Letterpressed Invitations!

I realized I haven't posted pictures of our invitations yet! And I wasn't even paranoid about wedding crashers. Anywho, I really wanted letterpress invitations more than anything else and it was my big splurge. But really, not that bad. I used someone local, Jenny Barry from Press Charming, and I brought in some art nouveau books I'd bought to try and figure out a design. Jenny sent me back so many possibilities and this is what we finally decided on!



We got a 5x7 invitation with a postcard size reply card (saved on postage for the envelope and the reply! One regular 44 cent stamp was enough for the invitation (we liked the king & queen so that worked out) and we used polar bear postcard stamps for the postcards (not my favorite but we didn't really have an option and the colors didn't clash).



One annoyance with the reply cards was the post office. Their machines consistently tore off parts of the card on its journey to us, I'm guessing because of the paper used. It was pretty thick but you might need to ask for an especially hard or thick paper to avoid this if you choose letterpressed postcards. Oh, and I didn't hand cancel the invites because it would've been an extra 20 cents each, I couldn't do it myself, and the 20 cents would have to be added as extra postage. No thanks.



The reply card says

__Let us eat cake

(We'll be there)

no. Attending ___

__Off with our heads! (We can't make it!)

I didn't hear any complaints and we definitely had a few people that were tickled by it. When Garrett's mom was planning the Friday night BBQ her friends mentioned having a tagline of "let us eat BBQ".



The envelope liners. They really made the invitation in my opinion, since they added some color and pizzaz, but they were a little bit of a pain to print. Note to all who undertake such a thing: make sure you have a printer that lets you replace the ink colors indvidually. Otherwise you will end up with a bunch of ink cartridges with just magenta and cyan ink left in them, a thinner wallet, and a frowny face. Jenny was so helpful though, she designed the page and cut them for me, I just had to print and place in the envelopes. I used one of those mini adhesive dispensers (works much better than a gluestick and you get in a rhythm so it's easy).

I wish I had a picture of the addressing, but I did it myself with an ink pen (I thought about using a calligraphy pen but I liked the look of the script I chose with a pen better) and it's probably better not to let you see what I was willing to send out.



The invitation itself was a double whammy. We waited a while to order the invitations (and I'm so glad we were able to get them in time to send out 6 weeks in advance!) and so by that time we knew we'd be getting married in San Francisco and wanted to include it so that people wouldn't feel slighted or think they just weren't invited to the wedding. So, it reads:

Together with their families

Kelly Scott Merrill

and

Garrett Barton Cummings

Joyfully announce their marriage

Thursday, August 13, 2009

San Francisco, California

Please Join them to celebrate

Saturday, October 3, 2009

7:00 PM

The Summit Club

Birmingham, Alabama

Cocktail Attire

Plenty of people asked about cocktail attire because apparently it's different in everyone's mind but Garrett and I were wearing a wedding dress and suit, our mothers were wearing standard mother of the bride dresses, and my bridesmaids were in knee length silky wrap dresses. So I felt like something you would wear to a cocktail party would suffice. We didn't want people to be formal or in jeans, and I didn't see anyone inappropriately dressed. So we win. Oh, and usually you announce separately but we wanted to save money and time and breaking the rules is more fun. And it was such a tiny way to break the rules.

So, I couldn't be more pleased. We got custom, not too expensive (I think it was 3.75 for each invitation?) letterpress invitations and they were lovely! Jenny even let me crank a few because I have a not so secret crush on letterpresses.

How did you decide on your invitations?

Owl themed wedding!

Seriously loving the owl themed wedding featured on little white book. They threw feathers at the couple at the end! How awesome!

"owl love you forever"

"whooo wants dessert?"

Oh, how I love a good pun. They just need to add in some tootsie rolls so that Mr. Owl can have guests guess how many licks to the center of a tootsie roll pop!

Photography by Jason McGrew

Out of Town Welcome bags

I really like the idea of out of town welcome baskets and the like but they were never really an option in my mind due to the cost & organization they require (knowing who is staying where, knowing who is coming --the rsvps were giving me enough trouble as it was). Garrett's parents decided to get a block of rooms at the Embassy Suites solving part of that problem and Garrett's mom wanted to make welcome baskets, so I lucked out. She used a "taste of Alabama" theme and the bags included goodies only to be found in the yellowhammer state. Here's what they included:

Golden Flake Chips (in a variety of dill pickle, original, bbq, and cheese puffs).

(image from country living, they have a list of the best local chips in a lot of different states so if you are stuck for an idea check here! Zapps from Louisiana, Cape Cod from Massachusetts, and Kettle chips from Oregon are all ones I recognize)

Priesters Pecans (in little mini bags, divinity and pralines I believe, but they have a really tasty key lime pecan there as well)


(from Priester's Pecans)

Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale (regular and diet)- It's spicy ginger ale and Garrett & I really like it, however I like Blenheim out of SC even better (and I brought Garrett a case of it when I moved down here from NC, shipping to AL is ridiculous!)


