Invitations

I have sent out all the invitations and they have all (or should have) arrived at their destinations so now I can show you!

One day I went into Michael's looking for something completely unrelated and I stumbled upon a clearance rack full of invitations. $9 a box baby! The box I chose weren't exactly my colors but at that price, it was certainly close enough. I bought 2 boxes with 30 sets in them - so in total I paid $20 for 60 invitation suites. Sure beats $500. 

Here is a blank envelope. I am showing you a blank one to protect the privacy of my guests but I just hand wrote the address and put a stamp on it! Pretty standard.

For the invitations, I went on the website and entered the code I got, it then gave me the template for the invite and the rsvp card. I was then free to write whatever I wanted with whatever font. 

I purchased a custom address stamp from ChattyPress on Etsy. I then basically created a stamping station! I would stamp the rsvp cards and the return part of the invitation envelope and just place them like this. I made sure to keep the envelope and return card and envelope together because I had a little system! I then left the stamp to dry over night to prevent any smudging.

Here is the RSVP card. If you notice in the bottom of the envelope, there is a number. I numbered ever return card envelope. The number on a person's envelope was the number their party is under on my excel spreadsheet. This way, if anybody forgets to put their name, I know who it was from. It isn't the prettiest thing but it is certainly functional.

I also got these sticky squares to put on the back of the invitations. This is so it would stay in place when placed on the pocket.

For the accommodation card, I just googled a template for it, downloaded it, put in what I needed, printed it and then cut it to size. 

Here is everything placed in the pocket. I didn't have a dedicated spot for the accommodation card so I slipped it behind the RSVP card with it poking out from the top so people knew it was there.

They also provided pre-cut ribbon in the set so I tied it around the envelope to keep it closed. My only qualm with this is that it doesn't stick on to the pocket so if someone pulls it out of the envelope fast, the ribbon will probably just slip off which is lame but oh well.

3 Months

Are you serious? 3 months until the wedding? Thank god. Is that bad? I feel 2 and a half years is way too long to be engaged. Thank god I didn't go for that 2015 date we had originally thought of. 

Anyway. By this date, I had set out to do this...

• Mail out all invitations (February 28th)
•  Book hairstylist and makeup artist
•  Decide on accessories and buy them
•  Apply for marriage license
•  Pay off DJ
•  Pay off florist 

Yikes... and I was doing so good! 

All the invitations will be mailed out on Friday and my makeup and hair was booked literally last week. 

As for the accessories... I need help! I am so picky and I have no idea what I want. Do I want to wear a necklace? Do I want to wear earrings, a bracelet? What kind do I want to wear? I have no idea when that will be done but I know I have to decide soon. 

I also haven't got the marriage license. I probably will do that this month because well.. I think I have to! I saw the cost of it and was a little choked... 

As for paying off those two vendors. That was quite ambitious and a few car repairs threw us a curve ball. I am going to go a different direction now. Instead of paying them in the order that I booked them, I am going to do the famous snowball effect. I will start with the least amount and work our way up. Our cheapest one is technically the cake, but that will be paid by credit card so I don't need to pay cash. 

So here we go, the checklist due by April 24th (ONE MONTH!)

• Decide and purchase my accessories
• Get the marriage license 
• Purchase gifts for parents and attendees (I've actually already started working on this one 
• Bring in gown to get cut and bustled 
• Get supplies for favors
• Finalize floral proposal
• Plan rehearsal dinner
• Pay off as many vendors as I can (this is my new goal lol)
• Book rooms for hotel
• Buy all decorations (except table decor)

The list got longer but it is also two months. I think I can handle this list but I need some serious help with my accessories. Sigh.

 

 

4 Months

Oh ma gawd... 4 months until the wedding. Every time people ask me if I'm excited ... I respond with, yea excited to get it over with! I do not recommend to anybody to ever plan a wedding for 2 and a half years!

