Upon the advice of a few commenters, I decided to conserve ink after all.  I ended up just doing Option 1, as it combined the elements of #2 and #4.  Also, I ran out of the lovely #10 envelopes I was going to use.  Luckily, I already have some good A2 envelopes, so folded card it is.  Sorry, buckslips, maybe another time.

I printed 2 up on an 8.5×11 sheet of 80 lb. cardstock bought at my local Kelly Paper.  I’m not sure on the specs of the paper, but it’s a bright white matte copier stock.

I printed a thin blue line so I would know where to score the card for folding.  Yes, it does still show a bit even if I cut directly on the line.

The finished product, front + back.
 
P.S.  The blue is a little more green/aqua, and the red more vibrant/true red than is showing up in these photos.

I banged these out late last night in Adobe Illustrator.  We will probably print them using our inkjet on some bright white card stock I already have to keep costs minimal on this project.  Please let me know which you like best!  I may do a combo of the buckslip sized ones just for a bit of variety.

[1.front]

[1.back]

Inside left blank (white) to write in.  Each card is half of an 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper folded in half.

[2]

Flat card, buckslip size (fits into standard #9 or #10 envelope).  Notes would be in the blank, aqua area.

[3]

Another buckslip-sized flat card.

[4]

Yet another buckslip.

Why the rush to design thank you cards when my invitations aren’t even done yet?  The future in-laws called the bear to let us know that a few gifts from
our registry have started to arrive at their place, which is where we’re having all of our gifts shipped.  Once we’re settled into our new
place and get our invitations done and out, we’re planning on picking
up the gifts so that we can get started on thank you notes now.  We’re attempting not to be procrasti-taters on this .  Yep, we’re pretty much unpacking and getting rid of boxes so
that we can make space for a new pile of boxes.  Anyway, that means we need something to express our thanks on ASAP, so I borrowed elements from our invitations and website to make these simple cards fast.  Thanks in advance for your feedback!

One of my bestest college memories involves a Target finally opening up in my liberal, anti-chain, smalltown college town.  However, I was honestly very skeptical about their wedding line of shtuff.  I subsequently turned around and bought four tie + pocket square sets the first day they started hawking the wedding wares online.  I had this brilliant idea to bargain shop over the months we were engaged for various patterns and shades of ties in either black, brown, or aqua for the groomsmen.  Alas, this lazy bride found a few coupons online for Target and decided to hit the “checkout” button instead.  It’s only a few months out.  I haven’t shopped for menswear yet, so it’s highly doubtful I will at this point, and I know our guys would not appreciate having to shop for their own.

White for my groom, aqua for his groomsmen.

Yes, I’m getting matchy matchy here [see invite paper and bridesmaid dress swatch].  I very much dislike the matchy matchy.  However, I dislike shopping even more.

Thank you, Mr. Mizrahi, for letting this lazy bride spend so little money on the matchy!

All wrapped up in dotty, spotty goodness!

Quality you ask?  Not bad considering the price I paid.  After a free shipping coupon and another 5% off coupon, I paid less than $20 per guy including shipping and tax.  However, the hem on the pocket square is not so hot.

Hmm…my macro function isn’t giving me any love these days.  Sorry for the blurriness, all.

Upon figuring out that the edge seams most likely need to be hidden, I realized I don’t know how to fold a pocket square.  Unfortunately, all of our guys are quite the polar opposite of Fonzworth Bentley as well.  So I hit up my dear friend Google for advice.  Off of Google’s first page of search results, here are my three favorites.  To get into my top three, you must include visuals, of course.  I especially like the first link’s origami-style illustrations .
http://www.samhober.com/howtofoldpocketsquares/pocketsquarefolds.htm
http://www.mens-fashion-tips.com/fold-pocket-squares.html
http://www.neckties.com/foldinginfo.php

Because I can’t wait the 3 weeks or more it will take me to finish my invitations, here is a sneak peek.

What?  I said, “a snippet,” and “a sneak peek.”  That’s all you get for now, dear readers.  I so hate keeping secrets and am pretty bad at it.  I want to share with you all…now!  Patience, potato, patience.

