Invitations are out!

A few weeks ago, while MOH and I were both visiting home (and each other), we had an addressing party. My mom and I went over the the maid-of-honor's mom's , and the four of us (MOH, MOB, me, and MO-MOH) put the invitations together. MO-MOH owns a business that is largely based on her ability to write beautifully, and MOH has been helping her mom with that for longer than I've known her (and that's more than 10 years now). So they took over the main task of addressing the envelopes (and I did a few, mostly out of guilt over the fact that they were being so sweet!).

My mom pitched in as the official stamper and stuffer. We used forever stamps that I bought right before the prices went up (for both the invitations and the RSVP envelopes). They may not be the most wedding-y, but I am proud of the money I saved by doing it this way.


So I've been patiently waiting to send them out. And I think it's close enough now! Last night, Mr. L and I finished everything up. I re-addressed envelopes to a few people that I know have moved, and to my grandmother (whose husband recently passed away). Mr. L was sweet enough to tackle the unfortunate duty of licking all the envelopes (I do love him). Some of them weren't very sticky, so he actually licked and glue-sticked most of them. It makes me wonder what other DIY projects he could be helping out on!

This morning on my way to work, they all went in the post box! Suddenly, it feels like the wedding is very soon.

Why I love Etsy (so far)

I really do love etsy. I have lost count of how many gifts I've bought from etsy vendors, and I know that the homepage always has great inspiration when I'm at a loss. So it was a logical choice when I started wedding planning. Of course I'd use alchemy/custom to find things when I knew what I wanted but couldn't find it, and of course etsy would be an easy choice when I wanted quality that I shouldn't be able to afford!

First, I went to etsy for invitations. I found an amazing letterpress printer who worked with me (and that's a major accomplishment, considering how many revisions I made!) to design exactly the invitation suite I wanted, and then ran half of the set through the letterpress twice, just to make sure it looked perfect! He was absolutely amazing, and less than half the price of even some of the DIY kits I looked at!

Then I turned to etsy for wedding bands. I am super excited about this one (as I have mentioned before). I love our bands. I love that they were custom-made for us (even though they don't have an inscription). I love that they are titanium, so they feel a little special to me. I love the price (and I'll love the price even more if we ever need to replace one). And I love that the seller has an easy exchange policy in case we change sizes (since titanium can't be re-sized). I sooo couldn't be happier about this purchase!

I also bought Mr. L's wedding present on etsy, but that's a surprise! The seller was, as usual, great to work with, and I got a great deal on something totally personal.

The fabric that I was desperately looking for to cover the cupcake tower? Someone on etsy had some that was perfect (read: exactly what I envisioned), and for a steal! They were uber-responsive, and I had exactly as much as I needed, pronto! I think one of the best things about etsy is that the quality of the items I order consistently surprises me by being even better than I expected. This was a great example of just that. This was wonderful, heavy fabric!

Most recently, I had someone one etsy create the design that I printed on my cookie bags! I put up an alchemy request, and ended up with a design I love for a great price with great customer service. I also discovered the work of a great graphic designer, and I'm convinced that I'll come up with some excuse to buy something from her again in the near future.

The Cupcake Tower

I finally made the cupcake tower. I hope that it'll work out as well when there are actually cupcakes on it!

I used the tutorial here as a guide for making the foam core tiers. I did make each tier shorter so that it wouldn't seem so overwhelming (mine are only 2" each instead of 6" tall).

Then I had to figure out how to stack them/what to use to separate them. I was inspired by round gift boxes used for my mom's mothers' day gift. They were just about the right height, and it seemed like we could attach the lid to one box and the base to the other so that they could be taken apart, but would fit nicely together. There was a little evolution from there, and I ended up with these foam core tubes made from the scraps left over from making the tiers.

There are cross supports that fit snugly in each tube attached to the tiers so that the tubes slide onto the cross on the top of one tier and the bottom of the next. The result is a tower that collapses to a relatively small pile but should be pretty stable when assembled (and should be super-simple to assemble). I think. I even labeled the support tubes on the inside so that it'll be easy to see which one fits best where (because I'm only so exact, and each is a little different from the next).

Finally, I covered it all in pretty striped fabric from etsy.

The fabric (with enough left over that I think I may be able to use it to recover the seats of my dining room chairs), incl shipping, etc.: $16
The glue gun, tons more glue than I'll ever use, and foamboard (with about 3 boards left): $12.22

total cost of project: $28.22