Thinking about Favors, Paper, and Wedding Galore!

Well the reality of the California state budget as well as the nation's economy has really hit home, in terms of wedding stuff. As of April 1, 2009, our sales tax will be going up by 1% to 9.75%! I guess we have to fund the state somehow, but who likes to pay for it?

I finally got my invitation designs in the can! I just have to post them. I will be ordering my paper from the fabulous online retailer: PaperandMore.com. They offer cutting services for just $5 for the first package, plus $2 for each additional cutting service. Awesome! They also have precut 5x7 sheets for half price of the regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheets.

For our favors, I was considering making the favors do double duty - act as escort cards and favors. Murphy's Orchards (I believe in NY) offers personalized favor jars of Jam and Fruit Butters, so cool! I had considered making the jam myself, but I'm not Martha Stewart, nor do have that much free time on my hands!

I also really like this idea that WeddingBee Member Pelikila made for her wedding:

So cute! My fiance liked this idea better than the jams. We'll see, maybe we'll do half and half!

Invitations!

Invitations and ideas for invitations have been running around in my head for the last week. Tomorrow officially marks eight  months to go. Everyone keeps telling me "YOU have soooo much time" but considering that we are already half way through November, those eight months are going to fly.

Anyway, I really love the look of letterpressed invitations, but it's totally out of range for our budget. But like Miss Fondue on WeddingBee, I'm loving the look of heat embossed invitations. They look have the textured look to them that I think is so pretty, not to mention a lot more affordable! I'm definitely considering this option because I do want to DIY my invitations because all the premades aren't quite speaking to me. I think they are totally beautiful, but I'm a custom on a budget type of gal.

I'm also thinking about poketfolds and the possibility of making them myself. I know that they are available on www.cardandpockets.com and at around $1 each, that would mean about $200 just on the pocketfolds! There are a ton of great tutorials online, including Road to the Aisle and Miss Ballet Flat and Miss Fondue and Mrs. Daffodil on WeddingBee.

Some things to think about!

Invitation finds on Flickr

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been away on business in Denver for my real job -- attending a statistics conference. I'm no statistician, but I do work on statistics books.

While hanging out in my hotel room and enjoying the free wi-fi, I came upon some great finds on Flickr. It's such an awesome photo community and some etsy artists as well as freelance invitation designers showcase their work on Flickr.

User UglyKitty has some lovely designs which are hand Gocco'ed. Etsy Store here.

 

Hiu and Kent  

  

Becca and Matt  

So does MewPaperArts and Etsy Store here.

 

Chocolate Damask  

  

Invitation  

  

Wild Ginger  

  

Mandala

My Latest Obsession...

...has been figuring out what to do with my invitations.

When I emailed a mock up of a possible invitation to my mom, she said, "Wow, so you really don't want anything traditional!" I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean, but it's true. I wouldn't call myself ultra modern or country chic by any means, but I also don't want cookie cutter invitations from a catalog. I like a lot of invitations on Wedding Paper Divas -- the colors and styles are great! However, I still wanted another personal touch.

I've been skimming through different posts on Wedding Bee, checking out the pocketfold route, looking at some of the bees' letterpress designs, and other custom/DIY/fabulous ideas.

Here's some of my inspiration:

Wedding Paper Divas - Canna

Wedding Paper Divas - Floral Flurry


Wedding Paper Divas - Branch of Flowers


Minted.com


Miss Pineapple - Invitation Concepts


Since I'm pretty sure that our colors will be chocolate brown and pool blue, I'm really digging the Canna invite from Wedding Paper Divas. There's just something missing from it though, for me. I'm no graphic designer, but I've become pretty adept at Illustrator and Photoshop, which I coincidentally have been taking at a Community College before I knew we'd be getting hitched. Everything's still on the drawing board...