The "Waiting Game"

Oh my goodness...other brides are right – checking the mail is SO much fun! No, not everyday is fun, but when you’ve spent countless hours working on your invitations, and then you send them off in the mail, you start to anxiously await the RSVPs in the mail. Other brides have written about how much fun they have going to the mail box, and they’re right! It’s a blast.

You see, I don’t normally check my mail everyday. We have a PO Box in town near my office for most of the bills, and then get mainly junk mail at home. So, I try to stop and collect the bills once or twice a week and then we check the mail box at the house even less frequently. Until now! Now, I’m checking that bad boy each and every mail day!

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For the first few days it was one or two at a time. Then one day I got none. The next day there were three...and the following day there were EIGHT! I was so excited to take each one home and check it out. See who was planning on attending and who might not be. And this was a big question for us, because like most brides out there today, I invited more people than we really have space for at our venue. I figure this is ok, since the average acceptance rate is around 75%, right? Even though I know this, and I’ve talked to plenty of other brides, friends, family and vendors...I was still sweating when the first 15 or so RSVPs were all marked “yes.”

That’s good news, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll also admit that there was a little sigh of relief to get a few that were marked “no” as well.

But let me ask you this question. Now that the initial rush seems to be passing, is it normal to experience a lull or lag in responses? There are still almost two full weeks before the deadline that was printed on the RSVP passes, but I didn’t get one single note all weekend long. Not Friday. And not Saturday. That is perplexing to me. I have a theory though, and to me it seems that the longer people wait to respond back...the greater the chance is that they’re not coming. Did you find that to be true?

The bride inside of me that over-invited is a little relieved. But the bride inside me that wants a good turn-out is a little worried. I think that it’s normal to get a rush of responses right at the beginning and then a rush of responses more towards the deadline...but this waiting game is killing me! Lucky for me, when I collected addresses to build our database, I also collected phone numbers and email addresses. Yes, I fully expect to have to track people down to get an answer out of them. And that’s ok. I was one of those people for Maid Britney’s wedding last year. I’m a tad bit ashamed to admit the fact now, but I was one of those guests that had to be emailed (or IMed) to see if we were attending or not.

Now that I’m the bride, and I know all that rests on the number of guests coming to your wedding, I don’t think that I’ll ever be that person again. I vow right now to always send my RSVP in before the deadline...and as soon as I can, to be honest.

Did you experience this too? A rush of RSVPs hitting your mailbox right away...and then a little pause? How many people did you have to “track down” to get an answer our of? Just wondering...

The Word is in...They're a BIG Hit!

I’m SO excited….word is slowly trickling in from various sources that people are receiving their STDs…and they LOVE them!

If you could see me now, you’d see that I am currently doing a happy dance in my cubicle…

I’m thrilled that my hard work and slight obsession with details paid off in such a big way! It’s a big relief when something that you so lovingly create is appreciated so well…just makes all the stress and worry worth it somehow. Since I want to wait another day or so before I post the actual Save the Date images, here’s something to hold you over.

I did a boo boo….

Can anyone spot it?

Did you get it yet?

Here…let me help a little bit…

Yep, ladies and gents, that’s an actual addressed and embossed STD from my pile set out to mail. Am I lucky that I caught this one BEFORE I put the stamp on the envelope and mailed it or what?

How funny might it be to the recipients if I DIDN’T catch it? SHE might get a good laugh…HE might not laugh so much…

I can’t even tell you how this happened or what I was thinking when it happened – it’s just a typo. Yes ma’am, as much as my favorite font from dafont.com LOOKS like handwriting, it’s actually printed through my computer, which means that this was a typo on my Excel spreadsheet, which transferred to the mail merge and onto my envelope.

The really sad thing might be that I didn’t even catch this when I was doing the stamping and embossing…and I REALLY thought that I had stared at each of the envelopes pretty hard while doing that whole process! Just goes to show how much TV you can really watch while doing wedding DIY projects!

So, even though I think that this would be hilarious to send out, for the sake of Mr. CC I’m going to correct my mistake and redo this particular envelope. But maybe I should go over that Excel file ONE MORE TIME before I close the door on STDs…

It might be worth the extra 5 minutes it would take me.

Please tell me that I’m not the only person to do this when addressing formal invitations? Surely this happens to other brides/organizers…

Was it as simple as mine to correct or did you happen to send it out and the recipient corrected you? Now THAT would be funny!

Something You MIGHT Not Think About...

All right. I’ve never tried to deny that I might be just a LITTLE bit, just the teeny-weeny-est little bit, obsessive. Or Type A personality – whatever you want to call it. I don’t deny it, instead I wear it proudly like a badge of honor. Yes, I’m obsessive over the tiniest of details that most people will NEVER even notice…but it makes ME feel better. And let’s be honest…isn’t it all about me? It’s my big day after all…if it makes me feel better to do things a certain way, even though it’s more difficult to do them that way, isn’t it ok?

Well, keeping in mind that it’s ALSO Mr. CC’s big day too…he plays a major role as well. (slap my hand for going off and forgetting that there are TWO people getting married in October…)

Anyway, back to my obsessive tendencies. I think that I threw Mr. CC for a loop the other day when I casually happened to mention that I had found some really cool stamp options for us to use on our STDs and wedding invitations. I didn’t really expect that he would comment, but as always, he keeps me on my toes, and caught my brief mention of stamp options and drug me back to that comment. I was already on to the next thing that happened in my day…The conversation went something like this:

“What do you mean stamps?”

“You know, stamps. For the Save the Dates. There were some really cool ones that I’m thinking about using – if I can find them. If not, I can always order them online.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You mean that we have to have special STAMPS?”

