{{{MY DIY INVITATION SUITE}}}

I am so happy to finally be able to share our invitations with you guys! They have been such a labor of love. There were so many times when I thought about giving up and just ordering invitations from a design company, but I knew if I could just find strength and look at the big picture it would all be worth it.

I had the writing printed at a print shop with the thermography machine, and they turned out FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC!! I was so blown away by the price that I was given, because I was told and read about how expensive it was. I hand embossed all of the green damask elements on my invite. I also added the peridot Swarovski crystals just so I could have a touch of bling to the entire suite. All envelopes were hand written by me and the return address was a custom stamp. If you guys have any questions just ask and I will reply to your comment on this post.

{Cost Breakdown}
Paper:: $40 (100 sheets of Champagne Metallic 100lb.)
Thermography Printing:: $89.00 (60 sheets printed and cut to size)
Belly-Band Prints & Cutting:: $4.00
Brown Card Stock:: $2.50
Green Textured Paper (Belly-Bands)::$1.25
Glue::$5.00
Swarovski Crystals:: $4.00
Envelopes::$15.00
Pocketfolds::$55.00
Custom Stamp:: $18
Postage:: $61.20
TOTAL COST:: $292.20
Total Cost Per Invite:: $5.13

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They're Off...Invites are in the Mail!

So today was a GREAT day! I finally put the invites in the mail!!!!! I am so excited and happy that they are finally finished and headed to our lovely guests! Oh what a headache they were, but it was all worth it because they turned out BEAUTIFUL and just the way I wanted them. I love that the post office offered a $.61 cent wedding stamp it saved me about $20, so woohoo to that.

{Wedding Stamp}

{RSVP Stamp}

{Stopped at a stop sign in from of the Post Office, so happy! Sorry about the bad cell phone pictures!}

{My precious cargo}

{There they go.....} {Our Invitation to Mr. President}

{{{SNEAK PEAK}}}

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Rethinking my centerpieces....

I initially wanted my high centerpieces to be the Carnation orbs on top of a cylinder vase, but they are going to be very pricey and with my final floral meeting coming up I am trying to find a more budget friendly alternative. I want to keep things classy and fell in love with curly willow branches. They will be tall but not as pricey as the carnation orbs. See the picture for my inspration on the willow branches. I will not have roses but carnations and moss. What are some of your thoughts?

{source}

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We are Finally Registered!

{Source}

With just a little over two months until the wedding, FH and I finally did our registry. It was really fun, we were acting like children in a candy store! I had a lot of reservations about registering because FH and I already live together and I didn't want to feel like we were begging people for gifts. We currently live with our in-laws (in the Guest House) to both save money for our dream home and because we have hectic schedules and his mom is such a help with our daughters. I was encouraged by my friends and family to do a registry anyway because most of the items in the guesthouse belong to his parents, so we did. We chose Belk, Target & Amazon for our three places because it gives our guests in all budget ranges a chance to choose where they would like to purchase from.

Did anyone else fell funky about registering? Or am I over analyzing again?

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I Have Been a BAD BLOGGER!!!!

Sorry for being so scarce lately, but I am in the thick of finishing up our beautiful invitation that will hopefully go out this Friday so I can share them with you all next week. They have honestly been more work than I initially thought.

I do have a long story for you if you want to read about it....

You know that I wanted to do the calligraphy for each invite and I started out doing that but felt overwhelmed so I nixed it. I then commenced to creating the really pretty wrap-around labels. On night one of trying to create the labels my computer decided that it wanted to crash, I freaked out to say the least because I had not backed up pictures or documents in such a long time. I called our IT guy from work (who is just a saint and is so sweet!!), he calmed me down and told me to bring my laptop to work the next morning. Initially he fixed whatever was wrong with my computer, and I backed up everything from my wedding flash drive to my work computer because I was paranoid about losing all my work. The next night the computer is working fine I spent 4 hours creating my labels and plugging in each address, at the end of doing all of that I took my computer and plugged the printer up to it to do a test print. I went to open my label and guess what "file could not be found!" WHAT!?!? I looked at my flash drive and it was not blinking like it should have been, to make a longer story short, I lost everything and the flash drive was FRIED!! Thank goodness I backed everything up on my work computer that day. But it did not save what I had just spent 4 hours creating. I just took it as a sign that I am meant to hand address those envelopes and I am happy to report that I am halfway done and I will probably have carpel tunnel by the end of the week but I couldn't be any happier with the results! I can't wait to share them with you guys.

Here are the labels I was working on, mine had a different design:

Source

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My New Clutch!

A while ago I purchased a gold clutch for wedding day. It was a great deal at only $6 but after I put my entire look together I found that the gold was just too strong and my jewelry is all platinum or silver so it did not mesh well. So here I was on the hunt again for a new clutch with more of the champagne color in it to match my dress and shoes.

While Christmas shopping I came across this beautiful little Jessica McClintock purse and thought it was a great fit. It had the beautiful champagne that matched my dress and also had a bit of a gold color in it, but not sparkly gold like the other clutch. It was a steal @ $12 because they retail for $25. I love it and its not too big or too small its perfect for me.

**All Pictures are property of MyDreamRing

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Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year peeps! The one thing that I am looking forward to in 2010 is my wedding!!! I will be marrying the man who has stuck by me for the last 11 years and we have been through so much together and I am so thankful for him and my daughters. I have a feeling that 2010 will be a great year.

Best of Luck to all of you! You all have a safe and fun night!!

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