Marriage License

We got our marriage license!  It was easy, we just went to the courthouse to see the Harris County Clerk, gave them $72 dollars, and promised that we weren't married to other people, have been divorced in the last 30 days, or were related to one another (lol!).  

We aren't cousins, lets do this!

And we celebrated by getting lunch at the really good chicken fingers place.  Yay!

*Side note, if you are a Houston bride, you can get your license at any of the 9 satellite offices, you don't have to go all the way downtown, which is awesome!

Just an update

Hi Everyone!  We are officially 17 days away from Aaron and I's big day!  After a few bridezilla episodes from last week, this week has gone pretty smoothly.  I am actually feeling quite zen, despite a still semi-lengthy to-do list.  I think I had a light bulb moment over the weekend or something.  I really want to look back at my engagement in a positive light.  The wedding is just a few hours of my life, but my engagement has been over a year of my life.  I don't want to think back and shudder over the amount of stress I went through, I want to remember being excited and happy.  I am of the opinion that all of these wedding TV shows feed into our minds that if we aren't over the top stressed, we aren't doing it right.  It is easy to get caught up in the hype.  I have basically surrendered to the idea that everything will be beautiful and fun, and I need to just trust the people I have hired or family and friends helping out and let it be.

Total Zen. 

Ok so I am in a happy mood for a change, so that is nice :)  I have a bunch of things coming up this week that I am looking forward to.

This afternoon (weather permitting) Aaron and I are taking professional engagement pics to display around the entry table at the reception.  (Better late that never, right!)  If these don't get done today, then Monday will be the back up day.  It rained a crazy amount in Houston two days ago and flooded much of the city.  It has since drained off, but it is still muddy in some nature places where our photographer usually shoots.

Tomorrow Aaron and I are going to go get our wedding license on my lunch break.  It is just getting me eager for the wedding, I want it to be here already!

On Friday, my Mom and I are going to meet with the wholesale florist to see what flowers we are going to need.  My cousin from Austin is the mastermind behind the floral elements of our centerpieces - a gift from my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Howard.  But since they are coming from Austin, and that is going to be tricky enough, my Mom and I are going to handle making the bouquets and corsages.  We also are going to make some really simple pew decorations for the church.  So our flower needs aren't huge, but we want to check out what we like, etc. 

Saturday morning I have an appointment for a badly needed haircut, and my hair-do trial for my wedding 'do!  I am excited to see how it turns out!

Over the weekend we will be assembling wedding programs and working on a seating chart because we have gotten all our RSVPs in.  I must say, I am really proud of my guests for responding.  I only had to call or email a handful of people out of the nearly 300 that were invited!  It looks like our guest count is going to be right at 200, and I am so glad that many of Aaron's family from all over the country are making the trip to Texas for the wedding.  I can't wait to meet them!!  I am also over the moon excited to see some old friends I haven't seen in a good while and having all my extended family together for a happy occasion.  Life is good :)

Everything is really falling into place just like everyone said it would :)

Our Winter Wonderland Wedding Invites - Part 2

I bet you thought I forgot, didn't you...

Refresh your memory with Part 1 here


I included 2 insert cards in our invitations.  The first was for accommodations and hotel info.  I also put our wedding website which has other hotels if you are brand loyal or don't like saving money.

Then we have a directions card to get to the church and the reception.  The directions to the church are good enough, but the reception location is downtown - thus a little tricky.  Our plan was to put better directions and a map at the back of our wedding program.  That way you have it handy when you are headed there!

Then we of course had the RSVP card.  We kept it pretty simple, but made sure to include the deadline!

I knew I wanted to do postcard RSVPs to save on the postage.  Advice though - I thought I could just do a basic card stock but it was waaay too flimsy to get through the post office in one piece, so we added the back.  I think it is a nice touch and color contrast though, so that worked out well.  But wouldn't you know that postcard postage would go up one stinkin' cent from 2 months before when I got super cute polar bear stamps.  That Tiffany lamp stamp ruins the whole look of it!  Oh well.  

I didn't know what sort of box to put in front of the options, so I just went with a circle.  I made all of these in Microsoft Word, so my choices were limited.  I did get some back that were bubbled in like a scantron, and that made me laugh a little. :)

And that is our invitations.  My advice again, is that if you are brave enough to make your own wedding invitations, give yourself plenty of time.  It is a lot more work than it seems!

