Invitation Madness

We finally got our invitations done.  Total cost (including postage!): $62.50

Our completed invites. Yes, we are sending one to
President Obama.  Just because.

To the right is our completed invites.  Printing took about 3 hours over a few days.  My HP printer didn't like the size of the reply cards, so we had a lot of trial and error before we got them situated correctly, and we had the same problem with both sets of envelopes.  So I can definitely see why some brides would choose to just pay someone to do this for them.  We also printed all the addresses with the printer rather than hand-printing them, which according to theknot.com is a huge no-no.  Frankly, having grown up in the digital age, I think that is kind of ridiculous.  My handwriting is not nearly nice enough to look good on a wedding invitation, so why not go with a printer?  If I had handwritten them, I probably would have gotten calls from family about how terrible my handwriting is- so it's a lose-lose situation for me. I might as well just use the printer and save myself some time (and carpal tunnel).

To save money on postage, instead of including traditional response cards for some of our invitees, we included cards with the address of our website, where guests can respond online.  We still sent traditional response cards to the more traditional members of our family, but this saved us $8 or so on postage.  We also hand-delivered invites to our friends we see often (that saved us about $20). Again, we are ignoring traditional wedding etiquette here. But instead of spending the average $659* on invitations, we now have more money to put towards the things that really matter to us with this wedding- food and alcohol!

*For the record, I have no idea where the Bridal Association of America got this number (or their upper end number of $2700 for 100 thermographic and engraved invitations).  That seems outrageous to me.  Did those wedding invitations sing and dance for you too?

I've Taken the Plunge...

... and bought a wedding dress.  That definitely makes this whole "wedding" thing feel so real.  Yesterday I went to David's Bridal with my best friend (and maid of honor) and another friend (and bridesmaid) and my MOH's mom, who kindly played the sane, motherly role for us.  While in the past I have derided the quality of David's Bridal, you can't beat the price and can get some nice dresses for really cheap.  (And some really ugly dresses for lots of money. You have to have balance.) We went during their $99 dress sale, so it was a bit hectic.

Special thanks to Jessica's mom Alison
for buying this for me as a gift!

My consultant, Emma, was fantastic.  Her style of dress- very retro- was very much what I was looking for.  She didn't try to push us into anything, and in general was just a lot of fun.  I tried on maybe six or seven dresses in a few styles, and ended up picking the third dress I tried on, which was one of my top five from their website anyways.  I was done in half the time of a regular appointment- though I think that was because I knew what I wanted, or more accurately, what I didn't want, and that narrowed down my choices.  I had also decided that I was going to buy that day, which helped, and probably made my consultant a little more attentive to me since she does work on commission.  With the sale discount, including tax, my dress was $279.  The best part was that I don't need any alterations- I fit the Size 6 perfectly.  At most I might have to have it hemmed a bit, depending on how much the dress I ordered ends up like the one I tried on.  (I've been told I'm not allowed to post pictures of the dress or me in it so I can "surprise people".  I don't really care if people see it beforehand, but the bridesmaids were fairly adamant about this point, and since they were such good sports about the bridesmaid dress shopping, I'll acquiesce.  But here's a picture of my hair decoration, to give you a hint.)

This is the bridesmaid dress.  Just imagine it
in cornflower blue, not whatever this is.

We made such good time shopping for me, that we decided to look at bridesmaids dresses.  Finding a dress for a busty girl and a not so busty girl was ridiculously difficult.  There were so many dresses that one of them liked but the other hated.  They probably tried on 15 different styles, and of course the very last one we tried on was the one they liked.  It's a bit more formal than I was going for, but looks really cute with my dress, and is the kind of dress you could wear again (though I doubt they will).  The best part was, the dress was $99, but because I bought my wedding dress there, they only paid $79.

 The next thing we have to do is figure out what the groom, best man, and grooms-person will wear.  I think the grooms-person will probably wear the same dress as the bridesmaids, only in silver or black.  But I haven't a clue what the groom will wear.  A tux is just too formal for our wedding.  If anyone has suggestions, let me know!

Craigslist

A few updates:

First off, we managed to finally find an officiant available on our wedding date, for a reasonable price.  I actually found her on Craigslist of all places!  Her name is Anne, and she's the "Rev for Whatev", and she seems pretty cool.  When we told her we are students doing a wedding on tiny budget, she opened up her "elopement" option, which is only $150.  We'll pick from one of her standard ceremonies, and it will be a nice, short secular ceremony.  She's done tons of weddings and civil ceremonies, and seems to be a really accepting and respectful of people's beliefs (or lack therof).

Second, on Craigslist, while browsing the "Events" section, I found a photographer who is building her portfolio, and offered to do photos for free.  We're meeting with her at the end of the month.  Her name is Natallia, and she seems really nice and excited to be shooting a wedding.  I actually found a lot of student photographers or photographers just starting out who were willing to do wedding photography for really cheap.  I know that we might be taking a risk, but I like the idea of helping someone out at the same time they are doing me a service.  And the photos of hers that I have seen are really nice.  

