I know it's been FOREVER since I posted last, but I had to address all of those darn invitations! At first it felt like a little gift of time spent thinking of each of my guests, but that quickly wore off and I mostly felt bored and overwhelmed. Oh, well, they're out and all is good!

I've been checking tons of things off my list lately, but as a lot of them are gifts, I won't share them here. My computer broke down, so that was a BIG deterrent to posting, though that doesn't account for all of it. Anyway, let me show you what I've been working on lately.

I got my first opportunity to create custom wedding invitation designs for a childhood friend of mine who's getting married next year. Here's what I've come up with so far:

My other creation since my computer's return is also a work in progress:

I know, ANOTHER Herky! But, in my defense, I lost everything when my computer crashed, so I had to completely redraw him. I know he's supposed to point the other way, but I had to reverse him to make the words look pretty. I'm still hoping to learn how to distress him; that's currently beyond my adobe skill level.

I've Had Better Ideas...

I've been working on addressing my invitations, and it's a pain in the butt. Still, I like thinking that I spent at least 10 minutes working on each of the invitations that I send out. I spend the time creating each letter and worrying over how they look. I spend my free time doing something, however small, for all of the people who have supported Jake and me and helped to shape the people we are, for which I am thankful. It's worth it to do this small thing for all of my guests, and I hope they enjoy it! I'm definitely getting back into the swing of calligraphy. I was a little shaky at first, but each invite looks better than the last. I finally finished 20! Only 136 to go! :-)

Ok, I'm back already. I just kept thinking how hard it is to see what's in the image of those sweatshirts, and I wanted to post a closer view. So, here they are:

Still at It! Invites and Apparel Design

Hi, all! I'm so sorry I've been remiss in my posting. Planning has continued, we've checked some items off of our ever-expanding to-do list, and now I'll tell you about a few things!

First of all, I finally got my invitations printed! I'm not going to lie, I'm incredibly proud of the way my design came out. I'd brag a little, but I'll just show you the pictures and let you make up your own mind! Sorry about the glare on the pictures, the invites are surprisingly shiny!

These are all the pieces. The smaller ones are two-sided: the black on the front and the brown on the back.   Taking this picture with the flash off, believe it or not, provided the most visible results.

Here is what the invites look like all assembled. I'm enamored with the envelopes Mom and I picked out! Now, if only they'd address themselves.... I MAY have bitten off more than I can chew deciding to calligraphy all of them myself.

Now that you've seen the invites, let me show you the less concrete things I've been working on tonight! I'm designing the apparel for the wedding party to wear on the day-of while getting ready. I tried to coordinate them somewhat with the invites. Here's what I've got so far:

I sort of feel like, at this point, everyone else's is cooler than mine! Well, we can't have that. I'm the BRIDE, for goodness' sake! I'm thinking I may have to make the diamond part of the ring entirely out of bling. Now THAT would be fabulous! These are a little difficult to see, so I may upload close-up pics of each shirt later. Anyway, hope you like them!

Another Quilt Retreat, and Presto! Guestbook

     Last month Mom, RaeAnn, and I went to another Quilter's Cupboard weekend retreat at the Ankeny Legion. We worked hard, finished a ton of projects, and ate way too much junk food (at least, in my case). The best part? I finished three quilt fronts, one for my guestbook, and two for friends who will be getting married this year. Here are some pictures of what we finished:

As we started packing up, we laid out all of the projects we'd finished during the retreat, and it made quite a spread! The three jelly-roll quilt fronts are my contributions.

Here's what the guestbook quilt looked like to begin with:

And here's what it looks like now:

I've still got a lot of work to do before it's ready: it needs a border, and I'm going to applique some bunting onto the front. I love the combination of light colored patterns; I was a little worried some of them wouldn't go together, but I love it!

Thanks to My Amazing Bridesmaids!

     My bridesmaids have all gotten fitted for and paid for their dresses! They're ordered, and they will be here in a matter of WEEKS! I seriously can't wait (if you remember, we needed to order 5 dresses to get a big discount, so I got a gold and ivory version to wear for the rehearsal dinner)! I know that I told you I wouldn't show a picture of them, but as I've shown you everything else, it seemed silly to hold back this little detail. Here's a picture of Breanna wearing the dress:

I love the dress because I get sort of a Jackie-O vibe from it: it's classy and has a classic style about it, but it's also different from any bridesmaid dress I've seen before. Ours will have purple underneath the black lace. We haven't made an executive decision about the belt yet: it comes with black, but we may switch it to purple. Each bridesmaid will also wear a vintage brooch on the belt. My rehearsal dinner dress has ivory lace over gold satin.

