Wedding Vodka

What more do I need to say? I really want to try the 'Bride' vodka now as it is 'Wedding Cake' flavored which means it will either be really good or terrible like the Rootbeer Vodka I bought on sale last time. Regardless, we started making our 'Alcohol' box for the wedding since we are providing all the hard stuff, plus beer as wine will come from Stoney Creek itself due to their liquor licence.

Printed, Cut, Folded and Stuffed

It's official - the invitations are done! Today I picked them up at 7:30am from Don and Chrissie at Custom Printing and they looked great. Chrissie was able to get the paper back to normal after I blew dried it as she repacked it with her machine to make it tight and flat. Then while working at school today, I was able to get them all cut and folded. Stuffed them when I got home and mailed them out this afternoon. The post office said all non-international invites should arrive by the end of the week so make sure to check your mail boxes as they are small!

Table Cloths

So we realized it was cheaper to buy table cloths then to rent them and since we wanted black and Stoney Creek only had white, we bought them. There were several places that had them for just under $9.00 a piece however this place not only offered free shipping, but this week they had a special for 3 days where everything was 15% off so we saved way more then if were were to rent them. Now if you ever need 8 black round 90 inch table cloths, you know who to borrow them from!

Decorating kit

So the room we are having our reception in is pretty empty so I need to put up decorations yet decorations are so expensive. While at Party City today to by Cyndi's daughter, as well as Carri, both a wedding card, I happened to find Black and White decorating kits and they were super cheap - only $9.99 which shocked me since Party City is over priced on everything else. I opened the kit up too and the items are good sized. I am debating now if I should buy more or just stick with one. I guess I better ask Dena if decorations are ok first. Needles to say, here are the sets online http://www.partycity.com/product/black+damask+party+decorating+kit.do?sortby=ourPicks&pp=60&size=all&navSet=170233

Printed and Stamped!

So everyone said not to get big invites or envelops because it would cost more to send them. So leave ti to me to get super small ones. Problem with that is that no printer could print them! I finally was able to tape each one onto it's own sheet of paper and manually feed them into the printer one by one. All of our envelopes are not only printed, but also stamped. Now if only I had the invitations to put in them...Oh and yes, I put the stamps on sideways...opps!

Bows

So while watching Marrisa and Landon sleep last night at Karen's while they had a softball game, I was able to get a majority of the bows and bells tied onto the place cards. Let's just say it was very tedious and reminded me of when Nanci and I were tying bows for the shower she was throwing. Another good thing I got done was convincing Fedex/Kinox to let me copy the Scrabble board paper to make the center pieces. How did I do it; said it was for my classroom as teachers apparently get copyright privileges waived haha.

Invitation Nightmare...

Invitations...who thought it would be this difficult! Besides the hours spent at Office Max last week, and the millions of phone calls to other places, one which wanted to charge over $100 just to print them as I would be providing them with the paper, I think we found one. Greg Leyden from work was helping redesign my classroom and I asked him if he knew anyone since he's lived and worked around here for a long time. He said he had a friend named Don who owns http://www.custom-bindery.com/. Needless to say, Don thinks he can do it so we decided to go there today. Unfortunately when I went to retrieve the paper from the laundry room, somehow it had gotten all wet and was now wrapped - how I have no idea. I tried blow drying it and it got out most of the wrinkles but not all. He does not know if it will run through the printer and we couldn't find more for at a reasonable price so he is going to try to use it and his graphic artist is going to work on the file to make sure it lines up. Needless to say, this is my LAST shot because if they do not do it, sorry Chris, your request is going to be left un-met as I am sick and tired of waiting to send these out which means I will be doing them myself...which I wanted to do weeks ago! He said they should be done by Monday at the latest so pray this is true. Now all I need to do in the mean time is work on envelopes which Cyndi is letting me borrow her classroom printer and if that does not work, then I will do them at her house as she just printed her daughters a few weeks ago.

10 to 8

Took the boys with me today to try on and get fitted for the new dresses they reordered for me and yep, I did go from a 10 to an 8; the lady even said that I should keep the 8 as it just looked better on. She also said that either the purple one we tried on was stretched out because they warn people their dresses run small but people insist on trying on the smaller sizes or I lost weight. Though I would like to say it is the second option, it is more likely that it is the first! Regardless, I now have the 8 and was able to return the $30 bar I bought from Victoria Secrets as this size fits better in the chest and there is no need for a fancy push up haha!

Spray Paint

So leave it to me to purposely order something that was defective so I can fix it. Oriental Trading Company had place cards on clearance because the bells were discolored which was perfect because I knew I would have to spray paint them anyways to be my colors. So today the boys and I tested it and though we like the black, we think we want to try some white so that we can go with the the black and white theme and do every other or girls vs. boys. So we went to school to pick up some white spray paint and black ribbon. When we got back, we noticed that Moto of course had eaten one while we were out, but besides that, we tried the white and now have a variety of ones to use.

Zombie Wedding Cake Topper

Wedding cake toppers are well not very interesting. I found one that matched out theme but I wasn't sure Chris would go for it but he did! http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/food/novelty/zombie-wedding-cake-topper.asp Unfortunately this one was a one of a kind as the creator makes them custom for brides and grooms via her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ZombiesbyZombiatch?ref=seller_info_count However leave it to me to realize that the same non-zombiefied cake topper is sold at Party City so guess who is going to DIY her own wedding topper - ME!

