Wedding Wednesday: Updates, Updates

This last week has been pretty busy. We've booked quite a few things this past week and have even more things planned over the next few weeks. I'm actually starting to get a little stressed, mostly because my bank account is getting a little stressed.

Anyway, I booked our videographer this week. We did decide to go with a wedding video. I have watched way too many amazing ones lately to pass up this opportunity. They are such a far cry from my parents' wedding video from 1987. We decided to use Hammond Studios for our video. Edwin, the owner, has done videos for several friends and people I know and their videos turn out fabulous. In fact, I didn't even look at another videographer because I was so in love with his work. If you'd like to see it he has several examples on his website or you can check out the video from Brad's cousin Adam's wedding this past June here. There's also a sneak peak video somewhere on that blog if you don't want to watch the entire wedding. I'll be honest, I didn't, but since I was there in person I just skipped past the ceremony and caught all the other bits and pieces. I'm super excited for our wedding video now, one reason being that it's one of the first big things I've paid for out of my regular bank account, not my savings account. Ha!

We have a cake tasting this Saturday at Sugar Kneads Cakery. This bakery was on Food Network's Cupcake Wars and I cannot wait to try all the delicious cakes. We probably didn't pick the best time to go considering we have a Thanksgiving meal to go to after our cake tasting but we try to time wedding things with when we are actually in town.

We also picked a date for our engagement pictures! We're having them taken on January 20, 2014 in downtown Monroe, GA where we are getting married. There are so many old buildings and antique shops plus lots of parks. This is also MLK Jr. Day so offices downtown should be closed. We won't have to deal too much traffic downtown since practically no one will be there. I'll be wanting some ideas for outfits and poses soon. We put off having them taken sooner in order to get in better shape. Unfortunately we aren't quite where we want to be and we are coming up on the holidays which we all know are the worst time to lose weight. Oh well, we can't put it off any longer. I guess this means we'll have to hit the gym twice as hard these next few months.

Lastly, I mentioned a while ago that I had ordered invitation samples from Etsy. My favorite thing about invitations on Etsy are that they are entirely customizable and way more affordable than sites like Wedding Paper Divas or Minted. I really love the untraditional invitations but prefer traditional wording. All the samples came in and I'd love some opinions on them. I think I have a favorite, but I'm curious to see what every one else thinks too!

1.

This sample is from madisonjennifer. The actual invitation is attached to a large pocket. The back of the invitation actually has the pocket which contains all the necessary invitation enclosures like an RSVP and accomodations/ directions. Everything is held together by some adorable color coordinated twine and a little tag. The top middle picture shows the stationaries I am considering to replace the purple and bright yellow on the invitation sample. If we decided to go with these invitations we'd spend at little under $500 and would have to put down a 50% deposit. The only thing that makes me a bit weary of this shop is that it only has one total review...

 

2.

This next one is from paperandlaceaustin. This is probably the simplest of the invitations I ordered. I think they really fit the burlap and lace/ rustic theme we are going for. I hate that we can't really incorporate our wedding colors into these invitations those. This invitation comes with an RSVP and one enclosure as well as the necessary envelopes. We would be spending around $350 for these invitations. There are also several add-ons options such as having our invitations preaddressed or an option of assembling them ourselves which could save us money so that we could have our invitations addressed by someone else. 

 

3.

This sample is from designunfurls. This one really showcases our wedding colors although the yellow is a bit brighter than I think we want. It's also pretty simple but I love the use of different fonts and the ribbon and name tag to tie everything together. These invitations would cost us around $420 but only comes with the invitation, RSVP and envelopes. No additional insert cards are available in the base price.

 

4.

This final sample is from JutingDesignStudio. I think this invitation suite may be the most cost efficient. It includes the invitation and envelope, the response card and envelope, plus one other enclosure. More than likely we will be choosing an accomodations card. The wording, font, and ink color are completely customizable. The ink colors are shown in the bottom right of the second photo. I love that everything is so nice and neat in the pocket envelope and is held together by the band. We would also get to choose the outer pocket materiel and ribbon material. These invitations would cost us around $375 and we would have the option to have envelopes addressed with these as well.

 

Maybe I'm crazy but the fact that I'm finding wedding invitations for under $500 is pretty amazing to me. That seems like a great deal to me (let me know if it isn't). I'm considering printing and mailing our own save-the-dates to save money and put that towards the actual invitations. I'd love to hear your opinions on these four or hear about where you found your invitations. Happy Wedding Wednesday!