Paying Postage

The stickers have arrived and look wonderful on the fourteen or so invitations I brought with me on my spring break, but I'll post pictures of those later. Today I tackled the task of finding out from the Post Office how much it'll cost to mail out my beautiful invitations.

And the magic number is?

97 cents apiece.

Ouch. I'm thinking large square invitations should become less popular...because I would have been just as happy with a rectangle with a bow on top as a square with a bow on top...and I would be paying a hell of a lot less on postage.

But this is where we are now: what to do about stamps?

The United States Postal Service is less than helpful on this count: they produce absolutely no stamps in this denomination. Here are my conventional options from USPS:

This would be the only stamp needed, with three cents to spare...but it's not doing great on the pretty scale. The figure is supposed to be Wisdom, but...again....not much with the pretty though probably more convenient.








Now on to the combination candidates: I would use the pink stamp that I honestly don't like with either the Hershey Kiss stamp or the Louis Comfort Tiffany stamp that I like much better. Hershey Kiss has the advantage of making the postage exactly what it needs to be, but the LCT stamp is the prettiest one currently offered by USPS.














Now on to the other possible option: custom stamps. Several companies now provide the opportunity to create photo postage considered legal by the USPS without the overwhelming ugliness of the USPS stamp offerings.

Zazzle: doesn't make a 97 cent denomination. 92 cents yes, 97 cents no. And if I'm doing custom stamps I don't want to have to make more than necessary or use ugly stamps I don't like at all to make up the difference.

Stamps.com: same denomination problem as Zazzle.

As in love as I was with the idea of custom postage, right now it seems like a lot of hassle and expense compared with the idea of going with stamps I can live with even if I don't love them. What do you think?

Silly Inner Envelopes

Archie went to stay with his daddy for a couple of weeks since I intended to fly out for my spring break (since Andrew would be driving to Kentucky anyway a week later for his own break, it didn't make sense to drive). While he's been away, I've been trying to get the invitations put together.

Things I have learned:
1. Tying ribbon bows onto 125 folded invitation cards is extremely tedious.
2. I cannot tie a bow as nicely as Martha Stewart. After spending several hours trying to match her classy knot, I settled on the nicest bows I could tie, which involves the hangy part being on top of the bow part on one side and the entire bow lining up against the top of the card. Not exactly what I had in mind when I ordered the invitations, but I figured I could spend the next month on grad school or tying perfect bows.
3. Because the entirety of the bow is at the top of the card, the flaps on the inner envelopes will not stay closed.
4. The flaps not staying closed annoys the hell out of me.

So what to do about the flaps (not to mention putting 100 more of the 125 invitations and reception/info cards into envelopes)? Where there is a problem, I shall find an impulse-buy solution.

I've thought about using photo stamps for the invitations since square and ribbon=expensive postage the USPS doesn't actually make stamps in the denomination required. If we do that, I'm thinking about putting a bow tie on Archie after his next grooming visit and using that picture for the stamps to involve him in our day (more later on the complications of wanting to share wedding with puppy pseudo-child).

So what did I figure out to do? Keep the picture love going!

I ordered Kodak photo stickers, after cropping one of our engagement pictures to a square, and selected the "Sea Glass" border option for the 2" x 2" Martha Stewart stickers (30 on a sheet for $3.99 at KodakGallery.com). I shipped them to Andrew's house in Fulton (where I'll be for the next week on Spring Break--so exciting, I know) via the FedEx 2-day option.

Hopefully they'll arrive early next week and we'll be able to deliver them to all our college friends (who hopefully won't mind that they're getting hand-delivered invitations). In addition to packing for my flight tomorrow and doing last-minute laundry I need to go over our guest list and figure out how many invitations I need to take with me in all-but-done format to hand out/get postage cost estimated for the rest of the batch.

Now back to the packing planning for the rest of my work time, since I have to finish up tomorrow morning early and have yet to determine if I'm going to check two or carry-on two (the definite carryon is my backpack). Since I'm taking three flights to get from Lexington to St. Louis, I don't want to have to haul excess baggage through my two layover airports. However, I also don't want my luggage to not make a plane transfer at some point in these journeys, so I'm still conflicted about what to do, especially since I'm flying Continental for 2 flights but American for the last leg. Too easy to see stuff going horribly wrong, but discomfort of constantly dragging stuff around is also not appealing.

