Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Part of our invite design incorporated one of our monograms onto a belly band around the invitation. When our guests started receiving them, I heard from so many people they didn’t know what to do with it- slide it off, cut it off, tear it off. Who knew belly bands were so uncommon in the land of non-weddingbee readers!? I thought I would share with you how I created our belly band.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I guess I should start at the beginning. You may or may not know that Mrs. Tiramisu and I are good friends. We are in the same profession, and we met along the way. Basically, she introduced me to Weddingbee, and I was quickly obsessed! She also introduced me to the Gocco, and truthfully, after we did our save the dates on her Gocco, I knew I had to purchase one for myself.
Mrs. Taffy, Ann ArborAge and Occupation: 28, Color and Materials DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Automotive DesignerEngagement Date: May 9, 2008Wedding Date: May 2009Blogging Since: September 14, 2008Venue: University of Michigan UnionAbout Me: I’m a girl who is crazy about Mr. Taffy, sewing, dancing, almost all types of sweets, and our cute pet canaries. I dislike touching fuzzy fabric of any kind, eating somewhat squishy food, and Michigan winters. Mr. Taffy and I are having a blast planning our Ann Arbor wedding, and cannot wait to share our day with friends and family.
Back in September, I showed you the design file for the awesome save the dates that Mr. Taffy’s brother designed for us. Today I would like to show you the final, printed product!
Remember how I was hunting for the perfect blue for our color palette and bridesmaid dresses? As a placeholder, we asked Mr. T’s brother to use a gray blue for our save the date design. By the time the gocco came out, we had switched to a color palette using both robin’s egg blue and a darker blue-green for our palette. Take a look at the finished product!
Don’t mind my sloppy name hacking in photoshop! Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Yeah ok so that title was a bit of a stretch, but there’s really no other way to explain this next DIY. Champ and I wanted our guests to feel comfortable and pampered so we decided we would use guest towels in the restrooms. If you recall, we’ll have floating candles (probably gardenia because of the yummy smell) in the restrooms, but we wanted to add a personalized touch.
I purchased 400 Hoffmaster “linen-like” guest towels in ecru (similar to ivory). They’re pretty thick and soft enough to feel good while drying your hands.
Mrs. Ballet Flat, New OrleansAge and Occupation: 24, Geographic Information Systems AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, IT AnalystEngagement Date: March 16, 2008Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: September 25, 2008Venue: St. Charles Borromeo Church/Jefferson-Orleans NorthAbout Me: I absolutely love wedding planning, spending time with Mr. Ballet Flat, various crafts, watching football, baking, pop music, bargain hunting and ice cream. My idea of a great date night is dinner and clearance shopping with Mr. Ballet Flat! I currently live below sea level in the suburbs near New Orleans, where I make maps all day, everyday for my job. I'm slowly becoming more and more obsessed with anything New Orleans related for our wedding, and I can't wait for the big day!
After my Gocco collected dust for a few months, I decided to be brave and make notecards for my bridesmaids (stealing Tiramisu’s idea here).
I have to say, I double checked the manual, well, more like triple checked the manual before each step. Then, after a while, I thought, well, just do it already!!
Mrs. Coconut, TallahasseeAge and Occupation: 27, LawyerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, phD Computer ScienceEngagement Date: March 2007Wedding Date: November 2008Blogging Since: May 20, 2008Venue: 1930s Historic Building in Lakeland, FLAbout Me: I never thought about weddings until I got engaged. Now, I can't stop thinking about them! Planning the wedding has really opened the floodgates to my DIY side. If there's anything I can do to avoid hiring someone else, I will do it! Mr. Coconut is my financial advisor, he tries to keep me budget-conscious! We've tried to make wedding planning a team effort!
For Kate and Aaron’s wedding, I offered to make their wedding programs as part of my role as a bridesmaid. Kate really loved Mrs. Penguin’s program design, so I basically stole her idea (thanks, Pengy!) and went to work! Kate shipped the paper of her choice and I spent some quality time with my Gocco. Any Gocco time I missed out on with our decision to order invitations, I made up for with this project.
The program was eight pages, which meant that I used 16 lamps! In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have used the Gocco for this project, but I think the silver ink looked amazing on Kate’s purple paper, so what’s done is done!
