anddddd they're out:)

THE INVITES ARE OUTTTTT!!!

i loved everything about them.!!! We actually had to reprint them once because of an oversight but in the end...we ended up loving the reprinted version SO much better.

it was kinda a process getting them together. Hole punch. Cutting string. Tying string.

okay...that seems easy. BUT luckily I was able to get that all done in the little bit of free time I have at work:)

the process of stuffing and putting postage on the envelopes was the surprise. It took a lot more time than I thought. And because of the square envelopes...a lot more costly in postage. Oopps:)

but how cute is that freaking postage!? We had 2 different options. My favorite being the Star/Goat/Person combo:)

and the very best was the writing on the envelopes. Courts, the MOH - big sis:), did ALL the addressing on ALL the envelopes. I think the final count was just over 200 envelopes! Eeeeek. More if you add the Shower and BParty Envelopes:)

If anyone's interested in having their envelopes addressed by hand...whether that be for a wedding, event, birthday party, announcement...Courts AND Mal, are your ladies. Very affordable and I think it makes all the difference:) Let us know!:)

i've already gotten so many compliments and I love that people are loving them. Especially because we did exactly what WE wanted to do and tried to make them as much 'us' as possible and I think that came across:)

loving our wedding and loving all the planning that's come with it:)

46 Dayzzzzzz!!!!

this is happeninggggg.

as you can see...it's been busy..busy. BUSY!

besides spending money on cars, a patio set and used swimming suits;) I've also been supa' busy getting this wedding to come together.

PS. the boys passport just came in the mail today. After only 2 weeks. I did not WANT to flip out on him about the passport. It needed to be done. But believe me...he's loving the fact that he can tell me 'I TOLD YOU SO!!!!'.

on to more important things...more pretty things:)

UP/DOWN the BParty Invites went out last week and I loved them. So much so that I could hardly part with them. They were adorable in every way:)

BParty Text and Envelopes courtesy of my uber talented MOH, Courts:) And invite set-up, My Friend:)

DOWN the kiddo's helped me prepare some little hearts that will serve as gifts for them, as well as a distraction:) I spray painted them with chalkboard paint and the kids have been anxious to get their creative juices flowing on these things...only 52 more days:)

what hasn't been finished yet...our invites...a day or 2 more and they'll be in the mail! Could not be more excited and anxious about having these things out of my hands and in the hands of all our amazing friends and family!!!!

2 not so amazing things happening right now:

1/ the 99 degree heat in WI and the fact that our C/A decided to take a shit on us. How typical?! And no clue if this has to do with the heat or not, but the larger than life flies are slow as shit and using my forehead as a landing strip while I'm trying to fucking blog. Seriously. Slowly come in for landing, land, walk, swat. REPEAT!

2/ most of the songs I've downloaded on iTunes to be played at our Ceremony are apparently 'illegal' and have mysteriously been replaced with the most ridiculous recording and it makes me want to kill. KILL. Much worse than the flies. MUCH. Now I have the task of searching out another free downloading service, that I have to pray won't turn out to be 'illegal' by the time the wedding gets here.

The task of re-downloading 100 songs...it stings. Bad.

did I say 2 not so amazing things?! I lied. I meant 2 not so amazing things with 17 sub levels of not so amazing things.

good day;)

because it's almost happening...

thought I'd throw a wedding teaser at you tonight...in honor of our 2 year engagement anniversary:).

these invites are only partially ready. Have to do some fine tuning over the weekend and then, hopefulllllyyyy, they'll be in the mail Monday afternoon:)

shortly after that, I'll post some official photos!!

hippy invites make me happy.

not sure what it is...but I'm IN love with this invite. I think I've said that before...about other invites...but obviously I was unaware that there was a better invite out there...waiting for me to find it:)

this inspiration, from Green Wedding Shoes, has got the wheels turning for our Wedding Reception Invites.

and this is what I do. for real-yo.

and so quickly back to me...the bride...MEEEEEEEE!!!!;)

today, besides working a little - and I may have painted my nails (shhhhhh:), I used my cubicle as a little wedding-shower-invitation-envelope-stamping sta-she-on (station, silly:). The sound of the self-inking stamp may have gave me away but it didn't scare me. I stamped my heart out for at least an hour and if felt good. Too good. I'll never not want to stamp something. EVER.