Here's a picture of Bre and I together (that's my ACTUAL dress!):

There was some worry that the two wouldn't complement each other, but I think we look great together!

     I'm getting pretty psyched, but planning is winding down now that we've gotten so much done. To be honest, that's a little sad! Now we mostly have the execution to go, as well as some things I can't post online (bridesmaids' gifts, etc.). Don't be surprised if my entries continue to be few and far between.

Tuxes: CHECK!

     I realize that tuxes aren't the most exciting detail in a wedding. Nevertheless, it feels pretty good to have gotten this done. Not only did we find the best price at the store in Ankeny (Skeffington's Formal Wear), but the price we got was better than we could've hoped! If you're planning a wedding now, they extended a $40 off tux price promotion into February. We got the most basic of the basic: a black one-button tux. With a $5 upgrade to get non-pleated shirts, each tux will cost under $84: shoes, vest, and tie included. That said, I was pretty sure I didn't want a vest and tie, but they explained it would be cheaper to order them. Here's what we chose:

I still intend to not use this vest and tie, but to have the men go vest-less and wear ties I either make or buy. Still, it's good to have a backup! Here are some examples from a cool etsy store (Projector: Tie the Knot) that are close to what I'm thinking:

      I'm thinking either black with a gold image, gold with a black image, or purple with a gold image. I'm trying to design something that would both be masculine and go with the wedding. I'll let you know when I come up with something good!

Paid a Visit to the Linen Fairy

In our never-ending quest to nail down all of the details for this wedding, Mom and I explored a new topic this week: linens. Exciting, no? We have made some preliminary, not-set-in-stone decisions, and they are as follows:

Order ivory tablecloths from Puttin' on the Ritz in Des Moines.

These are all the crazy colors they have. Ivory not pictured.

Order coordinating chair covers for the head table. The chair covers they have are really cool; they don't cover the seat, just the back, and cost only $1 per chair. Of course, that adds up!

White chair cover. The ivory one's on the table.

I think they look a lot better with the sash on them. We'll probably use ribbon.

Create napkins: buy vintage floral bedsheets and cut them to napkin size using pinking shears (no-sew). Ordering colored ones is our backup plan. Here's what they might look like:

I'm almost scared to say it, but I think THIS is my stationary suite!

Of course each piece will require further tweaking and perfecting, but, design-wise, I think this might be it! All of it will be printed on brown paper (the same as the save-the-dates), so where the background's brown, know that's not the exact shade. I'm still thinking about switching the map to a black background, but the RSVP backside has to be something people can write on. So, without further ado, here they are:

We're still trying to figure out size, and I want to create icons for the church and hotel that are a little more fun than boxes. For right now, though, I'm pretty satisfied!

I know, more invites!

     If you've been paying attention at all, you'll know that I've been pretty indecisive about the design for my wedding invitations. I'm having trouble deciding how formal to get, what colors to use, what fonts work the best. I come up with a design and feel pretty good about it one day, then completely change my mind the next. Mom and I have set me the deadline of March 1st to finish my design and send it for printing. In that vein, here are some more invite designs:

If you're finding my abrupt switch from brown to black odd, it's a result of our choice of bridesmaids' dresses, which have an element of black to them. Let me know what you think!

It's all in the little things.

     Craft-a-thon was a major success! It think the fun of a wedding is all in the little personal details. I promised you a wedding that had both handmade and vintage flavors, but it's nice to know that all of the "handmade" parts don't have to come from me. (Well, me and my mom, anyway). I spent probably six+ hours taking paper punches to the top of those cookie take-home bags, but with help from friends they were printed in maybe 2 hours. We started working at 6, and with a host of 14 friends and family members, this is what we accomplished:

We created 250 picks for each guest's slice of wedding cake:

We printed designs on 300 cookie bags (though we probably lost 10-20 to printer paper jams. That bag printing thing isn't as effortless as pinterest makes it seem):

We created 100 colorful ribbon dancers:

We colored in and painted the scratch-off date on 250 save-the-dates:

We had some really cute pictures of our teenaged helpers, too, but I'm pretty sure it's not cool to post pictures of the under-aged on unprotected websites without their parents' consent. Sorry, girls!