Guess what part of the invitation this is showing

Get them while they last!  For your mom, maybe, if your wedding isn’t right about now. I found these beauts at Whole Foods earlier today.

Please excuse the craptastic background [a.k.a. passenger seat of my clunker].

…at a reasonable price, and eat it too!

LA-area brides, Fantasy Frostings, of celebrity wedding fame (they purportedly created 2 of 3 of J.Lo’s cakes), is offering a great deal for the rest of the year. Fondant cakes start at $4.50 a slice. 

By now, you all know I am usually anti-frills.  However, even I have fallen prey to the loveliness of peonies (which I did love before the wedding, thanks to a flower cart at Nordstrom many many Mothers’ Days ago).  Delicate sugar paste ones?  Sure!

This spidey cake is totally not wedding-related, but is too cute not to post.  I love the spider’s expression.

[via Bridal Bar Blog]

Here’s all the paper for my invitations, cut and ready to be Gocco’ed and assembled.  It’s looks like so little, bundled up this way.

I’ve heard horror stories about more than one local Kinko’s mangling paper or being inexact while cutting it, so I looked up a few stand alone print shops in the area on Yelp.  I called around for a few quotes, and they seemed similar to Kinko’s prices, around $1 per cut, but a few also had a setup fee of a few dollars for each layout.  I ended up picking Printing Palace because of its convenient location [to my office, anyway] and because they had previously sent my office some literature regarding their services (yep, I’m a sucker for advertising).  They didn’t itemize out the costs for me, but the total divided out to about $1.25 per cut, including any setup fees and taxes.  It was totally worth it.  Despite my mad x-acto knife and paper cutter skillz, it would have taken a ton of time to cut the large sheets down to these rather smallish sizes.

Here are the four layouts I brought in as each “page” of my invitations will be a slightly different size.  I believe they have software that does this for you at most print shops, but I did it ahead of time in AutoCAD as I needed to know how many sheets of paper to order.  Sources for paper and cutting are below these crazy layouts.




Oh!  All of the supplies for the invites are in, and by current calculations, my invitations will end up about $1.80 each.  Is that a good price for what I’m producing?  You’ll have to wait and see if you think it’s worth it.

Paper:
Blue paper – Pool cover weight flat paper from Paper Source.  Yes, buying the large sheets vs. their 8.5×11 or 12×12 saved me, even after adding in the costs to get it cut.

Vellum [it looks white in the first photo] – Clearprint 1000H from Dick Blick. 
There is cheaper vellum out there, but I had a few sheets of this
leftover from projects past.  I just bought more of the same to stay
consistent.

Cutting services:
Printing Palace
2300 Lincoln Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
T. 310.451.5151

I am basing my tablescape on Martha’s famous red + aqua spread:

[from MS Weddings, Summer 2006]

However, I of course need the contemporary, less fussy version.  Sorry to you bird theme lovers out there, but I have this weird aversion toward birds (more live ones than the cute ones found in wedding decor) that the bear can attest to.  He’s seen be scream like a little girl running from birds.  And it has nothing to do with the Stephen King novel or film as I’ve never read or seen either.  Anyway, I digress.
 
I will have a similar centerpiece, as I blogged about previously.  Cheapo me will have basic, white linens.  I can also get red napkins for no extra charge from my caterer.  They will instead be folded in a simple, square pocket fold into which we will tuck our favors (which will be flat and square-ish). 

Since I will have round tables rather than square, I figured some sort of aqua runner would work better than a square “placemat” of sorts as Martha has shown here.  I also wanted something a little special.  Something with a fun pattern.  Something with interesting texture.  Did I mention I can’t sew to save my life?  Even with Stitch Witchery?  Nor do I have the budget to rent them from a speciality linen rental place such as BBJ Linen or Wildflower Linen [most of their selections are too fussy for me anyhow. Hmph.  (I'm just really jealous of their product, deep down )]. I am, however, quite good with an X-Acto knife.  I have even learned how to operate one quite precisely even after having no sleep for days straight, although I also would say, “Don’t try this at home.”

