Invitation Inserts: Maps

I mentioned in my last post that the invititations are finished! I haven't blogged too much (if at all?) about our invitations…and boy has it be a long process and evolution.

I still can't believe how much time has gone into them.

This post isn't about the invitations per say - it is about a potential insert for the invitation - a directional map. Well, I like to think that I am pretty skilled on the computer…but there is tons of stuff that I don't know how to do…and tons of stuff that I might know how to do, but I don't know how to do it very well. One of these things is how to create a map insert. I've seen some beautiful ones on www.theknot.com Here is a link to a knottie bio for the "How To":
MapBio

I created this map when we were planning on having our reception at the Royal Military College in Kingston. But as a result of some very unresponsive staff and less than ideal layout, we opted not to have the reception here. Anyhoo…here is the map:



I create this map using Microsoft Power Point, although you could do a much more sophisticated looking map by using Adobe Illustrator, or some other flexible program. I used google map to find the directions…used the line tool and voila…the map was nearly complete (Ok, it wasn't that easy. It took me FOREVER…this was sooo time consuming for me to do…although this might be because I am a bit of a perfectionist ;). I then googled for icons that would suit my needs - and with some more tinkering…I was finished.

Not only did our venue plans changed, but our invitation design evolved as well. As a result of this (and my non-existent desire to attempt a new "prettier" map) - I vetoed the need to include a map in the actual invite. There are directions available through out wedsite online…and people can always ask after the ceremony.

Another site that is helpful in creating a map insert is: www.weddingmappers.com

The Guest List

You might have noticed that I've added two RSVP counters on the right side of my blog…I think it will be a fun way to keep track of the RSVPs as they come in :)

You might have also noticed that one says "dinner" and one says 'cake and dancing"…that is because we are only able to have a certain amount of guests for the dinner.

This is a result of several factors. First of all, my darling fiancé has a huge amount of family (one of the reasons I am so excited to be a part of it :) I have a relatively small family in comparison…in fact I think it is some thing like 73% of the guests that are invited are Patrick's family. We would have loved to invite them all to everything, but alas, both the budget and the venue space prohibit us from doing this.

I know that this doesn't particularly adhere to the generally accepted etiquette standards, but this is what we have chosen to do and we stand by our decision!

Many people have suggested various alternatives to the option we decided to go with:
1. Don't invite the "cake and dancing" guests at all.
-Well, other than a handful of high school friends, all of those that are invited to the "cake and dance" part of the wedding are my fiancé's first cousins. We will understand if they choose not to attend…but we wanted them to know that we were thinking of them and would love to share a part of our "Big Day" with them.

2. Choose a cheaper venue and cut back on other details to allow more room in the budget for additional guests.
-Even though we had booked our venue up to a year in advance, 5 of the other larger venues has already been booked up. Also, in all honestly, I would have been happy as a clown to have only had our nearest and dearest share our day with us (~50-60 people), therefore I wasn't particularly willing to give up on having the "traditional sit down meal" to have a cocktail reception in someone's backyard - just to accommodate hundreds of guests…this might sound harsh, but it's just me being honest. I also know myself well enough that if had skimped on those other little details (favours, honeymoon, plated meal etc) to allow more guests to attend, I still would have purchased those items…thus causing us to go into a great amount of debt. It has been really challenging not to fall in the mind frame of the "once and a life time experience..."

3. Have a destination wedding instead.
-Although my fiancé's Dad would have loved to have us hop on a plane to the Dominican Republic to tie the knot…it just wasn't what I had always dreamed about… But, I will admit that we did consider and price out other destination type weddings. The two options that I looked into were Disney World in Orlando and Maui, Hawaii. However, after pricing out the whole deal…it would have cost us the same amount to have a wedding at one of these locations with 20 people as it would have for 200 people in Ontario - plus my Granny doesn't fly…and it is really important to me that she be there.

We did consider having an A and B list…meaning as each one of our A guests decline to attend, we would send out an invitation to a guest on our B list. However, do to the timing of closing on our new house we opted not to do this… it would have been a nightmare trying to print off additional rsvp cards (each one is personalized with the guest's name on it) and how would we rank the people in our B list? Too hard!

Although many people might not agree with our decision…we hope that they will at least be understanding…or keep their negativity to themselves.

The wedding invitations are FINALLY complete and will be mailed out sometime between the middle of April and May 1st… I can't believe that after two years our wedding day is finally approaching!!!

Honeymoon Is Booked!

After doing a lot of flip-flopping on where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do, Patrick booked the honeymoon earlier this week - yippee!

What was the winning destination?!?! Jamaica!


We'll be staying at the 5* resort called the Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica. It is in Runaway Bay which is between Montego Bay (where we'll be flying into) and Ocho Rios.



Although the resort is about an hour away from the airport it will allow us to take part in activities/excursions easily in both Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.



Some of the excursions we’re considering are:
-Deep Sea Fishing
-Climbing the Dunn's River Falls
-Having a cheeseburger in paradise at none other than Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville
-Appleton Rum tour
-Nine Mile - to check out Bob Marley's digs
-Sampling some authentic jerk cuisine (either chicken or goat…we'll see how adventurous we're feeling ;)

***So excited!

Dancin'

Yay!! My fiancé just signed us up for some dance lessons beginning on April 22nd and going for 5 weeks! Whoot! We've talked about doing this for awhile, and the classes are finally booked - can't wait!