     It's amazing to have so many people willing to show up and do this kind of work. Yeah, we're all crafty people, but we're also all extremely busy. Thanks so much for taking a night out of your holiday vacations to help me out! It means so much!

     We've got awhile before another craft-a-thon will be necessary. On the agenda next time? Invitation stuffing and program making, along with the creation of another 150 ribbon dancers (though my sister may have connections that will get us an extra 100 left over from her friend's wedding, which would be awesome). Until then, my major work lies in finally nailing down the invitation design. I'm liking the one I'm currently working on, but we'll see how long it takes me to fall out of love with it!

Craft-a-thon Tonight!

     It's been a week of wedding progress! On Tuesday we picked up my dress and picked out dresses for the bridesmaids. We had tremendous success at Stacey's; I'm nearly as excited about the bridesmaids' dresses as I am about my own! In order to get a discount (and because I was super-jealous), I ordered the same dress in ivory to wear for the rehearsal dinner. I'm so excited I might not even put a picture up and just let all of you be surprised!

     In other news, we're hosting a wedding craft-a-thon at my parents' house tonight; we will be working on the save-the-dates, picks for the cake, the ribbon dancers, and the cookie bags for the wedding. We will provide our fabulous wedding elves (it's a workshop, right? Ok, dumb analogy) with pizza, beer, and snacks. Should be a good time! Here's some of the art I've created for the cookie bags; I can't quite decide:

I think the rose might be my favorite right now; it's a little more formal than I was imagining, but I like it. Something wonky happened to the typewriters; I swear they're cooler in illustrator.
  
      Finally, I've spent several mornings working on my invites, hoping to come up with a final one. I've created, discarded, and resurrected several ideas and schemes, and here are a few I've been working on:

     The top one is a revamp of the first one Wendi and I worked on; the second is a concept I've been thinking about, but it needs a lot more glitz and some sort of clip art, I think, before I might really like it.

It's HERE.........

     My wedding dress is in! I'm psyched that it's safely finished, and that the long alteration process is about to begin! I'm most excited to see what the corseted back looks like: the one I tried on at Schaffer's was so large that I couldn't really get an idea of what that would look like or how it would feel.

    
     On Tuesday the 27th we'll be going to try it on and also look for the perfect bridesmaids dresses! I feel like finding those will be the last big piece of the puzzle. I had always planned on purple, but the popularity of that choice in a season including 4 weddings before mine is causing me to question my colors. This trip should solidify that dilemma, I hope. So far, only Megan, Breanna, and Mom have signed on for this trip. If you want to come, let me know! Sorry, working people, that it's a Tuesday afternoon. If we find the dress, I'll find a time to go look at them with my two other bridesmaids, Amanda and Arielle.
     In even more exciting news, my sister's coming home from LA this week! Only five more days, Sister! We've got so much planned for the time she's here; I can't wait!

Another Invite Option

I've been working on some more invites, and I'm a little excited about this one. Of course, who knows whether or not blogger will let me put it up; it wouldn't let me upload any of my Photoshop JPEGs yesterday. Anyway, here it is!

I haven't quite figured out how to make the white parts invisible; I'm not exactly an Illustrator wiz, but I'm learning! There are definitely some fonts in here I'm not 100% in love with, but I'll keep working on it. Let me know what you think!

I've had a few hours to play around a little bit, and I added some purple to this one. I started with the flag, but then I thought this might be a solution to my white problem. Does it work? I'd rather have the brown show through, but as an alternative, it's not so bad.

And, because I just can't help myself, I did this one with different central artwork:

Book Club

Allison and I have started a book club/ writing circle and a are currently in the "recruiting new members" phase. If you're in the DSM area or can be contacted via Skype/Facetime, join up! You can visit our website here. (Yes, I've become a little obsessed with google sites). If you're already a member (Meghan & Allison, I'm talking to you) POST SOMETHING. Our name is kind of silly, but I had to come  up with it one the spot when creating the site. Here's the logo I created:


Blogger doesn't seem to be letting me upload JPEGs at this time, so I'll have to add the pretty pictures later!

Detail Updates

Good morning! I'm blogging to you from the front half of our apartment because we have no power to the back half! Yep, that's right, no heat and no hot water on the first night we have snow. Surprisingly, it hasn't gotten too cold in here, but this is throwing a giant wrench in my preparation plans for Jake's work party tonight! I meant to spend this time taking a shower, shaving my legs, and putting my hair in hot rollers. Is this supposed to be some message from God about vanity?

