Hey That’s A Nice Life

Today I get to do something for which I have waited a very long time - celebrate the marriage of my friends Chris and Hampton. They have been together since 1997.

Chris is a gifted photographer and took the photos at our wedding. Thankfully, we know a lot of talented photographers and Ed took a great one of Chris and Hampton that day.

When Don and I left Arlington, Va. early in the morning on April 30, 2009  for our wedding festivities, everything was as it always had been. By the time we returned from our mini-moon on May 4, the District of Columbia had announced it would recognize the marriages of same sex couples performed in other states.  We thought that was a pretty great wedding present. Don even asked if we had enough thank you cards to send one to every Council membe (we didn’t).

Then on my brithday this year, DC gave me another awesome gift when it passed its own same sex mariage statute. After the requisite time it takes for Congress to ignore a law passed in DC, same sex marriage was permitted in the District of Columbia.

Chris and Hamp were the 37th couple in line on the fateful day that the first same sex couples were issued marriage licenses. I was in New York for work, but following along on Facebook. It was national news with dozens of reporters and photographers gathered outside.

Here’s a picture of Chris and Hamp emerging from the municipal building with their marriage license and cupcakes.

Two weeks later, on March 17, Chris and Hamp were legally wed in the District of Columbia Superior Court with a couple of close friends to witness (I was in Florida at the time - boo hoo!). Below Jennifer M. and Matthew D. serve as official witnesses to the union.

A larger celebration is to be held today at the H Street Country Club and I am so excited. It’s going to be a wonderful.

Best wishes to Chris and Hamp for a long and happy life.

Last year on May 2 it was 85 degrees in Ocean City. When it came time to think about how to make the wedding programs, we had no idea what the weather had in store for us.  Just in case it was hot, we decided on program fans so the guests could fan themselves after crossing the dune and sitting in the potentially hot sun without shade.

Well, if you’ve looked at the weather forecast, you’ll know that’s probably not necessary. 

BUT, they’re done.  I took a picture but really can’t bring myself to upload it right now … so you’ll just have to imagine for now.  The paper matches our invitation suite and they are two sided with a stick in the middle to make the fan.  The first side has the standard wedding ceremony stuff, but the second side is a surprise (tip: bring a pen or pencil).

This turned out to be one of the harder DIY projects.  Gluing the two heavy, coated papers together with a stick in the middle was sort-of a challenge.  Even though my original prototype came out nice and straight, all the fans we made last week turned out a little wavy.  Nonetheless, they are done and they look good.  Many thanks to Katy, Melane and Kate for helping us out.

As I mentioned yesterday, my friends threw a fabulous shower for me on Saturday, March 28.  I did not, however, mention that my office also held a shower the day before.   So it was a whole weekend of celebrations and gifts … and that means a pile of thank you notes to write.

The weekend started at 3 p.m. on Friday when my co-worker Tori and my boss Susan threw a shower at the office.  A co-ed shower, actually … so Don was able to attend.  We had a great time.  There was lots of champagne and really delicious desserts.  And, of course, presents.  Susan also made a very sweet toast.  The shower theme was “Sunrise to Sunset” and it was a time of day shower (where everyone picked a time and brought something that Don and I could use at that hour of the day).  Very fun!

The next morning, my friend Kelly came to whisk me off for a mani/pedi while Jaimie, Lynda, Katy and Dawn stayed at my house to set up for the next bridal shower.  We had about 22 women there!  The house looked great.  Jaimie’s theme was Margaritaville and they went all out with a big margarita maker, a themed cake, key lime punch - even tattoos for all the girls.  That may have been everyone’s favorite part.

Here’s a picture of me with Jaimie and Lynda:

Before we opened presents, we played “How well does Susan know the groom.”  I did pretty well, only getting one answer totally wrong and offering “It’s either THIS or THIS” for a couple of answers.  Sadly, no one else was very good at picking Don’s answers.  There were 15 questions and the winner (my cousin Amy) got 5 of them correct.

After the game we opened presents (during which the guests played Wedding Gift Bingo) and then we cut into the beautiful cake.

It was a really great weekend.  Even though I was very self conscious about opening the gifts while everyone watched, I was comfortable and relaxed all weekend.  

Here’s a picture of me and Dawn after the festivities had ended:

So, now I’m working on those thank you notes.  And, you won’t be surprised to read, I made the cards myself about a month ago.  Here’s a shot:

I bought the card stock and matching envelopes at Michael’s.  The image is a photograph Don took when we shot the Save the Date cards.  We printed two images per 4 x6 photograph and cut them in half.  Then I used photo tape to adhere them to the cards.  I hope to get them all written and mailed by the end of the weekend.

Okay, so I haven’t posted in several weeks. It’s not because I didn’t have anything to share, trust me.

The invitations got safely out the door almost a month ago now and responses have been coming in for weeks (yay!). Here’s a look at the final package.

Each invitation package cost less than $1.  Love it!

