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Miss Espresso's Picture
Miss Espresso, Corona/Big Bear Age and Occupation: 23, Recent Grad & Professional Interviewee Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Maintenance Technician Engagement Date: December 21, 2007 Wedding Date: October, 2008 Blogging Since: June 25, 2008 Venue: Outside a rustic b&b in Big Bear Lake About Me: I'm a lover of all things good: coffee, music, travel, rain, and of course- my handsome fiance! I'm a full believer in the "Life is Short," mantra - and therefore, eat lots of dark chocolate. I'm a Geographer by degree and nerd by choice. I cook to the sound of French and Portuguese music even though I speak neither. I love road trips, camping, hiking, and capturing life through the lens of my camera. Take me to Anthropologie and I may never leave. I'm a sucker for pretty packaging, bargain finds, and old movies. Mr. Espresso and I are high school sweethearts and I am so blessed to be this amazing man's future wife.
About Miss Espresso

This past week, I had the option of getting nothing done and blogging about how I was getting nothing done (probably would have been a bit repetitive and very boring), or not blogging and getting a lot done… so I chose the latter and now we have something to talk about (hopefully it’s still not boring :)).

As you may or may not remember, I ordered my invites from Wedding Paper Divas. Of course I drooled over letterpress for months, Contemplated Gocco, and then even started researching different homemade routes made of brown paper bags (thank goodness I didn’t dive into that mess!). But in the end, Wedding Paper Divas offered me the most affordable option for the time I wanted to put in.

After perusing through the different options multiple times, we chose the Dandelion style in Lime. We had always wanted green invitations and the addition of the dandelion gave the invite a whimsical and youthful touch. Plus I loved the look of the dandelion being blown across the RSVP and Thank- You cards.

Here they are stacked and out of the box:
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Miss Hydrangea's Picture
Miss Hydrangea, Dallas Age and Occupation: 26, Administrative Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network Analyst Engagement Date: June 2007 Wedding Date: September 2008 Blogging Since: January 14, 2008 Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W Hotel About Me: Mr. H and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds so I'm excited to plan our wedding with a balance of both traditions. My mom has always been a DIY queen, and I'm just now starting to get into it with a new house and a wedding to plan!
About Miss Hydrangea

Cultural Differences

August 11th, 2008 @ 11:28 am by Miss Hydrangea

As our invites have now gone out, and our final guest count is about 100 people larger then what we were aiming for, a concern came up between both sides of our family. In Mr. H’s Hispanic culture, it is not unlikely for invited guests to bring along uninvited friends with them to the reception. At Hispanic parties, the more, the merrier.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to afford for this at our wedding, and the room for the reception is already nearing its max capacity. And although the invitation stated an “Adult Reception,” Mr. H’s mom is still worried that her family will not understand this and they will show up with their children.

After MUCH discussion (heated, at times), Mr. H decided that it would be best for us to send out an individual card to our guests in order to clarify that we unfortunately only have room for invited guests. He also wanted to be sure that the note was in both Spanish and English, so this is what we came up with last night:
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Miss Hydrangea's Picture
Miss Hydrangea, Dallas Age and Occupation: 26, Administrative Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network Analyst Engagement Date: June 2007 Wedding Date: September 2008 Blogging Since: January 14, 2008 Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W Hotel About Me: Mr. H and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds so I'm excited to plan our wedding with a balance of both traditions. My mom has always been a DIY queen, and I'm just now starting to get into it with a new house and a wedding to plan!
About Miss Hydrangea

Off They GO!

August 8th, 2008 @ 8:30 am by Miss Hydrangea

That’s right, we finally got our invitations off in the mail! I designed everything in Illustrator and had them letterpressed at Mercurio Brothers. When we received our initial RSVP cards, we were unhappy with the way they were printed, and the addresses on the RSVP envelopes were incorrect, but Mercurio Brothers quickly fixed the problem, reprinted the envelopes and reprinted the cards with a different design that I created all for no extra charge!

Since the colors of our wedding are solely black and white, we opted to keep the invitations simple, but incorporate our monogram into the pieces. We included a simple map with our website address for guests to access full directions and other details.

