Crossing things off the list - and adding more things to it!

This week we have crossed a few biggish things off the to-do list. The guest list is finished, including (almost) everyone's contact details. The invites are done, and my brother's artwork looks fab (and I've bought his thank you gift). The wedsite is also essentially sorted - I'm just going to ask a friend to proof read it before we send the invites out. I managed to get Gadget interested enough to choose a reading for the ceremony (although he has no idea who we should ask to read it). And having said I'm going to stop looking for flower girl dresses, I've now bought them! Frilly sparkly Jenny Packham ones from the Debenhams online sale that look perfect for the fairy princesses.

It feels great to check things off the list - even though I've sneaked a couple of new things onto it! Luckily the new things are small, so it still feels like I've made progress.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about decorating the church - until I saw this post on Rock My Wedding last week. Our church is a beautiful old stone village church, and doesn't need much decor. There will be some flowers, but I'm planning to ask the church's regular flower ladies to make sure the flowers are white/purple/pink (rather than red/yellow/orange) in exchange for a donation, rather than anything too dramatic. I think the stone arches add plenty of character on their own:

Inside our church (photo from genuki.org.uk)

Then I saw these fantastic bright paper pew ends, and decided I wanted them! In royal blue and cadbury purple, maybe with some map paper too? Simple, bright and stunning - sounds like the perfect church decor to me.

Shoot Lifestyle photography via Rock My Wedding

The only catch is that they're heart shaped - which is something I've been trying to avoid. Partly because hearts for a wedding seems too obvious, but mainly because they're a bit sentimental/soppy and so not really us. My current thinking is that it's ok if these are the only hearts we have, but I'll be keeping my eye out for kiwi or airplane alternatives!

D-I-Mac?

What is it called if your DIY involves a MacBook Air rather than paper and glue? I have no idea, but it doesn't feel like real DIY to me. It'll have to do for now though, as I'm on the other side of the planet with none of my usual craft supplies. I don't even have superglue here (when my headphones broke I repaired them at work with skin glue!). By the time I get access to my scissors and stamps again, the wedding will be less than three months away. So anything that can be done-by-mac (i.e. done now) will be time saved in February.

This week I've been busy with my track-pad and Photoshop Elements. I've done the first drafts of both the menu cards and the table plan cards (my dad is - hopefully - working on the background that the cards will be attached to). I'd also done an icebreaker card, but after an exhausting conversation with Gadget we're not sure it will work for our small wedding, so we've scrapped it.

Sticking with our non-themes of travel and New Zealand, I've hopefully managed to add a little fun and personality to the stationary. The menus look quite good, although I'm sure there will be several more drafts before they're finished. Even if we change nothing else, our custom artwork (whilst making excellent progress) is far from finished, and it's hard to judge the balance of a page when there's a key piece missing. I also firmly believe that you should view things as you intend them to be seen; if you're going to view it on a screen then you can approve it on a screen, but if the end result will be printed then you need to print it. For wedding purposes, that means I have to print everything, as some people will need to receive an actual invite (rather than an evite). So glad I have colour printing at work...

I've also done the umpteenth draft of the invites. I've mentioned the invites before, but finally I think we're getting somewhere with them. Having thrown out the original plans and used Gadget's new idea, the invites look completely different. They also feel different - they are modern, uncluttered, bold and have a couple of secret ingredients on too! Today's changes include a slight wording alteration that allows us to write our guests' names on the actual invite - as we don't have envelopes and are limiting the numbers I think this is quite important. Gadget is uncertain of the new layout though, so I may have to seek a third party opinion. Thoughts please Dad!

I've also started the postcards that will make up the reverse side of our table names. This was actually really easy - I just created a postcard template in Photoshop, added the stamp from our save-the-dates and then adjusted the text until it looked right. Now I just need to select the photos for the front, and maybe add a frame. And as these don't contain any secret ingredients, I can put them up here for all to see and comment on!