Mrs. Dumpling, Las VegasAge and Occupation: 27, FinanceFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Real EstateEngagement Date: March, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: August 26, 2008Venue: Catholic church ceremony & golf course receptionAbout Me: I grew up in the Deep South, and while most people say I have a thick southern accent, I tend to think it only comes out when I need to use it. Living in Las Vegas has definitely been an adventure and Mr. Dumpling and I are loving every minute of it! We are planning a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony and a reception with lots of DIY! We might even get Elvis to show up! I'm a HUGE Beatles fan, love The Office and can't wait to become a Mrs.!
Miss Dumpling spent Saturday doing lots and lots of errands. I’ve been procrastinating about doing wedding stuff because I have a fear of writing big checks. I’m sort of scared to see the money in our special bank account labeled “Wedding Fund” lose a digit. I’ve watched my fellow bees talk about paying the catering, photography, and venue deposits, and I guess I never really thought about how significant that was. Until yesterday, that is. Mr. Dumpling and I are now forced to eat ramen noodles for the next few years (carbs… yum!), because we finally took care of the catering for our wedding this weekend. One vendor down, about 27 more to go.
After that, he went about his business and I spent the rest of the afternoon working hard and doing fun wedding stuff.
First on the list: Get Carried away. What! It was research.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I must have been so excited about our save the dates that I forgot one of the most important parts - the envelope!!
Our colors are ivory, black and gold, and it seemed fitting to add the gold into the envelopes. Instead of paying someone else money to line them, I purchased some pretty paper from the Paper Store to line the envelopes. Another great and probably cheaper option is to use wrapping paper. I couldn’t find the right gold, so that didn’t work for me.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
After sending out the requests for my side of our bridal party, it’s official ~ our wedding website can be updated and… drumroll… the save the dates can be sent!!! This is VERY good news, because I have been bombarded by family members and friends about the details of our big day. Our wedding is pretty far away, and the STDs have been on my mind for quite some time. You may recall I had some difficulty finding a hotel that would be reasonable, and although it’s nearly six months from our wedding, we really wanted our guests to get reasonable rates for travel and lodging.
Mrs. Cookie, DenverAge and Occupation: 25, Nonprofit Fundraiser/Theatre DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Financial AnalystEngagement Date: September 2007Wedding Date: September 2008Blogging Since: May 8, 2008Venue: Ten Mile StationAbout Me: With a degree in Theatre I never realized that planning a wedding was a lot like Theatre Management, until I started planning my own. I am a coffee addict, especially Starbucks' Grande Mochas, yummy! I love to cook (especially chocolate chip cookies for my honey), travel to exotic places, and be creative. As a couple, Mr. Cookie and I are extremely practical, down to earth, and children at heart. We live in a cozy abode with our adorable Pomeranian, and love to play board games and watch movies into the evening.
As wedding presents seem to be arriving on our doorstep lately, I thought it was time to whip out my Gocco again and get an early start on Thank Yous. And while I was at it, I also printed our escort cards.
Way back when I printed our invitations, I printed the bird and branches which I got from istock on both the cards and envelopes in order to save screens. I also burned the “Merci Beaucoup” and “Table” lettering, but wanted to wait until the final guest count came to get an accurate print number. I used the the RISO ink blocking material to separate the lettering from the invite design, and stored the screen in a Ziploc bag to save for later. Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Ok, well not really will you be mine per se, but will you be my bridesmaid!? When Champ and I first started talking about our bridal party, I knew that it was inevitable- all of my bridesmaids would be at least 500 miles away and I would have to ask them in some way other than in person. I had read a few wedding blogs and sites stating that it was “rude” and “impersonal” to ask via phone or snail-mail, so I really wanted to make sure my bridesmaids knew how much they meant to me and how special they are.
For my six bridesmaids, I purchased A2 size notecards and envelopes in the following colors: Stardream gold, lake, sage, pool, rhubarb, and stardream opal.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I first discovered Gocco (or “Goccinator” as Mr. C calls it) when my friend Tiramisu was designing her invitations. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to come up with enough projects to gocco in order for it to be a worthwhile purchase, but I decided to give it a shot. So I started really simple with the projects, and decided it would be best to keep it in the family for the first project in case my work looked a bit like a kindergartner’s.