One day, I happened upon the first wallpaper pictured.  The second pattern’s sample was close behind.  I had a brilliant idea to custom color the second pattern with the colors in the first sample.  I received a prompt quote, which dashed my dreams of the perfect shade of aqua, fun circles of a medium size, and a pattern that was contemporary but not too trendy.

Thus began my search for commercial wallcovering (it comes double the width residential product does, is durable since it’s almost always vinyl, and usually well priced compared to even fabric).  Here is my first short list.  None of them were quite doing it for me, though.  Please excuse the color shift and horrible photos taken not in natural daylight.

[All wallcoverings are by Wolf-Gordon, available through architects and interior designers.]

Try number two, from another manufacturer:

[All wallcoverings are by Twenty2 for Designtex, available through architects and interior designers.]

I also love the scale of the pattern and the circles themselves, of course, in this Maharam classic.  Alas, the gray is too gray, and the blue too ice blue.

The search continues, but I’ve got to get the yardage ordered soon and cut up in time.  As for the ribbon edging, we’ll see if I come up with the time and energy to do that.  Lucky for me, these wallcoverings usually cut very cleanly with the correct care and blade.  Any favorites, dear readers, in the context of my overall look + feel (what little you’ve gleaned from my blogs, at least)?

Here’s another candy you can personalize for wedding favors, shower favors, candy buffets, and friends beside the infamous and rather pricey m&m’s.  Alright, so these are rather pricey for what they are, too, but they are a good, individually-wrapped alternative.

They have kisses with generic messages that could work.

You can also personalize a plume on a 1.45 oz. kiss in these kits, or a giant 7 oz. kiss.

These would be even cuter if the plume that actually comes out of the chocolate/wrapping of the regular sized kisses could be personalized.  A crazy DIY idea could be to personalize your own plumes.  That could get rather, er, sticky, though.

[via bffbridal.com]

kay, okay.  I just wanted to alliterate.  Ignore the bridal squeal at the end of the title.  It’s been a long while since I’ve blogged due to searching high and low for an apartment [Blugh.  Yes, that's a word.], finding one [whew], moving the bear in [meh], starting to pack my own place up [double meh, but at least I have a month to move], squeezing in my company retreat to Napa [Whee! For real this time!], dealing with some family health issues [:(], and all this while both of us were extraordinarily busy at work [as in busier than we've been in over a year].  Gotta love how life always works that way.  Needless to say, the wedding planning got pushed to the back burner for a bit.  Fear not, for I am back with a few fun updates!

So to the real update.  My most amazing roommate [Only for another month.  *sniff*], who freelances on the side [she's in the middle of a re-design of her site] is very close to finishing our website so it can finally go live.  Up until last month, I was procrastinating majorly on it.  I thought I could DImYself despite the fact I haven’t designed a full website in about 5 years.  Yes, web technology has advanced quite a bit since then.  I designed the concept and pages I wanted in Adobe Illustrator, then she translated it into web-ready fun for me, and finally she took my basic layout and ran with it, producing much cooler features than I would have though of on my own.

Enough jibba jabba.  Time for screenshots.

“About” page, with minimal information.  My favorite part is the photo of us, which was taken 5 minutes after we first talked.

Our anonymous peeps.

This bad hostess did not block any hotel rooms, albeit for a variety of good reasons.  Instead, I’ve suggested fun hotels depending on what area of SoCal they’d want to stay in. 


Clicking on one of “the” hotels above yields a pop-up window like this:

Yay for L.A.!

I spy our wedding colors in the graffiti art.

Yummy slivers of our engagement photos.

Click on a slice, and you get this, complete with my favorite dots to navigate forward and back.

Work in progress. Yep, this page and a few others need a few tweaks, but we are so close to done and live!

Alright, so I guess I jibba jabba’ed even through the photo presentation.  I hope you enjoyed, and I hope the categories/pages helped those of you working on yours.  I know I stalked random people’s wedding websites while working on mine. Muhahahaha!

[all photos by M. Norwood Photography.]

*today’s letter O, courtesy of fromoldbooks.org.