The name card for the top table
Not sure there will be a frame on the real thing, had to add it for ease of on screen viewing 

Next on the list is the Order of Service and signposting for the car park. The thank you cards are already in progress, as are the place cards. It looks like the place cards will be the most labour-intensive stationary item - but also the most handmade. We may need to stamp and emboss the names onto each card individually; at the very least they'll need to be handwritten. Add this to the fact that the cards themselves are going to have to be hand-cut (we can't find a punch or die-cut big enough) and you'll understand why I'm doing everything else so early!

Actually letting go of control

I keep saying that I am trying to be relaxed about details that are not on our priority list. I genuinely mean it, and mainly I think I am achieving it. Or I thought I was.

We've just got back to Auckland after two weeks in the South Pacific. I wasn't planning to do anything wedding related whilst we were there, but the last few days we had wifi and not much else to do. You can guess what happened. I started by catching up on my blog reading, and ended up doing etsy and google image searches. Then I pestered Gadget with my findings.

He was surprisingly agreeable to this. In fact, he found a great idea for an invitation and decided on table names. The table names are still provisional as we don't know how many tables we're having, but they'll be easy to adapt.

The invitation is a more concrete decision. There isn't a finished design, because we've decided to go down the route of having custom artwork on our invites. Given that we're sending evites and there is very little money budgeted for stationary, this would have been a problem if I didn't have a talented brother.

My little brother (who is very tall and not little at all) is an amazing artist and has very kindly agreed to do the artwork for us. I think he'd rather have been asked months ago when he wasn't working and was still in the UK with his graphics tablet, but never mind!

This means that I no longer have control of the invites. I don't have the design to tinker with whenever I want, and I don't get to determine when they'll be ready. I've told my brother the deadline is December, and now I will have to leave him to it until he has something to show me. And that's actually quite hard.

This is the first decision I've made that has meant handing over control. Obviously I'll still approve the final design and text work, but the process is now in the control of someone else. And that feels very odd.

I'm surprised by these feelings, as I haven't had them with other things. My MOH bought shoes for my page boys last week - and I'm very happy with them. I have no need to be present for every purchase or consulted for every decision. If it's not on the priority list, then it just needs to happen.

The invites (and stationary in general) are not on the priority list. Having said that, they are one of the few parts of my wedding that I have thought about over the years. I'm happy with the plan for the invites, and I'm happy that my brother knows what we want. I guess I'll just have to come to terms with feeling a bit out of control!

The Lego creep

Apparently I was too busy holiday planning to write anything yesterday! Also, did anyone notice the not-so-deliberate mistake on the engagement photos? I didn't until I printed them out - it's now been corrected!

Our lego cake topper has arrived! I'm waiting for dad to take a picture, so for now you'll have to make do with this. My dad is quite excited at the whole lego idea I think!

Official Lego product bought via ebay

How cute? It now appears that we might be having lego elsewhere in the wedding. Gadget has found lego cufflinks which are pretty awesome - they definitely fit with our fun, brightly coloured day. We also found some pictures of buttonholes with lego men in them, so we're thinking about that too. Then he wondered if we should have lego bricks on the tables - I'm leaving that one to him! The lego creep has definitely begun....

Image from Offbeat bride

http://www.melodyfarrin.com/blog/?m=200810

Image from coolquirks.com, product available from bits and badges on etsy

To evite, or to invite?

Whilst I wasn't the little girl dreaming about her wedding, there were a few things I was fairly certain about. The church, the dress colour, and the invitations. Only two of these have gone according to plan.

My family make their own greetings cards, and always have done. When aunt J got married, she made her wedding invitations (although it's a standing joke that I never actually got one!). I knew I was going to make our wedding invitations.

Well, I suppose I have, but not in the way I'd imagined. I had plans for a gatefold card tied with ribbon with a vellum insert. I even ordered card samples (luckily these were free). Then I realised the invitations need to go out in January to give everyone time to book rooms (if not booked a month before the wedding the rooms are released). We arrive back in the UK on January 19th. That means I either have to make the invitations in a bit of a rush, or I have to have them ready before then.