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks to Megan for being the only one to give helpful feedback on my invite situation. I'm feeling kind of stuck on that front; I just can't create anything I really love. I've got a new, half-formed template that coordinates better with my save-the-dates, but it's far from finished. I'll give you a little teaser:

As you can see, it's still very rough. This would be the bottom portion. Now that I'm looking at it, the feminist in me is starting to think that the female bird shouldn't be below the male bird, looking up at him longingly...may have to switch them around. I love the font: Jane Austen. How could it be more perfect? 

In other news, we've chosen a DJ. We went with Complete Music, based in Des Moines. They seem extremely eager for our business. They're constantly checking in with me about things, even though they've already gotten our deposit check. Seems like a good sign. And, their logo's kind of cute.

Thursday, December 29th, we'll be hosting what I've decided to call "Craft-a-thon" at my parents' house. We'll provide food and drink (the fun kind), and hope all our friends will come to help us create the ribbon dancers, cookie bags, cake toothpicks, and myriad other crafts for our wedding. Hope you can come! As an extra incentive, Megan will be back from L.A. and crafting along with us! See you in two weeks, Sis!

Invitation Creation

      With my aunt Wendi's help, I got started working on my invitation design a few weekends ago. I've gotten a decent start, but I'm not nearing a finishing point with either one. Anyway, I thought I'd put them up and see what people think.

        I just downloaded a TON of fonts that Candi gave me, and I haven't played with them much, so those will probably be changing. Any opinions would be helpful!
       If anyone has been dying to see what our Super Hero Herky shirts will turn out like, they're finished! We've got the game tomorrow, so I'll try to post pictures of us in our bad ass sweatshirts soon.

Quilt Retreat Inspiration

      So this last weekend Mom, RaeAnn, some friends from Wisconsin, and I spent Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning at the Ankeny Legion at a quilt retreat put on by our local quilt shop, Quilter's Cupboard. We got so much done! Here's what I finished (minus those pieces that are Christmas presents for followers of this blog, which is unfortunate, because they were some of my favorites!):

My large twister quilt, made with the "It's a Hoot" fabric line from Moda, which I LOVE! 

This is a plastic bag dispenser, the pattern for which I found on marthastewart.com. It was super easy, so if you're on my Christmas list and you want one, let me know! (The fabric I used for this is also the backing fabric for my pillow).

I'm totally obsessed with this pillow! I found it on Pinterest ages ago, and the quilt retreat gave me the time to get it finished! 

Ok, it's not done yet, but this will be the "awesome bag" I started making for myself. I made a totally awesome (I know, an awesome awesome bag?) one that's a Christmas gift, too. You can find this super easy pattern on Pinterest as well.

      Now that the show-and-tell portion of this post is over, let me explain what this has to do with our wedding! Our plan from the beginning has been to make a quilt people will sign instead of a guestbook. Mom insists that I make it ahead of time instead of having people sign fabric squares I would put together later. She's totally right; I'd never get it done. Plus, it would be cooler if the guests get to see the finished product. This is along the lines of what we were hoping to make (found on Pinterest), but we were having trouble deciding on the pattern:

During the quilt retreat, they had a "jelly roll race." For the non-quilters, this may beg a little explanation. A "Jelly Roll" is a roll of different coordinating fabrics cut into 40, 2.5"  strips. You sew all the ends together so you have one long strip, then double it, sew it lengthwise, cut the ends, then repeat. My apologies if this doesn't make sense (I'll put up a picture of the one Mom made when I get a chance. It's freaking adorable!) The point is, the winner of the race sewed this quilt together in approximately 45 minutes, and the longest it took anyone was about an hour and 20 minutes. If you've ever made a quilt, you know that you're cutting out hours of labor here! Our new thought: Jelly Roll Quilt (in whites and creams) as the background, with bright-colored pennant bunting appliqued on top! We've ordered Jelly Roll strips on Etsy, and the guestbook quilt will soon be underway! Here's a Jelly Roll quilt (from Pinterest) that gives you an idea of what the background will look like:

      Lots of pictures today. Hope you liked them!

For those concerned (aka the Heroes Game Crew)

I've been trying to work out how to make the white-eyed super heroes less creepy looking. Jake says I can't make them a different color because they're SUPPOSED to be white. I thought changing the eye shape might improve them. Let me know what you think!

A grey-eyed Batman Herky just for Megan:

I'm going to use my license as Super Hero Herky creator to nix this. He's cooler (and more accurate) with white eyes!