Mrs. Spaniel, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 28, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, PsychologistWedding Date: March 2010Venue: Calamigos RanchAbout Me: I'm a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, "mountain lodge" wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I'm hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)
I admit it: I’m a bit of a stickler about sending thank you notes. It’s not that I’m an etiquette freak or anything—okay, maybe I am a little bit—but I think it’s super-important to acknowledge someone’s generosity as soon as I benefit from it. I guess I view most etiquette rules as “guidelines”—they are always safe to follow, but it’s okay to sometimes bend them if it seems appropriate to your situation. But on the issue of thank you notes, there is no bending for me! Read more…
Mrs. Mary Jane, Grand Forks, NDAge and Occupation: 26, Instructional DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lead ProgrammerEngagement Date: February 28, 2009Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: City HallAbout Me: I'm a career woman on the surface and a homemaker at heart. I love fast cars and high heels, and my favorite food is cake. Mr. Mary Jane and I are both full-time employees and students, and we just bought our first house. We love to curl up on the couch with buttery popcorn, Sour Patch Kids, and the latest Netflix arrival -- whenever we can get a break from everyday life.
You’ve seen our announcements, but what about our Thank You cards?
We decided to use photos for those too, but this time, I opted to order them from Shutterfly.
I chose the blank photo note cards. They come in boxes of 12 and are blank (duh) inside. Because of this, I used Photoshop to just write our sentiment on the pictures themselves. The cost was about $40 for 4 boxes of 12, so 48 note cards with envelopes. They’re small cards, too - perfect for Thank Yous and juuuust big enough for mailing. (Unfortunately though, they still require a 0.42 stamp!)
Here they are, from afar.
I chose four different pictures, as you can see. Read more…
Mrs. Poodle, Santiago, Chile/San Bernardino, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Industrial & Web DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Firefighter & Mountain PatrolEngagement Date: February 25, 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Mr. P's Grandparents’ RanchAbout Me: I’m a Chilean girl who's crazy about nature and swimming. I enjoy carving, drawing, reading and sewing; I drool over computers, fabric, pretty paper, purple and patterns. To me, chocolate should be one of the seven wonders, right next to lemon pie. I never thought an exchange work experience program was going to change my life forever, but while working in California, I met Mr. Poodle, and ever since my days are better and brighter. We are two goofy souls that, after finding each other, couldn’t help but want to be together forever. It has being a long and sometimes hard road, since we have to deal with such a long distance between us, but we are now facing the last stage of our Fiancé Visa, and soon we will be together. You know the best part? We will be married! So I’ll be blogging from Chile until just a few months before our “green and purple” wedding.
This is one of my favorite pictures of us from Mr. Poodle’s last visit to Chile. We were in Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago. But I hate the way my arm looks holding the camera, the bump on my forehead, and my hair too.
Well yeah, I like lots of things about this picture, but when it came to me, I hated it! So what better way to fix everything I don’t like than drawing a NEW picture.
{December 2008}
Using the upper image as my base, I illustrated us first by drawing, then using Adobe Illustrator. I did this because I wanted to send Mr. Poodle a cool gift. I used his favorite color as the background and printed a poster that I sent to him later.
Then I started playing with a vector and thought that it could be cool to use for our wedding website. Read more…
Mrs. Green Tea, SacramentoAge and Occupation: 30, Tea AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Coffee CriticEngagement Date: November 17, 2006Wedding Date: August 23, 2008Blogging Since: June 10, 2008Venue: Vineyard on the DeltaAbout Me: I'm just your average obsessive compulsive, arts & crafts loving, funky-on-the-inside/boring-on-the-outside girl, who dares to say 'Hey! I can make that!' Nerdy professional by day, goofy won-ton by night. The won-ton sometimes comes out during the day when I'm fed the dollar breakfast at Ikea. Since our engagement, wedding planning has put me on high alert for bargains and I've been pushing my nimble fingers through callous building experiments!
