Getting Crafty

With the wedding approaching, I'm realizing how much needs to get done in a short period of time. So to get motivated, I've purchased quite a few new craft supplies in the past couple of weeks. My Favorites?

I first saw this "THANKS" punch on one of my favorite personal wedding planning blogs,
Honey My Heart, via Ellen Hutson.

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I love the way she used the punch to embellish the envelope liners. I want to do something similar for our shower thank yous, but not sure if I'll have enough time to write them all out and design the cards.

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The next purchase I have no clue what we'll be doing with it, but I love Baker's Twine. So I just ordered over 3,000 yards of it from Etsy seller fortandfield.

My favorite purchase of all was a Barbara Kua address stamp, which we will be using for our invitation rsvp envelopes, invitation return addresses, return addresses on our shower invites and all personal mail I send in the future!

I heard about Barbara Kua through Miss Sunrise, in her "Stamp my Little Heart Out" post. After reading Miss Sunrise's post, I knew I had to have one. I had been searching for awhile and couldn't find the right font style, but fell in love with the Claire style. Miss Sunrise already wrote an awesome post on Barbara Kua, so if your interested check it. out!

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You'll have to wait a bit to see ours, when I reveal it with the invites I've been working on!

Have you found any fun new craft supplies lately? I'm still looking for a few fun details for our paper products and looking for some fun sugesstions!

A Boston Tea Party

The invites for our Boston Shower were just sent out! Technically they were supposed to be a surprise, but while house sitting for Sister and BIL Newport awhile back I came across them and fell in love. I was going to pretend to be surprised, but I'm not a good liar..... so I blurted it out that I stumbled across them. Then I proceeeded to ask her to have mine addressed with the Weddingbee moniker.
How cute are they? They even embossed elements, which I love!And it is going to be a bridal tea! :) We are also having a bridal shower in New Jersey thrown by FMIL Newport, but that one will be a complete surprise, other than the date and location. The showers are two weekends back to back...I'm really looking forward to June!

Was your bridal shower a surprise?

Thank You Notes & More!

One of my favorite engagement gifts was a book on writing notes, which conveniently included thank yous, from Sister Starfish. It's from the Hallmark "Gift Books" collection called On a Personal Note: A Guide to Writing Notes with Style, by Angela Ensminger and Keely Chace.

photo credit: Brooke Photography

I like the authors' attitudes towards thank yous. In the chapter introduction they explain that "great thank you notes tell people what they did- as well as how and why they did it-matters to us." It's a great way to view them as many people think opf the thank yous as a daunting task. to be honest, I love writing notes, but I think after such a huge occassion that has taken quite some time to plan, writing notes is probably the last thing I'll want to do. So it's nice to remember the importance of the note because the person probably did something really nice that made you happy.

One of the most helpful parts in the chapter is the breakdown of the note. The authors break down the structure of different types of notes, including thank you notes. They break the note down into 6 parts.

1. Greet the recipient
2. Express your gratitude
3. Elaborate
4. Compliment and look ahead
5. Restate your gratitude
6. Give your regards

photo credit: Nashan Photographers

They also give great adjectives to describe the gift. I find this helpful because when I have to write multiple thank you notes, it can get repetitive. It's nice to have a resource to and change things up. If my writer's block is really bad, I turn to their sample notes for some new writing style inspiration.

And if that doesn't help, they even include questions to get ideas going. A couple I find helpful include "How did you feel when you opened the gift?, If it is a gift of money or a gift card, how do you plan to use it?"

The thank you chapter is broken into three parts: gifts, support & kindness, and social events & hospitality. So far, I've nly used the gift section for engagement gifts, but I know the next two sections will be helpful when thanking our families and wedding party for their support and the vendors for their services.

photo credit: Lara Swanson Photography

The best part of the book is that it expands beyond thank you notes. It includes all types of notes from business to congratulations to sympathy and more.

It's great because I know I'll use this gift long after our thank yous are sent out.

Did you find any great resources to help you write your thank yous?