(from Buffalo Rock's website)

University of Alabama car drink coasters

(via football fanatics)

Both of Garrett's parents graduated from Alabama and now I'm a fan as well. ROLL TIDE!

Fried Green Tomato batter mix from the Whistle Stop Cafe


(from Southern Groceries)

(The setting for the movie Fried Green Tomatos! the cafe is now called the Irondale Cafe and I've eaten there once and have shot a fashion shoot out there, it's an Alabama staple! I'd actually never had fried green tomatoes till I met Garrett.)

The bags also included directions to the barbecue (in lieu of a rehearsal dinner since there was no rehearsal) and a lunch on the big day at Garrett's parents' house.

As far as other things you might think of if your wedding takes place in Alabama, Red Diamond or Milo's sweet tea, Peanuts from the Peanut Depot in Birmingham, or something Vulcan themed.
What are you including in your baskets? Is there anything exclusive to your state or city that would be fun to give to guests?

Day after shoot inspiration--help appreciated!

We are doing another photo shoot! Because I am addicted to getting married. Actually because I fell behind on getting ready on the day of our reception and our lovely photographer is being amazing and humoring (mainly me) with a shoot for fun. I've been so stressed over everything else that I haven't really come up with ideas for us. So, here are some photos I like. Feel free to contribute some thoughts or pictures. Especially you, Linden.

by Mark Brooke, I love how long her legs looks! Not achievable with a wedding dress on and a 5'2" body, but I like the interaction and setting.

I like this moment too. Sloan Photographers.

Perhaps some photos in Lynn Park, where some of our engagement pictures were taken? (Capitolshots Photography)

I need a leaf picture. Nuff said. (via Once Wed)

amelia lyon's engagement shoot of her sister! I like flare.

Shall we jump on the bed? (lunaphoto.com)

I'm fond of framing. (sloan photographers)

(Sloan Photographers)

I like the one on the right. (J'M Photography)

(amelia lyon)

by he & she photography via snippet & ink

Other ideas: bookstores/libraries, what's on second, our roof, veil over my face, picture with our silhouette in it.

You get what you ask for... kind of?

(from someecards.com)

The whole wedding registry thing is annoying. Did anyone else see Pam ask for money on The Office and go "Why can't I do that?" Now our wedding is over and done with so I think our wedding loot is complete, and I'm pretty sure our 1 bedroom apartment couldn't handle any more.

Our main problem with the whole registry thing is... we didn't really want more stuff. I guess we could've not made a registry and just shrugged when hounded about it but I was already getting so much grief about everything I was doing against the norms that I decided to take my only opportunity to make a wish list people had to adhere to. And it definitely had its benefits. A set of Henckel's knives (I've never had good knives. And okay, I've only used the paring knife and the fancy scissors, but I like the potential); 7 place settings of our selected china (everyday white, plain but pretty, and we have two gift cards that can finish out the set), a slow cooker, picnic basket (too bad it's getting cold!), and lots of baking tools (I am so much more of a baker than a chef. so I can only make people fat).

(also from someecards.)

I know we will use most of the things we got, but it's hard not to think of how we were getting along without those things before (plus I gave in pre-wedding and bought things like a casserole dish, pie pan, cake pans, colander out of necessity), and wishing we had the money instead, since we might end up living in europe for a year just for kicks or trying to buy a house.

And I promise I'm not being unappreciative, but I find it interesting that some people will always buy you things that are not on any list anywhere. It's like the infamous chip and dip set that everyone gets. (If you watch madmen, you'll remember Pete taking theirs back and buying a gun.) Judging by our haul, you'd think we were lawyers that would be hosting big dinner parties, with various serving platters (including 2 Bama plates, so, football party anyone?), waterford crystal glasses (gorgeous but where will we keep them?), 2 chip & dip sets. Plus, neither Garrett nor I can take anything back, we're the kind of people that attach to everything. I named all of my stuffed animals and Garrett has to buy the book he was looking at first in the store, even if he discovers a cosmetic flaw. We're attached to these people, even if their presents have nothing to do with us.

I guess now that it's over I'll suck it up and try to start cooking. And serving.

things will go wrong... cake edition

(photo by my sister, ashley merrill, while frosting cakes in a kitchen that reminded her of the shining)

Things didn't go according to plan with our wedding. I feel/felt like it was a huge fail on my part, not dealing with stress well and not delegating or getting things done ahead of time. I'm a huge procrastinator and I also was so stressed about the other people involved in the wedding that I didn't get focused. I've gotten over it for the most part, but I'm sure at least someone could learn from my mistakes.

(photos by Kristen M Stewart Photography unless otherwise noted.)

