Wedding Invitations

Since we sent our wedding invitations out a few weeks ago, we have received so many compliments and even some questions as to where we got them done. Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful words, and I'm happy to say that we chose to save money on our invitations, by doing them ourselves (and when I say "our"-selves I mean "my"-self)! Thanks to a dear friend, Stacy Anderson, we were able to save hundreds of dollars on our wedding invitations.

Stacy is one of my personal attendants in our wedding and a very talented lady when it comes to event planning! I gave her an invitation that I had fallen in love with... an invitation that would have cost over $1,000 to have done professionally. She worked her magic and came up with a design I just LOVED! She turned the design and invitation info into a PDF file that I needed to have printed, helped me pick out the paper, envelopes, and showed me how I would put them together. With some work, the do-it-yourself invitations might just look like the expensive invites!

It took me three nights of sitting at home, cutting, pasting, sealing, etc., but my wedding invitations turned out just the way I wanted them to! The backing is a thick piece of dark brown paper, and pasted on top is an ivory paper with hot pink and brown wording and design. The RSVP card that we included in the invitation was on a matching ivory paper, with the same brown and hot pink lettering and design (dark chocolate brown and hot pink are our wedding colors).

Sealing, addressing and stamping the wedding invitations was a whole new ball game (lots of time and work), but when all was said and done, we ended up spending about $250 TOTAL on everything (stamps included) for our invitations. If you want some advice from this bride-to-be... get your invitations done early, use a little elbow grease (not really grease because you don't want anything greasy near your invitations), the help of family and friends, and SAVE money on your wedding invitations! Make something that you love and that you're proud of, because let's be honest... who really keeps the invitations besides the bride and MAYBE some close family:) Good luck!

It's Almost Tomato Time!

That's right Minnesotans, it's almost tomato time! And many of you may be celebrating Minnesota's tomato season already (I'm very jealous). Earlier this summer, I decided to start my very first garden, and I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor (no pun intended)! If you've read my blog before, you know I planted seeds in little pots, in hopes of them turning into big, veggie-bearing plants. Part of my garden decided to cooperate, and other little plants weren't so fortunate.

Of the herbs, veggies and fruits I planted... the pumpkins, basil, chives, carrots, cilantro, mint, parsley, and TOMATOES, have survived! There's a few other plants that survived, but I can't tell if they are weeds, or possibly beans or cucumber plants (I can't remember everything I planted). I guess time will tell:) I've already used a lot of the herbs that have grown, but I am so excited to see that there are now actual little green tomatoes, growing on the tomato plants! I can honestly say, I never thought this would happen. My lettuce I planted also decided to sprout, but I guess I didn't get the invite to the bunny party in the garden, the day they decided to eat all the lettuce (and the bunny/lettuce relationship continues). I'm still waiting to pick the carrots, and I can't wait to see the pumpkins that will grow this fall (fingers crossed).

Now, the question is... what to do with the tomatoes when they turn ripe and red???