Last weekend, one of my bridesmaids was kind enough to spend her Friday night helping me stuff the envelopes, secure the belly bands and make sure that everything was organized. I had originally ordered our postage from Picture It, but accidentally ordered the wrong amount ($0.42 instead of $0.59). Since they don’t create postage faster then 8-10 days, I decided to order stamps with Zazzle. I ordered them on Monday and they were at our doorstep by Wednesday afternoon. Nice turnaround! The stamps we ordered from Picture It weren’t a complete loss, though, as we’ll be able to use them for thank you notes and another card we will be sending to some of our guests (more on that later).

Ok, I’ll stop explaining now and show you the pics!
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candycorn's Picture
Miss Candy Corn, Philadelphia Age and Occupation: Senior Editor/Writer & Freelance Illustrator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Student Engagement Date: September 1, 2004 Wedding Date: October, 2008 Blogging Since: May 6, 2008 Venue: Pennsylvania Museum of Archaelogy and Anthropology About Me: I enjoy people watching (especially in New Jersey malls), obsessive collecting, drooling over contemporary art, browsing flea markets for vintage finds and eating an absurd amount of cheese. In my Philadelphia abode, I create mixed media artwork and one-of-a-kind home accessories in the company of my farmer-tanned fiancé, our Westiepoo (Betty White), our three rabbits (Cadbury, Willie Nelson and Applesauce) and our two frisky chinchillas (Ethel Funk and Maude).
About candycorn

Before my Weddingbee obsession, I didn’t even think sending out rehearsal dinner invitations was necessary (which, I’ll admit, it probably isn’t), but now I’ll take any excuse I can get to spend a night being crafty and coming up with small wedding-related projects to keep me distracted from the recent crapfest we’ve been dealing with since Mr. Candy Corn’s car accident.  I decided to go with tea-length invitations, which we will print and put on chocolate brown cardstock with a bit of the border showing.

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Miss Sea Breeze's Picture
Miss Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic Age and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director Engagement Date: October 6, 2007 Wedding Date: November, 2008 Blogging Since: July 17, 2008 Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than planning our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
About Miss Sea Breeze

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead!

August 6th, 2008 @ 1:09 pm by Miss Sea Breeze

Oh my lord. HALLELUJAH. I was SO glad when our invitations were done! When I finally put them in the mail, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I read about people making their own invitations but I can now tell you with absolute certainty that even if you read about other people’s whingeing, whining, and heartache surrounding their DIY wedding invitation project, you do not really know the pain until you do it yourself.

I’m hoping it’s like childbirth and the memory of the pain will erase itself once the reality of our beautiful newborn—er, wedding invites—sets in. (Still waiting for that to happen. It still feels too surreal.)

Here are some photos from the rest of the process and things that I wished I had known:

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Mr. Mango's Picture
Mr. Mango, Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 27, Stem Cell/Nanotechnology Researcher Fiance's Age and Occupation: 21, Political Scientist Engagement Date: June 12, 2008 Wedding Date: December 2008 Blogging Since: August 4, 2008 Venue: Picking between 2 About Me: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me (cheesy Batman reference). I'm a Pakistani-American who lives his life as a nerdy scientist by day, and a nerdy artist by night. According to many, I'm as "metro" as they come, and that's probably why I'm so interested in all this wedding business. Honestly, I've become a bit of a "groomzilla". I'm here to prove that we, as grooms, actually can work a Gocco, plan a wedding meal, create breathtaking centerpieces, and rock a dress, just as good as my female counterparts (well maybe not the last one).
About Mr. Mango

Our Invitations Are Here!

August 6th, 2008 @ 9:30 am by Mr. Mango

I am super thrilled to announce that our much anticipated invitation suite is here!

*fanfare*

Not only that, but they are totally what we wanted and have exceeded our expectations. So here is the rundown. Right now, we are getting a Nikkah (in case you missed it, I gave a quick rundown of Pakistani/Islamic traditions) and so we decided to have the ceremony at a beautiful Masjid (Islamic House of Worship). The reception for the Nikkah will be at an Indian restaurant and we will be having a joint (bride family+groom family) mehndi party celebration the night before.