Mrs. Peep Toe, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, Policy AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 36, Olive Oil Production ManagerEngagement Date: December 16, 2007Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: November 26, 2008Venue: Hotel VitaleAbout Me: I am a west coast lady who loves the San Francisco Bay Area. I love living with Mr. Peep and our animals: Huck the Dog and Ferris the Cat. I work to save the environment in San Francisco, while Mr. Peep makes ridiculously delicious Olive Oil. On any day you can find me reading the latest book I have gotten my hands on, eating Swedish Fish, and perusing wedding blogs! We are both champagne drinking foodies on a Bud Light budget. We are planning an eco-chic, intimate, and interfaith San Francisco City wedding.
Hive, I need your opinion. It’s been 6 weeks since our wedding and I have yet to send a single thank you note!!! And as each day passes (and the wedding becomes more and more of a distant memory*), the pressure to send them out is flying out the window.
I know I need to send them, but I feel like I am going through an internal struggle about what thank yous to send.
Here are the conversations that I have been having with myself (yes, I am part crazy lady, with multiple personalities):
Responsible, rational Peep: You need to start writing and sending thank you notes, STAT.
Crafty, lazy Peep: But wouldn’t they be so much better if they were crafty like Mrs. Corn’s?:
Mrs. Cloud, RichmondAge and Occupation: 25, Sales RepFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Customer Service Manager/DJEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Cathedral of the Sacred Heart & The Jefferson HotelAbout Me: Mr. Cloud and I are Yankees planning a Southern wedding to show our families from Boston and New York our fabulous city. We are complete opposites, resulting in a wedding to include bridesmaids in pearls and groomsmen in Adidas shell toes. I’m a sorority girl at heart with strong addictions to my blackberry, cherry Chapstick, Coach purses, the Boston Red Sox and our fur baby, Bella. I can’t wait to the throw the party of our lives and of course, marry my best friend!
I had already decided that I would be making almost all of our paper products (with the exception of the invitations, I’m just not that brave) and my first task was thank you cards for my showers! So, this past weekend, I decided to get to work. Back in February I had run across Make and Takes‘ tutorial for these super cute hand sewn cards. I whipped a few up and realized they were not only cute but really really easy! How hard could it be? I’ve made five Valentines, what would 25 thank yous be? Piece of cake! And, she already had a template for a very cute wedding ring design!
Mrs. Deviled Egg, PittsburghAge and Occupation: 27, Public RelationsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, AccountingEngagement Date: December 24, 2007Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: October 21, 2008Venue: Historic auditorium and meeting hall in one of Pittsburgh's commuter citiesAbout Me: I am obsessed with all things crafty, especially scrapbooking, knitting, jewelry-making & cake decorating. I also love being an aunt, wrapping presents, watching football (Go Steelers!), shopping at yard sales and consignment stores, procrastinating, singing and learning to play the guitar. When it comes to wedding planning, I'm excited about working on DIY projects and finding creative ways to stay under budget. Of course, nothing is more exciting to me than knowing that the wonderful Mr. Deviled Egg will be my husband.
Thank you notes. They have to be the most dreaded post-wedding task. (I hear you moaning and groaning right along with me.) I confess that I even gave some thought during the honeymoon in regards to how unappealing the job seemed. Even with the wedding a month behind us, I feel like I just finished writing thank you notes for the shower. Looking at the calendar, I had those finished over seven weeks ago, but, as I stare at the list of names on my wedding thank you list, it seems like it was just yesterday when I was writing notes to most of them in appreciation for the wonderful kitchen tools, bedding, towels and other gifts I was grateful to receive. And now, I have close to 100 notes to write, and I just have no motivation to check this task off of my to-do list.
Regardless, I need to get my butt in gear and get these hand-written messages of gratitude to the people who shared our day with us and/or were thoughtful enough to give us a gift. I really am thankful for all of the generosity, but just not so thrilled about the process of expressing all of that on paper.
Unfortunately for me, Mr. DE has the worst handwriting. I think he could probably do a better job if he put the pen in is toes and tried to write that way. Read more…
Mrs. Mary Jane, Grand Forks, NDAge and Occupation: 26, Instructional DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lead ProgrammerEngagement Date: February 28, 2009Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: City HallAbout Me: I'm a career woman on the surface and a homemaker at heart. I love fast cars and high heels, and my favorite food is cake. Mr. Mary Jane and I are both full-time employees and students, and we just bought our first house. We love to curl up on the couch with buttery popcorn, Sour Patch Kids, and the latest Netflix arrival -- whenever we can get a break from everyday life.
