Surprise! I actually was able to post during the week. (Confession: I totally wrote this yesterday and pre-scheduled this one because that is what a good blogger would do - not that I can even pretend to be one).

BUT, I also was able to be home all evening because "Brad" from Heritage Mazda called in sick and the other workers apparently didn't know where my stuff was. As in, they weren't aware that a) my car was there and b) what service it required.  Ummm, that's comforting. Thanks for nothing, Heritage Mazda. I am glad one service man disrupts your flow of service for the entire day. I'm not bitter, though.

Anyway, like most weddings, we have a rehearsal dinner the evening before our wedding. Wendy wanted me to find some cute invites for this, but she also wanted me to find something for the brunch the day after the wedding that complimented it.

So guess where I went? ETSY! And thanks to a wonderful lady named Kim Henrie, we found some super cute invites in her Silly Me Design store.

Dinner (this is just a sample so don't go getting any ideas that we are having some dual purpose rehearsal dinner to announce babies and such. I just didn't want to include all of the nitty gritty details on this here world wide web.)

Brunch: Again, this is a sample with dummy text.  Wendy and my mom wanted to provide the out-of-towner's staying in the hotel with some grub prior to hitting the road or checking out the city. Thanks, moms!


I think they look great and it was fun to incorporate some new colors into the wedding. I think some people's refrigerator doors are getting rather full.

Since the invitations went out last week, and we already received a bunch of the reply cards, I thought I could finally share them on here! Like I mentioned before, these were not your traditional invites. I HEAVILY debated on beautiful, letter-pressed invites early on because I appreciate amazing paper, but then quickly realized it wasn't one of our top priority items. By top priority, I mean that there were certain things we were willing to justify the cost. The invites turned out not to be one of them.

My mom actually found the invites found on Etsy (we love Etsy, what can I say!?), and as SOON as I saw them, I knew they would be perfect. A lady by the name of Jennifer from Pasaii designed and printed them for us. They were simple, SO us and unbelievably cost effective. So, without further ado, below are the invites.

There was a finch, there was yellow and gray and there was the overall look. There isn't any fussy ribbons or fancy paper overlay, but it is right up our alley.

We debated over the RSVP cards because I wanted to save some trees and have everyone RSVP online. However, the mom's quickly vetoed that one because we have some older folk attendees who wouldn't appreciate the tree-loving, cyber-friendly option. In the end, I was happy we went with them too. 


We included the online RSVP on the card in case anyone preferred to respond that way and pointed everyone to our web site. Hopefully, people will submit some music while they are on there too (wink wink, nudge nudge).

The invites were sent in a very bright yellow envelope, and we even had custom stamps made from Zazzle (thanks to my mom, of course.)

All in all, I was very happy with the invites and thought they looked very "us." So now we move on to seating arrangements and final numbers. 8 weeks, what?!?!?!?

While in my head 75 days seems like a lot of time, when I think of the time we have left to plan in terms of weekends, it's not all that much. Next weekend, I will be devoting all my time to fitblogging, and I am even staying in a hotel downtown with my friend, Kathleen. Because we are going to run a 5k early Saturday before the conference starts, we thought it would be best to have a place we could get ready quickly. I mentioned the conference a few months ago, and I am so excited it's finally here. It will be great to finally meet some of the bloggers that I feel like I already know, plus test out some of the gear they are offering to attendees. Expect a full recap next week.

The following weekend is my bachelorette party in Florida - WOOHOO! I seriously can't even believe it's so soon. Granted, I have no idea of the activities we will be partaking in, I am sure it will be absolutely perfect thanks to the wonderful planning of my bridesmaids. :) I really could use some sun. I will be parking my very pale body right in one of those chairs.

During the time we are there, our invites are supposed to go out. And...I haven't actually sent in my final list yet to the printers. EEKS! But, she said it shouldn't take more than a week to turn them around, so I'm not that worried. The good thing, though, is that our designer said she already started printing the invitations, RSVP card and return addres labels, so printing out the envelopes shoudln't be too hard. I can't wait to see them; I can't wait for everyone to see them!

Then, the weekend after that is Easter (and my first dress fitting - whaaaaa!), and then the one after that is my shower in Pittsburgh. It's going to be a crazy, but wonderful few weeks.

One of the things I seemed to overlook is outfits for the Pittsburgh shower, rehearsal dinner, the bachelorette party and the honeymoon! Being that I have a love of clothes, it's one of the fun things that I couldn't believe I put last on the list. Not to worry, though, I did find some adorable dresses (and no, they aren't all from Anthropologie), but they are cute. While I won't share the outfits I bought, I thought it would be fun to share some of the accessories I found to compliment some of the outfits. :)

That's right, we are down to four months. I can't believe it, actually. We gave ourselves SO much time that none of the planning seemed "urgent." Other than the initial booking of the venue because it's over Memorial Day weekend, we haven't had to really rush very much. Well, it's time to get serious.

Now, we don't have to get crazy, but each week, there is something that has to be done for the wedding. I am SO happy to say, however, that we found our invitations. And...we found them on Etsy!! I would put the designers name, but if you looked her up, you would totally know which ones we selected. :)  I'll give you a little visual hint, though.

It kind of happened by accident, and my mom was really the one that found them; but when I saw them, everything came together. And, that is because they aren't just invitations. We found the invitations, programs, table numbers and name cards. It's all in our color scheme, and it's perfect. For some reason that seemed to be a GIANT load off of my shoulders, because I just didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted. And, the kind I thought I wanted were CRAZY expensive. The ones we purchased, however, were not. Score.

In addition to the invitations, Jared has also been doing little tweaks to our site. One of things that Jared and I love is music. And, we want it to be just right on our wedding day. To do that, we need all of our friend's help. We added a section to our website where you can submit your requests, and we will compile all of this for our DJ. I think a party is often driven by the music, and it's important that everyone can have some of their favorites played. So, with that said, come on and SUBMIT YOUR FAVORITE SONGS!:  Just click on the "submit music" button.

Next, I have to work on some of the fun things...shoes and accessories. On one hand, I would LOVE to pick a vibrant pair of shoes that would pop. On the other hand, my dress isn't all that poofy, and my brightly colored, hot shoes may just come off as distracting. So, I am on a mission to find out what is perfect for me. Suggestions are welcome. :)

Welp, we crossed off a pretty big to-do on the list today. We selected and bought our wedding bands!

We are both absolutely in love with them and want to wear them NOW. Actually, Jared asked me (in the store when making the final purchase) if we could start wearing them as soon we had them in hand as he didn't realize that you only get them at the ceremony. He said, and I quote, "Oh, I thought we just took them off at the wedding and put them back on during the ceremony." I had to giggle a little bit at that. Although, my brother did wear his as an engagement ring too, so it would make sense how he would think that. Come to think of it, maybe men should wear one just like women do to show they are "off the market." Hmmmmmm.

Moving on - on Tuesday, we are finally sitting our butts down with our wedding coordinator, Austin, at Grey Rock and selecting the menu. This will give us a firm price per head so that we now know exactly how much we need to save to have all of our dearest family and friends there with us. It's hard to truly understand the budget without this.

To top if all off, we will be selecting our invitations next week with Maryn, so that makes things feel like they are moving. It's funny because it all of a sudden went from "oh, you guys have a plennnnnnty of time" to "oh wow...you guys really need to get moving on stuff."

It is time to get down to business....but FIRST, I get to experience my best friends wedding THIS SATURDAY!!! I can't wait to see how everything came together and to see the look on E's face on that day. I don't even have words.

{via 100 layer cake}