I have to be honest here and admit that I really didn’t get why this was a shock to him. OF COURSE there are special stamps! You don’t just want to use regular-jane-doe-everyday-use stamps for your wedding stationary! Oh, the horrors!

After he finished laughing at me with me, he quickly got on the special stamp train, especially since there’s no outrageous extra cost to getting these stamps. Other than a little frustration to finding them at your local postal store. Check out the options that I found. Aren’t they cool?

So cute for weddings...

For the Walt Disney lover inside us all...

Woudln't these be perfect for a destination wedding somewhere tropical?

My sentiments exactly...CELEBRATE!

Very pretty.

What wedding invitation wouldn’t be “dressed up” a little bit with these?
Now, I’ll admit to having a few scruples in this Cotton Candy head of mine. I saved the best for last. I had already seen these stamps when Mr. CC mentioned them, and I sort of figured that these would be a shoe in choice for him. What are they you ask?
I’ll show you…
Yep, Purple Heart stamps. These were PERFECT for our Save the Dates. As soon as I saw them, I thought about how neat it would be to use them. You see, Mr. CCC is a Marine, and he actually was awarded a Purple Heart for his service/sacrifice for our great country. He will tell you that it was no big deal, that he was just doing “his job,” but to me, a Purple Heart is a really big deal. He has it on our desk shelf, along with other pictures from his service that he’s proud to show off, and he also carried Purple Heart plates on his truck. So what better way to “dress” our STDs than with something that honors the veterans that we know and love? There’s nothing more perfect in my mind.

Then came the problem of finding them. I guess that I was mistaken in thinking that purchasing these stamps would be a simple matter of stopping at my local USPS office to pick them up. Mr. CC asked that I get a few extra for him to keep, so I was looking to buy 4 sheets of stamps from the post office. Unfortunately, after standing in line for well over 20 minutes, I got up the counter to discover that they were all out of the Purple Heart stamps at that particular location.

Yep, 20 minutes…

So I was a little smarter than the USPS…I went home and got online to their store, which can be found here and bought the stamps online. It seems a little odd to do things that way, but I got the exact ones that I wanted to get, I didn’t have to wait in any other lines just to find out that they didn’t have them, and I only had to pay $1 for the processing/shipping. Easy, breezy. That’s Miss CC’s style!

So there you have it. We picked out our stamps for our STDs that mean something to us personally, and I feel (obsess much, I know) that they dress up the envelope a bit and make it more special. As soon as the stamps come in and the STDs go out in the mail, I promise that I’ll show off my finished STDs….obsessive me just wants to wait until they’re actually in the mail before showing them off on my blog!

Did you choose special stamps for your STDs/invitations too? Did you have to jump through hoops to find them, or was it relatively easy?

Wait a Minute Mr. Postman...

I’m SO excited, and I have to share!

I’m almost done collecting addresses for the wedding!

Yea, me!

For those of you who have been around this merry-go-round before, you KNOW how truly time-consuming and aggravating this entire process can be…but I have to say that because of some well-organized family members and VERY cooperative friends, this has been a lot simpler that I had feared.

You see, I started the wedding database file in Excel on my computer LONG before I was actually engaged. It was one of those things that I thought that I could get a “head start” on so to speak without having the official ring on my finger. I mean, I didn’t have to tell anyone exactly why I needed their address, just little innocent me, asking for an updated address….whistle…whistle…looking inconspicuous…

Ok, maybe not so much. But still. When I first started this process it was because I realized that in my search for our venue, we needed to know about how many people we were expecting to have at the shindig. But I guess-timated as this could be a rough number. But then when I got serious about it, I really needed a more “solid” number.

Then I started trying to project costs and work on our wedding budget…and I needed REALLY solid numbers…I learned that there was a big difference in catering costs and rental costs between 100 people and 150 people. So it would matter if we included everyone or limited the budget a little bit.

In the end, we were able to find a caterer that worked within our budget without causing us too much strain (hopefully!) and we are not going to have to limit the guest list too terrible much. So once the guest list got opened up, I made sure to color code it so that I could take a glance and easily see whose address I was still missing. When I started this project, there was of course more yellow (missing addresses) than white lines…now I’m down to only 12 or 13 yellow lines!

I have to send a BIG shout out to FMIL on this one. She is SO organized! She had a database already created for her side of the family that they use and update regularly…and she was in the process of making one for FFIL side of the family, so within about a month of me mentioning that I would need addresses eventually she had two databases turned in to me. And in there was more information than I could ever ask for – names, addresses, phone numbers (including cell phones), kids’ names, birthdays and email addresses. Yep, I was excited to get those…and to see my name and little CC’s name already included on the database along with our birthdays…what a nice surprise!

Then with my mom’s help and friends responding to emails right away, I’ve been able to knock most of those addresses out this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And of course, a BIG thank you to Mr. CC for getting on the phone/text with his buddies and getting their addresses for me! You rock, honey!

Now that I have all of this gathered, and can hopefully nab the remaining few addresses before the weekend, I should be able to finish printing the STD envelopes…not that I’ve ordered the post cards that go IN the envelopes yet…but they’ll be ready to mail once I get them in! LOL.

What's that? You want a sneak peak at the STDs??? Is that what I heard? Oh, allright, but keep it to yourself....
That's a picture of the front of the STD magnet that will be attached to the back of the postcard, and I promise to have a step-by-step instruction post within the next few days.

Is it odd that I had the magnets made and the envelopes printed before I ever ordered the postcards? Who else out there does things in reverse order? Come on, I can’t be the only one…