The Invitation Saga

Since the invitations have finally been sent, I figure it's time to tell the story behind them. The story starts like this: Briana and I found the perfect invitations, but they were going to cost $600. We--trying to stay within budget and sticking to the DIY theme of our wedding--decided we could make them ourselves. And so we did. Even with the assistance of Penny, Tamisha, and Brianne (our intrepid helpers), the invites took a ridiculous amount of time to finish. The following is a photo essay of the process.

DAY 1- Creating the sandal invitations.
1. Matt gets frustrated easily. Especially when trying to format text on sandal-shaped invitations.


2. Every invitation was handcrafted by our expert craftsmen. Matt's thumb still has nerve damage from the scissors. This is what the invitations looked like before the trimming process.


3. Brianne expertly folds the invitation prior to cutting.


4. Tamisha adheres the sandal strap using glue dots. (Side note: Glue dots are awesome!)


5. Penny manages to wound herself while cutting the ribbon for the sandal straps.


4. Everyone working at her respective post.


5. Brianne and Tamisha work diligently. Matt eats chips and queso dip.


6. The mess.

7. A stack of lovely invitations.


DAY 2-- Creating the FAQ sheet and RSVP cards.
1. The happy couple makes important decisions about the wording of the RSVP cards.



2. Matt gets frustrated because the FAQ page printed on two pages instead of one, thus wasting 40 sheets of paper.


3. Briana expertly stamps the backs of the RSVP cards.

4. Briana shows off her handiwork. Kona looks outside for squirrels.

5. Matt attaches address labels. (Side note: He was forced to do this job because the invitations he made looked terrible and had to be thrown away.)


6. Briana tests out her skills as an aeronautical engineer. (Side note: I witnessed the test flights and I wouldn't recommend flying in any planes that she designs.)


7. The dining room table serving as a drying area. (Side note: Make sure any ink is DRY before stacking RSVP cards. We learned this one the hard way.)


8. Done!

If you want to test your relationship before your marriage, then I recommend making your own wedding invitations. Not killing each other during the process is a sign that you were meant to be together.

We're really happy with the way our invitations turned out and saved a ton of money by doing it ourselves. I'll have to check the receipts for the total, but stayed under $200 for sure. And, of course, we couldn't have done it without the help of Penny, Tamisha, and Brianne. Thank you!

The Ben Franklin Incident

In case you haven’t heard the story yet, the authors of this blog—your favorite soon-to-be-married couple—almost met a tragic demise in Ben Franklin last Sunday. While I’ve done a lot of stupid, dangerous, and potentially life-threatening things over the years, I never thought that an arts and crafts store would be the scene of my near-death.

As we were perusing the wall of ribbon at Ben Franklin, there was a tremendous crash from the front of the store—about 20 feet to our right. At first I thought some shelves had collapsed, but then I heard the sound of a car horn croaking for life. It was then that I realized what had happened: someone had driven their car into the front of the building. Needless to say, Briana and I ran out to investigate and/or help. When we got out of the store, we saw this:


Well, when we first came out, there was someone helping the elderly driver out of the car, so imagine them in the picture, and then you can properly visualize what we first saw. The driver was disoriented but otherwise okay. Driving through that wall was no easy feat. There is a curb and sidewalk in front of the store and the parking lot attached to store is pretty small. She must have jammed down the accelerator to get enough momentum. Briana and I are lucky that the parking lot wasn’t any bigger; otherwise, she might have gone further into the store and smashed us.

The picture to the left is the scene from inside the store. Notice the employee who was experiencing the most exciting day of any Ben Franklin employee in the history of the store. Briana and I were standing just to the left of this picture against the far wall, which was directly in the car's path.

So, that’s the story. We almost died buying ribbon for our wedding invitations, thus proving that we should have just paid for the pre-made invites. Oh, and speaking of which, check back tomorrow for the full story on the DIY invitations.