Every year for Mother’s day I try to do something creative. Some years it works, others… eh not so much. Last year I downloaded all my CDs I know my mom would love onto her ipod. Not that big of a deal for me, but she absolutely loved it. So this year, I thought I’d add some gocco action into Mom’s present. And actually, after I made these cards, I realized that I would be personalizing a lot more from now on… Translation: I lovvvvve my gocco This year, I made personalized cards for both my mom and Champ’s mom. They were VERY simple (almost embarrassing now), but I felt like it was a good way to break into the DIY world. I didn’t want to start with some elaborate project and get discouraged. Read more…
Mrs. Coconut, TallahasseeAge and Occupation: 27, LawyerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, phD Computer ScienceEngagement Date: March 2007Wedding Date: November 2008Blogging Since: May 20, 2008Venue: 1930s Historic Building in Lakeland, FLAbout Me: I never thought about weddings until I got engaged. Now, I can't stop thinking about them! Planning the wedding has really opened the floodgates to my DIY side. If there's anything I can do to avoid hiring someone else, I will do it! Mr. Coconut is my financial advisor, he tries to keep me budget-conscious! We've tried to make wedding planning a team effort!
Okay, I know there have been a ton of Gocco posts in the Hive, but I hope they’re inspiring for others to check it out! Like I’ve said before, it might be difficult at first; there’s a learning curve but it’s pretty short! For those still skeptical about the hefty price of a Gocco, it can still save you money if you’re going to make more than just invites. I’m talking about Christmas cards for years to come, Valentine’s Day, and possibly baby shower invites?
I took a while researching the Gocco and its supplies before actually buying one. I bought my Gocco for $100 (plus $45 shipping) from alittlegoodness on Etsy. They also offer them on eBay, but for some reason I felt safer buying from Etsy. For supplies, I bought from northWood Studios. They are located in Florida so shipping is much faster and they have the best customer service! I bought my envelopes and paper from Paper and More. Here is a thorough price breakdown for those that really want to know what they’re getting into:
Mrs. Cookie, DenverAge and Occupation: 25, Nonprofit Fundraiser/Theatre DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Financial AnalystEngagement Date: September 2007Wedding Date: September 2008Blogging Since: May 8, 2008Venue: Ten Mile StationAbout Me: With a degree in Theatre I never realized that planning a wedding was a lot like Theatre Management, until I started planning my own. I am a coffee addict, especially Starbucks' Grande Mochas, yummy! I love to cook (especially chocolate chip cookies for my honey), travel to exotic places, and be creative. As a couple, Mr. Cookie and I are extremely practical, down to earth, and children at heart. We live in a cozy abode with our adorable Pomeranian, and love to play board games and watch movies into the evening.
I am one of those people that watch movies and then immediately turns to the DVD extras in order to reveal the movie magic. And after my post on Monday about our invites, I got a lot of questions about Gocco printing. Although there isn’t an exact science to the Gocco, and I am no means an expert, I thought I would share a little advice and some of the tricks I have up my sleeve.
Mrs. Cookie, DenverAge and Occupation: 25, Nonprofit Fundraiser/Theatre DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Financial AnalystEngagement Date: September 2007Wedding Date: September 2008Blogging Since: May 8, 2008Venue: Ten Mile StationAbout Me: With a degree in Theatre I never realized that planning a wedding was a lot like Theatre Management, until I started planning my own. I am a coffee addict, especially Starbucks' Grande Mochas, yummy! I love to cook (especially chocolate chip cookies for my honey), travel to exotic places, and be creative. As a couple, Mr. Cookie and I are extremely practical, down to earth, and children at heart. We live in a cozy abode with our adorable Pomeranian, and love to play board games and watch movies into the evening.
It only took me two weeks, three tubes of brown ink, a few paper cuts, and over 1,500 presses but OUR INVITATIONS ARE DONE! Hallelujah! And as I dropped off the invites this morning in the mail, not only did I feel the relief of finishing our invites, but goosebumps crept over my body! It was a special moment between me, the invites, and the mailbox! Then I promptly rewarded myself with a Tall Iced Mocha from Starbucks – total coffee addict!
I’m really happy with the final product, even though it was a lot of work! Each piece is unique, because of the quality of the press, and a labor of love! I did however have help along the way…
(Calligraphy by Michele)
She also introduced me to the Gocco, and truthfully, after we did our save the dates on her Gocco, I knew I had to purchase one for myself.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