Save The Dates: DIY Cost Breakdown

We originally wanted to keep our save the dates low budget, but they ended up costing more than expected. We realized DIY, doesn't always mean cheaper. But, we are still happy we did go the diy route. I love that the save the dates reflect both of us. They are sort of simple and classic like me, with a bit of humor thrown in, which is so Mr. Newport.

The most expensive part of the save the dates were the magnets. Because of our indecisiveness, we ended up paying more. We ordered them through Vistaprint during a promotional sale. Free Magnets- the first 10. We ended up having to pay for 5 design fees. If we only had one design we could have cut down on costs. So how much did they cost? Here's a breakdown by the sites/stores we used:

VistaPrint
Magnets (100): $88.00 with discounts and shipping included

Paper-Source (All prices listed are with a 20% discount from a sale)
Night A6 Envelopes (80 envelopes): $22.40
Pure White A6 Notecards (150 notecards): $18.00 - we had technical difficulties and needed to buy extra
White Oval Labels Sheets (100 labels): $8.32
*Envelope Liner Template (multi pack): ($8.76) -already had from prior craft project
Sketch Starfish Rubber Stamp: $4.80
Save the Date Rubber Stamp: $7.96

A.C. Moore
*Heat Embossing Tool- (19.95- 11.97 with 40% off coupon)- already had from prior craft project
Navy Ink- $2.37 with 40% off coupon
Clear Embossing Powder: $2.37 with 40% coupon

USPS
Gulf Coast Lighthouses Stamps (80)- $36.20, $1.00 service charge included
Additional 17 cent Stamps (80)-$13.60

*Other Items Needed, not included in budget breakdown:
Computer
Printer
Color Ink
Printer Paper- for envelope liners
Scissors
Pencil
Double Sided Tape

Our Total Cost: $204.02*

* not including items listed in "other", heat embosser or envelope liner template as we already had these.

At 80 Save the Dates, it came out to about $2.55 each. More than we originally wanted to spend, but we are happy with the results. These will be our guest's first glimpse into our wedding. We wanted them to be special.

We could have cut the magnets to save on costs. It would have brought the total to $116.02, or about $1.45 each, over a dollar less per save the date. They would have received this:

But we are happy with our addition, it makes our set complete.

Did you splurge on your save the dates?

Our Save the Dates

Our Save the Dates are complete and have been sent!

When we were figuring out what to do, I turned to Weddingbee for inspiration. Through different Bees on the site, I realized I wanted to incorporate a few things: tie in our theme/color scheme (navy and white with starfish accents), create a look that is simple, clean and classic Newport, incorporate some fun/humor, and special details. I think we did a pretty good job of getting the exact look we were going for.

We decided against calligraphy for the envelopes. Our wedding is a little more casual, so we didn't want super fancy save the dates, we'll save calligraphy for the invitations to make them a little more formal.

I created envelope liners using the papersource templates. I absolutely love envelope liners. I feel like they are an added surprise when you open a letter/note/invitation.
We wanted our Save the dates to be informative with a personal touch. We included a "mission statement" explaining the importance of our wedding location, as it is a destination for most of our guests.We made sure to include accommodation suggesstions. The main reason we decided to send save the dates was to get the hotel information to guests. Hotel blocks end by the time our invites go out, and we want everyone to have the chance to get rooms that are convenient and hopefully a little cheaper. We also included our wedding website, which has information on restaurants, activities in the area, and information for wedding events.

We also added in magnets. Mr. Newport really loved the idea of magnets, and I loved that we got to include photos from our engagement shoot. I say photos plural, as we couldn't decide on one design and ended up with five magnet designs. We sent out specific ones to different groups.

And here it is all together:The mission statement and information cards were completely created in Microsoft Word with some embossed elements. I think sending them out makes it all more real!

Did you make your own save the dates? What was your favorite element?