a little sneak peek of what you can be expecting in the months to come! Whooo HOOOO!!!

and it starts.

if you haven't seen or talked to me in the last 48 hours, consider yourself one luckyyyy SOB.

it's full ON wedding mode in this house...actually this world. I'm spewing it with every step I take.

you're in Kwik Trip buying cookies...you know who's having cookies at their wedding - this biatch.

you're in the same swim class as the one I take my nephew, Tayt, to...you know where else there's water, Spain - where this biatch and her soon-to-be husband are headed.

you try to avoid wedding talk by not making eye contact...too late, I'm invading what little personal space you have in your work cubby and telling you how to properly line a wedding envelope.

It's.ON.

POINT: we've started the process of designing the Wedding Shower Invites and those pesky little Save the Dates.

UP/DOWN this is a complete rough draft of what the final product will look like. I'm BEYOND excited to see how this comes together. This is kinda that first big thing that'll really bring it all together:)

april 1st, we're hoping these puppies will be IN the mail, on their way to your door:)

jake invite.

me likes the look of this invite. Simple...pretty...and it's got Jacob's name on it;)

POINT: me likes.

photos courtesy of Green Wedding Shoes via W.Scott Chester

how cute are these gloves and this little note they gave all their guests!?

'the day we met was our Lucky Break. Today might be yours. May all your wishes come true! xoxo'

A.Dorable.

divorces...negative.

okay...going to start this by saying that no one gets married expecting it to end. No one that I know:) But for real...divorcing is starting to seem like THE thing to do. Or maybe it's just the year. BUT my most frequented source of information comes from PopSugar and I'm saddened to start this post with the news that TWO more Hollywood couples are announcing their divorces.

Yep. It's true.

Somewhere Jacob is rolling his eyes. I called him a while ago to inform him that one of our favorite actors, from one of our all time favorite TV shows was getting a divorce and once he realized what I was talking about...he says "holy shit..I thought you were talking about real-life.".

He doesn't give this as much thought as I;)

regardless of their situations...Me and Jacob are good to go:)

so back to our regularly scheduled wedding talk!

Green Wedding Shoes

pretty pretty pretty invites. And they remind me of what we're having. Even the colors are almost spot on!

The Bride's Cafe

hello. Having this veil. I took my mom's to my seamstress and we're fixing that pretty up to work on me a second time around. Ah, how I love family and tradition:)

thesmiths.

does this invite or handout or program...or whatever the kids are calling it these days....remind you of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, as in Bragelina - click link HERE -?!?!?! It did for me and of course I'll be a SMITH soon. Breaking News...SMITH:)

this photo, taken by Adam Barnes Fine Art Photography and spotted on one of my all time Favorites, Style Me Pretty....inspired me to sketch up a little invite design of my own!!! I like what I'm seeing (here in this picture...not so much what I'm sketching. I started with the Mr. & Mrs. Smith and then gave up and started perfecting my kitty picture. It's a trademark;).

etsy tuesday.

two things caught my eye today on Etsy. Cheeeeeeck check...check it out:)

1/ Alphabet Rolling Rubber Stamp from Wonderland Room $22.95

i've already decided that we'd have my oldest sister/MOH, Courts, do the text on the envelopes. From there...nothings been decided. We've thrown around the idea of getting a stamp for our return address....OR something as adorable as this alphabet stamp. BUT it looks like it could be A LOTtttt of work! And work I no like.

1/ Diamond Blue Sapphire Wedding Band from Adzias Jewelry Atelier $430

pretty. pretty. PRETTY. And I think this is unique enough to satisfy me and the price is a bit high compared to the $30 I was hoping to spend;) BUT I think this would work. I think this could be the one:)

now to find Jacob one for $30 to make up for how much I may spend on mine:)

turn it and you're a genius.

