accommodating he has been.  So things are moving along on the wedding front. 

The last thing I just finished were the final elements of our stationery.  Let me tell you that getting the invitations designed and done up was a LONG process - but well worth it.  The benefit is that now that I have the same girl (company) making the rest of our stationery items, she has all the colors and design elements and knows what I am looking for. 

She has just shipped the programs for the ceremony and has the place cards and some reserved seating cards in production.  For the program, again, I wanted something a little different.  When I first found these 'fan' programs on blogs and web sites, I fell in love with them.  Even though they've probably become a bit more popular, I still love the idea.  Here were the inspiration pictures I shared with Stacia of Serendipity Designs:

How cute is this program (ok, it's not a fan -

but I love the little images of guys and girls for how they listed the bridal party!)

Here's some of the great fan programs I love:

This one is actually an entire stationery set:

This one was from the wedding that inspired my color scheme:

Joyful Events Wedding Coordination

Joyful Events Wedding Coordination

And here's the proofs of what Stacia came up with for our own program:

These are the lyrics to the song that I will walk down the aisle to...we are having them printed on the back of the ceremony page of the program:

And here is our final product!!!

Did you put much thought into your programs?  Was there anything unique or significant / special about them?

Where do I sit?!?

Have you ever heard of 'within the ribbon' cards?  Many, many years ago they were something I came across that a girlfriend decided to include in her invitations for her wedding.  Basically, for the 'privileged' or family guests at your wedding, you are providing them a little card that says they shall be seated 'within the ribbon' at the ceremony.  They present the card to an usher who then takes them up to the front of the ceremony aisles.  I don't know that I would give guests cards like that, but I do know that I want the front rows of our ceremony aisles reserved for family. 

I came across some great inspiration pics via my stationery lady, Stacia of Serendipity Design.  I asked her to create signs for me to place on chairs at the ceremony like these:

This week I got the samples in the mail!!!  Here's the reserved chair cards that we will be having made to place on specific chairs and rows at our wedding:

We will place one of these cards on the end chair of the front row aisles to show which family members should sit there.  This way, our ushers just need to ask the guests if they are family and then if they are, they ask them their last name and seat them in the corresponding row.  I know, I know...some people think this is TOO planned and overboard with the organization.  What can I say?  I am a control freak :)

Oh, and here's what the cards will look like that will go on the chairs for the Mother of the Bride and Mother of the Groom:

Then for the reception, I have another little thing for the guests.  Everyone does the 'menu cards' at place settings nowadays.  But I never liked those...unless you are getting served a plated meal and want to be sure you know what you're eating.  But for us, we're having a buffet, so the menu cards will be placed on the buffet tables of course - no need for one at each place setting. 

I did have some fun info to share with the guests though that I thought would be helpful for them.  And I also wanted something to show them where to sit at their table.  I decided instead of tucking a menu card into each guest's napkin, we could tuck a helpful 'info' card into their napkin and at the top of each card would be the guest's name peeking out so they know where to sit. 

Here's what they look like, though I did ask Stacia to please move the guest's name down a bit on the page and make it larger so it stands out more:

They will stick out of the napkins similar to this photo:

So that's the stationery stuff I have going on right now.  Just trying to finalize the last of the RSVP's so we can get the placecards printed up...only 17 more people to chase down!!!

Have you given any thought to where you want people to sit at your ceremony and reception?  Do you care?  Are you trying to find some creative ways to direct guests to their seats or reserve seats?

** And stay tuned for a post about how to do easy 'seat assignments' on this Tuesday!

Share the love

So Mrs T over at Ninenty-Nine + Forever blog recently posted about this super cute photo sharing card idea.  I have been wanting to do something like this but put it on the back burner with everything else going on lately.  I had glanced at a couple of sites that offered this type of service but free was the key word and I wasn't too thrilled with some of the options I had found.

But Mrs T shared this site http://www.weddingphotoswap.com/ and it is free and lets you upload and download high resolution images into separate albums for all your wedding related events.  You just create a simple account using an e-mail and password and it provides a code for your guests to log in with.  I couldn't pass that up!

Plus I got a http://www.vistaprint.com/ catalogue in the mail two weeks ago that showed business cards on sale for like nothing!

I signed up for weddingphotoswap.com and then I quickly created a simple business card using Mrs T as my inpsiration and a template they had in a blue color.  I added in some red to make it wedding color related and listed all the info.  Since we're still a month and a half out from the wedding date, I picked their slowest shipping option and the total for 250 cards was only $15 including tax and shipping and the cost to upload our own photo! 

I got the cards like 2 weeks earlier than what their estimated arrival date was, too!  And here they are:

Sorry for the grainy image quality.  I scanned a card in at work instead of trying to take a photo with my crappy camera.  I love the little computer monitor on it since the whole idea is for them to share their pics with us via the web site (computer). 

Now I am trying to decide where to leave them for the guests?  I am thinking the best option is going to be to give them to the valet service and ask them to hand them to each guest as they pick up their car at the end of the night.  This way, they will not lose or forget them at the wedding.  The other option is to mail them with thank you cards but then we won't get pics back as fast and I think I am going with a postcard option for thank you's instead of an envelope option so that wouldn't work.

So fellow brides, did/are you using a photo sharing site for all your guests to share photos with?  If you did, how did you notify the guests of the info?