An "Inviting" Glimpse

Planning our wedding has been one of the most joyful, exciting and encouraging times in my life. I love watching our ideas turn into plans and plans spring into actions creating beautiful reality. The guest list transforms into addresses on envelopes, wedding dress shopping turns into the dress fitting and discussing who will marry us blossoms into a fun, encouraging appointment with our pastor.

One of the most exhilarating and ~challenging~ adventures thus far has been the making of invitations. We had saved money by deciding on a local location, ordering dried flowers and finding a dress on sale. {Eeeeeee!} Because of our so-far thriftiness, I wanted to make the invitations ourselves.

To get started, I found a pattern I liked and began, with the help of my wonderful mom, to create something out of nothing. This proved to be (a lot) harder than expected but I am very excited with the results so far! J

Next, we decided to have an invitation assembling party! Woot! This was a lot of fun—I bought each of the girl’s favorite candy, assembled the supplies in some sort of order while mom set the counter for a baked potato bar (baked potatoes surrounded by toppings like chili, cheese, sour cream and anything else your carb-loving, starch-enjoying tummy could desire). Our friends worked so diligently and I had so much fun seeing my piles of paper begin to become mail worthy.

 

 

 

( Haha! Looks like the camera caught us in a fit of professional seriousness. :)

There is about ten more hours of work before these babies will be ready for debut (which I will of course let you in on!). Until then I’ll share a few handy-dandy tips I have found useful.

1)   Count the costs … literally. I forgot neglected to calculate the costs which turned out to be more than expected. I assumed that because I make cards I would have the supplies needed. Wrong.

 

2)   Have candy on hand

 

3)   Have protein on hand (this is more important than step 2 even though it isn’t quite as fun)

 

4)   Let go of the little details yet stick to the original beauty you envisioned.

 

5)   Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee … COFFEE

 

6)   Buy a lovely return address stamp unless you tend to be like me … a wee bit over zealous and have an attachment to the hand written appeal

 

7)   Learn to laugh, go to bed if need be, practice over-abundant gratitude to those helping and again … go to bed if needed J

 

8)   Pop in your favorite films (Les Miserables, Little Women and Julie and Julia anyone?) or listen to a sermon to help the time pass by

 

9)   Better yet, pray for each guest as they come to mind

 

10) My favorite: use the time preparing your mind. You are a bride; a bride endeavoring to be prepared for the day you walk down the aisle to meet your wonderful, sweet groom. Most likely, he will not mind if the glue stick makes the vellum bubble a little or that the RSVP stamp might be a wee bit crooked—he just can’t wait to call you his. Enjoy it, sweet girl!

 

P.S. I want to say thank you for your wonderful notes of love you have given to Dalton and I! We truly appreciate it!

For each of you who have shown an interest in exchanging mailing addresses or emails, yes, yes, yes! J Please grant me a few more days of work time and soon after I will be back in touch. Ah, your friendships are so precious to me!