at this point I felt that I needed to throw SOMETHING wedding related out there for fear you'd all forget I was actually getting married. That will not happen on my watch.
You will All remember. Forever;)

i found these fabulous invites on Green Wedding Shoes, printed through Studio On Fire. They are freaking amazing. I love the cluster...the tied together bunch of paper that the guest has to look through. Envelope liner?! Sign me up. And how insanely creative was it to flip the envelope like that?! It's so ridiculously obvious it makes me feel super slow for not having thought of something like that before!!!
Wait...ideas rolling in...thinking I may do that anyways...and thanks to my cousin, Neen, I think I've decided on our envelopes. ONE huge part of the invitation down...many many more parts to go:)

yes. This whole group of goodiness is just that. GOOD.

awwwwww...cute hippos all around.

this adorable little card that I spied on Super Market is THE best! I think most know that I'm obsessed with hippos. Mini hippos to be exact!
This little card, created by Fold, is only$11. Normally I'd say: ONLY $11?! What the H!?!?! That's TOO much!
But seeing as this card is the best Hippo card EVER. I'll say it's ONLY $11...what a freaking deal!



it also reminded me of what direction we alllllmost went with the invitations. Jacob loved it also! Seriously!!! He did!! But upon further review...he thought it was a bittttt too "we're in denial about our age". And I agreed.
SO we decided against it. But it's cute!
(maybe if we ever get over being in denial about our ages...we'll decide to man up and have some kids and use this towards something for them!!:)


friend (that's her name;), thanks for throwing this together for us...I love it and I promise I'll stop changing my mind....once the wedding's over;)

a whole lot going on.

i like to have a lot going on and me liking a lot of things at once, especially when it has to do with our wedding, is making Jacob super nervous. Not going to lie. He's even asked "doesn't this just seem like a lot?!".

but I like a lot, I like layers...I like when things work together. This, unfortunately for me, may not be able to happen because even having a few layers in an invite can most definitely add up to be more than we can already NOT afford.

The invites below reminded me of what I'd like ours to look like. They look laid back but classy and simple and we can incorporate all of our colors and maybe even pick out a picture that works with it too.

Sarah Hanks Giessen did an amazing job designing these invitations as I know my wonderful designer will too...here's what I'm invisioning:

photos courtesy of Style Me Pretty

what I'm thinking is to have a super cute picture, taken by either my mom or MOH (older sister, Courts) and then on the back do something fun. Possibly a list of interesting facts or as they did above including numbers from occasions they've shared/had together.

i actually like this little funny. All I'd have to do is change it up a tad in order for it to suit us:)

point: I'd like for our guests to receive a super cool charcoal gray envelope and open it to find several 'layers'. Perhaps an even cooler picture of us with a funny of some sort on the back and then a whole separate piece for the actual invite which would be on cream paper with black and pale blue colored text and that text would be in some seriously fun fonts.

easy as that;)

lovely elements.

today on Once Wed a lot has caught my eye:)

take a peek below to hear why....it caught my eye:)

i love the guys' suits. The colors are great and it again makes me realize that I have a love for ties. After a weekend spent at several stores looking at ties...and realizing how much ties cost...we've decided to do without. I'll miss that. So I shall turn to photos of people's wedding's who could afford ties. And I will be jealous.

photos courtesy of Once Wed via Jose Villa Photography

again with the blue. I LOVE that blue.

Anthropologie
adorable, adorable invites. The colors initially drew me in and then the font, patterns and photos kept me there:)

damn all these pretty dresses to HELL! They're SOOOO pretty (googling new words for 'pretty'....) - charming and lovely! MUCH better;)

Claire Pettibone

it's an invite wrap.

it seriously isn't Jacob's birthday that is making this day sooooo amazing! It's actually the fact that things have just been dropping into place for this wedding...fast!:)


LIKE:
- finding amazing invites yesterday
- ordering my Saturday night reception dress today
- blah, blah...loving our wedding:)


and then I stumble upon these pictures and SUDDENLY I know exactly why and where and what I'll use those little chalk board tags for! Yes. The super awesome invites. I just ordered more black and white twine today for the invites and decided that I'm almost sure I know what we want them to look like (PS. I realize that I just said "I - I - I decided how WE want them to look;).


basically they'll be a similar version of this invite. Different colors and fonts...but the same fun elements:
- twine
- tags
- several 'layers'


I.am.in.love.

photos courtesy of Jeremy and Kathleen

OMG.

OKAYYYYYY. God. I wish I knew more words sometimes. Literally.

