I always wanted a fall
wedding; but I knew that it was not practical since I was a teacher. I did not
want to take off work to try and plan a wedding or take off for a honeymoon.
So, that left me with June, July, or the beginning of August. The obvious choice
of course would have been to pick June and have a spring wedding before it got
too hot. The only problem with that is Joe and I didn't decide until
May that we were going to get married (yes, we started planning before Joe
actually proposed). Therefore, June was out. We were not willing to wait
another whole year before we became husband and wife. It didn't seem
right to wait…when you know you know.
We chose the end
of July…HOT, HOT, HOT!! But that conflicted with one of my bridesmaids family
float trips that they had planned months ago; so we finally decided on August 4th…HOTTER,
HOTTER, HOTTER!! And to top it all off I desperately wanted an outside wedding.
I could not image myself getting married in a church…it seemed too formal and
formal was the opposite of what I wanted my wedding day to be like. I wanted a
fun and relaxed wedding day and I wanted my guests to have a fun and relaxed
wedding day as well. Although, forcing them to sit outside in the middle of
summer probably didn’t seem like much fun to them. However, I knew at the
location we chose there was an awesome breeze that always blew no matter how
hot it became outside. I had a spot picked out at Joe’s house that I thought
would make a perfect wedding location.
I sent out Save the
Dates as quick as I could. I don’t know the proper wedding etiquette on how
much warning you should give guests before your wedding but I figured if people
couldn’t make it then they just couldn’t make it and that was all right with
me. Remember, I am pretty shy so the less people the better. I’m not even sure
if Save the Dates were necessary at this point since the wedding was only a few
months away; but I figured a little heads up would be the polite thing to do.
I made my own Save the
Dates…very simple…very basic.
I bought different colored
postcard sized cardstock and found a free printable on the internet at Wedding Chicks.
They have many different designs to choose from. They have a really cute mason
jar save the date.
These were the extra that I didn't use (I didn't know a year and a half ago I was going to have a blog, so I didn't take pictures then). I had purple and pink ones too; but those were the best looking ones so I made sure I sent out as many purple and pink as I could. I wish I would have just done purple, pink, and white because they looked the best.
I used Paint (the
computer program) to change the backside design to look more like a postcard so
there was a place for the addresses. I also, added our last names just to make
sure people knew who Kerry and Joe were. I used black ink only and
printed gray-scale, fast draft copies to save on money; so this design was
perfect for that. I knew people were going to look at these and most
likely just throw them in the trash so I didn’t want to spend too much money on
them.
I printed these off very
quickly; put the address labels on them(luckily Joe’s brother had just gotten
married and his wife still had all the addresses from her wedding…or else the
addresses could have proved to be very time consuming) and went to the post
office as soon as I could.
When I went to the post office
to buy postcard stamps the only ones they had had Hawaiian shirts and the
greeting Aloha! on them. I know if I would have had more time I could have pre
ordered some wedding appropriate stamps. If you are planning your wedding you
might want to add stamps to your to-do list.
Are
Save the Dates a new fad or have couples always sent those out to give their
wedding guests a heads up? Did you send out Save the Dates? How many weeks or
months did you send them in advance of your wedding invites?
My niece, Ellie, came to visit for a few days...so I put her to work applying labels and stamps. She loved helping her Aunt Kerry!
More pictures, descriptions, and tutorials to come of our DIY, budget friendly wedding! Follow my blog.
4 comments:
I don't think I knew Ellie helped you with your save the dates. I never even got a save the date from you.
I think save the dates are a fairly new . thing. I've just started receiving them in the last five or so years. It used to be you just sent the invitation 3 or so months out. Neat post.
Kristen, I didn't send you a save the date because you already knew the date of the wedding...trying to save on stamps. I didn't remember that Ellie helped either until I found those pictures!
Thanks Jeanine!
Post a Comment