Tom and Amy's Wedding

I've decided to create all of our invitations by hand. I've had a vision in mind for months now, and spent a Saturday creating mock-ups to get Tom's opinion on what he likes best.

We settled on a design similar to this, but square rather than rectangular:


Last weekend on our way up to Santa Rosa we stopped at Paper Source in Berkeley so I could see the paper from their website in person. I purchased some of the paper then, and ordered the rest online, which should arrive in the next couple days.

The 'envelopment' that creates the invitation, and the envelopes themselves are in this color, called Pool:



The invitation and enclosures are all in this color, called Luxe Cream(if you can see it at all!):




while the invitation will have this color mat, called Sage:



I also have stickers in Sage that can be used to close the invitation, if we decide to. I also have paper in all 3 colors to be used for the place cards and any other accents to the invitation.

Here's what they look like all together:


I liked the look of the multiple colors for the inserts, but I was concerned they wouldn't be readable, so they will all be Cream.

I haven't decided yet what kind of edge to do on the flap and envelope - straight across, a V or half-circle, or a wave.

A good friend is allowing me to use her color laser printer, so I will try to match the Pool color for at least part of the invite to bring it all together.

Invites aren't going out until Independence Day, but it's going to take some time to assemble them all so I want to get started now.

Friday afternoon I stopped by the dress shop to place the order for the bridesmaids' dresses. It took a little driving around because the dress shop is no longer at the mall - if you followed the link about the scary dress story, you read that a crane crashed through the ceiling of the dress shop about a week after I ordered my dress, so they were forced to relocate while their store is renovated.

I'm really pleased with the way the bridesmaid dresses have turned out. Yuan and Reri, my Maid and Matron of Honor respectively, will be wearing the same dress but in different colors. Carrie and Suzi, my bridesmaids, will be wearing the the same dress, but in different colors that match Yuan and Carrie's dress. So 2 dress styles, 2 dress colors, 4 unique dresses!

Maid/Matron of Honor dress:



Bridesmaid dress:


2 of the dresses are the same color as the Maid/Matron of Honor dress, and 2 of the dresses will be this color:


I also ordered a dress identical to Carrie's to wear at her wedding next summer, so Suzi and I will have the same dress in different colors and Suzi can wear her dress twice.

I asked them to pull my file because they had my measurements, and the gal said that my dress was in! It had been in since early April! They didn't call me - probably because I wasn't expecting it to come in until at least June. I was so excited - I haven't even seen the colored embroidery in person and my dress was right there for me to gush over. I asked if I could try it on, but I'd have to pay the amount owing on my dress and take it home.

I called Tom to see if we could put the rest of the amount on our wedding credit card and he agreed, so I tried it on and it is GORGEOUS. I can't believe it! We were rushing because the shop closed in 10 minutes, so I didn't take any pictures, but I also need to lose about 1 1/2 inches so the dress will close properly in the back. I brought it home and took a ton of pictures so I'd have them for reference, and here's a little teeny sneak peek (you have to click the link).

It's now hanging in its dress bag in my closet, which is a huge incentive to get to the gym and lose those few pounds so the dress fits perfectly. Tom promised not to peek!

So now I guess we're really getting married - I have my wedding dress already! So much for fudging the wedding date to the dress shop... I used the same date for the bridesmaid dresses though, so I will get them in time to send them to the girls so they can get their own fittings.

We have been busy! My goal for the month of April was to figure out our honeymoon and start our registry, which are somewhat related. Since we have almost everything we need to make a home, we're creating a honeymoon registry, so our guests can gift us with parts of our honeymoon.

First we needed to figure out where we wanted to go on honeymoon. I've been dreaming of a European trip, while Tom was leaning more toward Hawaii, and we both really enjoyed our Mexican cruise and thought we should try to encorporate a cruise into our honeymoon. I've never been to Hawaii so I was excited about that possibility, and Tom has never been to Italy, and it's been over 20 years since he's been to Europe, so that was appealing to him as well.

I found an amazing deal on a cruise to Hawaii, and we went through some friend connections to research the cruise. As it turns out, that cruise has a really bad reputation (it's not Holland America, so don't worry Christa) and the deal I'd found was not with a reputable agency, so we were back to square one.

I then found my dream cruise on Royal Caribbean in the Mediterranean, the same cruiseline we'd taken to Mexico. We talked and decided that it would be much easier for us to go to Hawaii in the next few years (and with kids) than it would be to gt to Europe anytime in the next ~20 years.

I'd also done some research on honeymoon registries, and found a site called TheBigDay.com which allows you to create a registry website. If you also use them as your travel agency above a certain amount, they waive any fees they may collect from the gifts.

Our travel agent was amazing! I sent her a basic itinerary after Tom and I had mapped out our plans, and she has sent me lots of emails with choices and ideas, and she is very responsive to our suggestions and questions. At one point she and I were instant messaging for an hour back and forth about hotel options. It's great to have someone who is a partner in finding our honeymoon, rather than someone who just takes an itinerary and processes it.

This is our itinerary, and we are both just thrilled about it:
Tues, Sept 5 - fly to Rome via Heathrow
Wed, Sept 6 - arrive in Rome
Thurs, Sept 7 - Rome
Fri, Sept 8 - Rome, train to Venice
Sat, Sept 9 - Venice
Sun, Sept 10 - Venice, board cruise ship
Mon, Sept 11 - at sea (4 year anniversary of our first date!)
Tues, Sept 12 - Athens, Greece
Wed, Sept 13 - Ephesus, Turkey
Thurs, Sept 14 - Heraklion, Crete
Fri, Sept 15 - Corfu, Greece
Sat, Sept 16 - at sea
Sun, Sept 17 - disembark in Venice, train back to Rome
Mon, Sept 18 - fly back to SFO via Heathrow

I've updated our official wedding website at mcmullenandkay.weddings.com with more information on our picnic, mass the night before the wedding, and have started to add our registry information. Later today Tom and I are off to the mall to start our registry for the basics we do need.