Food & Cake Ordered

Today we did our tasting and oh my goodness was it a lot of food. We changed one of our Chinese items and got rid of the meatballs but added pre-vow exchange appetizers of meat with cheese and crackers as well as trays of assorted fruit and various vegetables. We also got the cake ordered too and if the food place will not deliver it with everything else, the cake place, which mind you is by the same company, will charge us an extra $50 to deliver it. I told them to please ask the food people since there will be lots of them coming and heck, it would save time and money haha! Now it is just time to find our cake topper as since we did not have it already, it is not going to be put on the cake until it arrives for the wedding as we won't be down there before then - oppps! Should have thought about that prior...

Every Other...

Today the boys and I worked on putting together the every other black and white table ensembles as well as the stickers on all the suckers. This was of course after Moto had eaten some of the center pieces and one of the suckers...Once all was said and done, we were able to figure out what we needed to return and what we needed to buy more of. Still debating about what to do for cups for wine and mixed drinks.

Paper

Today we spent about 3 hours at Office Max with nothing to show. Our first trip resulted in Tessa not being able to get the image to print without being cropped on any of their fancy printers. And, oh Ryan charged me less then he should of last week so I had to pay more if I wanted the job done correctly which means I had to 'return' the charges from last week but the manager couldn't get the Hero's gift card to work so that was another hassle. Regardless, Tessa finally got the self print color printer worked with the image but everything was off by a few inches. After much photoshop fixing, it still was not right and we had to bring Moto to the vet for her shots so we left. After that we came back, Tessa was gone and there was now Bruce who tried assisting us by doing the same errors and wasting paper just as Tessa did with the other printers though we warned him but he thought he could make it work. Finally he listened and went to the printer that worked but did not know the right printer properties that Tessa did which resulted in even more errors in printing the fixed images. Finally I convinced him to just refund my money and give me the paper to let me print them myself. He agreed and I got the paper for free! However Chris is not keen on the idea of me printing them myself...arg!

Imagery Complete

So I attempted to get the first test of our Wedding invite done today however they resulted not going in my favor as the girl who helped me the day prior, who was also get married in September, was not there and the 'non-print' general employee tried helping as the print employees apparently do not get in until after 10am. Let's just say he was on the phone for most of the time I was there, had to look under the keyboard for a code, and even asked me at one point if I wanted to come behind the desk to help him. Needless to say, I left with just paying for the paper so that they could order it since they did not have enough in stock and I needed to get to work and finish packing for our trip Canada. I guess the invites will have to wait until next week...

Envelopes

Why is it so hard to find black envelopes? Yesterday the boys and I tried various stores with no luck. Micheals had some on sale but not enough so we went to another Micheals but they were not on sale there; go figure! Needless to say, at the other Micheals I found these 'Thank You' cards that came with white envlopes with a little balck design on the back.  I figured these would be perfect as I could use the envelopes for the invites and just use other evenlopes for when I send the 'Thank You' cards out; getting two things for one price = perfect! I found them online to share but they have a bow on the pictures whereas mine do not but maybe I could add one as it kind of looks cute that way. http://www.michaels.com/Floral-Thank-You/28670,default,pd.html?cgid=projects-wedding-thankyou&start=1

Spanx

Thanks to Laura's advise, I now look stunning under my dress in my super comfy spanx I got at Target today! They are so super comfy; I might just have to go buy some more to wear under normal everyday dresses!

Zombies

I left Chris to work on our Wedding invitations while I went and tried setting up our table idea at the museum. What he came up with was very clever; artsy, funny and unique (to say the least) and people are either going to love it or hate it but whatever, I am game because if they do not want to come to our wedding due to our invitations, well then I probably do not want them there anyways as they do not share my sense of style or humor!

Down a size?

So when I tried on my dress at the store, we thought a size 10 was the way to go. When the dress arrived at my house though, the dress definitely fit differently and was loose so I called the Jessica Mclintof store to see what they thought and they informed me that you can exchanged the dress for a different size all the way up to the date of the wedding as long as it is still in stock. Needless to say, mine was so they reordered it in the same size as well as a smaller size just encase the one that was sent to me was missized and I needed that size. Now just have to wait a while till it comes in to see if I am indeed lower in size which is always good!

Invites and Photoshop

Today Moto and I spent the day working on the invite ideas...lots of cut and folded test papers. The basic design is done now I just need Chris to make them all nice and cool in Photoshop as he is way better with that type of Graphic Design then me! How we are actually get these done, I have no idea though as I doubt any place will cut and fold them like the way we want so I bet I will have to be doing a lot of on my own...

Square Plates

So I finally found a place that actually has two different size sets of square plates in stock they got them in for graduations. I've been waiting months and no store had them but today when I searched I found one and left within 5 minutes after I called to confirm they were in. Needless to say, I now have lots of plates and napkins to choose from though I think I want to use the newest ones I bought and maybe use the others design ones, like these Harlequin ones, for something else like cake or after words or maybe the shower? Who knows but I know I will not let them go to waste as they cannot be returned since they were ordered offline! Nice thing about the ones I bought from the store today is that though there are no returns on these products, I can exchange them whenever I want for whatever I want!