Anyway, in November I had set out to do these things

•  Rent or buy Brandyn's tux
•  Print invitations
•  Reserve any rental equipment
•  Get some more of the decor stuff done
•  Book hotel block

Done and done with a few more things to cross off as well. Obviously "get some more decor stuff done" is a little vague but I managed to check a few things off the list.

  

Besides that list, I have also compiled a list of hair and makeup artists and decided on where we are getting the wedding pictures done.

I plan to do a post on my invitations and the screaming steal I got them at but that will be after everyone gets them because I don't want to ruin the surprise! 

Where it stands with the wedding invites as of today - I am waiting for the hotel to send my group code for online booking and then I can print out the accommodation cards. I will be sending them out in phases so if someone gets theirs before you, do not be alarmed.

Everybody who lives out of province: January 31st

Everybody who lives outside of the GTA: February 14th

Everybody who lives within the GTA: February 28th

I am sending some earlier to give time for making travel arrangements.

As for my new to-do list. I have to get this done by February 24th

•  Mail out all invitations (February 28th)
•  Book hairstylist and makeup artist
•  Decide on accessories and buy them
•  Apply for marriage license
•  Pay off DJ
•  Pay off florist

I think this batch of the list is one that I am most dreading... accessories? Absolutely no idea. Hairstylist and makeup artist is a serious chore for me and the marriage license? It is getting real now!

I have also added to pay off those two vendors. It will just be easier for us if we pay them off as soon as we can instead of waiting until the end so it is my goal to pay off those two by the end of the month!

Anywho, wish me luck on those two dreadful things to plan lol. I will report back as I go. Oh and I also plan to show off some decorations I've gathered for the wedding.. once they come in of course!

Taxi Printable

Just a quick post today to share something I made for the wedding :)

I was inspired by something on Pinterest to make this for my wedding!

I went into Photoshop, made the dimensions for the size of the frame that I want, put the border (I looked up how to do that on youtube) and started with the graphic stuff. I got the owl graphic by searching for free owl clip art on google - pretty simple. The font is a free custom font that I downloaded - Pinterest has tons of selection and just put the companies and numbers in the area.

I plan to put it in a frame and place it on the bar at the wedding - you know ... just as a friendly reminder ;) 

 

Weekly Recap + an announcement!

**Read until the end because I have announcement!

This entire week I have been sick which is one of the main reasons I slacked on the blog and couldn't get a Youtube video up on Saturday. But besides sleeping until 5pm everyday, I did manage to power through and get some things done that I had previously been avoiding.

This obviously was not one of the tasks but I thought it was funny - Kitty and Gizmo love their new cat tree so much that they fight over it. This is not a permanent spot for it, I just put it there to make it easy to jump onto from the couch because it is quite tall. 

This is also what happened early on in the week and the week before - a crappy weather system. It was so cold but now when I see that it is 0 degrees, I'm like ... hey it is time to put my coat away! 

One of the tasks I started was addressing my invitations, I have them all printed and addressed now. I just need to wait for a special personal touch to come in the mail and I have to get the hotel room block sorted out which I am doing today.

Here are all the envelopes all addressed. Some people are going to be getting their invitations before others. I am sending anybody who lives out of province theirs the end of the month so that they have time to make arrangements. Anybody who lives far enough that they need a hotel will get theirs mid February and the rest I am sending out at the end of February.  Once they are all out, I will be doing a post on the invitations.

I also picked up the new Carrie Underwood collection of nail polish! I am wearing the pink one (Carnival Cotton Candy) and I love it!

And this is basically how I spent most of the week - watching Glee.

Not pictured here, but I did do it over the weekend was compile a list of makeup and hair professionals for the wedding. This was one thing I was seriously avoiding because it seemed like an overwhelming and hard task to me. Reasoning being that there is a lot of them, and they are not cheap. I decided upon a mobile service because we will be getting a hotel suite the night before the wedding. I would have had all my calls made by now but alas the illness won out and didn't get to the phoning part but I plan to do that this week!