How to keep track of the RSVPs

Checking the mail has never been so much fun!  Every day a few more RSVPs come in, and it just brightens my stress-filled days.  I only wish it wasn't my wedding so that I'd have some quality hanging out time with everyone!

With a wedding the size of ours, there are a lot of people to keep track of on the guest list.  I am not sure if there is an easier way, but I thought I'd share my method of keeping track of everyone.

1. I keep all the incoming cards for back up.  And possibly a future scrap booking project.

2. I really have a deep love for excel spreadsheets.  Therefore, I have all of my invitees on a basic excel list with their addresses.  I use one line for each person, and if they are bringing an unknown to me person, I just have 'date' as a placeholder.

When I get in their RSVP they get highlighted on the left hand side so I know they wont need to get hunted down on January 8th.  And then on the left I put the number of people coming.  If they can't come, I just put a zero for good record keeping, lol.  

If there is a baby involved, I just put them behind a slash so I can keep the kid head count separate.  I am proud of page 1, almost all have responded!  Good job guys.

I am hoping that we will get a good amount of RSVPs in this week and next week because the deadline is January 7th.  I don't want to have to make a billion phone calls, but from what I read from other brides, it is pretty inevitable.  Until then, I will be anxiously waiting by the mail box :)

Rehearsal Dinner

check!

It has been a pretty productive weekend!  We have exactly 48 days until the big day, so I am really starting to feel under the gun about all the unfinished plans that need planning.  But I got some big things knocked out this weekend, so that is awesome.

The biggest accomplishment is booking rehearsal dinner!

Since we are having an elegant chicken oscar-esque event for the reception, we wanted a low-key fajitas and margaritas type dinner.  That would seem easy enough, especially in Houston of all places.

Well here is the thing.  Our rehearsal is Friday night, and Friday night is the absolute WORST time to be driving around in Houston.  The traffic is nightmarish, and this is coming from the gal that commutes an hour to her workplace that is 17 miles away.  That being said, we didn't want our rehearsal dinner attendees to have to deal with that, as they will already be in a foreign city.

true story.

 The second thing is that the closest Mexican restaurants to our church either don't have the space to fit our needs (we have about 40-50 on the guest list) or the food is mediocre and overpriced.  It is sad, but you go into these places and you don't see one Mexican dining in there.  That is your first clue that it isn't that good.  No one wants to celebrate with sub-par fajitas.

So we did a compromise, and are having the crew drive a little bit more than I would have liked, but for really good food that is good priced as well.  Plus we get our own little area away from the regular restaurant patrons.

My Mom and Jeff went for lunch there Saturday and we got to talk to the manager and get it all reserved, win!

 Ayi yi yi!

And as soon as I got home, I ordered our invites from Pear Tree Greetings:

Big weight off my shoulders getting that set up!  Now I only have about 499 things to do :)  

48 days away, eep!

Our Winter Wonderland Invitations - Part 1

Without further adieu...  our hand made snowflake invitations!  

My flash was being a little intense, so I apologize for the bad lighting.  They are basically a little booklet with all the info, and there is a pocketfold in the back for different enclosure cards.  (I'll show those in my next post, I didn't have any handy)  

The cover page was just a translucent page with our names printed on them.  I got a neat snowflake punch at Hobby Lobby, and some fun silver glitter paper for the front snowflake that is attached with a teeny brad in the shape of a heart :)

Page two is the ceremony info.  Pretty basic.  I tried to find clever wording, but decided to just keep it simple in the end.

Page two was the reception information since we are partying at a different locale than the ceremony.

The pictures really don't do it justice, they look really pretty and sparkly in person.  I have gotten so many compliments on them too, which feels really good since my Mom and I spend hours upon hours working on them!  I'll make a separate post over the weekend for the inserts and RSVP cards we made.  I would like to also give an honorable mention to the 10 or so people who have sent back their RSVP card already, way to be on top of things!

Part 2 - Insert and RSVP cards!

Invite Updates

After much deliberation and number crunching, we have decided to go with invitation #2!  I picked this one because I love the sparkle, and out of all the wedding invitations I have received in my day, I haven't ever gotten one like this.

Envy Marketing's Etsy Page

But of course, there is a snag in this plan.  I admit, I probably should have gotten invites squared away a month or two ago so I wouldn't be rushing...but I didn't, and time seems to have gotten away from me.  My goal is to get these babies out on November 7th.  So my other goal was to get these ordered this week.  Like Monday.  But alas, I emailed Envy Marketing asking about a couple color modifications, and how soon my order could be fulfilled, and I have yet to get an email back.  I am certain she is busy making beautiful invitations - her feedback is 100%!  But her lack of response have made me quite wary of my ability to meet the November 7th goal.  

