Skeptickle

I was originally going to launch right into our ceremony, but I almost forgot about our programs! These were one of my favorite projects for our wedding. Mostly because they weren’t necessary so if I screwed up then they didn’t need to get distributed. I wanted to do something simple but elegant, and a little different from the usual booklets with staples. I loved the Stardream Opal cover paper at Paper Source so I decided to use that for our programs (sorry, they don’t photograph very well).

I basically designed the pages of the program on two 8.5″ by 11″ canvases in Illustrator (one for each printing side). I placed a light grey vertical line down the middle of each canvas to separate the pages. After printing them out on a laserjet printer (a must for Stardream papers), I’d use a bone folder to make a neat crease along the grey vertical line. I’d then fold it down that crease, wrap a ribbon around the fold and tie it at the top. I think they turned out pretty well.

The front of the program.

A close-up of the quote from Morrie and a Thank You to our guests.

A peek at the inside of the program.

The back of the program.

Dear J Crew,

Here we are again. I just received one of your 20% off final sale coupon codes in my inbox. For me, it’s like a shining light – full of promises and potential, compared to my other emails, which consist mostly of spam from pharmaceutical companies in Canada. You tempt me with lovely textures, gorgeous colors, and the charm and sophistication that I crave. Nevermind that you’re a company for yuppies and bourgies. They obviously have good style sense. So I noticed that you’re starting to raise your prices, which means that the sale prices are higher also. This is probably the best for the both of us. Soon I won’t be able to afford you and we will part ways. Doesn’t mean I don’t want you badly, I just…don’t think it’s right for me to go with my instincts of buying now and thinking later. Don’t you agree? I mean, that’s what screwed so many people over in this economy in the first place.

Just know that it has taken me a lot of will-power not to order this from you:

or these:

and these…

and these…

and maybe these:

Nevermind that I almost never wear heals. I’m certain that if I buy one of these magical ones from you then I’ll be just like one of your models- cute, light & breezy, and perpetually happy. Alas, I am young, and it would be irrational of me to take from the pot that will go towards a down payment, our future family, and possible emergencies. So for now, I will have to quash my urges and find satisfaction from solely drooling over your beautiful pictures. I hope you understand.

Love always,

Sophia Q.

At first, I had wanted to do something really creative with our Save the Dates. I’ve seen some pretty extraordinary ones around the wedding blogosphere (messages in bottles, newsletters, playbills, silk-screened tea towels, movies, etc.). I would’ve loved to sink my hands into a project like that, but then reality set in. Sending out 100 sets of any of the above would’ve costed us a pretty penny. Also, a large portion of Rob’s invitees were friends of his family or extended family that he hasn’t seen in a decade or more. Some might have forgotten who he is and most don’t know what he looks like as an adult. They certainly don’t know who I am or what I look like either. That was about one-fourth of our invitees by the way.

We loved our engagement pictures so much that we decided to go simple and use one of our favorites as our STD. It’s one of the more intimate pictures and it partially revealed our faces so that people would be able to recognize us. We photoshopped all the vital information* on one end of the photo and printed them out via Costco’s photo services. We made a whole bunch of magnets with our monogram thanks to Mrs. Pineapple’s tutorial on Weddingbee. Then we printed out envelopes, stuffed them with the 4×6 photo/cards and threw in about three of our monogram magnets.

These were a huge hit among our close friends and family. I still love how artsy it looks!

*Vital information is apparently subjective. I thought it would be important to include our first and last names. You know, for that fourth of invitees who might not know who we were? Rob had so much confidence that everyone was going to figure it out themselves via our wedding website that he only included the url to it. Turns out, pretty much no one paid any attention to that url and very few guests went on our website. We still got questioned even after the invitation packets were sent about travel and accommodations. “Lazy people = clueless wedding guest” post will be forthcoming. It sucked a$$ because I stayed up late working on that website for several weeks to make sure it has all the info guests would need. Anyways, sorry for the side rant. C’est la vie!