Here they come!

INVITATIONS ARE ON THEIR WAY!!!!!

Over the weekend, Ryan and I started building the invitations! I didn’t expect this honestly, but it was SO MUCH FUN!  Here’s a breakdown of what went into this.

First my beautiful and obviously talented bridesmaid Haley volunteered to basically be my personal wedding invitation graphic artist. How lucky am I!! She designed the entire invitation and sent me a copy. I couldn’t have ordered a more perfect layout and design myself. I loved it! The colors were great! The wording was us! It was modern yet simple and I loved it!  It’s not overly mushy but still has an element of sweetness. I guess in a way I didn’t know what I wanted the invitation to say or look like until I saw what she came up with!! As we printed them out, (this may sound funny) I felt very proud of our wedding. They added a formal and sophisticated element that I hadn’t felt yet. 

The Next step was from my talented fiancé’. He created a website dedicated to the wedding. Our blog has been used for a record of the planning process so I didn’t want people to have to scavenge through to find direction information etc.  He asked me what to include and then wah-la came up with ryan-danny.com! OUR OWN URL!  We worked on the different aspects of the site each night last week. I found myself excited to leave work and get to work on the details! We would play around with pictures, fonts, links etc.  Ryan shines when it comes to a technology challenge so it was really fun to watch him learn new ways to link or embed information! I love my little techy nerd! THEN on Friday he brought home all sort of equipment from work. He literally set up a studio in our basement. Lights, cameras, mics… the whole thing! We created a basic vlog style video and explained the purpose of our website. Ryan edited it and it’s now our homepage to the website!!!!! HOW COOL!

 Finally we sat down one evening together, printed, stuffed, and stamped 100 invitations! We talked about what we expected with the wedding, we laughed at stories we shared about some of our guests, and we worked like a little invitation making factory.
Originally we were going to try to send out wooden invitations! (Belinda's idea!!! She know's me so well!) Loved it! But time and money said to try to create our own with a kit. One day while bargain shopping at Good Will, I found a blank invitation kit. $10 bucks and I only had to buy one more box from the store!! So low and behold it all came together better than expected!  I loved putting them together and having the weekend experience!

                                                       Here’s  the creation process

 

Blank Envelope

Gluing the Info Card

Info card about our website!

RSVP card with return envelope! 

We stuffed the cards into the pocket!

This was the hardest part!

The actual invitation portion!

Completed Product!

Sealed and Addressed!

                                                              So this is what 100 invitations look like!

                               

Then it's off to the post office we go!

We carried the box in on TAX DAY... haha.

People stared at us as we posed with a box of invitations!! Ryan is such a good sport! I love that he played along with this whole day! To tell you the truth, as we sealed and finished our parents invites. I cried. He stood me up and hugged me and said "We're getting Married!".... GOSH I COULD CRY AGAIN!

SO HERE THEY COME FOLKS!!!

Amazing experience! 

THANK YOU HALEY! They are perfect!

www. ryan-danny.com

Backyard Photo Shoot!

Ryan and I decided to play around with his awesome camera! We had our own at home photoshoot! 

Look at my handsome fiance'. I am one lucky girl!

This was so much fun!

Secret garden!

3 Months and Counting!

Where did March Go?

I wanted to update everyone on how wonderful things are going and how thankful I feel! I am very lucky to have such a wonderful, crafty, supportive, and fun group of people I call family and friends! Planning this wedding has been so much fun because I have their help and participation in our special day!

Lately things have just been falling into place and each day I’m becoming more and more excited about our event!

Update on the wedding! Ryan, Jeremy and I went this past weekend and picked up all of the boys cloths! We are buying their outfits instead of renting. It seems to actually be cheaper this way and we can give them to the boys to keep forever!! They are wearing simple dress pants, white button up shirts, and vests. Having videoed a lot of weddings, Ryan says it is crucial that they are not stuck in something hot and uncomfortable. They will have their sleeves rolled up and basic white shoes on. Ryan picked everything out, and it’s totally his personality, which I loved!!! We were able to get all of the boy’s gear for even less than we budgeted for… I must share that we were able to get JCPenny white dress shirts on sale for $3.00!!! Cha-Ching!! Tonight Derek came over to try on his clothes and I found myself really excited and slightly emotional. This is really happening and it’s going to look gorgeous!

So all of the boys are dressed and ready!

I also had an attire sort of weekend! I had my first fitting!!!! My dress came in during the week. Ginny came with me for my first try on. It was even prettier than I remembered! I bought the dress in November. It was a fairy tale sort of day. Much more than a dress, the special moments were everything from the lady that did my fitting, the fact my Mom (who has survived lung cancer) was standing behind me, my sister had chills, my best friend had tears in her eyes, and top of it all , I could imagine the eyes of both Ryan and my dad when they see me for the first time in this dress! It was beyond the most perfect thing in the world. I will never EVER forget that moment. Trying on the dress made me relive that feeling and filled my heart with excited anticipation… I’m SO ready and giddy about our Wedding. Who would of thought… I’m such a simple, non-girly girl.

Other things accomplished include getting Ryan’s wedding ring, our honeymoon suite has been booked, fabric for table clothes purchased, candy table dishes and utensils, photo booth software J, and finishing up some chalk boards and picture stands!

We are a little less than 3 months away now!!

Next step is sending out the invitations by our goal of April 15^th!!! More to Come!