Here is the class description:
This course will help you prepare for
your first dance as husband and wife,
enabling you to approach the dance
floor with confidence and poise. Make it
something special to remember always.
Also useful if you have any other type
of social occasion approaching, which
includes dancing, such as a cruise,
graduation, reunion, office party, etc

If we like it, perhaps we'll take some Salsa dancing…or something ;)

The lessons are $46.64 x 2 = $93.28 - I've added the lessons to our already tight (and getting tighter) budget. I'm not sure if it is fair or not to add this expense to the wedding budget though. Pat and I have been wanting to do something (be it a class or other activity) together for awhile. I'm happy that we are finally able to commit to something like this now that he is back working here (he used to commute to another island and as a result would come home pretty late and exhausted)…so this is probably out of our "entertainment budget" rather than the wedding…but I'll leave it in the wedding one now for purposes of seeing the overall cost of the wedding in the end.

I realize that wedding classes are a totally extra thing to do and not necessary. In fact, Pat is already a pretty good dancer. But, I was thinking perhaps we might learn some additional moves to spice up our first dance…something our guests might not expect. We'll have to see what our dance instructor has planned for us…only a few more weeks to go until classes begin.

I wonder what we should wear??? Should I wear a skirt? Should we wear the shoes we plan on wearing to the wedding? Hmm…any ideas?

Bridesmaid Dress Selection - finally

I don't think I ever followed up with the bridesmaid dress selection. I looked high, and I looked low…I looked online…and in bridal shops near and far. My 'maids tried on many dresses and heard me say "these are it, these are the dresses!" too many times to count. Well, after deciding on a dress, changing my mind about what type of style I wanted and learning that I am going to be an Auntie (whoot!) and that one of my 'maids was "with child" and would be 7/8 months pregnant on my "Bid Day," we finally decided on a dress. A lovely two piece dress from Jordan Bridesmaids:



Two of my 'maids will be wearing the one on the right, and my pregnant bridesmaid will be wearing a similar maternity version, pictured on the left. I think they are gorgeous…even though I've never actually seen them in person (eek!). They will be in navy blue, as pictured. As I've mentioned before, I am a huge fan of my experience with netbride…and my plan was to order the dresses directly from them. But, because my lovely bridesmaid found out she was a Mommy to be, we decided to wait until she was a little further into the pregnancy to determine the appropriate size. As a result of waiting we missed the deadline from ordering from netbride to be guaranteed the arrival we were needing. But, I was able to find the dresses in one of the two British Columbian stores they were offered in. Once the dresses arrive, I will be sure to post a review and offer up the store's name (if you're really interested, leave a comment with your email and I'll send you the contact information). I will say, the customer service has been great so far…especially considering I am a significant distance away from them.

My two 'maids and I will be making a road trip to pick up the dresses at the end of April or the beginning of May - whoot!

For those of you interested in purchasing two piece dresses or "separates," beware that they are a mite more expensive then ordering a regular dress - kind of a bummer when the dresses are so expensive to begin with. As a result of the additional cost, my fiance and I offered to pay for any alterations needed. Hopefully it won't cost too much!

It feels soooo great to have this BIG item check marked off our list of "To Dos." Most of the major stuff is done…except the reception music. I am so not keen on hiring a DJ…I don't know of any good ones in the Kingston area that aren't $$$. And our reception space is too small for a live band (plus they are $$$). I think I've mentioned before that we are interested in having a "laptop" or "iPod" reception…we just haven't found anyone willing to do this for us - eek! ~3 months to go!

Wedding Day Shoes

It's been a wee bitty since I've posted...mostly because I didn't really know what I wanted to post about...and partly because I had so many little wedding things to finish up that I had been procrastinating about. Wedding planning for me has been an interesting ride. At some points I have almost had this mania of frantic wedding activity. At these times I have been uber productive. Then there are other times where I'm not even interested in wedding related stuff. During these times I am usually interested something else...like a suprise birthday gift that I am working on for my fiance (will post about after March 9th :), or knitting up a storm for my future neice or nephew. But as I am now approaching the 100 day mark I'm planning on getting my butt in gear to finish up some of those projects I've started.

Ok...onto the topic of today - shoes! I've blogged about my shoes and shoe troubles before and I think (?) I mentioned that they arrived - whoot! I luuurve them. They fit perfectly which is uber lucky considering I hadn't tried then on.

Here they are:



The heel isn't too high, so I'm not overly concerned about pain on "The Big Day" but as a percaution I purchased some "Smiling Feet" Tana gel heel liners and some DrScholl's "For Her" ball of hee cushions. They feel great! The only thing I am worried about is the adhesive on the gell pads. I'm not sure they are sticky enough, so hopefully they'll stay on throughout the day!







I plan to start "working them in" when we arrive at our new house. We have concrete floors at our condo and although the building is soundproof I'm going to try to avoid bothering the neighbours with the "click click" of heels.

Before I end this quicky post, I wanted to thank everyone for their responses on my little weight loss post. When I posted that I was 137.6. However, after I posted it my weight went up to 140.2 (the highest I'd been since my heavy days in university). But, after some deication on portion sizes I am back down to 135...only 5 pounds to go!