Shoe Second Thoughts

I have shoes for my wedding. Technically. I bought a pair of simple ballet slippers months ago since there are very few absolutely flat shoes that come in a 9 Wide and going with normal width is simply not an option if I don't want my feet to hate me.

But now that it's spring (for fashion, at least, even if I still am freezing my tail off outside), more white shoes are available for me to choose from.

Also, since I've decided that I want to take pictures in exciting locations like Union Station before the ceremony starts, I'll need shoes that I can actually walk around in without worrying about stepping on pebbles. So I started my search again.

I paid about $25 for the above ballet slippers from Zappos.com, Capezio Cobra (Ballet) for $25.

I love these eyelet skimmers but worry that they're too casual for wedding shoes...though my dress is floor length so it's not like I absolutely can't wear them: Grasshoppers Demi Eyelet for $46.

These are the other option I'm seriously considering, since they look cute yet comfortable and seem to strike a good balance between formal and playful. And they give me a reason to get a cute pedicure for the wedding other than the fact that I love to run around barefoot. They are, however, the most expensive pair I've looked at by a good little bit. Naturalizer Verdum, $72.95 on Zappos.

Which do you think would be best? I'm looking for honest opinions here, or I might find myself ordering whichever I'm thinking is the cutest at the moment. And if I pick another shoe, should I return my ballet slippers? (I think I still have time.)

Engagement Pictures for all to see!

Finally! I got the cd for the engagement pictures we took at the beginning of January, freezing in snow at Keeneland Park in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to check them out, look at our website's Multimedia Gallery at the album "Engagement Pictures." Here's a small sampling:

Yes, we are freakishly pale.

I love how the space between us in this one kinda looks like a heart.

What do you think?

My Always Valentine

Andrew sent me flowers for Valentine's Day. Beautiful yellow roses with pinky/red edges and a cute little teddy bear. Sorry the picture is kinda dark but they are lovely.

I'm so proud of him for taking the initiative.

And I love roses. So very much.

And I love Andrew. So very much. Much more than roses.

I have learned, though, that I should be thankful mom convinced me to go with a florist for the wedding, since I think we can all agree that my flower arranging skills are nowhere near DIY wedding level. Actually, my flower arranging skills pretty well suck.

Doesn't matter for today, though. Roses are gorgeous no matter what you do with them.

In Memory

I'd like to start off by saying that I have been blessed with the most amazing grandparents ever. My dad's parents have been happily married for over 60 years now, which was amazing to grow up with them being nearby.

My mom's parents were married almost as long, for over 59 years until my grandmother's death on December 26, 2006. My grandpa died this past year as well, and I miss them terribly.

All the little rituals I had with each of them that my parents didn't know about when I was little. How I'd go to church with grandpa on Sunday morning so I could stay with him on Saturday night and play checkers for Andes mints he kept in an old check box and watch the Lawrence Welk show with him and grandma. How they taught me the words to the songs. Helping grandma put together her intricate puzzles.

I wanted them to be at my wedding this June.

I'm going to carry them with me, instead. Yesterday I bought a locket pin from Ebay, and I'm going to shrink copies of the pictures of them that always sat on their dresser at their house to put in the frames. I'll attach it to the ribbon binding my bouquet.

Here are some pictures of the locket in it's current state:

The Invitations are Here!

After collecting and correcting email proofs of the text for my invitation, reception card, and printed outer envelopes, it only took a few weeks for my invitations to arrive from Davids Bridal.

I have to admit they're not really the invitations of my dreams, but those dream-invitations are letterpressed and crazy-expensive, so for the moment I'm not even thinking about them. They are exactly as I proofed the text, and the ribbon will exactly match the blue that runs through the rest of the wedding theme in the form of my sash and the bridesmaids dresses.

Overall, I'm happy with them. They fit the theme and the overall image I was aiming for, without breaking my budget to pieces. Though I wish I'd found rectangular rather than square cards, simply because of postage concerns. I may just do custom stamps, or look at international stamps since I think those would actually cover the cost of the mailings.

Though I am dreading all the assembly fun I have ahead of me...and have already started practicing my best handwriting (need to work to make the numbers match the lettering) for addressing in the future.

Now to collect actual addresses for people on our guest list.

Did anyone else have to settle on wedding invitations that they liked rather than ones they were completely in love with? It can't be that uncommon.