I'm PUMPPPPPPED!

i found this amazing invitation and even those it's salmon colored, ignore that - although that is also amazing - think of it as being black, charcoal gray, baby blue and cream (our wedding colors - come ON, keep up!:).

they are just soooo....everything we want. I know. I shouldn't be this excited. I mean...did I just drink too much of that OJ with a splash of 7UP tonight while waitressing?! That could NOT be it.

let me explain what I love. Well, maybe I'll start by explaining what I don't love: nothing. There is nada thing I don't love about them.

LOVE that they're simple

LOVE LOVE LOVE the fonts. I mean, the candy/circus/fun/fluffy font mixed with the somewhat strong/masculine/square font (we may need to man it up jusssst a bit for Jacob....he's a manly man, a bear - hair and all;) But I love that the fonts seem to feed off our black vs. baby blue, strong/bold/black vs. pale/sweet/wildflower feel.

yes. I will be sending these to press immediately. It's a DONE deal!

photos courtesy of jk4ever

we will, however, be putting in some SERIOUSLY super cool liner. Not decided yet on whether it will be just a cool pattern, seeing as the invite is SO simple, or maybe just a million little Jacob and Casey faces. Yes. We want to be what you go to bed at night thinking about!

holy uninspired.

i gotta tell you. I'm not feeling inspired. Not one bit of inspiration in the last 24 hours. BUT this is mainly due to my work schedule and my serious lack of zzzzzz's.

what's even sadder is that I really do love these adorable little invites. On the inside I have a huge smile and I'm doing invite claps and am all giddy. And on the outside I have little eyes and blotchy skin and stinky arm pits. I'm a winner on the inside today....and most definitely not on the outside.

i think I'll take a mini blog break and pull my shit together and then get back to you with some fabulous things in the days to come!!!

photo courtesy of Green Wedding Shoes via Andre Montano

photo courtesy of Green Wedding Shoes via Two Paper Dolls

the world is my chalkboard.

i'm entirely on board with the idea of chalkboards. We've definitely decided to incorporate them into our wedding in a few different areas:
- photobooth prop
- food labelers
- general festive 'welcome', 'Mr & Mrs. ___', 'drinkies', 'dance', 'poo and pee this way', 'him and her' signs


and after seeing the chalkboard paint on the glasses, I'm back to thinking maybe this isn't such a bad idea. My sister/MOH/baby maker/best buddy;) pointed out that we may have guests walking around all night unaware that they have held their glass/chalk label and then unintentionally wiped that chalk onto their foreheads and noses.
Of course we'd let them continue walking around like that for some time..making small talk with those few family members that don't have senses of humor, at least long enough to get a few shots of them smiling unknowingly;) BUT could this be a problem as big as we think?! OR will our guests wise up and just keep an eye on how they're holding their wine glass/beer cup?!


and in the end...maybe it'll just be worth the fun we'll have documenting the seriously hilarious names/phrases/pictures that all those we love (mostly because they are vulgar/creative/silly/TOTALLY out there/too smart for their own good) will surely come up with!


i shall ponder this tonight....Jacob will also be made to stay up an additional hour and watch me pondering. He loves to observe my pondering after 11pm;)

photo courtesy of Jeremy and Kathleen

photo courtesy of Emily Edson Designs - Etsy

photo courtesy of Seasons of Life via Pier1

photo courtesy of The Nichols Blog

photo courtesy of Nashville Garden Weddings

pure coolness.

all photos courtesy of 100 Layer Cake - Photography by Shona Henderson

making a mental note to have me and Jacob's favorite sunglasses with us on our wedding day in order to get that exact shot:) Love the coolness factor and even though we're such horrible posers...I will try to get this...as many times as it takes.

the rest is just pure enjoyment. I crave the laid back vibe of the invites. Just one more reason I'd love to have my sister draw up the text or at least find a font that closely reflects that. We're just not...how should I say...a proper couple. Yes. Proper we are not. So nothing about our wedding should be quite proper!

check out Mary and Gabrielle's blog. Adorable and just a million things to inspire you. Gabrielle is actually the bride in the above pics but apparently her adorability doesn't just stop there. She is that for a living. Biatch;)