You may remember that I decided to design a label to match the invitation.   These were printed six per page on full size label sheets and then hand cut.  Kristen helped me label each envelope and emboss our return address on the flap.  And, as I mentioned in my last post, Don hand cancelled the postage before we popped them into the mail.

Here’s a closer look at the label:

Beyond the invitations, I’ve been busy with other projects to tell you about, too.  More posts coming soon!

courtesy of Me

Whee!  The invitations are in the mail.

Wedding elf Kristen came over last week and helped me address, emboss and seal the envelopes.

Today - in the middle of the blizzard - we took the invitations to the post office across from Lost Dog Cafe (yes, we had lunch while we were in the area).  I asked the man behind the counter if we could have the invitation postage cancelled by hand.

As I expected, he gave us a funny look and then handed over the stamper.  Don got to work and a few minutes later the invitations were cancelled and in the mail.

There are pictures documenting the whole thing, but I am way too tired to post them now.  I’m off to Florida through the weekend … so maybe Don will post them in my absence.  Ha ha ha.

[So there. --Don]

Let’s get it out there for those who haven’t heard.  We’re having an iPod wedding. 

Yes, I have heard the horror stories - iPods that failed, sound systems that weren’t powerful enough, the friend charged with manning it getting sick or drunk … but I’ve also heard lots of good stories, too.  So we decided to chance it.

As far as I can tell, one of the biggest reasons to have a DJ (beside the fact that you have money budgeted to spend on one) is that they are able to read the crowd, change the tone of the tunes and encourage people to dance.  And sometimes they are awful and can ruin a wedding as easily as a poorly planned playlist.  So we might as well take a our chances.

I’ve read 100 articles about how to make it work from a technical standpoint (multiple iPods loaded with the same playlists, sound board, software that helps manage the flow between songs and provides uniform volume, etc.).  But the part about how to get people on the dance floor is a harder.

One of my biggest fears about the iPod wedding is that no one will dance.  So, I’m begging you now - three months out - promise me you’ll dance.  A lot.  All night.

To make it more fun for you, we’ll take requests.  Since there is no live DJ, we’re taking requests any time between now and April 15 or so. 

• If you’re married, what was your first dance (or if you didn’t have a reception, is there a song that you consider “your song”)?
• After dinner, it will be time to shake your moneymaker.  What do you want to hear?

Katy, CDott and Kelly getting their groove on

An e-mail will go out with a more formal request for requests, but start thinking about it and let us know now if there is something that would really inspire you to dance. Try to remember some of the songs that played at the most fun wedding you ever attended.

Please note there will be some country music, but a pretty limited amount so make your requests carefully.  Oh - and no group dances.

When we first launched our wedding Web site, we mentioned that the Friday evening Welcome Picnic would feature entertainment by those in attendance.   This was an idea that Don casually mentioned one day, and that I immediately loved.  Probably even more than he expected.

It came about when Don pointed out to me that in addition to all the talented wedding elves who would help us make invitations and take photos and just be all round helpful before, during and after our wedding that we happened to know an extraordinary number of people with talents in the performing arts.  He thought it would be cool to ask all of them to perform the night before the wedding instead of asking one of them to perform during the ceremony.  As soon as he said, I was determined to make it happen.

So we started by casually mentioning it when someone would mentioned his/her talent.  Then last week, I updated the Web site with actual information about the “Talent Showcase”.  But the full court press started today.

This morning we had some folks over for brunch.  After we had plied some of the talent with lots of mimosas and bloody marys, I started in earnest.  And surprisingly, everyone agreed.  Some really got into it, making plans for acts and making notes about what numbers they would perform.

Others agreed reluctantly, and if you’re one of those people I’m telling you now that we don’t want you to be uncomfortable and will not hold you responsible for anything you said today.  Well, most of you anyway.

Here’s a list of some of the things people agreed to do:

EP - Sing opera
KD - Maybe play a secret new instrument and perform a lounge act with MD
MD - Perform a lounge act with KD
TB - Emcee and perform a 5 minute comedic stand up
TB - Sing
EW - Play the flute
LW - Play the guitar
KW - Irish dance
KH - Sing

We have some out of town friends attending with similar performing abilities that we’re hoping to recruit as well.  EG has said she will sing and play guitar and we’re hoping CVR will sing as well.  FBIL2 also is working a little number for us.  

The best part about today was that we learned about talents people had that we didn’t even know about and were reminded about talents that we had forgotten about overs the years.  So, I bet some of you reading this blog who will be our wedding have a talent that you’d love to show off - it can be serious or silly - and we’d LOVE to include you.  Drop me e-mail (susan at fussellwhiteside dot com) and let me know what you can do.

We going to show off our talents, too.  Don is considering a little juggling act for Friday night, in fact.   As for my talent, well … you’ll see it in the wedding invitations, the programs, the menus, the escort cards, the Save the Date cards, the thank you cards, and so on.  It’s hard to perform, but you won’t be able to attend this wedding and not notice it.

An official e-mail will be sent about the Talent Showcase AFTER the invitations get mailed after which time we’ll need to know what you will perform for our lovely emcee, but feel free to tell me now if you’ve already made up your mind.

