Wedding Wednesday: With This Ring I Thee Wed

We're down to 33 days till the big day....eeek! To be honest, some days I have minor panic attacks thinking of all the little things we need to get done: send in final payments, make escort cards, buy this, schedule that. But then sometimes I take a chill pill and think to myself it'll all get done somehow in the next 4 weeks.

One thing I decided to do late last night was start writing my wedding vows. B and I have chosen to not only do traditional vows, but also write our own personal vows. Our traditional vows we wrote together and are a more modern take on the usual "for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health..." We really like what we've come up with for that part.

But, we still wanted to do personal vows. To make things a bit easier, we came up with an outline together that we'll both follow. Last night while I was sitting in bed, I decided I better start writing mine. I wrote some thoughts down a few weeks ago and I continued to do the same last night. Ironically as I was writing it I was watching Friends (like I do every night at 10pm) and it was the episode where Chandler and Monica are writing their wedding vows.

Monica: Do you realize that four weeks from today we’re getting married? Four weeks baby!! Four weeks!!!

Chandler: Do you realize you get louder each week?

Monica: There’s still so much to do. Have you written your vows yet?

Chandler: I figured I’d buy those. Pat, I’d like to buy a vow. (Laughs)

Monica: Sweetie, you know I have no sense of humor when it comes to the wedding.

Chandler: Right. So uh, have you written yours yet?

Monica: No! But I know exactly what I’m going to say.

Chandler: Do you happen to know what I’m going to say?

Monica: (handing him a pad of paper and a pen) Let’s just do it right now. Okay? It won’t be hard. Just say what’s in your heart. (She goes back, sits down, and starts feverishly writing.)

Chandler: (watching in her) (in his head) Look at her go! She must love me more than I love her! What’s wrong with me? Ooh, don’t open that door.

I sat in bed for an hour typing lots of thoughts and feelings. I like to think I'm a pretty good writing since I work in advertising and marketing. Since it's my job to be creative, I didn't think this would be that hard for me to do. Boy, was I wrong.

Trying to put my thoughts and feelings about B, our 7 year relationship/9 years of knowing each other into a shortened paragraph is the hardest thing I have ever done. Do I share personal stories? Do I try to make people laugh? Will I cry like a baby when I read these at the ceremony? 

I now know it will take some time to write these vows until I think they're perfect. Since I'm a perfectionist, I won't stop until I think it's the best thing I've ever written.

Brides..did you write your vows? Any thoughts to help a girl out here? 

Wedding Wednesday: RSVP..to stamp or not to stamp?

Earlier this week, we finally mailed out our invitations. It was a 4 month process of designing and revising, finding a printer, picking out colors, more designing, getting them letterpressed, ordering the correct color envelopes, crafting bookmarks for the outside of them, addressing and stuffing...WHEW! I get tired just thinking about all the hours we spent working on them. Although we did spend countless hours researching and designing, they turned out perfect and at some point, I'll share them with all of you!

One thing about our invitations that we had to think about and debate was putting a stamp on the RSVP postcard. We've been to countless weddings over the past few years, and about 95% of them had you RSVP online. While we'd get an RSVP card with the invitation, there would be no stamp on it and I found it easier to just go online right away and RSVP. For the few that we did mail in an RSVP for, it did have a stamp on it.

From our experience, it was just easier to have our guests RSVP online. Upon further investigation on our wedding website, once a guest RSVP'ed, I would receive their food request and number attending via email. This information would also get stored on the website dashboard where I could always look at who had or had not RSVP'ed yet. It was also broken down by bride or groom side, and I could download all the information into an excel sheet. Hello type A personality control freak heaven! (that's me!)

I figured this would be the easiest route to go. However, when we met with our printer, she raised a red flag saying that older folks may just put the RSVP postcard in the mail and assume there's a stamp on there. Hmmm, we hadn't really thought of that yet.

We debated for awhile about what to do. To me, the stamp was an extra cost that I didn't want to deal with. I also feared the postcard would get lost in the mail somehow. However, then no one would have to worry about putting a stamp on it..but then again, I loved that guest tracker on the wedding website dashboard! AUGH, what's a girl to do?

In the end, we decided that we'll just put a stamp on the RSVP. In the end, it wasn't a huge cost to get some more stamps for it. I also knew that despite having the information on the wedding website dashboard, that my organized obsessed self would still re-copy the information onto the master spreadsheet I had already made (coming in a later post and wait till you see this baby!)

So, long story short, think about whether or not you'd like to put stamps on your invites. I'd suggest choosing one or the other. If you do choose to go the online route, don't include an RSVP mailing card/postcard in the invitation, you wouldn't want to confuse your guests!

Wedding Wednesday: Bridal Shower

A few weeks ago, B and I headed back to good ole Wisconsin for my bridal shower. I've been so so so looking forward to it, not only to see my family and friends but I'm like a little kid when it comes to presents..I can't contain my excitement!

A long time friend of mine and my mom's threw my shower for me at a local restaurant/winery called Cooper's Hawk. Coincidentally, pageants brought us all together as we first met when I taught her daughter dance lessons. Her daughter then started competed in the pageant system my mom and I help out with and we've all been friends ever since. The shower was absolutely beautiful..she really knows my taste and everything was better than I could have ever imagined.

I walked away from the afternoon feeling so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends, some of whom traveled from other states for my special day. I really felt so loved that day! I felt so lucky to also received so many wonderful presents! We got the majority of things for our kitchen, and most of the bedding for our bedroom. I've already put to use all of my new baking items, pots/pans etc. I'm waiting on a few more pieces though before I let myself put all of our new bedding on!

A beautiful photo from our family friend that hosted the shower. It's already up in our hallway by the front door. 

My sister had this photo made with the text from the book B wrote for me. Such a sweet gift. I love my sissy so much. 

Mom knows me too well..leopard! Already have this platted displayed in the kitchen! 

Lots of presents! 

My mom, me and my sister :)

It's about 6.5 weeks till the wedding now and I can't believe how fast time is going by! We have lots of things to start getting done so my type A personality has been kicked into full gear and I have spreadsheets and to do lists galore to keep us on task and organized for the big day. It's hard to believe that last year at this time, B was ring shopping and planning to propose while I had no idea. Amazing how time flies when you're having fun!