Before actually purchasing the seals, I decided to implore one more resource: my uncle who's worked in the post office for years. He told me (without seeing the invite) they might just not be laying flat enough. He told me to take a ruler and really flatten them. That takes more time, so I
Sign, sealed, deliv... hold up. I spent an hour folding, stamping, and sealing our millions of invitations. (OK, not really millions, but a lot). Not to mention I did it all in my car to save time from having to drive back to my house. I'm a busy girl and it's all about squeezing the most out of the day. After doing so, I went into the post office to "hand cancel" them so that they don't run through a machine - purely for aesthetics. Well, the clerk said hand canceling doesn't prevent them from running through a machine at some point. She was concerned because the sides of my invites gaped since they are a tri-fold postcard of sorts. She told me I would have to place a seal on the right side so that it wouldn't possibly get caught and/or shredded by the sorting machines. Really? Another step? (See post Invitation: Time vs Quality on 1.11.13)
Not liking what I'm hearing, I called another post office. She said much the same and mentioned I could pay a 20 cent per invite "no machine" charge. Well, I'm not paying anymore than I have to so I decided to go with the seals. I emailed the invitation company owner Renatta to thank her for the invites and let her know about this extra step. Her company has their own post office rep. He says the invites don't require a side seal. Renatta wanted to know who I spoke with so their rep could clear it up with them. She said if I bring them back to her, she'll mail them. Before actually purchasing the seals, I decided to implore one more resource: my uncle who's worked in the post office for years. He told me (without seeing the invite) they might just not be laying flat enough. He told me to take a ruler and really flatten them. That takes more time, so I
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I have the best friends a girl can have. No matter how many miles or states or oceans or countries get in the way, I know they will always be there for me. My bridal party is made up of my sister, two cousins, three high school best friends, and future sister-in-law. I can't imagine not having one of them there for me on the BIG day. Weddings are a lot about the bride. But I've been thinking a lot about how to show my love and appreciation for these important women. Tonight I found a little something for them while out shopping. I hope to find a few more little somethings or a big something to complete the package. Even if they hate it for some reason, I just really hope they know I couldn't get married without them there.
Love you ladies - Jennifer, Ashlee, Michael, Jillian, Jaclyn, Ashley and Tessa! Love must be sincere A wedding means something different to each person. Some, it's just about making it legal, some it's about the fashion and decor and presents, some it's about the connection with God. While I want our wedding to be beautiful and amazing, I also want it to be rooted in our faith and thank God for bringing us together and make Him a part of our marriage for the next however many years. So to us, the readings during the ceremony are very important. I just read the Bible cover to cover this fall and honestly, there aren't many verses that jumped out at me for the ceremony. Surprisingly and luckily, our church provided us with a list of suggested readings. From that, we selected two: Genesis 2:18-24 and Romans 12:9-12. These reflect God's purpose of creating man and woman and marriage and the importance of love overall. It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable helper for him. Missourah will always have a special place in my heart. I really enjoyed my 5-6 years of being a Missourian. It doesn't sound that great to a lot of people, but in all reality, Columbia and Joplin treated me well. I hadn't been back in more than a year so I jumped at the chance to make a run across the border. Lucas' sister recently moved to Chillicothe, Mo. I've driven through there once on my way from Des Moines to Columbia but don't think I even stopped for gas there. It's a cute town - probably about 12,000 people. Too small for me, but just right for many others. We ate at Applebee's, watched football, ate chili, did some wedding research, went to church and went to a 31 party. 31 is a brand of bags, totes, purses, etc.. There stuff is really cute. In fact, I received two of their products for Christmas from the future in-laws. It's just like a tupperware party where you place your order at the party and the hostess gets freebies or special gifts if so many orders are placed or money is spent. The women there were all very fun and... loud. My wedding came up, and oh my goodness, the totes and make up bags were long forgotten and everyone zoned in on wedding talk. It really is amazing how women can bond over wedding planning of a complete stranger! It was all very nice and goes to show Missourians are just as nice as Iowans.
After a not so pleasant surprise turn in my wedding invitation process, I needed to take the edge off. When you really just want a glass (or two) of wine, sometimes you just don't care what kind it is. Regardless, you still have to make a decision when you're in the wine aisle of Hy-Vee. I knew I was going low budget. Looking down to the lower shelves, this Beringer White Merlot caught my eye. White Merlot? Being the wine connoisseur that I am, I was blown away I'd never heard of such a concoction.
