Save the Dates

So my fiancé and I are still working on getting out the save the dates. I know what you are thinking… but it is a lot harder then you would imagine. We both have very busy lifestyles and on top of that our friends are very busy and hard to get a hold of. I am almost done with my list and my fiancé well he is working in that direction. The goal is to get them out by tomorrow so we are both going to need to be very persistent to just get them done.

One way I feel we have been able to make a lot of progress is to stay in touch with people on social networks sites such as face book, my space and twitter. With all of the new resources available on the web it is important to take advantages of all the great communication methods. It is funny sometimes the only way I can get hold of people is through face book! Who knew?

I feel like after we get the save the dates out that the rest is all down hill. The big day seems to be creeping up on us a lot faster then I thought it ever would. I feel like we are pretty on top of all the details and now it is just staying on top of all the details. When I sit back and think of all the preparation that goes into one day I get very overwhelmed. The best way to look at it is one step at a time.

Best of luck brides to be – my future advice on save the dates would be set a goal to get them out on a certain date and stick to that goal!

The Guest List

So we are about 4 months out from our big day and it is time to get the save the dates - in the mail! You know what that means - we have to finalize our guest list. Now this may sound easy but when you are on a budget it is not as easy as you would think! My fiancé and I were up until 1 am trying to finalize our guest list. The problem with my fiancé and I is we both come from large families and we both have a lot of friends!

Are goal is to stay under 200 people if we can help it. To make it easier on ourselves we are taking it one step at a time. The first step is we both came up with a solid list of people we wanted to invite. The next step is to type up the list and organize the guests into categories. The four categories we are putting our guests in are Brides Friends/Brides Family and Grooms Friends/Grooms Family. By dividing the guest list into categories we have a clear idea of how many people we are each inviting.

My fiancé and I want the guest list to be as even as possible as far as both getting to have our closest friends and family at the wedding. The next step is the hardest part - cutting the people that just don’t make the list. When you are looking at a certain cost per head sometimes you have to be pretty picky who makes the cut. I will let you ladies know how all of this goes - once we get that far!

The invite decision!

Well I did it; I finally got the right invitation picked out. It took many hours of looking through books, researching on the Internet and designing the invite to fit our style. I chose a newer style of invitation called the “pocket” layout. It is made to hold the reception card and response card in a pocket so that it is nestled nicely in the invitation. The theme for our wedding is “A Black Tie Affair” so everything at the wedding will be decorated around this theme. The invitations are of course black and white and are very elegant to fit the theme of our special occasion.  I suggest for wedding planning to start out by picking wedding colors and a theme, and then choosing everything around the colors and theme. Doing this will narrow down your searches and keep you from getting to overwhelmed.  Believe me, when you are wedding planning this is very important.

I also finally chose our save the date magnets. They again are based around the same theme.  They are a black and white photo of my fiancé and I all dressed up on the cruise the night he proposed to me.  The picture was taken after he officially purposed, so it was the perfect match for an engagement photo.

Invitations and Save the Dates

So it is getting closer to the time of sending save the dates out and invitations are right down the road. How does time go by so fast? It seems like just yesterday it was over a year away from my wedding and now I am only 8 months away! When thinking about save the dates, what is the right time to send them out? I have read from a couple sources that 3-6 months is a good amount of time. I think I am going to send mine out 6 months in advance. I feel like the earlier the better. I have decided to go with the save the date magnets. I think that is the best way to help people remember your special day. I remember the first time I saw a save the date magnet. I was at a friend’s house and there it was stuck to their refrigerator and I thought to myself what a great idea! My fiancé and I have decided to have our picture on our magnet so whenever people to their fridge they will see are smiling faces.

As for the invitations how do you even decide? I am having a hard time choosing my invitations! I feel like the invitations set the mood for the wedding. Once we decide on the invitations we will be choosing all of the place settings, menu cards and thank you cards all around the same theme. For us I think the best way to go is a formal invitation. We are having a summer evening wedding but we still would like people to think of it as a black tie affair.

I will keep you posted on my progress! To all the other brides out there good luck!