I didn't bring my craft stuff to NZ, as it didn't make sense. I'm not buying a whole load of new stuff, and I'm not posting all the invites from here. So that leaves me with buying them, or being "tacky" and sending evites.

I have no idea why evites are tacky, but plenty of people seem to think they are. Apparently a 'formal invite sets the tone for the day.' What if the tone of the day isn't formal? One bridal forum commenter said 'it's never tacky saving trees, and saving money is just a bonus,' which I definitely agree with.

Other commenters seem to think an email is likely to be ignored, whilst an invite will be kept forever. I think these are people reluctant to live in the digital age - it's much easier to find an email than a card, and keeping cards creates clutter.

Another odd comment is that the invite contains all the information people need. How much information can you fit onto an A5 card?! It's obvious from these same wedding forums that guests want more information than a bride can possibly fit on an invite, so even if we send invites it is for prettiness only. The info would still need to be on the wedsite, and the only people that can't look at that (grandparents) already know the info and are being driven around by my dad and my uncle.

So, after a bit of internal wrestling, I have made my peace with evites. It's not like we're sending a mass email - there will be a photoshop designed invite attached to a cleverly worded email, which will contain a link to the wedsite. Then if anyone 'loses' their invite, we can just send them another one!

Colour Me bold, bright and beautiful please

I've just realised I've forgotten to do a post on the colours we've picked for our wedding. The reminder was prompted by a big Etsy search for fabulous coloured ties (what else is a girl to do when she's at work and there's no work to do?), and then seeing Rogue Bride's brightly coloured home-made card box.

I am a big fan of colour. I don't own a little black dress, I own a red one and a purple one. I always knew I was going to have coloured stones in my engagement ring. Pastels and neutrals just don't do it for me - unless you're painting a house, then they're ok. As long as there's colour elsewhere in the room...

So you've probably gathered by now that bright, bold colours will be the order of the day. Gadget would never go for a rainbow effect, so we had to stick to two colours. Initially he thought even two might be too much, and was leaning towards having only one colour. That would mean ending up with shades of one colour, which wouldn't give the contrast I was imagining. I found a load of pictures, and persuaded him that two colours would work.

So we're having his favourite colour - blue, and mine - purple. In deep, rich shades - think Dairy Milk purple wrapping and vivid Royal blue. Something like this:

We'll include colour in all the usual places, plus a few more for good measure!

Bloomin' easy

I like flowers, but not in any kind of detail. They look nice in a vase, and I'm always happy to be bought flowers (usually I buy them myself from Tesco). But I don't really know one flower from another, and certainly don't have a 'favourite.' It was a short hop from this to deciding that flowers would not be a big part of our wedding - we are not having floral arrangements at the reception, so we just need what I call the 'people flowers.'

I do have a favourite florist though; Fiona Hogg is based in my parent's village, and we always order special occasion flowers form her. She does beautiful arrangements, without us needing to know anything about flowers! She also comes with a royal stamp of approval - they did the flowers for the Queen when Ascot was raced at York in 2005.

I crossed my fingers that she would be within our budget and checked her website for prices. I can't find her price list online now (grrr), although the ordinary bouquet prices are there. She was quoting £65 for a tied posy, £20 for flower girl pomanders, and buttonholes range from £5.50 to £11. Perfect.

I sent Mum on another reconnaissance mission - would Fiona do our wedding flowers, and could they be purple tied with blue ribbon? Answer: Yep. Easy peasy. Lots of purple flowers will be in season at that time, she doesn't even want a deposit until January as she will be able to do another wedding on the same day and won't have even have to deliver our flowers (the florist is next to the hairdressers). I just have to pop into the shop in January to confirm how many buttonholes we need, and it's all sorted.

And the best bit? All of that took about an hour. I feel no guilt for not comparing prices, as I'm supporting a local business whose work I love and who is within our budget. Definitely the easiest vendor so far!