Michael's is a thrifty girl's best friend!

Today, I went with the MOH to look at the wedding site, take measurements (so we could determine how many tables would fit), and think of decorating ideas.  Afterwards we went to Michael's, and we discovered that they are the best place ever for a thrifty girl.  We went in not planning on buying anything at all, just to get a few ideas to compare cost.

We ended up walking out with a completely full cart.

First off, they were having a sale on wedding invitation kits, and I found one which I liked.  We got 80 invitations and response cards (plus envelopes) for $39.99.

Then, we wandered over to the fake flower aisle.  I've more or less decided fake flowers are going to be the way to go, since a) Gerber daisies are expensive and b) incredibly fragile.  And frankly, everyone knows that we are broke students, so they shouldn't be surprised by the fake flowers (we fully intend everyone be far too drunk to notice the flowers anyways).

Anyways, Michael's is pretty cheap for flower "bundles"- $7.99 for the orange, pink, and yellow bundle.  I didn't buy any though, because I have time to look for even better prices online.  Then we found the discount aisle and made an awesome discovery- these cute little tin cans for $0.80 a piece!  With a little bundle of Gerber daisies, they make perfect centerpieces on the blue and white printed table clothes the MOH's mother is making for me.   We bought out the entire stock of cans, and it cost us $24.  Hopefully we'll be able to find some cheaper fake flowers online and keep the entire centerpiece budget under $200.

We also found cute little rustic tags for favors ($1.00 for 12) and two rustic metal and wood signs that we can write "Guest Book" and "Name Cards" on.  Basically, I think our style is going to be a "rustic" chic, which definitely works with both our budget and the location.

Total for today: $97

Ordering vs. Home-Printing

We realize that by doing this somewhat last minute, we need to get invitations out to at least out-of-town family ASAP.  I looked into the common discount sellers- VistaPrint, 123 Print, etc. and really couldn't find anything below $130 for 80 invites (and that was just the invites!).  Jason and I took a walk over to Office Depot today though, and noticed that even the small store in Hyde Park had a few wedding invitation kits which were fairly cheap- $35 for 50, and that included invitations, envelopes, note cards, etc.  That led us to investigating the whole "kit" option more seriously. I have an inkjet printer that works fairly well (other than it jamming roughly 25% of the time, but I can deal with that to save money!), so we should be able to print them at home.  I looked at Staples and Office Depot online, and most of their stuff was pretty standard- silver/gold borders, hearts, etc.- which didn't appeal to us.  But then I thought, I wonder if Target has anything.  And it turns out they actually have some really pretty designs for good prices.

These are the ones I am currently leaning towards, because for $34 for 30, it includes invitations and response cards, and envelopes for both.  And I feel like the plant theme goes well with our forest BBQ idea.

http://www.target.com/p/Cathy-Botanical-Invitations-Kit-Green-White/-/A-12234732

This one I really like as well, and goes a bit more with the colors I'm thinking (blue being the main one).  It's cheaper- $29.99 for 40, but it doesn't include response cards. 

http://www.target.com/p/Mara-Mi-Floral-Invitation-Kit-Blue-Green/-/A-13957961

Picnic permit approved!

It's official- Jason and I are getting married on August 18.  This summer.  Or I just spent $110 on a permit for the Pulaski Woods for nothing.

Well, we're going for it!

Jason and I have been engaged for a long time- a year and a half already.  I'm a graduate student, and he's still working on finding a teaching job, so paying for a wedding wasn't really in the cards.  But a few weeks ago, I had an idea- what if we made the whole affair into a super-cheap BBQ wedding?  We could do that for under $2500, right?  If we make it into a casual, fun affair, where our friends and family can just hang out, eat, drink, and have a good time, that would be just as good- in our minds at least- as a fancy $15,000 Chicago wedding. So we decided to go for it.

Yesterday we went and looked at some places in the Cook County Forest Preserve.  The nice part about the forest preserve is that most (though not all) picnic groves allow alcohol, and a picnic permit for under 100 people is only $55.  Below is the picnic grove we really like, Pulaski Woods.  It's quiet, overlooks a small lake, and has a nice shelter.  There are enough picnic tables there and in the vicinity that we shouldn't have to rent chairs or tables.  If it rains, there's the shelter which is relatively enclosed, and if not, we have lots of extra space.  The little kids in Jason's family will have plenty of space to run around, and we'll have a great places to take photos.   The only hitch is that we're a bit late in applying for a picnic permit, so we're at the mercy of availability for dates.  And a few of our friends are getting married this summer around the same time frame we're looking at, AND I have comprehensive exams in mid-September, which pretty much blacks out September as a possibility.  We'll see what happens.