So what do I do?  Well, a picture is worth 1000 words...

This is what $40 at Hobby Lobby gets you.

I went walking around the Hobby Lobby at lunch today, just to see what I could find, and I found all these fantastic things and felt confident that I could make a similar but not completely copied invite like #2.  Inspired by, if you will.  And I made some practice printouts on the practice paper.  This weekend I am going to attempt assembly.  If I can pull this off, that will be some big time savings!  

Does anyone have any advice for invitation making?  Or really any DIY words of wisdom they can lend?

It's Almost Shower Time!

CUTE.

The mailman brought me a fun treat last week - an invitation to my bridal shower!!  It is being held in San Antonio for easy access to my family members, so we are planning on making a fun weekend out of it!  Turns out that an awesome groupon came out for a hotel right on the San Antonio River Walk!

Festive!

I am preaching to the choir, I am sure - but if you are not a Texan, I highly suggest you take a trip down here and check out San Antonio if you get a chance.  The people are wonderful, the city is so full of culture and history, and you will not find better Mexican food on the planet - go ahead and try!

Hotel!

I am super excited to get together with my family, and I know my Aunt Gloria is putting together a really great shower for me.  I only have a two and a half week wait!!

You're Invited... (part 2)

Here are the second group of 4 invites that I like - please comment away!


Option 5

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80306393/winter-invitation-rsvp

These invites are super cute, and have a snowy tree which was my first thought of what I wanted the invites to be.  AND there is a bow, so that features gets some love from this gal :)  I like the simplicity and clean look of these, but I worry that the wow factor is lacking a bit.  Do invites need a wow factor?  

Price $$

Option 6 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76155630/snow-flake-laser-cut-wedding-invitations

Aren't these just fantastic?!  Laser cut snowflakes are so awesome and chic.  The price on these is good, but they seem a little plain, but I bet they look way better in real life.  This seller is in the UK too, so that would be extra shipping time I am sure.  So cool though!

Price $$

Option 7

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54521186/snowflake-wedding-invitation-ensemble

These invites are really really cute!  They are on the higher end of the price spectrum, but I think their cuteness justifies it.  I like the punched out feature along with the stamps - and isn't that band of ribbon just wonderful?

Price $$$

Option 8

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61786621/winter-snowflake-pocketfold-wedding

Last but not least: these invites seem pretty perfect and just what I am looking for, colors and all.  I think the colors being right is a big part of what drew me to this invite - I have trouble envisioning things in my colors.  It is a pocketfold style, wintery, and gets the job done.  The price is perfectly on point as well.

Price $$

So there you have it, after weeks of searching etsy high and low, these are my favorites.  How on earth will I decide??  

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions, you guys are wonderful!

You are Invited... (part 1)

to please give me feedback on these invitations!  I had planned on getting these puppies out the first week in November, which is a month away!  So I need to make a selection and get them ordered already.  The constant problem I seem to be running in to is that I love a billion different things.  Please help! 


 Option 1:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81387692/modern-snowflake-wedding-invitation

I really like the skyline feature, since we are having the reception at the Petroleum Club in the heart of downtown.  I like the modern font on this invite, but I sort of don't care for the color scheme of the snowflakes, but I think that can be changed.  We want to keep within the color palette if we can.  And is it me, or does it seem like the snowflakes are growing on the tree?  Weird.  I had envisioned a pocketfold style invite as well, which this is not.

Price: $$$

Option 2:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58659943/winter-wonderland-snowflake-wedding

These invites are just lovely, and I have never seen an invite quite like them, which is a good plus in my book.  And I really love the idea of RSVP postcards, especially since my fellow bloggers seem to say that a good number of them never even get mailed back (such a waste of money!).  My concerns are the front snowflake - is it going to look like a 2nd grade craft project invite?  These are really reasonably priced too, which is a big plus!

Price $$

Option 3:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80458148/embossed-pocketfold-winter-wedding

This is my dream pocketfold invite.  It is elegant, and wintery and sparkley and beautiful.  Darn me and my expensive taste, this invite is totally out of budget, so the best I'd be able to do is ask around and see if I can get someone to design an invite inspired by this one.  I am sure I could find similar sparkle ribbon to hold it all together.  Pro, I love everything about this invite.  Con, it is too expensive and if I try to re-create it, that will be another time consuming thing for me to do.  Tough call.