And now for this big announcement! Over the past few months, I have hinted here and there of a new business venture. Well the website is up and I am ready to share now. I have started my own business as a Professional Organizer! I am not doing appointments just yet because I still have some administrative/legal stuff I want to get together but will let everyone know as soon as I am. In the meantime, my website is up and I will be doing all of my organizing posts on there! So head on over there and subscribe to my Facebook page to get all the organizing goodness that I am going to be sharing :) 

Website: www.laurenashleyorganizing.blogspot.ca

Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/KTisqC

6 Months

As of Sunday we are down to 6 months until the wedding! By this point I was supposed to:

•  Buy the gown
• Determine the menu
• Book cake baker
• Book ceremony musicians
• Book transportation
• Get all bridesmaids dresses ordered

The list looks longer but it was actually really short because most of it was done already. I bought the gown back in 2011...lol and the menu was determined when I booked the hall. Same goes for the ceremony music. The bridesmaid dresses were bought in September and Shay picked up her dress the end of October. 

As for the cake and transportation, that got done as well! I don't have a post about the cake because if I were to post something, I would just be giving it away but I will say that it was a fairly easy process. I basically knew what I wanted. I did a lot of research to find out what was affordable and all that business so when I went in, I basically just showed them a picture and it was ordered. They let me fully customize it too. I picked out the ribbon I wanted from their bucket of ribbons and I am able to add to the order later if I need to (like if more people than I originally expected come) so that is good! 

As for the transportation, you can read about that post here. We also bought Brandyn's wedding band which wasn't on the list!

The next deadline is January 24th, 2014 (oh now we are in the same year).

• Rent or buy Brandyn's tux
• Print invitations
• Reserve any rental equipment
• Get some more of the decor stuff done.
• Book hotel blocks. 

When we rent Brandyn's suit, we are also going to get it on file which suit all the groomsmen are wearing as well so they can go out and get it. Someone like my brother I want to hold off until closer to the wedding because he is almost 14 and growing like a weed! 

I'd like to get the invitations printed and start addressing them. They need to be sent out by the end of February. It is crazy that we are almost at the point to be doing the invitations. It makes it so much more real.

As for the rental equipment, I don't know if I will actually need any and I just plan to check off a little bit more of the decorations that I can do and that way when it comes closer to I really just have centerpieces to do. 

And of course the one that I get bugged about the most: the hotel block. Sorry to everybody who has been wanting to know for so long but the hotels told me not to bug them about it until January! So I will have that done by the end of that month lol 

That was one long winded post! I will check back with this in January :) 

 

Wedding Transportation

So I have booked the wedding transportation which I think was one of the top things I was avoiding.  Mainly because my budget for it was not anywhere near what the going rate for a limo package is. 

Like $1000 for a day services.... our budget is more around $400.

So I did what needed to be done, I asked around. We also decided that we would probably not be able to get a limo and would probably get an old fashioned car to just drive Brandyn and myself around. My cousin told me about this company that she got her Rolls Royce with and so I called them.

Well it actually ended up working out because the 6 passenger limo was cheaper than the classic car.

Here is the services I booked:

• They will pick up Brandyn and his groomsmen and bring them to the church.
• Then they will pick up the bridesmaids and me of course and bring us to the church.
• Afterwards, they will take Brandyn and myself plus 2 other of our wedding party to the site of the pictures. It will be my brother and my bridesmaid Shaylynn who comes in because Carter can't drive and Shay is coming from out of town and won't be able to drive herself either. 
• Then they will drive us to the reception.
• Also champagne and red carpet with a just married sign will also be included

As far as I'm concerned a taxi taking Brandyn and I to the hotel will be just fine :) 

So it is about 4 and a half hours of services which we got for around $500. It is probably around the going rate of everyone else for that time period but my cousin has used them and recommended them so I went with them. 

