.stuffed, stamped, sealed and delivered.

Today marks our first big milestone in the planning process. Well, maybe not THE first…but a pretty big one. Our Save The Dates were mailed!!!

They have been stuffed (thanks, Flo), stamped (thanks, Flo), labeled (thanks, Flo) and sealed (thanks, me!). And Today, Flo dropped them at the Post Office. I wanted to be there taking a photo…but since today is my turn to pay the bills, I had to go to work. So instead, here is a photo of them.


This was definitely a team effort once we received them via UPS. Flo and I collectively, stuffed, hand addressed, made the mailing labels, stamped, labeled and glued them shut! Getting all of the addresses was less than easy. For some reason, I ended up with about 10 of the Groom’s side not having an address. We had to practically harass MIL to get these addresses for us. It wasn’t her, though, she’s been harassing the guests. What? You don’t want to be invited? Sweet- I can use some extra space on the guest list! Speaking of… in reviewing our STD list, MIL added one more name! Ahhh!!!!!! The guest list is still about 50 over where we wanted it but have pretty much stuck a straw in and sucked it up.

Once again, these were designed by Ellie who also had them printed and shipped out to us. We had ordered 100 card and 100 envelopes. We ran out of envelopes but still have cards left! HA! I hand addressed them. However, my hand moves faster than my brain, so some states were abbreviated. Some said Mr. So and So and Ms. Such and Such. The woman’s name always goes first. And no “and” is needed between two lines. I had to Google “addressing etiquette” as we have some doctors, some people who are married and kept their own name, some people who are divorced, widowed, attorneys, etc. For the invites, I am leaving the addressing up to the pros. That is way too stressful to tackle on my own.

So it begins- the STDs are in the mail (no, they did not come with penicillin) and we are fully underway with planning.

Sometimes, I look at the calendar and think that nine months is still a ton of months away, then I log onto my wedding website drug and see other brides who are “date twins” starting to make lists and get everything in order and buy things. Am I slacking or do I just know that it isn’t stress out time? A little of both, I presume.

My wedding map is in progress and now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, it is quite fun. Stay tuned for my next post where I talk about the DIY wedding map.

.checking things off of the list.

Whew! My, oh my…. Where have I been? Yikes! Well, I went on vacation, had my sister come out to visit me and just have not been able to catch up on blogging!

To update, my vacation was very productive, the following were accomplished:

1. My mother found an MOB dress, but just needs to order it. I wanted to go looking for dresses with her just to get an idea of what feels comfortable for her, what style looks good on her shape and what colors she likes. Well we more than accomplished that! Sweet… she lurves it, I lurve it and she is going to be one sassy MOB! No photos of this will post.

2. We found dresses for the Zillaz. Sort of. My sister, my niece and I trekked to several bridal stores in New Jersey. While Ster Zilla fed the lovely baby, I tried on the dresses! In all honesty… I think that I enjoy the dress shopping and trying experience so much that I offered to try them on! For S-Zilla and I to shop, we don’t mess around. In, put dress on, do you like –yes or no, circle one- ok, dress off and next. We fell in lurve with a matte jersey material from both Alfred Angelo and the Dessy Group. The matte jersey is light, flowy and comfy. So no fidgeting, no hugging or squeezing, these dresses should last comfortably all nite long! The Dessy dress is a wrap style that can be worn several ways. I like this idea the most because everyone can wear the dress in a style they like the most. For example, A-Zilla has awesome shoulders and upper body, so I pictured her wrapping to accentuate and I was right- she loves the one shoulder wrap. All we are doing is waiting for a sample to come into one store so that we can actually try that dress on and see how difficult (or easy, I hope) it is to wrap these dresses. I can only imagine us on the morning of trying to get this done and we end up Hollywood Taping everything together. Welcome to my world. The Zillaz lurved the dresses, too! That was most important. Wait, they said they lurved them…. Oh well. They truly can be re worn. The material can be dressed up for the wedding and worn with cute flats or strappy sandals and worn to brunch or church.

**NOTE: Another great wrap is is by twobirds bridesmaid...check it out. A little more expensive than the Dessy, but stunning.**

Dress by Alfred Angelo, Style 6588

Dress by The Dessy Group, Style Twist1

3. I bought a dress!!! YAYYYYYY! This is a HUGE relief. I haven’t quite yet posted all of dress debacle posts because I wasn’t sure how much attention I wanted to call to the negatives of dress shopping. Maybe I will forget all of that and just move forward. The dress is amazing, no, I won’t post photos. But it will knock your socks off! Now… I just have to get into a shape, something other than round. But don’t worry- I already started this process, I have a phone number to a trainer, who I will call while I gorge on Doritos. Ha-ha, take that healthy trainer lady! Just kidding…. My goal is to start a program around August or September. An actual training program, more than just my infrequent visits to the gym.

Here is a photo of a rejected dress... I have to be careful with what I post in case I change my mind! Ha!

