ah miss manners... you would not get along with me

So I was in the library* picking out a new book on tape for my bad self,** and on the way through the shelves, I stumbled upon the etiquette section.  Is that ever a depressing section to be in.  All the things you do wrong to make you look uncouth and backwoods.

Flipped open a Miss Manners guide (Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior) and it was on responding to invitations.  Apparently Miss Manners has some pretty strong feelings about R.S.V.P. etiquette:

Wow!  Harsh!  RSVP cards are an "abomination" and you should foul up my system?!  I'm hoping that this is only for formal invitations.  Mine is hardly formal.  However, I feel as if Miss Manners would probably say that all invitations should be formal, or at the very least that all replies should be personal.

Don't worry, dear friends, your RSVP will be personal.  I have taken care of that.***  I will not require you to have personal letterhead and beautiful penmanship.  I"m sure Miss Manners would be upset with me.

But what say you, bloggy fans?  Is Miss Manners unrealistic?  Any choice words for her?


*for those of you who are unfamiliar, it's like Blockbuster for books
** I'm a busy law student!  I like to multi-task when I'm driving.
*** I'm such a tease.

New idea

Ha.  So my crafty self has clearly had invitations on the brain for a really really really long time.  I've had all sorts of crazy ideas with DIY screenprinting.  I think it could be amazingly awesome if it works, or epic fail if it doesn't.  I don't want to send the paper through my printer.  Not so good.  I like that screenprinting would create raised type and texture by virtue of the ink.  I think it would be cool.

Miss Manners and Martha would say that the only way to go with invitations is via engraving.  This is super formal and ridiculously expensive too.  It involves carving the image or type into a plate, inking it, and putting it through a press.  The result is that the paper is forced into those little grooves under tons of pressure.  They type is raised off the paper.

What I would really love is letterpress. It's essentially the opposite of engraving.  It's also a a very old fashioned method of printing which embosses the paper as it prints.  It was the method of printing for a long time.  Old vintage broadsides were made using letterpress as was Guttenberg's first Bible.  Basically it involves making plates or type, which usually looks like rubber stamps.  Originally they were made out of metal, but now they're made out of all sorts of materials.  Then the plate is inked and sent through a giant press which presses the raised type into the paper.  "Blind" pressing means that no ink is put on the plate. Instead the design is debossed into the paper.  It looks really cool as a border and such.

Both engraving and letterpress are extremely cost prohibitive, particularly if you want a custom design.  We're talking as much as $1000 for 100 invitations.  Woah.  My budget is not that big.  As you've heard before, I have designed my own invitation and it's a very bizarre size.  Hence my journey to find a new way of "printing invitations."  And then I really started thinking.  And thinking hard.

I own a Sizzix BigKick machine which is a home die cut machine.  I bought it because I needed to cut thousands of circles out of felt and this was the easiest way to do it.  Essentially a big metal die is pressed into fabric or paper or whatever and it cuts it out like a really powerful cookie cutter.
It also comes with various plates so that you can emboss paper.  Hmmm.... Wouldn't it be cool if I could make my own plate to pass through there?  It could essentially a little mini letterpress machine.  I did some research, and apparently people have done stuff like this before using the embossing plates that you can buy for the machine:

Fake letterpress paper!  I think it looks really good too!  This crafter used just regular old rubber stamp ink.  The bonus of this means that it dries quickly, unlike the ink used for screenprinting which is essentially paint.

But what about the cost of the plates.  How I love the internet tubez.  Boxcar Press makes custom letterpress plates.  I thought it would be way out of my price range.  Um how about not.  For what I need, the cost will be between $65-$85 plus FREE SHIPPING!  This is about the same as the whole screenprinting idea and I don't think it'll take nearly as much time or cause nearly as many headaches.  Plus an ink pad is way cheaper than screenprinting ink.

In the end, I'll probably be paying more than standard invitations that most people who aren't Martha would pay (maybe), but definitely less than having these invitations professionally printed.  I think with the cost of paper (I'm using watercolor paper), ink (with a Michael's 40% off coupon), envelopes (way more expensive than you think they would be), RSVP cards and other enclosures (printed on a home printer.  This isn't worth the letterpress), and postage (omg. omg. omg.  too bad the post office doesn't have coupons!!  So expensive!!), I think the invitation suite will cost about $2 each.

