Confession

I personalized my tank top. Well, not altogether personalized, but I did stick the word "Bride" on the darn thing last night, all the while feeling a little silly and a little excited as well. I still have no idea what to do with the girls' tanks, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction! I did find very similar rhinestone stickers that say "fabulous" so perhaps that is the way to go, as opposed to writing Matron of Honor on two of them, and Bridesmaid on the other two. Hmm. Ideas? Anyone?

Invitation Compilation

Determining that I was not very interested in cleaning the house yesterday, I instead decided to spend some time cutting, gluing, inserting, sticking, folding, and generally preparing our wedding invitations to be mailed. Although the traditional timeline for a mailed invitation is somewhere between 2-3 months prior to the wedding date, destination weddings have their own little set of rules - most of which are made up as you go along. In an effort to ensure that any and all people who would be interested in attending our wedding will have ample time to procure well-priced flights and room reservations, we will be sending our invitations out 5 months in advance of our wedding date (I think that puts us at March 8th for a mail date).

Here are a few pictures of the finished product - including the packing list that we'll place inside the belly band behind the invitation. I'm very pleased with how it came out - and after 3 hours with a tweezer and those sticky rhinestones...I wasn't certain I would be able to say that! I am also happy to report that we will be e-mailing invitations where possible, to cut down on our use of paper, envelopes, etc. and generally assist the environment. It's a small effort but every little bit can count.

OOT progress

The OOT bags (or oooot bags, as the FI calls them) have begun to expand nicely in the past week. I was able to procure the most adorable playing cards (in their own little cases) at Michaels craft store for just $1 each, so for now, we have playing cards, and Spanish for Dummies. I am hoping that I will be able to order a few of the other items online soon.

Does anyone have ideas about items that we should consider including- that were not listed before? We have talked about having something in there that will surprise and make guests feel truly special and appreciated (not that the other stuff does not, but we are open to suggestion).

Oh! And I found an excellent template for covering rolls of Life Savers with a personalized label, so I think we'll do that instead of mint tins (far more cost-effective but just as cute).

Favors: Check

The latest news on the wedding front is that I finally broke down and ordered the darn maracas that I have wanted for a few months now. They arrived yesterday(in a huge box...how the heck are we going to get these to Mexico?! More on that later...), and we think they are perfect! I was a little bummed at first that we could not order specific colors, but I think that the multi-colored feel will actually be better table-candy than uniform maracas. So you can see, there are 6 colors total, and I ordered 48 of these babies. We are going to place a favor tag on each one, tied with some kind of ribbon or raffia, and place them on the reception tables. The favor tag will say something like "Shake This for a Kiss", and we hope to tie it in with the table numbers that will list things that the guests can do to get a kiss from the bride and groom. We completely stole this idea from a number of other sources (can't credit them all) that suggested placing instructions for kiss-getting on the Menu cards, Place cards, or table numbers. We've had a few ideas, such as "Stand up and sing a song with the word 'love' in it, shaking your maracas to the beat." I'll post more on that later, but for now, check out the pictures!


*I bought the maracas from Windy City Novelties. Shipping was fast and service was good - packaging was nicely done too.

Invitations and Wrap-around Labels

Our invitations arrived! And we like them! Hooray!

Ok enough excitement. Let's talk about the fact that I have horrible, terrible, not-to-be-trusted penmanship. And the fact that the FI actually addressed all of the Save the Dates because of this fact. In essence, I am either going to have to pay someone to address our invitations, or break down and figure out a way to print them onto a label that does not appear cheap, pointless, or lazy. I came across the idea of wraparound address labels (somewhere on Martha Stewart's site I believe) and thought, what a great plan! Purposeful yet elegant. Only problem was, all of the do-it-yourselfers were gluing these babies onto their envelopes...too risky for me. With my luck, I would choose the wrong glue and they would all fall off before reaching their final destinations.

So upon a whim, I did some Google searching, and sure enough stumbled across some print-your-own stickers that are 8'' x 2'' and positively perfect for this DIY project! (It says the labels are for water bottles...shhh...). Here are a few visuals of this crazy project, with just plain old paper where the stickers will be, to give you an idea. I'm very excited to add this to the 'belly band' idea (burlap paper around the center of the invitation, not the metallic stuff you see in the pic, tied with raffia) and think it will soup up our otherwise plain invites.

OOT Bags: The List

<--Example OOT Bag Contents

So far, I have accumulated exactly 1 item for our OOT bags. Ugh. However, I have accumulated a variety of ideas for what WILL go into these things, and I may have even found the BAGS to put the stuff in!

IF you are coming to the wedding and wish to be completely surprised, do not read any further! (this list isn't final of course, but I don't want to deprive anyone of a surprising incident, hee hee)








First, the list of stuff:

• 1 Spanish for Dummies pocket edition
• 1 pack of playing cards (white with blue, red, green, yellow I think)
• 1 small bottle of aloe vera gel
• 1 book of Sudoku puzzles
• 1 mini beach ball (for the guys)
• 2 palm tree pens
• 1 first aid kit (bandaids, alcohol wipes, pepto bismol, advil)
• 2 tubes chapstick
• 2 tins DIY personalized wedding mints
• 2 Stamped post cards
• MAYBE 2 plastic personalized stadium cups (Mindy+Christopher, Mexico 08.08.09)
• MAYBE Some type of snack or candy item
• MAYBE Personalized Matchbooks
• MAYBE travel candle for romance (beach balls for single men?)
  
• DIY Welcome Letter/Thank you for coming
• DIY Wedding Itinerary
• DIY Things to Do On and Off the Resort guide

Next, the bag to put the stuff in - right now I'm torn between these two bags, and will likely go with a natural or blue color in the end:

http://www.papermart.com/templates/73-1-01.htm#GO_73101

http://www.papermart.com/templates/73-1-21.htm#GO_73121

My main wish is that all of the things that we give to guests are usable in some way and won't just be discarded or left in the room because they are too bulky or stupid to be brought home. Feedback? Ideas? Which bag do you like?

Bridesmaid Dresses are In!

It is a very exciting week here on the wedding planning front. Not only do our wedding invitations arrive in the mail tomorrow (!), but all bridesmaids should have their dresses by the end of the week. Hooray! And one of them was kind enough to take a few pics so I can show the world the gorgeousness of this dress. I'm really excited about the colors, so vibrant and tropical. Next we'll have to pick out some shoes and jewelry, but there is still a bit of time for that. All I can say is that my bridesmaids are going to be smoking hawt (and hopefully keep cool in the warm Mexican August evening). Hopefully I'll get some more pics from the other ladies as well and I can get a real photo album happening up here. Thanks to Dana for the early pics!!