Mrs. Cheese, KnoxvilleAge and Occupation: 29, Engineering ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, CAD DesignerEngagement Date: July 31, 2008Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: October 16, 2008Venue: Our home and the two acres it sits onAbout Me: I’m an emotional girl who loves sentimental things, parenthetical asides, and trying to do things herself. I can cook, sew, am a whiz at planning, terrible at delegating, and totally in love with my fiancé (who will be my second husband but first love of the rest of my life). For our home/ garden/ DIY wedding, we’ll be moonlighting as interior designers, home improvers, and gardeners with the help of our fabulous friends and neighbors. We can’t wait to be married, and are learning how fun getting married can be.
Hello, hive! I need some creative suggestions, pretty please.
We’ll be placing a handwritten note of appreciation at each guest’s seat. Since I didn’t hand-write our invitations as I’d once imagined, I’m really looking forward to getting a chance to express how much I (ahem, “we”) love and appreciate each person in our lives. The letter writing I can handle (I’m a well-practiced letter writer), but I need some help deciding how to jazz up the plain white envelopes.
I considered putting our monogram on the outside, but that seemed a little, I don’t know, narcissistic. I mean, if I write a thank you note to a friend, I don’t put my initials on the outside. I could just write their names nicely, but that’s a little boring.
Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/MaineAge and Occupation: 26, HealthcareFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad studentEngagement Date: May 15, 2007Wedding Date: July, 2008Blogging Since: March 4, 2008Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tentAbout Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
Don’t worry, we sent (most of!) our thank yous out months ago. It’s just taken me this long to get around to sharing them with you.
On a great recommendation from Mrs. Eggplant, whose thank you cards I adored, I decided to go with PS Print for the printing. I designed the following layout in Photoshop, and easily uploaded it to their website:
Mrs. Glitter, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 27, Research Consultant/WriterFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, AccountingEngagement Date: May 6, 2007Wedding Date: June, 2009Venue: Millenium Biltmore HotelAbout Me: I was born and raised in West Los Angeles, California. I spent eight years in the Northeast working and completing my education. Having split time between two sides of the country has given me a true appreciation for both coasts. It has also provided an overabundance of cross country drives, flights and long distance relationship fun/misery! I love my family, my doggy Emma, fabulous wine, Anthropologie, politics, reading, being outdoors, exploring new cities, and good movies! My fiance and I are complete opposites, but somehow we have managed to fall completely and hopelessly in love.
I love the gesture of a well written and thoughtful thank you note. It isn’t wedding time yet, and already I can’t wait to thank our wedding guests!
For a DIY infant such as myself (who doesn’t own a Gocco), paper products and crafting are somewhat of an enigma to me. I’m not attempting to make my own invitations, but maybe I can handle the thank you notes. Without many original ideas of my own at the moment, I turn to Martha Stewart for details on how to create my own thank yous.
Mrs. Spring Roll, TampaAge and Occupation: 23, Certified Pharmacy TechnicianFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Concert PhotographerEngagement Date: May 1, 2008Wedding Date: March 2009Blogging Since: September 16, 2008Venue: Beach Social HallAbout Me: I'm the stereotypical girl who enjoys sewing, baking, and decorating. I am blessed to share my life with Mr. Spring Roll and our two shih tzu's, Isabella and Gabriella. Hello Kitty, musicals, Target, and Chick-fil-a are a few of my favorite things. I have a fear of fish and Freddy Krueger. Planning our wedding has become a huge part of my life, and I love every minute of it!
Amazing, huh? After seeing the photo, I had to have a photo like that. There was one little catch though: there was no way that I was going to pay over forty dollars for a painted paper parasol. So, I did what I do best, and made one for under ten dollars. 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. Daffodil, San Francisco/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Nonprofit Strategy ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Resident PhysicianEngagement Date: December 29, 2006Wedding Date: May, 2008Blogging Since: August, 2007Venue: Church w/ floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Valley; Westin in downtown LAAbout Me: I moved around a lot growing up, but consider myself a Southerner at heart. I love scrapbooking, dancing, doggies, and diet coke. I am all about personalizing everything and hence, I'm a DIY bride who is just loving the entire wedding planning process! Mr. Daffodil and I met in our college fellowship group and were "just friends" for three years before we started dating. We've been together for four years now and can't wait to get married in sunny SoCal, Mr. Daffodil's hometown.
