They are finally done!!!!

My invites are done! I owe ALOT to my fantastic bridesmaids!

Because I live so far away from the printer and would not have been able to even pick up the invites until this weekend, my sister-in-law, Hilary, and her mom, Denise, picked up the invites and inserts from the printer last week and put them all together for me! They cut all of the yellow backing to size, then taped the invites to the yellow backing and taped that yellow backing to the pocketfold, and they also put all the inserts in the pocket! All 102 of them! They are lifesavers!

After I picked up the invites from them, another of my bridesmaids, Shannon, came over to help me with the wax seals. She did the wax dripping (and suffered many burns, what a great friend!) and I did the stamping. I'll admit, none of them looked perfect, but Shannon likes to remind me that gives them character!

Just a quick review, this link shows how I made the pocketfolds.

Here is the pocketfold filled with the invite and inserts. I will post my design of each of the parts of the invite once I make them "internet safe"

And a finished invite, including the wax seal.

And a close up of the wax seal, so you can see the J & M. I bought this wax stamper when we were in Rome last summer, at a little paper store that was literally RIGHT behind the Pantheon. I've always seen the fancy script initial, but I loved that this one had both of our initials, and wasn't in script.

Thank goodness they are done! I have them all in envelopes and all envelopes addressed with stamps. I just need to seal them and drop them off this Friday!

So exciting!

Shower Time!

My bridesmaids had my bridal shower yesterday. It was very nice! We got a lot of great things off the registry and had some awesome cake!

The two things I wanted the most were a stand mixer and a hand vac, and I got two of each! When I take the duplicates back, I'll keep the store credit for Jake to buy a grill. We also got lots of money that we're saving to buy bedroom furniture after we move back to the US.

My mom also gave me a beautiful wall hanging that she made! Since it's fits so well with the wedding theme, we will probably display it somewhere at the reception.


I only got 2 pictures yesterday with my camera, but when I get the other photos from my bridesmaid I'll post them.


Here are most of my bridesmaids, my niece Alex (Junior Bridesmaid), my sister-in-law Hilary, and my best friend Shannon (bridesmaids). My sister (matron-of-honor) is overseas and couldn't make it to the shower. But she is planning a fun bachelorette party for when she comes home in June! I can't wait!

And here I am with Jake's sister and Mom, Jacie and Sandy. I'm so glad they were able to make it to the shower, and that my directions worked!

2 months...really!

2 months left until the wedding! I really can't believe that! It's seems like just a couple of months ago when we got the ring and announced the engagement, but actually it was almost 14 months ago! Time has flown by. There are 12 1/2 days left of school and 7 weeks until Jake is home. And of course, 60 days until the wedding! I have a lot of work to do!

Favors

The matchbooks came in yesterday! Well...at least half of them did! I ordered 100, but then after I saw that my guest list has reached (and passed) the 250 mark, I decided to order 100 more. I received the first order yesterday. I think they turned out pretty nice, for how cheap they were! Now I get to play around with sparklers and ribbon to make them look presentable as a favor.

It was really hard to get a photo of the matchbook with the flash on, so I turned the flash off, and the color doesn't look quite right in the photo. It is a navy blue with gold writing.

I'm leaving work a little early today to go to the printer this afternoon. Hopefully no other customers will come in so we can get all of my invites and inserts printed off before she closes for the week. I REALLY wish she were open on Saturdays!

71 days!

Stampin' Up

I took my mock-up invitation in an envelope to the post office to check how much the postage would cost.

I few months ago I bought a book of the really pretty 42 cent sunflower stamps. I was really hoping it would still be light enough to still use those 42 cent stamps. How perfect would those be? I even planned to mail my invites right before the postage prices go up on May 11.

Sadly, the weight of the full invite was too heavy and required an extra 17 cents. The 17 cent stamps were HIDEOUS! Seriously....a big horn sheep! I did NOT want an ugly sheep next to my pretty sunflowers!

Luckily, they ordered the special 59 cent "wedding" stamps. I don't like them as much as I would have liked the sunflowers, but at least these are pretty!
77 days until the wedding and only 5 more weeks of school!

Say cheese!

Our engagement photos are done! Check them out at:

http://bagtagsell.smugmug.com/clients
and scroll down to maggie holmes

I get to pick my favorites to be retouched. So let me know which you like the best!

Dress Up

Here are the bridemaids dresses that have been chosen so far. I told the ladies they could choose any David's Bridal dress in knee length in the color Marine.


Shannon chose sytle F13408.Hilary chose style F13277.

Alex chose style 83312. She's 12 years old and apparently when she found out this dress has built in pockets, she didn't need to see any more!
My maid-of-honor's dress will be a little more difficult to pick out. Susie won't be back in the US until less than a month before the wedding and she will be about 7 months pregnant at the time of the wedding! We will make something work!