And yes, I will test this out first using rubber stamps.

Photographer Woes Update!

So I drove back down to Charleston to view one last photographer with Chris.  I pinned all my hopes on Heather Forsythe.  I have been stressed about the photographer decision ALL WEEK.  I was so close to telling Planner Mel to get us appointments with different photographers.

Turns out that I really like Heather.  Phew.

She's about comparable in price to Dreamland images who Chris liked.  I like her pictures better.  They're a lot "brighter" for lack of a better word.  Chris thinks her personality is not as good as Daniel from Dreamland (he thinks she's slightly too peppy), but at least she HAS a personality unlike some other photographers we looked at.  Although nothing is really included in her package price, I'm willing to give up the engagement and bridal session, which I didn't really want anyway, and put that money towards her fee for the wedding day.  I think Chris and I will probably go with her.  I'll keep everyone updated.  We have to work out some pricing.

Here's some pictures from a wedding at Boone Hall.

Alternative Wedding Boutonnières

I feel like boutonnieres are an often overlooked accessory when it comes to a groom's wedding day style, but I think a lot of personality can be packed in a little space! I really want to make some nifty boutonnieres for the boys.  I have been saving pics for awhile now.  There are these cutsey ones as well that I heart.  They're a little more traditional, but again very playful:

I love the slightly preppy quality to them.


There's also these from Martha.  I love the tweed fabric she used as a basis for real flowers.  Kinda masculine, but still pretty classic and just a bit of the unexpected.

I think Chris is really going to go for these, though.  The Bespoke Boutonnieres by Fritts Rosenow. No traditional flowers here, these boutonnieres are strictly for the playful and quirky.  Sounds a lot like us!

I am absolutely positive that I can make these myself.  Do some hunting in the miniatures/doll section of Hobby Lobby and Michaels and some toy stores and look for things that represent the groomsmen, some hot glue gunning later, and I could have some fabulously cool boutonnières.  The bridesmaids shouldn't have all the fun!

I just really hope Chris doesn't want a Yoda one (shudder).

More screenprinting love

'Member my obsession with Gocco and StencilPro for sreenprinting?  And I said that I thought it would be difficult for me to line everything up in order to print my own invitations.

SOLUTION FOUND!

I love blogs.

This blogger/designer uses StencilPro in her Gocco machine, but I think I can use this concept without the Gocco machine.  I just have to be more careful.  She uses framing mats!

What a fantastic idea!  She simply tapes the exposed screens to the mats in order to make her framed screens.

My invitations are a funny size, but I can get that interior window cut to be the exact size of the invitations, then slip the invitation in so it doesn't move around, screen away.  I'll need to adapt the process a bit to make it work without a Gocco, but I think this is absolutely doable.  I'm so excited!

I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate myself after this idea.  Printing 200 of my own invitations sounds like one of those good-idea/bad-ideas where it's a great idea initially, but a terrible idea after about 50.  Maybe I'll do a little at a time over the course of a month?  I don't have enough space to be able to do 200 at once since they need time and space to dry.

Anyone want to be enlisted to help?

Wedding Bands

I already know what I want for my wedding band.  It's actually really easy.  My engagement ring has channel set emerald-cut diamonds in the band, and I want my wedding band to match.  Easy peasy.

Chris is a plain-Jane kinda guy.  Hmm... maybe that's incorrect.  He's stoic and manly and no frills attached.  Yes.  I think he would prefer that description much more.

He really wants a plain titanium band.  No diamonds or doo dahs.  I don't even think he wants any ornamentation at all on the outside.  Like the grooves in the band pictured below may be too much for him

Titanium, however, can't be resized and I heard from someone that they can't really cut it off.  So if you get into a car accident and they have to remove your jewelry, they have to cut your finger off if they can't slide the ring off.  I'm not sure if that's true or not (probably not), but that kinda creeps me out.  I would prefer that they not cut my husband's finger off.  That means either platinum or gold.  Much better.  I think he likes how manly it looks though.  Aren't boys cute?

Guess what I found on etsy, though.  How cool are these:

Plain outside, but with my fingerprints inside!  That way he could always have a little piece of me around. Is that cool or weird?  I already had a thought about what to engrave on the inside, but this seems kinda neat too.  You can also get the fingerprints on the outside:

Kinda cool, but definitely not as subtle.  I prefer subtle (seriously!  I know it's hard to believe!  But I do).