The invitations are nearly assembled and I love how they turned out. Sure I would have liked gorgeous letterpress invitations on creamy thick paper … but the price was too dear. My favorite part about these invitations is that my fabulous friends / wedding elves helped me make them over a few evenings, some wine, some beer and lots of chatter. My second favorite part is how much money we saved. Have I mentioned how nice it is to have an almost vendor-free wedding planning process?

Here’s what we did:

1. The invitation is crafted from two pieces of 80lb cardstock (cut in half so that one piece of paper made two invitations) tied together with raffia. The background is metallic lagoon and the text overlay is aquamarine metallic. Both pieces have just a bit of shimmer. The text was laser printed two per page onto a regular sheet of printer paper and then photocopied (!) onto the invitation. We used a paper cutter we already owned to cut the darker blue sheets in half and then trim a quarter inch all around and cut in half the lighter blue. Two small holes punched into each piece allowed us to thread a thin piece of natural-colored raffia through and make a simple bow. Just below the bow we glued a tiny starfish.
2. The response card was designed as a self mailing postcard. On the front is a color photocopy of a vintage postcard from Ocean City. We used Photoshop to change the text from “Greetings from” Ocean City to “A Wedding In” Ocean City. The vintage image was printed four per page on some leftover cardstock from some long-forgotten craft project. The back is the actual response portion. There are three events that require responses for our wedding and we decided to include all three events on the same response cards without issuing separate invitations for each event. We added “Number attending” to the Welcome Dinner and Bagel Brunch events because children are invited to attend those events, but not the actual wedding and reception. Again, I printed the response cards four per page on the darker blue cardstock. Everything was trimmed on the paper cutter.
3. The insert is a half sheet of the lighter blue cardstock printed and photocopied like the invitation and response card.
4. The envelope is the same aquamarine metallic. The paper and the envelopes were ordered from www.actionenvelope.com which has a lovely assortment of colors and decent prices.
5. I ordered an address embosser from www.expressionery.com to stamp the return address onto the envelope flap. It has not come yet – I selected the 10 day free shipping method and had a 40 percent off coupon. Wahoo!
6. I am going to make address labels that coordinate with the colors and design of the invitation for the outside of the envelope – we aren’t actually addressing for another 6 weeks, though (in case anyone moves, etc.).

As I mentioned, the cost of these DIY invitations is pretty hard to beat. We made 76 invitations for the following costs:

• Lagoon invitation paper - $15.96
• Aquamarine invitation paper - $11.36
• Lagoon response card - $7.96
• Aquamarine insert card - $11.36
• Envelopes - $15.92
• Starfish - $12

I already had the raffia and the plain white cardstock used for the vintage postcard image. That brings the total cost for the invitation to $74.50 – or about $.98 per invitation.

That’s right – less than $1 per piece for custom-designed, handmade invitations.

The labels will increase the cost a little (not significantly), and of course there is the postage that has to be accounted for ($.59 per invitation and $.27 per response card). We could save money by hand addressing all the invitations, but I love the idea of creating a label that works with the overall theme and design elements. Miss Sushi, one of the WeddingBee bloggers, made some that I just loved and I decided it would work well for us, too. I plan to use the address embosser for the Thank You cards and next year’s Christmas cards as well (provided we do not move I’ll emboss every item we send in the mail!) – so the $16 I spent on the embosser can be shared across multiple projects. I had to order the paper and envelopes in quantities of 50, but I have other projects that require the same paper, so it will not be wasted.

Here’s the working idea I have for label right now. I am going to keep playing around a little, but I like the way it’s looking so far.

As I mentioned back in October, I have a pretty extensive list of DIY projects for the wedding.

Among the most important of these projects is the invitations.

As you know, I’m trying to stay way ahead of schedule since I have very busy spring. Thankfully, several of my friends offered to help with some of the DIY projects. My awesome wedding elves started helping me assemble the wedding invitations last week and we’re moving much faster than I ever imagined. Last week, Don cut all the invitation pieces, Katy hole punched them, and I tied them together. This week, Jaimie started adhering the starfish while Katy and I started (and finished!) the response cards. I am very pleased with the results.

The response cards were printed four per page and trimmed to be the size of postcards. Onto the front of the postcard we adhered a reproduction of a vintage postcard from Ocean City. It originally said “Greetings from Ocean City,” but Jaimie had the great idea to change it to “A Wedding in Ocean City” and I think it turned out great! I even had to time to stamp them tonight (after triple checking the USPS Web site to make sure postcards rates are not increasing in 2009). The only thing left to do on the response cards is to write a very small number on each one so that I can figure out who sent it in the event someone forgets to write their name on the response (which, I understand, happens more frequently than you might imagine).

Now I just have to print out and trim the information card (hotel and travel information, etc.), finish adhering the starfish and stuff the invitations. Oh, and address them.

Don’t worry little wedding elves, there are a lot more DIY projects ahead. We have to make the program fans, and the favors, the escort cards and the menu cards. Plus, I’m sure I’ll come up with a few more projects for us in the next 130 days!