Please Don't Do A Plain White Invitation. Please.

BE BOLD, NOT BORING!

I consider myself a wedding expert. Not because I've been married a million times, but I have been to about a million weddings. And about 90% of those had plain white or ecru boring invitations with very generic script type that you could barely read. Oh, and that silly piece of tissue paper (we are not in the olden days of fresh-dipped ink, we don't need that anymore).


Please, just say no. Don't do the boring invites. Again, this is your chance to inject yours and your fiance's personality into your wedding and make another impression on your guests to set the tone.


I once received an invitation from a journalist and her writer fiance. The card was designed so the front of it looked like a newspaper with the headline of "Katie Gets Her Scoop!" So fun, and so them.


It took us a few months of number crunching and passing ideas back and forth over a glass of wine. Since my husband is an amazing videographer and editor, we wanted to include some sort of DVD. A lot of invitees knew either my husband or myself, but not necessarily both of us, so it was a good way for everyone to get to know us a little better.


We finally pulled it all together and ended up with the world's best invitation (yes, I'm biased)! The navy blue envelopes, silver Avery labels with our logo, and "celebrate" stamps on the outside tied it together with the save the date cards.


When it was opened, there was one of our engagement pics on the CD cover. The album title, "Open Doorways" tied in with the pic and was also symbolic for the big life adventure we were venturing into. We tied in our colors of navy and dark red, along with the logo/date that was created for us by the amazing Matt Davis.

The case opened up to reveal the details, another photo, and a DVD that was designed to look like an old record. The RSVP postcard and things to do/places to stay cards were sized to slip inside the case. Behind the DVD is another rockin' retro engagement pic taken at the infamous Jake's in downtown Portland, and there was also a black and white pick on the back cover.

So what was on the DVD, you ask? Well, I'll get back to you when my husband has the link fixed.  :)

Save The Date...And Save Your Budget for Your Wedding

FIRST IMPRESSIONS...

You're engaged, congratulations! So when's the big day? It's only courteous to send your guests, especially those who live out-of-town and have to make travel arrangements, a "save the date" notice. This can be anything, a postcard, magnet, or even a email if you're having a small, casual wedding.

Whatever you do for your save the dates, make sure you think it through because this will be the first thing your guests see and it will set the tone, whether it's casual, formal, indoors or out.

We did double-sided postcards using a photo from our venue on one side, and an engagement photo on the other. A designer friend of ours pulled my idea together graphically and I simply uploaded the files to my new favorite printing site, overnightprints.com. For a relatively small amount of money, I got a stack of "designer" save the date cards! (Tip: search online for a coupon code, sign up for their emails, and friend them on Facebook for extra savings).

I also ordered custom envelopes in one of our colors, navy blue. Check out jampapers.com if you are looking for unique colors, sizes, or styles of envelopes. I also ordered and used "celebrate" stamps from USPS.com (I couldn't handle using the overly mushy lovey dovey ones they normally have at the post office).

Because the envelopes were dark, I used a silver Sharpie to address them (note: be prepared to go through a lot of Sharpies because the rough paper makes the tip of them blunt quickly). For the final touch, I used our wedding logo on silver Avery inkjet labels and ta-da! A beautiful package to send out as a preview of what was to come!

Building a Bigger, Better (and Cheaper) Centerpiece

JUST SAY 'NO' TO FLOATING ROSES AND CANDLES

It's inevitable. Right after being asked about your dress, your colors, and how many bridesmaids you're having, one of your artsy-fartsy friends will ask, "what are your centerpieces going to be?" Wow. You hadn't started thinking about that yet....


While planning, I spent hours thinking about all the weddings I had attended and their centerpieces, looking through magazines, and analyzing my venue and the theme/feel I wanted it to have. I wanted to improve upon centerpieces I had seen at weddings before because some were just way too large and gawdy – those ended up just being visually overwhelming and frankly, got in the way of conversing with the person across the table from you. Some were underwhelming (a few tealights strewn with glitter on a table, which seemed disproportionate). And some were just yawners – another round bowl vase with floating rose petals? Sigh.


When planning your centerpieces, ask yourself these questions: (1) How many will you need? Do you need them for just guest tables, or do you want extras for the guest book table, entry way, cake table? (2) What is your budget? (3) What feeling do you want to come across?


If you're on a budget, look around your house at what you already have, or what your friends have already used and have in storage. Chances are one of you has a box of unique candle holders, vases, or something else. I happened to have a couple of cake stands.


As I looked through magazines and collected ideas, I loved how elegant cake stands looked in various settings. And since my husband is a musician and we both love a variety of music genres, we combined those things. I gathered old vinyl records from our collection, Goodwill, and eBay. They all had fun love/wedding themed titles to them. We also gathered mismatched crystal cake stands and plates (for these, I used Super Glue for glass and put an upside down crystal candle holder on the bottom for the stand part), then placed the records on top. I found some great long-burning tealights at IKEA in clear cups (these are larger than normal tealights and burn longer and brighter). Fortunately, they had red ones on the clearance rack so I cleared out their stock!

Once the ballroom was converted for the reception, the cake stands were placed on top of colored napkins, topped with the tealights, and sprinkled with red and white crystal stones from Michael's (this took several visits, one package & 50% off coupon at a time...). Very unique, retro, personal and cheap. For our table, we did a double-decker stand with two vinyl records...one was from my husband's former band and the other was Elvis.

Here are a couple of close up shots to give you a better look.
 
I've also seen some simply beautiful centerpieces made out of unique natural materials, such as curly willow spray painted white for a winter wedding, moss-covered bird nests with eggs for outdoor weddings, floating corks at a vineyard wedding, and simple large glass vases filled with bright colored fruit such as lemons, limes or pears. All beautiful, and most of all, simple. The pictures below are from my friends Scott & Julie's wedding at a lovely winery here in Oregon.
 
In short, do what you want! Do what you can afford. And do something no one will forget.