They are from etsy seller  Fabuluster.  Prices aren't too bad, actually.  A bit more expensive than that titanium business that Chris wants.  What's the verdict?  Cool or creepy?

Photographer Woes

Disclaimer: I know this is a really long post, just read to the end :)  I really need some advice!

Chris and I are currently in the market for a fab wedding photographer and spent an exhausting day today with shutterbugs.  I have to say that even though I think A LOT about other stuff, everything pales in comparison to the photographer.  I know what I like and what I hate and can tell a good photographer from an awesome one.  I'm an amateur photographer and know all about f-stops and ISO settings.  Of everything in the wedding, the photography is BY FAR the most important.  Even more important than the dress and (gasp) the cake.

I want some of the fun and trendy pictures, but I also would like some beautiful shots of the moments.  50 years from now, I will probably smile at the picture of Chris and his groomsmen pretending to do cannonballs, but I really hope deep down for timeless classics.

I really love all those pictures because I think that not only are they beautifully composed, but they really capture the moment.  I generally like those cute semi-posed shots that are relaxed and fun (like the Kennedy wedding shot), but I don't want a whole album of prom-style photos. I want a photojournalistic photographer rather than a traditional wedding photographer. 

Mel the Planner set up appointments today with three photographers.  I'm glad we met with them because one of the photographers I was moderately considering, I realized I did not like at all after meeting.  I made a ridiculously detailed list of questions I wanted to ask these photographers and quickly realized that he just wasn't fitting the bill.  When I say detailed, I mean detailed.  Sometimes the Type-A in me gets out of control. Mel made fun of me the whole time :(

That's not even the half of it.  It's actually 3 pages long and includes a place for me to staple a business card.  I know, I know... But if any of you want it when you're planning your own wedding, let me know!  I'll be happy to forward it along to you.  It's got all sorts of things you should look for.

Anyway, the one guy that I thought I would like, upon closer inspection, I realized that his shots were overexposed (you can tell when looking at details like the lace on a dress and the cake -- the shots will be blurry), they were also not focused or framed well.  Not so good.

I think we're stuck between Dreamland Images and Alyona Photography.  Both are that photojournalistic style.  I have to be honest.  Alyona's photography speaks to me much more than Dreamland's.  Out of the three photographers we looked at today, she is by far the best.  She is really good at finding the details of the wedding (taking pictures of the flower arrangements and cakes, etc.) and framing it really well.  She also finds these great key moments of the wedding.  And those are lovely.

However, some of her shots look really artificial--like the ones of all the bridesmaids or groomsmen together.  We really want those group shots, but instead of us all lined up in a row, we want it to be more casual:

not her picture

You can tell that she really struggles to come up with those ideas.  I don't think she's that creative.  We could also tell her what we wanted, but I doubt that it would come naturally or organically to her.  It may never look quite right.  But, she is also the cheapest.  You would think that this decision would be a no-brainer.  However, she has no personality.  Seriously.  She's a lovely person (she's from the Ukraine), but the interaction with her was pretty strained.  She also answered some questions really bizarrely.

Dreamland is actually a husband and wife team, Amelia and Daniel.  They are awesome.  They're definitely more expensive than Alyona, but still within our budget and are ridiculously fun.  Their photography is still wonderful, but not as good as Alyona's.  Within their package they also have a "photobooth" where they set up a camera and folks take pictures.  They are put up on a website within 24-48 hours so that people can download them at will.  We were going to do something similar to this, so we thought this was cool.  However, this isn't exactly a deal maker or breaker. Chris and I could hire a photography student from College of Charleston for $200 and have him run that camera.

I also liked that Amelia said that she abhors the flash.  Me too.  I hate flash.  If I can't take the picture without a flash, then I rarely take the picture.  I also got a high five from Daniel.  They were super easy to talk to to.  This is a concern for Chris and I because we will be spending just so much time with them. I really want to work with them!  Ack!


We're meeting with a fourth photographer next weekend if we can.  Her name is Heather Forsythe.  She's about the same price as Amelia and Daniel.  But her photography is phenomenal.  She's very very similar to Alyona, but with more experience.

What do you guys think?  Click around their websites if you're bored at school or work and let me know who your fave is.