After the shock of a new wine settled in, I realized it's probably tastes very much like a blush due to it's pink color. Sure enough, my wine instincts were correct. Not too dry, not too sweet, not too heavy. It was a good drink-by-itself wine in which I'm sure to pick up again. My wedding invitations are awesome. There is no doubt I think they are super cool and original and better than everyone else's. You can see in the pictures what it looks like laying flat. You fold it up, put the custom-made monogram seal on the back and it's good to go. The RSVP is perforated so your guests simply tear it off and mail it back as a postcard. Unfortunately, my time has been sucked into these. Here's why.
I met Lotus Moments owner Renatta at a bridal show in West Des Moines. She told me these "self-mailers" were $2 each. After comparison shopping, that seemed like a pretty good deal. It's no extra to get pictures on it or art and it doesn't matter what colors, fonts, wording, layout or anything else, it's $2. That is nice to have no surprise hidden costs. I worked extensively with one of the designers emailing back and forth to make the invite perfect. It was awesome to have so much input, and the final design is perfect. However, when I went to pick them up Friday, the picture with the skyline in the background had a lot of white specks/flakes from not printing perfectly. If it hadn't been speckly on Lucas' black shirt, black hair and tan face, I might have let it slid. But this was noticeable and distracting. Renatta offered to reprint the bad ones at no cost. After reviewing them three times, I wanted half of them redone. Lucas and his mom then realized the RSVP cards were not perforated either. So I sent Renatta an email and they reprinted and perforated all of them at no cost. They look great now! So many printed perfectly. My co-workers told me no one would notice, but I figure if I'm paying money for a product, I expect it to be done right. I'm glad Lotus Moments worked with me through that without any hassel. (See post Another Invitation Snag on 1.16.13 for more) ...flower girl! I ordered my niece/goddaughter Gianna's dress to wear as my flower girl. Please tell me this is not adorable! Sure, sure, looking back when she's grown up the styles will change and she'll wonder why the hell I put her in a tutu just like I wonder how my mom wore a hat/veil at her 80's-riffic wedding.
Ordering this dress was also my first purchase on Etsy.com. I started an account today (as my 45th social media account) just to order the dress. I'm sure more orders will be coming soon. There's lots of great, unique items on there and some, including this dress for $31 plus $6 shipping, that are reasonably priced. Plus, you can help the little boutiques and in-home businesses rather than the big box retailers. How is it possible that Lucas and I have been together for just shy of a year and have never been to the movies together? I'm not sure either. When we first started dating we both admitted going to the movies is the worst first, second, third, etc date because you can't talk to each other. How are you supposed to get to know someone when you can't talk? Beat's me.
We both had heard good things about Les Miserables and decided to go this afternoon. Neither of us had seen the theater production or knew much about it. I ended up sobbing at the end; Lucas was almost tuned out by the end. It was a little long, but I think it was amazingly done. I had no idea Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Amanda Seyfried could sing so well. I also had no idea (SPOILER ALERT) that Anne's character dies 20 minutes into the film. I was not a fan of Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter's role. It took me back to Sweeney Todd in which they both played quite identical roles. I really liked Helena in Fight Club, but now she's just getting type-casted (think Harry Potter too). Doubt I'll buy the movie or ever see it again for that matter, but I feel more well-rounded and more sophisticated. Holy Moly. I've put off shopping at the new Hy-Vee supercenter monstrosity of ginormous grocery stores for 5 months. Today, I succumbed. Lucas had to buy a bunch of healthy groceries for his upcoming fitness challenge, and we figured Hy-Vee would have a good selection. And they did. It was too good. This place has rows of containers filled with oats, grains, nuts, and cereals. They had tortilla wraps in four different locations. It took us an hour to get through every aisle and deal with cart and foot traffic. That place is packed - in a bad way.
It's been almost a month since I finished my last book, the Bible. I decided it was time to start a new one. My choice? Emma by Jane Austen. How I picked this book was really just based on the author. I read Pride and Prejudice back in college and enjoyed her writing. The content, however, is just so foreign to me. Life for women in Austen's time was all about getting married. That's it. No college, no work, no traveling, no shopping. I decided to give her another go. This time I'm listening to the book on CD. I find this a good way to avoid the over-played songs on the radio. A few chapters in, I don't feel this is much of a book. It's just character descriptions. I'm guessing at some point, and hopefully soon, the characters will all be playing a role in a plot line of sorts. I'll keep you posted when I finish in a few weeks.
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