4. We tasted our favors…. And sorry guests, there are none left for you! Just kidding. Spoiler Alert: I am going to talk about my wedding favors here. My dad makes wine as a hobby and it was only fitting to ask him to make wine for the wedding favors. He is making two flavors, which I will keep secret, and we were able to try one flavor and it was G-O-O-DDDDDDDD. YUM! I can’t wait for the guests to receive this favor and hopefully drink it. It is meaningful and made with love, for sure. We just need to commish Ellie Hey to do my labels. She has already agreed….so that part is checked off. We just need to come up with a design and a cute saying on the bottles so that everyone knows where they were made, etc. Any ideas? Please email them to me at TheNearlyweds@rocketmail.com

.ohhhh....what can it be hiding under than bag? the next step is to bottle and voila they are done.

.this is called a "wine thief" so that you can taste without contaminating the wine in progress.

.tasting the fruits of my dad's labor. yum is all i can say.

5. Save the Dates. Once again, the truly talented Ellie came through with a design that blew us away! I think that we went through only 3 revisions…but if you ask her, it was probably more like 33. Anyway, she sent us the approved design while we were in PA, sampling our favors. Blame it on the alcohol?? Anyway, they are two-sided, 5”x7” beauties. The personal information is blacked out, but this is what they look like:

They were printed on a glossy stock and we picked matching shadow grey envelopes. I am currently hand addressing them! UGH. My handwriting is mediocre, but I write faster than I think and have messed up three so far. Maybe the recipients of the STDs will become a shorter list and I continue writing. I can’t wait for them to be mailed, which means that I am finished with hand addressing envelopes.

**NOTE: We are only mailing to immediate family and far away friends (and bridal party!) so if you are a local friend…and don’t get one, you don’t necessarily have to be offended. We just speak to you on a regular basis and you know when the wedding will be and you should know if you will be invited or not!**

6. My insane checklist. I created a spreadsheet as my checklist. It is a crazillion tabs. Each tab is dedicated to a subject: Attire, Accessories, catering, Décor, DIY, Transportation, To Do, etc. It is helping to keep me organized, for now….

7. My binder. Is another out of control item. I am creating a secondary one for inspirational ideas since that is what is keeping my binder overflowing. And I guess that I can move the losing choices for a bridal gown and Zillaz dress to the older folder. I don’t want to get rid of anything because I think that in a few years I want to look back and see where my thoughts were and what I would have changed, etc.

So I leave you with this really long blog. We are just under 10 months now and the planning is going into full swing! We meet with our wedding planner today and I will be sure to blog again after that! Cheers!

.save this date.

Not all weddings call for a “Save the Date” notice, but if we are going all out, I feel as though our wedding could use one! We had the engagement photos taken, so why not? It is also a destination wedding which requires planning, travel and time to prepare. I enlisted the help of my dear friend Laura to else with the design element. While the finished product is to remain a secret until you either receive one in the mail or you don’t…. here is a sneak preview:

Our task for the next few weeks is to tackle our guest list, start trimming if necessary and then decide who gets a Save the Date- it is not that we want to keep people out of the loop…but more for budgetary purposes. Have you seen the price of stamps lately!?!? The date will travel via word of mouth to most of our close friends, but to family- you can guarantee a notice in the mail. Half of the guest has never met Flo nor myself, but at least now they can see what we look like.

Here are some to-do and not to-do rules for Save The Dates, found here:

1. You're planning to invite a lot of guests from out of town. If you have friends and loved ones spread out across the country or even the world, a save the date card gives them extra time to make travel arrangements. By sending out save the date announcements 6 - 12 months before the wedding, those far away guests will have the opportunity to book flights and hotels at a better rate.

2. You're having a destination wedding. If you've decided on a destination wedding and are hoping your invited guests will be able to come along, it's a good idea to give them as much time as possible to plan. Sending save the date cards will give them the chance to schedule vacation time and make travel arrangements.

3. You've set your wedding date around the holidays or typical peak summer vacation time. Let people know your wedding date before they make vacation plans, and you have a better chance they will attend.

4. You're seriously hoping that most of the people you invite to your wedding will attend. People have increasingly busy lives and are always making plans. Since your actual wedding invitation will only go out 6 - 12 weeks before the big day, your potential guests may have already made plans by the time they receive it.

5. You're just so excited that you've set the date that you can't keep the news to yourself. Save the date cards can double as engagement announcements, letting people know that you're engaged and have set the date for your wedding.

6. You want to show off your fiance' to all your friends and relatives who have never met him/her. You can send photo save the date cards and everyone can see the love and happiness on your faces. In fact, the latest trend in photo cards is to include multiple photos on your save the dates, so you don't have to settle on just one picture.

7. They're fun! There are no rules and no etiquette, so your save the date cards can be unique and imaginative. They can reflect your personalities, hobbies, time of year you plan to get married, wedding destination, bold colors or just about anything you like. There are scratch-off save the date cards and save the date magnets. It's your chance to grab everyone's attention.