Mr. Mary Jane and I wanted to send thanks to a few people who really helped us out in the home-buying process. So when I ordered our “Semi-DIY” address change photo cards from Shutterfly, I added a couple of custom photo cards to the shipment.
For the front of these cards, I chose a similar (but not the same) shot to the main one used on the address cards. I ordered five 5″x7″ cards with the image printed on them and custom text inside. Here are the results:
Mrs. Stiletto, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/FundraisingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and PhotographerEngagement Date: March 2, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The 19th Century ClubAbout Me: My fiance and I love living in the city of Chicago with our cats Basil and Linus, and vow to never move to the suburbs if we can possibly avoid it! We’ve poured ourselves into planning a wedding that reflects our personal style - modern and high contrast with a vintage twist. Blogging keeps me creative, baking keeps me happy, and grande nonfat no foam sugar free vanilla lattes keep me sane.
I never thought I’d love a thank you card more… until I saw Etsy seller Rasideas’ “Around the House” thank you notes. The gray is just perfect (all of the walls in our condo are painted gray, and we love it!), and the clean simplicity of these cards fits our style to a T.
And, aren’t they perfect? Because at my bridal shower in July people may kindly be buying us our…
Mrs. Hot Cocoa, Boston/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 31, JD/PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Medical StudentEngagement Date: May 30, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: April, 2008Venue: Ritz Carlton, Marina Del ReyAbout Me:
I am a professional student by day and an amateur cupcake taster, bargain shopper, and wedding planner by night. I am obsessed with NPR, the Food Network, paper, dance shows, Anthropologie, post-structuralist theory, Weddingbee!, "The Office," and celebrity gossip. When not procrastinating from my dissertation, I spend time catering to Jellyby, our overly anxious shih tzu, and getting to know Mr. Hot Cocoa. We have only been dating for fifteen years, so it's like I'm in love with a stranger! From the East Coast, we are planning a Jewish-Chinese Extravaganza in L.A., where we both grew up.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Mr. HC has a serious case of POFAD (”put off for another day”) syndrome. Two months after our wedding, he still hasn’t sent out his thank you notes yet! Oy.
But when he finally gets around to doing it, he’ll have these three designs to choose from:
For our wedding, I’d Goccoed tags with “thanks” in English, Chinese, and Hebrew to attach to our favors. Read more…
Mrs. Joey, SeattleAge and Occupation: 28, Project Administrator for Public Health NGOFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, High School History TeacherEngagement Date: June 24, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Eastside Catholic Chapel and Lake Union CafeAbout Me: I'm a Seattle girl through and through except for the fact that I don't drink coffee. I love my job most of the time because I get to travel and work with brilliant people who are trying to prevent Malaria. I love DIY projects of all sorts, cooking, and watching sports. I'd wear anything at Anthropologie and could spend all day on Etsy. I love to travel but shouldn't because I always get myself into unbelievable situations!
Ah, the thank you cards. I knew from the beginning that I (I say I because “we” didn’t care) wanted to do postcards. I love getting postcards more than I like getting letters. Maybe it’s because I’ve sent so many as a traveler, or because I love seeing images of all the places my friends and family have visited.
Originally I was going to go with something like this:
And then I wanted to do something more personal, like takign a cheesy picture of Mr. Joey and me holding the presents and giving the camera a wink and a thumbs up.
The first option was doable, but I wasn’t feeling it so much. Read more…
Mrs. Quiche, Chicago/Montego BayAge and Occupation: 28, Interior DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 42, Telecom GuruEngagement Date: July 2, 2008Wedding Date: May, 2009Venue: Coyaba Resort, Montego BayAbout Me: I love Chicago and can’t imagine living anywhere else (Well, except Paris. Or anywhere in France, for that matter!). I’m a full-time worker, part-time student, soon-to-be-step-mom, indie music lovin’, architecture and design fanatic, macaroni and cheese addict, vegetarian, Francophile, Ohio State football obsessed, wedding planning girl. Mr. Quiche and I are “Partners-in-Crime” and cannot wait to celebrate our marriage surrounded by our family and closest friends. I plan on DIYing my little heart out (or as much as a suitcase to Jamaica will hold).