I have to confess… the thank-you cards took longer than expected. We sent them out in waves… to all of our parents’ friends within the first 5 weeks, to our family members and relatives over the next two months, and finally to all of our own friends that we invited slowly over the following months. But I am happy to report that we finished writing EVERY single one of them the week before we sent out our Christmas cards… which means, now that all our guests have received them, I can share the details with the hive!
Many of our friends asked where we ordered them from, but the truth is that we made all 200+ of these at home by ourselves, and it was very easy, cost-effective, and personal! This is how we did it… Read more…
Mrs. Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican RepublicAge in 2008 and Occupation: 30, Communications ManagerFiance's Age in 2008 and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing DirectorEngagement Date: October 6, 2007Wedding Date: November, 2008Blogging Since: July 17, 2008Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta CanaAbout 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 writing about our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
I love love LOVE the holidays. Yes folks, I am one of those freaks who, much to the (very vocal) chagrin of her coworkers, busts out the Christmas cheer mid-November. Lucky for them, this year I was away getting married mid-November, so they got an extra-long respite from Burl Ives’ rendition of Silver and Gold, and hallways festooned with chintzy dollar-store tinsel.
Mrs. Hydrangea, DallasAge and Occupation: 26, Administrative AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network AnalystEngagement Date: June 2007Wedding Date: September 2008Blogging Since: January 14, 2008Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W HotelAbout 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!
I just have to make a confession. As on top of things as I was for the wedding, I completely slacked when it came to the thank yous. Yesterday we finally finished my side of the family, and up next is Mr. H’s side. We haven’t hit the two month mark since the wedding, but it is creeping up on us at a fast rate.
To make myself feel a little better about waiting so long to write them, I took the awesome photos that we received on disk from Perez Photography and made a little collage to print onto a postcard. I opted to use Vista Print because we used them quite a few times and were always happy with the quality. We chose the extra large postcards, knowing we wouldn’t save on postage, just so that everyone could enjoy the pics as much as we have! So, without further ado…
The front side … we chose to do all color except for two of our favorite black and white photos (which are also my fav pics from the wedding… period). There’s also a little teaser of the photos to come in my last few posts!
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!
Anyone else have trouble finding those responsible for mystery gifts? Since we didn’t do a registry and told guests not to feel obligated to send us presents, there were quite a few guests that gave us nothing. This renders the process of elimination useless in mystery gifter identification. We’ve also inquired close family members for leads, but there are just too many variables to nail anyone down. Read more…
Mrs. Martini, New JerseyAge and Occupation: 30, Telecom by day, Superhero by nightFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Investments & Finance by day, Hip hop dancer by nightEngagement Date: May 24, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: August 18, 2008Venue: The VenetianAbout Me: Things that make me happy: Haribo Happy Cola gummies, TV shows on DVD, buying books although I never read them, 80’s rock ballads, ramen, and of course Mr. Martini! He is the calm, logical and number crunching finance guy. I can’t even multiply double digit numbers in my head and I am so indecisive that trying to choose between light green or slightly lighter green paper stresses me out (Wedding planning is going to be soooo much fun). We both find great joy in nabbing great seats at the movie theater for a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, and we are both absolutely crazy about snowboarding. And he loves to cook, I love to eat!
I decided that as of today, I want to make my own thank you cards. You can almost see me standing underneath a ray of sunlight streaming down from the heavens, wide eyed at my revelation, as angels sing Hallelujah!
And then… you notice that I’m standing at the edge of a cliff just about ready to fall off.
I know our wedding is still about five months away, but I had this sudden urge to… craft… so I had to share my big news. Actually, this urge was more like an itch that started a while back when my FSIL hand-made a thank you card for me:
I totally fell in love with the card because the picture of her with her son (and our future ring boy) seemed so much more personal to me. Although she insisted it didn’t take much time at all to make it, I thought it was cuter than any old Hallmark. However, it never occurred to me that I could make something like this myself. Read more…
Mrs. Pineapple, PittsburghAge and Occupation: 24, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Student Affairs AdministrationEngagement Date: August 4, 2007Wedding Date: October, 2008Blogging Since: April 14, 2008Venue: The Rivers ClubAbout Me: Being a transplant from sunny south Florida I am learning to live with all four seasons while playing with our cat collective, line dancing, and doing a ton of DIY projects for our wedding (seriously, like a thousand)!