Price: $$$$$$

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80372598/winter-snowflake-wedding-invitations

How gorgeous are these??  Did I mention that each one is individually hand painted, for only $4.00!  This invitation is practically a steal, but I can't just cast aside all the other good ones just yet.  Loves:  it looks like a glamorous snowstorm is going on on this invite.  And the colors are customizable so we can make it blue and silver.  The price is like $200 bucks under our budget, so that is pretty sweet.  Don't Love so much:  Does the handmade invite look cool or a bit sloppy?  I really like the clean look of computer graphics, but this invite looks really cool to me.  And it isn't a pocketfold.  I know, I need to just get over that.  lol  It just seems so crazy to me that someone will hand make me all these invites for this price, when other people want twice that to design it and press print on a computer?! 

Price $ (and maybe a half $)

These are the first four, and I will do the second four by tomorrow.  And just for the record, I have checked the wedding paper divas and american wedding and the mainstream invite places and they don't have any good winter invites that weren't super boring.  Anyways, what do you guys think?  Or have you seen a good one that I may have overlooked?  How did you find your invites?

How to ask your ushers

...in a sorta funny way.

Since I am the queen of 'funny yet nerdy' things, I thought the most funny way to ask someone to be an usher at our wedding was so simple.

An Usher Mix Cd, silly!

All I needed were 3 blank CDs, some wedding themed scrapbook paper and ribbon, and about $8 bucks of itunes purchases if you don't already own some Usher tracks, and a computer with a CD burner.

Supplies

Tunes

So I downloaded the songs, burned them to the CD, made a CD jacket sized piece of scrapbook paper.  on the inside I wrote:

Dear Matt (prospective usher's name), 

It would mean a lot to us if you would be an usher at our wedding.  We hope you say 'Yeah!'  Love, Natalie and Aaron

(the the track list)

1. Yeah! (feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris)

2. More

3. OMG (feat. will.i.am)

4. DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love (feat. Pitbull)

5. Hot Tottie (feat. Jay-Z)

6. Love In This Club (feat. Young Jeezy)

(Usher doesn't work alone very often....)

I found the manliest wedding scrapbook design, which were silver doves:

These are totally manly doves.

But then femme-ed it out with a bow ;)

Save the Dates

Look what the UPS man brought today!

Our save the dates from www.peartreegreetings.com!

And check out the super cute postage I got for them!

www.zazzle.com

And here is a better copy of the final draft.

We decided against the original pictures, lol.  I think they turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.  Now my main to-do list item is to get the addresses I am lacking and then my super talented Mom is going to calligraphy them, and then they will be sent out!  Hurray!

Cute Invites and Updates

Friends,
I am so so sorry for not getting a chance to update until just now!!  I haven't had much of a second to breathe in weeks it seems.  So my last update was beach weekend/bridesmaids.  A has STILL not officially asked his groomsmen yet, so I was waiting around for that, and currently still waiting!  School has been busy - I have my first final exam tonight!  Church has also been super busy - catechism ended on the 18th, and Palm Sunday/Holy Week was the week after.  When you are Orthodox, Holy week means church everyday, sometimes more than once a day!  However, the services were all beautiful and interesting and good things, so it wasn't so bad.  This week I am headed to Dallas because the Bestie and I are going to the Arcade Fire Concert (yay!).  Then, the end of May is coming near, so A and I have been planning our now road trip (thanks airline prices) to Las Vegas so I can meet A's family, celebrate his 30th B-day (yay!) and co-host a bridal shower for our friend!  So between all of these things, I have not done one ounce of wedding planning in the past 3 weeks!  That is soon to change though, because tomorrow is will be 9 months until the big day!!

Commence Freakout. 

So I am feeling extremely behind on things!  When I realized the deadline, I began to scour the internet for invitations.  I guess that was my brain was panicking about needing to be done right that second.  My invite budget is pretty small because I wanted to DIY them, but I did find these sweet rehearsal dinner invites that I am pretty much sold on:

http://www.peartreegreetings.com/

Again, I apologize for being so MIA, but the wedding planning is about to get going bigtime!!

Save the Dates!

But we are going to have different pictures....lol

www.peartreegreetings.com

AND there is a groupon-esque deal to be had @ www.plumdistrict.com!