This is the limo we will have looks very similar to this and also has a 6th door to get the bride (me!) in and out and not have everyone else trampling over my dress :)

So yea! All that is left to do by my next checkpoint is book the cake baker. I still have like a month to do this which is good because I have no idea where to start with this one. There are too many options!

Bridal Shower Checklist

One thing I didn't have that I wish I did when we were planning my bridal shower is a checklist. I...and I know I'm not the only one.... am a woman of lists. I make lists for everything and I tend to stick to them like they are the bible. I was not able to find one that I liked or that was detailed enough for our needs planning the shower. 

So I created one just for you!

Click here for the printable checklist!

Your Wedding Registry

 Creating our registry was one of the top things I looked forward to. It is like shopping without having to spend any money!

I read a bunch of stuff online to do with them and now I have come here to tell you what to listen to, and what not to listen to... according to my own experience.

1. When creating your registry, use a checklist...but only as a guideline. I had a checklist to help so I didn't forget to add things I might need but I didn't necessarily pick everything off of it. If you don't need it, don't register for it. I nixed all bedroom and bathroom linens off my list. I also didn't register for any fine china (because I would never use it). Here is a good checklist to go by.

2. Only register for things you actually need. I did not register for a bread maker. I also did not register for a deep fryer. Think about it this way: the more things you register for, the less things you will get. Don't take away from the things you need by putting things that are just nice to have. You can get them later.

3. Don't feel bad by putting expensive things on your registry. Your registry is basically a wish list. Just because it is there, doesn't mean people have to get it. A lot of times, family members will go in on a more expensive gift anyway.

4. Never mind the whole "make sure you have this many items in this price range and this many items in this price range." Keep that in mind but like I said above: if people can't find or afford what they want to give you, they will go in on an item or just give you money. Don't register for items you don't need.

5. Try to register at stores your guests actually go to. I registered at the Bay and Bed Bath and Beyond. I chose BB&B over Home Outfitters because I preferred to just do my registry online. I find being in a store overwhelming and I didn't think I would get a full selection of everything I could register for. I got 3 things off my BB&B list. Why? Because my guests never went there. They went to Home Outfitters.

There is a short little tidbit of my knowledge from my experience. I hope it helps you out in your venture with a registry :) 

Shower Activity Book

For the bridal shower, I wanted to create a little book for all the kids there. Just something small to keep them occupied. One thing I did not have though, was the time and patience to create one so I went to Google. 

After searching through many links that I was not happy with, I finally found this. 

She gives you all the instructions on how to print it so you can put it together. 

Here is how it turned out:

And here they are placed on the table:

Shower Games + FREE Customizable Templates

 When I was trying to figure out games, I wanted to do stuff that isn't that popular. You know, so people aren't bored. Mind you, I've only ever been to three bridal showers so my perception probably isn't as accurate but everybody at my shower seemed pretty into the games so I think I succeeded with that.

We had 4 games. We let everyone eat first and then started the first game. It was called Wonder Words. I bought some labels and put words or word combinations to do with weddings on each label (the amount of people who were coming). Ex: bride, wedding party, something blue, stag...etc. At the shower, a label was put on each guest's forehead. They then had to try and guess what their label said by asking guests up to 3 yes or no answer questions each. I chose to do this one first because it would get everybody up and out of their seats and mingling. 

Make sure to tell everyone to wait until all the labels are distributed before they start. This game a lot of people seemed to get into and I was really surprised at how fast the winner guessed their answer. Her first question was, "Is this what happens after the wedding?" .... smart lady! 

The second game was a version of the "He said, She said" game that I have seen around. I titled it Guess Who. I made the template on Microsoft Word and just printed a bunch. In terms of the winner, we allowed for 2 winners to eliminate any tie breakers.