Save The Dates: Magnets

Mr. Newport hasn't had too many demands or even requests when it comes to the wedding, but he knew for sure he wanted magnets for our save the dates. I don't know what it is with guys, but it seems like it's always the guys who want the magnets. I've had guy friends come up to me so proud that they "found" this great wedding idea, and by found, I mean they received one from someone else's wedding. I think Mr. Newport found this idea on my brother's fridge.

I wanted an excuse to share our engagement pics, so I was all for the magnets. I was also super excited to use one of my favorite quotes from, When Harry Met Sally. Thus came my vision for our save the date magnets.
I was really excited about them. I showed them to Mr. Newport and Newport Mom. Newport Mom loved them, but Mr. Newport wanted to give a shot at his own creative side. He started playing around on Picasa and came up with a few of his own designs.

First came one of my favorites, we call it the Newport, and by we, I mean me. I love the sailboat and it gets across the destination and date pretty clearly. He then came up with the idea of "Get A Room", somewhat a play on words and pretty direct if you ask me. I thought it was funny and I called this my new favorite.
Then came the "Getting Closer" magnet. It lets guests know the date is gettig closer, after a two year engagement it's starting to get close with less than a year to go. I thought it was cool that he chose a blurred out photo, like hey it's getting closer, but we're not quite there. Again, it became a "favorite".His last design is called "Cold Feet". I think it's funny, since it's such a guy thing to think. Again, I had a "favorite". I had 5 "favorites", which were the only designs we had, and no clue how to choose. Which one do you think we went with? What's your favorite?

All photos credited to: David Bibeault

Save the Dates: We're on a Mission

We spent months trying to figure out what our Save the Dates should look like. Mr. Newport likes magnets, because they are practical and well, I like magnets because it gives us an excuse to use a photo from the engagment shoot!

The problem is, we want to fit a lot of information and just one magnet won't do. We had trouble with the design side of the save the date, but the wording seemed to come more easy. It didn't hurt that I had read the article, Well Said- A Destination Save the Date, by Kristy Rice of Momental Designs on WeddingbeePRO.

Because our wedding will be a destination wedding for all of our guests, we want to include not just the date, but hotel accomodations information, a photo, a little introductory, and I was thinking a cute qoute would be fun too.

Then I read Kristy's article. She suggests a mission statement. Sounds funny for a save the date, but after reading what she meant, I think it's perfect. Some people don't understand why we have to have our wedding out of state. Well for one, no matter where we chose, someone would have to travel, our guests are pretty much from MA or Jersey. It's not really why we chose Newport, but it did add to things.

We really chose Newport for the special meaning to us. I'd love to convey this to our guests who may not understand why they have to travel out of state to see us say "I do". So after some WeddingbeePRO inspiration, here is my first draft for our Save the Dates:

"Newport is where we met and fell in love. It has been an integral part of our relationship from the first date to the proposal. The first 4 years of our relationship were spent enjoying the restaraunts and activities Newport has to offer. It is a beautiful place to fall in love and a wonderful place to visit.

We would love for you to share our wedding day and the special place that brought us together.

Please Save the Date 10/2010"

Did anyone else get inspired and include a "Mission Statement" for your Save the Dates?

Save the Dates: DIY Inspired

When we first got engaged, I just assumed we would be getting professionally made save the dates. I had found some really great options that I loved. Then entered Weddingbee. I started seeing so many amazing diy options and I fell in love. Sure professional save the dates are gorgeous and easy, but I wanted something super personal and I thought, hey I can do that! After seeing a bunch of fun hand made options.

Some of the options inspired me, and to be honest, some, like Mrs. Duckling's save the dates, intimidated me. I'm in love with her save the dates!
I started reading the posts under the save the date tag on Weddingbee. I was inspired by all the creativity, but even more excited that there were step by step instructions in many posts as well!

I was in love with all the creativity. It was a little overwhelming at first! I decided I needed to narrow down my favorites and find some real inspiration for ours.

