Saturday, January 27, 2007

Favors, Table cards, Place cards

This post contains spoilers but since the wedding is tomorrow, I don't think anyone will mind. Yes, the wedding is tomorrow. Am I a wreck? Absolutely! My nerves were like Superman's until about 2 weeks before the wedding then I had nerves of Jello. Every project started failing at the last minute and I felt pressed for time. Dave was worrying about money (because this wedding more than doubled our originally set budget) and things were very intense at the house from all the frayed nerves.

These are the favors. I bought take out boxes from the craft store and decorated them with a strip of vellum paper in a floral pattern from the craft store which wraps around the side and back of the box (you can kind of see it on the right of the box) and a sticker that has our orchid from the invitation (clip art) and a thank you note with the guest's name which I made on the computer and printed on sticker paper. Inside are: a CD that we burned and created a cover sticker for that contains songs dedicated to us by our guests which is in a glassine envelope, a box of incense in Green Tea scent that we liked from a trip we took years ago, a set of chopsticks in a cloth bag for each person, and some fortune cookies custom printed with the message "May the love you have shared with us this day be yours. Dave & Autumn" which I wrote. We did taste test the cookies and they're delicious. We ordered enough extra so every guest will get several in their favor box plus one will be served with each slice of cake. Did I mention the cake will be vanilla rum on one layer and mojito on the other? Can't wait! I think the favors turned out great. As of right now, the name stickers aren't on them because I got my nails done and am literally unable to separate the sticker from the backing so Dave will be sticking them on. For ease of transportation, the take out boxes stack, so they'll need to be assembled at the Sundy House instead of before arrival. Dave or my Dad or Charlie will take care of that.

After many attempts, I also made the table cards from leftover paper from the invitations. I had to cut them down a bit to fit the frames. This is after the first frames were too small and had to be exchanged. The place cards match the table cards although this is the third revision of the design as my printer decided it doesn't like printing certain things. However, it printed these just fine. It's meant to be, whatever it is. They're fine, but not my original thought. Of course no one knows how I "meant" for them to be, so no matter. The tables are named for the 5 elements in feng shui: metal, fire, water, earth, and wood. I picked a color for each element (though not necessarily in keeping with feng shui, but more for the layman to recognize - would you know that black was for water? Probably you'd think blue, so I used blue) and downloaded fonts for each one. Metal was a little tough so I used a variation by using the font that the heavy metal band Iron Maiden uses. It's cute and untraditional. The guests will have a laugh, I hope. I sat some of my heavy metal fans at that table too. The name cards, shown here in front of the framed table cards, have the guests' first names only as it's not so so formal of an event and are written in the matching font and color. It's simple and I think elegant without being overboard. Honestly, looking at this, I think my original idea was overboard. I should keep clean lines and such and this is actually better. Thank you, printer, for crapping out my original idea and working fine on this one. On the back of each card is some trivia. The first 11 questions are about Dave and I and the last 9 are about our guests. I figure it'll give them something to do while waiting for food to be served. It was astruggle to find frames that stood vertically, were the right size for the table cards, and were clear on both sides. These fit the bill and I found a coupon in a bridal magazine for 25% off my order, so that helped. I didn't decorate them as I figure I can use these again at home since they're flat black. That's why I didn't get the silver ones, although they looked quite sharp.

So, what's left? Just putting the stickers on the boxes. The rest is done. Can you believe it? I can hardly believe it. My anxiety level is at about a 9 out of 10. For three days I've had this off and on feeling of having a mouthful of oatmeal in the back of my throat. It's disgusting and makes me want to cough. It's simply a stress reaction, but it's never happened before so it's wierding me out.

Tomorrow's itinerary:
9am wake up (like I'll sleep!), shower, make breakfast smoothies, rinse blender out, feed cats
10am couples' massage at the spa - looking forward to that!
11am hair and makeup
1pm drive through some quick lunch, pick up dress and essentials from home
2pm leave for site
3pm arrive at site, get dressed
330pm pictures
430pm ceremony
500pm reception
930pm bid everyone farewell, rest

Any takers on when those heels will be coming off? I doubt they'll make it until 930.

It's a good feeling to know that everything is taken care of. The caterer is taking care of the food and drinks (although they called me today and said they couldn't find a liquor I requested - which was unacceptable - and I had to go buy it myself). The site is taking care of setup. The florist is taking care of covering the hideous Warhol paintings and setting up centerpieces. Everything we wanted to add has been done. Everything's arrived and is packed up to go in a big box. All the crafting is finished. I excused myself from finishing the guestbook/scrapbook in time and said I have permission to work on it after the wedding. So what if it's not done in time? No need to stress over that. Instead, I made cards, similar to the table cards, and wrote on the front "My favorite part of today was..." and I'd like them to write inside. I think that'll make an awesome keepsake for me. It'll go in the scrapbook when I am ready to get back to it.

Wish me well. Send out thought of "don't throw up!" And at 5pm look at your clock and think that I'm having my first dance as a married woman and send me a little smile.

3 comments:

Cassandra said...

Ditto what Ola said...By the way...*grin* It's almost take to wake up!

Anonymous said...

You're leaving you party a bit early arn't you?
Remember to smustle!
Have fun!

simaholic said...

5PM your time? *checks time zones* Okay, will telepathically send you happy thoughts from sim!