Click here to view the template for Guess Who

After the second game, we opened up the dessert table. Once that was finished we started a game called What Is She Wearing. This one isn't so original but I thought it would be a fun one to pick their brain. Everybody had fun with it. I got a lot of "Oh you are wearing open toed! I knew that!" type responses to the game. I also made a template for this game to get more specific answers out of them. This one we also allowed for two winners. I still ended up having to do a tie breaker question so I just asked the two when Brandyn and I started dating.

Click here to view the template for What Is She Wearing

The last game didn't involve any guests getting a prize. It was more of a show. There was a questionnaire and Brandyn answered the questions and put them in an envelope which was given to my bridesmaids. I would say half the guests enjoyed this one. Apparently my reactions were pretty entertaining. We played this one last because it would place me already sitting down which eased the transition into gift opening.

Click here to view the Newlywed game template

For the prizes we took advantage of the deals at Bath and Body Works. They also give free cellophane wrap and ties. We got a lotion, lip gloss and small candle. For our favors, we bought candy and some cute little bags from Michael's. You can see them on the table here.

Pssst.... If you would like any of these games for a shower you are planning, give me a shout in the comments below and I will customize it specifically for you (colors, wording, etc) and send you the PDF for free!

DIY Balloon Chandelier

For the shower I made a balloon chandelier to go over the gifts. It was actually a pretty simple process. The only thing was it was time consuming to do. Before I start, here is what it looked like all set up:

Here are the supplies needed:

• 5x7 Cardstock
• Pictures
• Balloons
• Single hole punch
• Double sided tape
• Ribbon
• Scissors

I took each picture and taped it to the card stock. The reason I taped it was so that I could easily remove it and use the pictures for something else or put them in frames. 

 

I then punched a hole in the tops of each card stock.  This step is where I left it. The rest needed to be completed at the shower.

Once we got to the venue the shower was at, I started blowing up the balloons. You have two options, blow up the balloons or get helium. Either work fine. This was probably the most time consuming task. 

I apologize for not having pictures of this. Like I said, these steps were done at the venue and I was trying to get it all done fast.

Anyway, next I cut all the string to the length I wanted and then tied it through the holes in the card stock and then around the balloon tie.

Then I took double sided tape (this is why it doesn't matter what kind of air you put in the balloon) and I taped it to the ceiling. You want to tape it to the ceiling so the balloons don't end up blowing around (or falling down if you blew it up using human air). Warning on this one: you may need a lot of tape. The card stock put a bit of weight and a few of the balloons ended up falling towards the end of the shower.

So there you have it; an easy project that guests really appreciated. I got quite a few compliments on it! 

DIY Milk Vases

Instead of renting some old looking ones or traveling to a vintage one for some old ones, I decided to make some milk vases for the bridal shower centerpieces. 

If you saw in this post that I put up yesterday, they looked like this:

Do you see those spots where you can see through the vase? I will tell you about that later.

So I went to the dollar store and picked up 5 vases (one for each table). They were just clear vases and $2 each. I also bought 2 bottles of just white paint from the dollar store. I bought regular but I would highly recommend glass paint. I also got those sponge things shown in the picture but didn't end up using them.

I placed a piece of tinfoil down which kept the paint from getting anywhere and then I just squirted about half the bottle in there.

Then I tipped the vase over and started swirling the paint around making sure it was covering all the areas.

After I tipped it over and let it dry upside down. This ensured that all the paint would cover all the sides. 

This is the finished product: 

If you get clumps of paint around the rim, I just scraped off the thick parts with a knife and then used my nail to scrape off thinner parts. 

Now remember in the first picture where you saw pieces of clear vase instead of white vase? That is because I didn't use glass paint. Basically when the paint dried, some areas looked like the paint had evaporated a bit. It did it to all 5 of my vases. Also, once we had water in it, the paint started to come off. It wasn't a big deal for me because I only used these once but if you were planning for a permanent figure in your home, definitely invest in the glass paint.

Here is a budget breakdown of the project:

Glasses vases: $2x5 = $10

Paint: $1x2 = $2

Total: $12