As the post-wedding days fly by, I realized it was about time to design, think of, write, address, stamp, and send thank you notes. Seem overwhelming? Even typing all of those steps out makes me start to sweat and panic, and I only have a fraction of the “normal” amount to send.
In the past, I’ve divulged my love for Dear Abby and Margo. No B.S. advice, handed down to you daily. I also love Annabel Manners—etiquette and advice for the preppy girl in me. While perusing her site (and justifying my LOVE and expense for a LWD - little white dress), I came across this service - “That’s Gratitude” - personalized, handwritten thank you notes. Done by someone else. Read more…
Mrs. Crab Cake, Columbus, GAAge and Occupation: 25, Registered NurseFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Director of Education and Living History for a museumEngagement Date: April 6, 2008Wedding Date: June, 2009Blogging Since: November 26, 2008Venue: Holy Family Catholic Church, reception: National Infantry MuseumAbout Me: I'm a perfectionist trying to balance two jobs, motherhood, my craft obsession, and wedding planning. I am obsessed with all things wedding, especially creative ideas for saving money and DIY projects. A Southern Belle at heart, I love anything southern, especially sweet tea, grits, afternoon thunder storms, crab cakes, and good old Southern hospitality. Mr. Crab Cake and I are planning a vintage inspired wedding with tons of Southern flare (can y'all say that with a thick Southern drawl?).
Inspired by this post by Miss Glitter, I took on the arduous task of creating my own thank you cards.
This tiny snapshot does not do this map justice. It’s so gorgeous. I really want to incorporate it into our home, as well.
I used the same map from our invitations, but I decided to use the whole map. Isn’t it gorgeous? I scaled it down to roughly 4×6 and printed 2 to a page. Read more…
Mrs. Perfume, DCAge and Occupation: 36, Consultant (and Part-Time Professor)Fiance's Age and Occupation: 41, ConsultantEngagement Date: May 13, 2008Wedding Date: May, 2009Venue: The Homestead, Hot Springs, VirginiaAbout Me: I'd like to think that I'm a modern day Little Edie Beale. Only not as..."talented". More realistically, I'm a foodie who can't bake; a dancer and dilettente; an art collector with a penchant for the whimsical and subversive. I live in the city and adore the country, but not much in between. I like smart design, great craftmanship and good value. Most of all, I love the new vintage aesthetic: classic, sweet, delicate, bespoke. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go for a culinary arts degree rather than a PhD; but wouldn't trade Mr. P for the world.
As you may know, we did not register for anything. Well, actually, we buried a pseudo registry (Honeyfund.com) in our wedding website, but didn’t think anyone would navigate to it. However, people are more tenacious than we thought! So we had some thank you cards to write (especially after the non-shower dinner the other night)!!
Initially I was going to order up some thank you notes from Lindsey (our invitation designer extraordinaire) to match our invitations. But we never got around to it. A little while back, Mr. P came up with the idea of using something that is reflective and specific to our venue (since it’s kind of like a third character in our wedding play!).
Mrs. Deviled Egg, PittsburghAge and Occupation: 27, Public RelationsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, AccountingEngagement Date: December 24, 2007Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: October 21, 2008Venue: Historic auditorium and meeting hall in one of Pittsburgh's commuter citiesAbout Me: I am obsessed with all things crafty, especially scrapbooking, knitting, jewelry-making & cake decorating. I also love being an aunt, wrapping presents, watching football (Go Steelers!), shopping at yard sales and consignment stores, procrastinating, singing and learning to play the guitar. When it comes to wedding planning, I'm excited about working on DIY projects and finding creative ways to stay under budget. Of course, nothing is more exciting to me than knowing that the wonderful Mr. Deviled Egg will be my husband.
One of my goals post-wedding is to not purchase a greeting card for one full year, but to make them all instead. I like to think that card recipients feel a little extra special with they get a homemade card for their special occasion. I make my Christmas cards every year and randomly make birthday cards for friends and family members. With all of the wedding crafting I’ve been doing lately, I haven’t had much of a chance to make birthday cards. I did somehow manage to squeeze in some paper crafting time and put together thank you cards for my bridal shower (which I plan on writing a post about very soon!). Here is what I came up with:
{December 2008}
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
