And I seriously mean to check your RSVP card envelopes!

{image from thepulpstudio.com}

I’m having a minor panic attack because we received a *really late* RSVP from a couple who couldn’t attend the wedding. Lilac Dude’s mom opened it when it arrived (responses were sent to his folks because they are the only ones not moving right now!). Since it was a “no” response she put it in Lilac Dude’s box. He took the card out of the envelope noticed that the couple was from my section of the list and gave it to me. When I went to slide it into the envelope to deal with later, I noticed a check.

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Registering for wedding gifts is pretty overwhelming, so I thought it might be kinda cool to post here with some of the insight we’ve gathered from doing our own.  We really enjoyed ourselves… but it was definitely a great lesson in sharing, compromising and letting Mr. Man win every so often (as in, he registered for one of those soda makers and about a gazillion soda flavor things).

Here are a few tips we picked up along the way:

• Register for 2-3 times as many items as you have guests.
  • Sounds excessive, but think about it: you’ll have a shower, maybe two or three… those people will likely buy off your registry for the shower and the wedding.
  • Guests like to bundle.  Registering for a bunch of kitchen utensils? Someone is going to buy all 10 of those (at $5 or $10 a piece) and put them in a pretty basket or container of some sort.
  • Whatever you don’t receive as gifts (in most places, at least), you’ll get a discount on after the wedding.
• Prioritize.
  • Mr. Man wanted to go hog wild.  We all know I’m Type A and couldn’t have that.  $40 bathroom trash can? No sir, not when there are other $40 items that we actually need.
  • Even though it’s tempting to just scan EVERYTHING, think about it… you don’t want to cannibalize the stuff you really need/want with things that are extras.
  • Save those extras for the end… if you’re done scanning what you truly need, then go back through and add some fun stuff.
• Watch out for sale items.
  • Sale and seasonal items may not last… so if you register for them today, they might not be available 2 months from now.  Just keep this in mind!
• Register at more than one place.
  • This will get you a variety of gifts, and give your guests a bigger selection of stuff.
• Share the URLs to your registries.
  • Almost everyone likes to order presents online, so make sure you check the box that says “display our registry online” or something to that effect.
• Think about your “Ship To” address.
  • Most places will give you an option of pre and post-wedding addresses. Are you honeymooning? You probably don’t want tons of gifts sent to your house when you’re going to be out of town… think about asking your in-laws or parents, or MOH if you can have stuff sent to their places.  You can pick it up when you get back!

A good wedding registry will have a variety of items on it. Some are cheap others are $400 Kitchen Aid stand mixers. This is to account for people with a wide range of budgets. When buying something off of my friends’ registries, I always tried to buy a “substantial” gift. I always bought the dishes or the everyday glasses because I didn’t want to give someone, who I considered to be a good friend, a lame shower gift. But, I wanted to give them something that they would use every day.

Making meatballs has never been so easy

In my mind, a lame shower gift was a colander, or can opener. My friendship with these women was worth more than a colander or a can opener. It was worth a set of their china, but typically, I was on a budget. I rarely steer from the registry, but I have done so in the past. I gave my matron of honor a scrapbook with more scrapbooking material than she could count and I gave another friend of mine some fun stuff she could use on her honeymoon. Sometimes, I find out if there is something particular that my friend wants. One of my bridesmaids told me that one of her favorite registry items was a $20 hot chocolate maker. And that’s what she got from me. I try to put a little thought into buying off the registry, but I always stayed away from those lame presents.

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Let’s be honest! It is expensive to be a bridesmaid or a groomsman in a wedding! Because of the cost & the stressful moments our wedding party will endure, I want to make sure we get them the best gifts ever!

Poinsettia Dude & I have thought long and hard and we finally have the gifts for half of the wedding party figured out.    We plan on getting the guys some items to finish off their wedding day look – 1. skinny black tie 2. Black watch  & 3. Black Chuck Taylors

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Here’s another idea that I had with the heart stick props.  This one, you can do so much more to make it more personalized.  Since the hearts are chalk friendly, you can write anything your hearts desire.  You can use these chalkboard hearts for your photo booth, engagement session, save the dates, or just for fun!  It’s an easy DIY project to do and budget friendly.  =)

The other day while I was getting more supplies for my wedding invitations, I came across these really cute red hearts.  I thought, why not just play around with them and make something fun!  So I went back home, thought of an idea…and walaa…I made hearts on stick that can be used for engagement shoots, DIY photo booth, or you can even make a whole bunch for your guests as fun favors!

They’re super easy to make, not time consuming, and most of all…budget friendly:

We all have our favourite wedding details, don’t we? One of mine is my guest book pens. Why? Well. Because they’re fabulous and look like this:

except, ours are only pale pink and ivory. Yes! Handmade by AmysLoft, they are felt flower pens, put into a vintage watering can, with a little tag with our names and wedding date, and tied with jute twine.

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I love the heirloom aspect of weddings. The idea of things being passed down over the generations, of being taken out again and polished, reworn, reused, or even just reminisced over.

My parents had a small and simple wedding, put together in just two months. It didn’t have many details and unfortunately my mother doesn’t have anything from her own wedding day that I can use as part of mine. My Nonna’s wedding was even more simple… in Italy, the family was poor, and the her wedding dress and attire was borrowed. Anything left from their wedding day remains in Italy.

I’m having lots of details in my wedding, but when I think of what I can “pass down”, I don’t think I have very much, apart from my cake topper. So I decided that I wanted to have a cake server, engraved with our names and our wedding date. It’s a very traditional piece of silverware to own, but I wanted to own one. I like the idea of cutting the wedding cake with it on the wedding day and then using it for all future anniversary cakes.

I found TheTaffyBox on Etsy, and their customized text and font choices won me over. I chose a modern, stainless steel silver server and a cursive font. I also got matching forks – stamped MR. and MRS., with the date on the handle.

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As I said in a previous post I’m the MOH in my best friend’s wedding, which is taking place this September, so I’m currently working on more stuff for her wedding than mine, mine isn’t until October 2012 so we have plenty of time. On my to do list is her bridal shower and bachelorette party which are taking place in June in Florida. For the shower we will be having lunch at Carraba’s. Since they don’t open until 4pm we’ll have the restaurant to ourselves so that will be nice. We will be decorating with flowers on the tables and balloons around our area. Her wedding colors are pink and black so I’m trying to incorporate those colors into the shower and bachelorette party as well.

I’m working on the guest book, place cards, games, and favors. I have help from her Mom and the other BM’s but I’m trying to come up with the concepts. For the guest book I plan on doing a guest book picture frame but I’m open to other ideas if anyone has any. I thought this would be something they could put in the house afterward. I really like being able to reuse items that are bought for weddings and wedding related events.

I’m debating on the place cards, have you all used place cards at your showers? I could go either way on this but if I find something I like I might end up doing them to add a little more decoration. If you have any cute ideas that would be great.

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