kind of stoked

today 3 packages are on their way to me, all should be arriving by friday (i hope)

1. veil i custom ordered from etsy seller Simple Beauty Veils
2. shoes from Gilt.com
3. two tour books of Israel from B&N - the Fodor's Guide and the 2010 update of Lonely Planet (very excited to plan our trip - just over a month away!)

invites printed and picked up by thursday

mom and sis arriving friday

saturday schedule:

• tailor shop for alterations to sis's BM dress
• drop by bakery to assess apple strudel as a possible alternative to wedding cake
• bridal shower
• change clothes (hehe - there may, possibly, probably be a sequin skirt involved)
• bachelorette party...

sunday:

• bye to sis :(
• crafting invites with mom, beau and others unknown
• if time stopping by another bakery
• bye to mom :(
• (lab to get data... not fun but necessary)

The New Computer Blues

I finally have my new computer - its awesome! But I still miss my old one... everyday I have a new frustration at something that didn't transfer correctly from the backup - like the dates of many of my photos are just wrong now, and required complete reorganization. Today, I was annoyed because I realized that my fonts didn't transfer! AND, the two main fonts that I used on the wedding invites were ones that I downloaded from random websites (not my usual go to - DaFont) and I have no idea how I found them, where they came from or even their exact names. Its going to bug me all afternoon, until I can get home and try to pull the data off my backup manually. (BTW - I know I'm being a huge brat, but I wasn't ready for a new computer and it still pisses me off. Clearly I'm not through all the stages of grief)

update

Back from ASBMR - all went well with my presentation, yay!  Sitting at the lab, not doing work - he he!

Now that I'm back I'm starting to feel pressure on wedding stuff again...  

We have our engagement session coming up in a few weeks and I want to get my make-up done, but I don't really know anyone in town and the person the photographer recommended charges $75/hr - that kind of seems unreasonable, right?  Oh, and once we have the pictures back I need to make Save the Dates... and mail them out - oh but before that I have to collect peoples addresses...

I'm also getting nervous about our invites... Josh really likes the ones I designed, but I'm afraid they won't look professional enough, especially since I'm printing them at home.  I emailed the Budget Savvy Bride and her rates are very reasonable - for $50 she will design 5 invites for us to choose from based on our wedding colors, styles etc, and she will design them so they can be easily printed on a home printer.  For an additional $25 each she will also design RSVP cards and any other elements I want.  I'm seriously considering it.

Its also almost time to start looking for a florist... I'm not looking forward to it.  I want really nice flowers, but I refuse to pay a lot because I know its something I could do myself - my family won't let me (they have no interest in having me transform into a Bridezilla the afternoon before the wedding).

My mom is also going to Israel in a couple weeks, so we have to settle on a guest list, and date for our Israeli reception so that she can find an appropriate location.

I think thats all for now.  Just needed to unload.

double wedding invites

I'm seriously crushing on these spectacular invites featured yesterday on 100 Layer Cake.

I definitely need to rethink our invitations, to include info about both receptions on one invite.  My previous idea was to just have two separate invites, but this seems so much cooler.

*invite by Markatos Moore via 100 Layer Cake

invitation expansion

I recently did more work on my invitations.  I now have a "suite".   They still need some work, but I'm happy with how they are coming together.  Like last time I shared, the green is coming out too brown, the purple seems to be OK.

Invitation

RSVP card, front

RSVP card, back

(because we are iPod-ing instead of a DJ)

Thank you card 

(will be printed on the front of a folded card)

More invitation experimentation

My newest invitations using InDesign, Photoshop and these swatches, which I now remember are from iDIY.  Beau prefers the one on the left, I prefer the one on right.  Thoughts?

I'm a little annoyed at how the color of the pattern is showing up.  In Photoshop and InDesign and when printed its much less bright - more of an olive.

I also printed them out on the back of some invitations left over from a shower I threw last summer to see the quality of our printer.  I think that the quality is really quite good.  

These pictures are also not showing the color quite right - its not that brown.

Shout out to Budget Savvy Bride where I got some of my font inspiration.  I ended up using:

• Bickham Script Two
  
• Imprint MT Shadow
  
• Copperplate Gothic Light
  
• Ornament Scrolls and Flourishes
  

Eventually, I want to make a Hebrew version, and possibly a German version to mail the overseas family, but finding nice (free) fonts has been an issue.  I also can't seem to figure out how to get my computer to type the Hebrew from right to left - its really annoying trying to type stuff in reverse!

Thought while going through the Flicker set Secret Leaves posted via 100 Layer Cake: Invitations designed to look like the covers of old instrumental collections.  I'll have to see what I have at home to play with - otherwise it will have to wait until I get back to Jersey.  My mom has piano collections from when she was teenager, they are absolutely beautiful. 

Invitation Experimentation

Every so often I feel the need to be creative and continue learning how to use Adobe InDesign and Photoshop.  Last night I made a wedding invite using "swatches" that some lovely bridal blogger posted once upon on time.  Not sure where these swatches came from, so hopefully I'm not stealing.  Here are the swatches.  I used the one at the right on the second row.

Here is the final product.

I pretty happy with how it turned out, and I'm really happy with all the new InDesign and Photoshop skills I'm picking up along the way.  If this whole med school/grad school thing doesn't work out, at least I'll know more than how to set up Western blots and put in IVs.

Halloween Party

All of The Beau's friends have a "holiday" that they are responsible for hosting.  Some of the "holidays" include the Superbowl and Park Ave Fest, which, while fun, are not holidays - but that isn't really the point.  While at a wedding this summer his friends decided that we needed to step it up and choose a holiday.  They initially suggested St. Patrick's Day, which I vetoed and quickly countered with Halloween, they accepted.  I love Halloween, and I'm so excited that we get to throw a Halloween Party because now I get to go and buy decorations, come up a great costume and (best of all) use my burgeoning skills with InDesign to make an invitation!  Almost as much fun as designing the invites was using my new favorite website DaFont to get Halloween fonts.

Bellow is my first invitation attempt.  Its not very good, but I was so excited about all my new fonts that I couldn't choose just one.

This is my second attempt - better, right?

BTW, all the images are also fonts that I arranged into pictures.

PS - Thanks to Doctor Whimsy for being a great friend and wedding mentor, and also for introducing me to DaFont!