So, we were looking for an invitation for all three events enveloped into a cultural, yet modern suite. After looking around for a while, we settled on a relatively new kid on the scene, a recent graduate from an arts college here in Los Angeles. This was a tough call considering we wanted to impress and try to avoid any kind of unexpected surprises, which can sometimes happen when you don’t use seasoned experts in the wedding business. Anyhow, we bit the bullet and hired our mystery invitation vendor (who I will reveal soon) to create a hip modern, but cultural, invitation set.
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Miss Cupcake's Picture
Miss Cupcake, Philadelphia Age and Occupation: 27, Graphic Designer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Construction Project Manager Engagement Date: February 10, 2007 Wedding Date: September, 2008 Blogging Since: December 7, 2007 Venue: The Desmond Hotel in Malvern, PA About Me: Mr. Cupcake and I hit it off at a Halloween party and immediately began a long-distance relationship. After two years, he moved to my neck of the woods, and a year and a half after that, he proposed at the “place we fell in love.” I am a true perfectionist who enjoys designing and creating more work for myself, so wedding planning is my perfect outlet. Mr. Cupcake and I are both old souls, and we hope to weave that aspect of our personalities into our wedding day.
About Miss Cupcake

And… They’re… OFF!

August 5th, 2008 @ 5:40 pm by Miss Cupcake

Our invitations, that is!

After months of obsessing over the design, then changing it, then finally reaching something I truly love and feel proud of, our invitations are in the hands of our guests. Which means not only is this wedding really happening, but it means that I can finally share the final product with the hive! Without further ado, our invitation suite, designed by yours truly (click on the photos to zoom in a bit):

The whole shebang, my pride and joy!

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Miss Sea Breeze's Picture
Miss Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic Age and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director Engagement Date: October 6, 2007 Wedding Date: November, 2008 Blogging Since: July 17, 2008 Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than planning our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
About Miss Sea Breeze

You Are Invited

August 5th, 2008 @ 12:41 pm by Miss Sea Breeze

At my job, I work with designers a lot and I know that when it comes to designing a piece of printed collateral, it’s a chicken-and-egg scenario… I don’t know what to write until I can see what they’re designing, and I they don’t know what to design until they see what I write.

Because I’m usually on the writing end though, when it came to our invitations, my instinct was to start with the words.

All we knew was that we didn’t want anything too formal because our destination wedding is going to be anything but. Plus, standard wedding etiquette sets out all sorts of rules for the way invitations should be worded if the wedding is paid for by the groom’s parents, the bride’s parents, both parents or no parents, but not for a destination wedding that was all about families meeting each other, having fun and making memories.

So I thought long and hard about what this wedding meant to us, and tried my best to convey it in just a few simple words. And this is what I came up with:

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Miss Sea Breeze's Picture
Miss Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic Age and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director Engagement Date: October 6, 2007 Wedding Date: November, 2008 Blogging Since: July 17, 2008 Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than planning our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
About Miss Sea Breeze

It’s Official: I AM Crazy

August 4th, 2008 @ 5:09 pm by Miss Sea Breeze

Oh. My. God.

If I never see another X-Acto knife in my life, it’ll be too soon.

At least, that’s what I said immediately after Mr. Sea Breeze and I attacked Phase 2 of the DIY wedding invitation project: cutting the paper.

As you may recall, deciding on a design and buying the cardstock for these things was quite the ordeal. Once I realized that folds and pockets were gorgeous but complicated and finally settled on a simpler design, I hustled my butt around not just Vancouver but all over Southern Alberta (okay fine, one store in Red Deer and two in Calgary, but have you been to Calgary lately? It’s SPRAWLING) to get the right quantities of just the right paper at just the right price.

sb1

So imagine the look on my face when Mr. SB decided that cutting sheets one by one is for suckers.
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Miss Sea Breeze's Picture
Miss Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic Age and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director Engagement Date: October 6, 2007 Wedding Date: November, 2008 Blogging Since: July 17, 2008 Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than planning our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
About Miss Sea Breeze

Once we had our wedding date, it was full steam ahead for our little wedding invite factory.

That’s right–after much research (including much Weddingbee reading), a couple of panicky trips to local stationery makers, and lot of grumbling from Mr Sea Breeze about the cost of things “that people are just going to chuck in the garbage,” I decided to make our own wedding invites.

It could have been worse. We could have sent out Evites - ’cause that’s what he was heavily campaigning for.

What a joker. (But apparently not the only groom out there with the same idea.)

So fine. Marriages are built on solid compromises, right? I’ll (painfully) retire my visions of dreamy letterpress invitations ($1,500 for 100 invites?!) if not one more word is said about Evites.

sb1

Done and done.
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