It’s five weeks before the wedding and we have already received three gifts! They are all very thoughtful, and we knew that we needed to get our thank you cards made, or Emily Post would find a way to track us down and haunt our dreams of wedded bliss.
We wanted to make something clean and simple that would fit in with the look of our invitations. So, using the copper paper and typeface from the invites, Mom Pineapple and I made these:
If you are new to DIY stationary and want to make your own invites, I think that making your own thank yous is a great place to start. Read more…
Mrs. Canary, New YorkAge and Occupation: 24, MarketingFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/EditorEngagement Date: February 16, 2007Wedding Date: July, 2008Blogging Since: October 19, 2007Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea PiersAbout Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
While Mr. Canary and I are listlessly waiting for our honeymoon trip and professional photos, we have decided to get one final wedding task out of the way… writing thank you notes. Normally, I am a very prompt thank you note writer, but in the afterglow of the wedding, it just seems so daunting. Although by Emily Post standards, we have a year… I just hate having things looming.
To make it easier, I decided to pre-write a few “phrases” so if we should need the “inspiration,” it’ll be right there. Plus, no one is going to compare notes, so I’m not worried about two people getting the same thing! And now I can share the fruits of my labor with the hive so that thank you note writing won’t be such a chore.
CASH
Dear ___________,
Thank you so much for your generous gift. We are saving for [our dream honeymoon/additions to our/down payment for a new home] and thanks to you; we’ll be [traveling to_____/sprucing up our apartment/purchasing a house] very soon. Again, many thanks for thinking of us and for sharing our special day.
Mrs. Flamingo, Montreal, CanadaAge and Occupation: 25, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Nursing StudentEngagement Date: December 2004Wedding Date: June 21, 2008Venue: Imperia Hotel (modern chic hotel)About Me: I am a passionate designer who loves anything pretty. I heart all paper products (eco-friendly of course). My passion revolves around anything considered glamour; vintage and modern. In my free time, I love reading Martha mags, designing jewelry and making a pit-stop at Starbucks for a chai latte. I'm also a chocoholic at heart and my family drools over my homemade truffles.
We had a wonderful wedding, and it’s true when they say “It’s the best day of your life.” Our guests were extremely impressed with everything and we were so happy to share it with them. They deserved a nice Thank You Card at the very least for the compliments and their generous wedding gifts. So I went ahead and designed these:
Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay AreaAge and Occupation: 25, IllustratorFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise PlannerEngagement Date: May 27, 2007Wedding Date: August, 2008Blogging Since: February 7, 2008Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green RoomAbout Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
Now that we’ve got gifts rolling in (yay!!! so exciting!!!), our thank you notes are rolling out. I am really excited about our thank you notes, so I thought I’d share them with you guys sooner rather than later.
For my business, I started making cards out of plantable paper. This idea really excites me because it’s good for the environment (the paper is recycled) and it’s pretty (they grow into flowers). I think these cards are perfect for thank you cards, because our guests can plant them and be reminded of our wedding for years to come.
Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/MaineAge and Occupation: 26, HealthcareFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad studentEngagement Date: May 15, 2007Wedding Date: July, 2008Blogging Since: March 4, 2008Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tentAbout Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
The front side … we chose to do all color except for two of our favorite black and white photos (which are also my fav pics from the wedding… period). There’s also a little teaser of the photos to come in my last few posts!
Anyone else have trouble finding those responsible for mystery gifts? Since we didn’t do a registry and told guests not to feel obligated to send us presents, there were quite a few guests that gave us nothing. This renders the process of elimination useless in mystery gifter identification. We’ve also inquired close family members for leads, but there are just too many variables to nail anyone down.
If you are new to DIY stationary and want to make your own invites, I think that making your own thank yous is a great place to start.