I kept coming back to Mrs. Taffy's save the dates. One of my favorite things about her wedding is the consistency. I love the design theme she chose and the way it was wove throughout her entire wedding. Every detail fit in perfectly! Her save the dates were no exception. I love that her guests were given a glimpse of the style and colors.
Mrs. Corn's save the dates were another favorite. They look clean, classic, simple and undeniably Newport. I've been in love with her wedding from the beginning. After googling Newport weddings, I came across Mrs. Corn, who led me to Weddingbee. .
When I saw Mrs. Cheese's all I could think was SO FUN! They remind me of Mr. Newport. I want both of our personalities to come though in our save the dates, and he's so fun loving, that something like this would be perfect!
When I saw Mr.'s Lemonade's I was so inspired by all the details that went into it. I love how she incorporated a magent, a photo, envelope liners, all the information in a beautiful font, and I especially loved it because of the color scheme! So, now that we have all this inspiration, what to do? You'll have to wait and see!

Did you make your own save the dates or did you look to the professionals? Were you inspired by others?

Save the Date Inspiration

When we decided on a Newport wedding, we knew we'd have to give guests advanced notice. A resort town, even in the off season seems to be somewhat in demand- or at least, that's what they want you to think. Plus our guests are all coming from out of state, so we want to give advanced notice for accomodations. Since the save the date is the first item guests see related to the wedding, I wanted it to be a statement piece. I wasn't sure what statement, but I wanted it to convey the feel of our wedding.

So, I turned to the proffessionals for some inspiration.

I instantly fell in love with Laura Hooper save the dates. Her maps are so charming and cute. Perfect for a destination wedding. I love how she can include so many points of interest. I think it would be fun to have a map with our ceremony location, reception location, accomodations and some of our favorite Newport spots like Salve, the cliffwalk and Thames St.
Then I found Stinkerpants Celebrations. The cartoons are fun and whimsical. I love how personalized they are between the couple and fun back drops.
Then, when designing our wedding website, we chose a star fish theme that has coordinating paper from the Papeterie Store. I thought it would be fun to tie in our website design, since it has somewhat set the tone for our whole wedding. These Save the Dates would set the tone for our traditional, yet casual Newport Nuptials.
When we first started looking, we were undecided. Do we want something that represents the tone of our wedding, or something more fun and whimsical, or charming and cute?

Did you choose based on the tone the save the date set, or did you just got for a style you liked?

Etsy Finds

I am a huge Etsy fan. I have never actually made a purchase, but I am pretty sure that will change over the course of wedding planning. One of my most recent finds is seller CaptureCapeMay. I am in love with their work!

We are going for classic New England - romantic beach elegance vibe for the wedding... that's a mouthful! I saw Capture Cape May's stationery and think it fits the theme! We really want to do photo or magnet save the dates, but I think these would perfectly set the tone for our wedding:

Such a cute Save The Date idea!

I also love the thank you notes, I love DIY, but these are so cute! They could be for guests, parents, readers, or the weddign party!
Another bridesmaid option:
A gift for the bride or groom.....
Notes for the bridesmaids as part of a thank you gift....
So many options! Do you have a favorite seller on Etsy?

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Right after we got, we started to receive a few beautiful and really thoughtful gifts from some of our closest friends. I think engagement gifts aren't necessary, so we really appreciated the thoughtfulness of the gift givers. I don't like to do standard thank yous because if someone went out of their way to do something nice for me, I want to give them a personal thank you.

That being said, I think we came up with the most perfect idea for thank yous!

We used 3 photos from the day of the proposal. We wanted to give each person a little glimpse into the day. So we had a picture of us taken the day of the proposal as the card, we used the picture of the date of the proposal written in the sand as the stamp, and a picture of my ring as a sticker to seal the envelope.

Close ups of the pictures used:

I'm so happy with how they turned out! They are super easy to make. Go to Zazzle to pick your product, upload a picture and your product is ready to purchase, you can also add other features such as text. You can't see it, but we had Thank you! written on the card.

Do you like personalizing thank you's too? How have you made your thank you's personal?