I wanted a cake buffet instead of just having one big cake, and I liked the idea of having homemade cakes instead of bakery cakes, because then they would mean something personal to us. The main problem with that is that it required work from people other than me. I wish I'd made them all myself two days before, taken them to our venue for them to have in their cooler, and been done with it. My sister makes an amazing cheesecake though and my mom and sister were willing to make cakes, freeze them, transport them from NC to AL, and frost them here.

Frosting them here was a disaster. We didn't want to have to transport 10 frosted cakes to the venue because of all the potential for sliding and other disasters, but we couldn't frost them there until the morning of. HUGE mistake. We should've just frosted the day before. Things like that always take longer than you think and I had other things going on later in the day. The cake buffet was still great, even though some bakery cakes got put out before all of the homemade cakes had been put out, and my friend/bridesmaid linden made a scrumptious cake that no one got to eat!

It made me feel bad because I wanted my family to enjoy the reception and they spent a lot of the weekend transporting things for me or icing cakes. I ended up making a key lime pie (my grandmother's recipe), a white chocolate raspberry cake (and it turns out I'm bad at frosting cakes, haha), and a black magic cake (this is an amazing cake, dark chocolate lovers will love you for it).

Garrett's mom made a german chocolate cake for his groom's cake which was so nice of her to do, and meant a lot to him since she makes it every year for his birthday. Plus, German Chocolate cake is delicious!

We added a hedgehog and hare to the top of the cake we cut, the white chocolate-raspberry that I made, which was a nearly the last minute idea of mine. I like cake toppers but hadn't thought of anything inventive or cheap enough that would fit us. I was shooting an awesome trash the dress session and we went in a toy store and voila! Our randomly favorite animals that we used on our STDs. I was kinda worried Garrett wouldn't like them because they were cheap plastic toys but he liked them a lot!

all's well that ends well, and it was a fabulous party. Not that I wouldn't change a few things if I could.

Setting love to music

image from vitalmove.net

One of the most fun things Garrett and I did the few weeks before our Oct. 3rd reception was to suggest music to our unbelievably talented DJ, Mitchell London.

I hadn't really thought about the music at all, and hadn't even decided to have a DJ until July. I thought we'd manage with an ipod reception, but I started realizing all that such would entail. Picking the songs (and the stress of trying to make it danceable! I would've died if no one danced), having an ipod and backup ready, having someone there to troubleshoot [I didn't like the idea of forcing any of our friends into work during the party, I wanted them to enjoy it!], what if it stopped working, did we need anything extra to hook up? So I twittered about needing a DJ, not expecting a response, really just to complain, and Mitchell messaged me to say he'd love to. Seeing how a lot of things went wrong in the course of our planning/doing, the music is something that went very right.

Even if you have someone you really trust doing your music, you need to suggest and request in advance. It will help the DJ out tremendously and increase your enjoyment of the night tenfold. Garrett absolutely loves music and has played instruments, formed bands with his friends, composed quartets and orchestral pieces on and off for years so I definitely wanted him to get involved. I had no idea how I was going to organize a list, and get Garrett actually interested in adding to it.

He had mentioned Grooveshark a few times, a pandora-like service where you can type in any song and listen instantly (unlike pandora). So I spent weeks on weddingbee and other various wedding sites looking at playlists of other brides, typing in the songs, listening, adding or vetoing, and hoping that they would spark other songs to listen to. I was pretty open minded, there is nothing I would've been upset at being played for our wedding, not that I would've loved cotton eye joe or the chicken dance.

I was going for letting Mitchell know what we liked and which songs were important to us. We listen to music fairly often but we don't have bands that we religiously follow as a couple, so there were very few obvious picks. Plus, I wasn't too keen on playing anything bluntly depressing, love-hating, or anti-marriage/pro-promiscuity. But, Garrett really wanted 'Fat Bottom Girls'. Haha. He also told me he liked "brown eyed girl" and I have blue eyes. Lucky for him we were already married.

So that this post isn't completely self-indulgent, I'll give you a link to the playlists I made for Mitchell and list the songs we gave him as "most important" here. As far as people looking for parent dance songs, good luck. That part escaped me completely and I ended up asking my dad to pick and he had a Sinatra song in mind, so it worked out. Much better than the songs I could remember my dad singing all my life, such as "Hot Blooded" and "Hot Legs" (Rod Stewart)

Link to the wedding suggestion playlist

Link to a second playlist with songs we like, to be used to fill in during eating/chill/non dancing times.

The songs we higlighted as being important are:

-Shout by the Isley Brothers (Garrett's favorite wedding song)

-Honey Pie by the Beatles (has become our song for no real reason, but we very much like it and it works, served as our entrance song and was played by the bluegrass duo at our BBQ [rehearsal dinner equivalent] the night before).

-Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes (one of Garrett's favorite bands, and a song I heard on a mix he and some other people made around the time that we met. Key lyrics: Let's get married in a big cathedral by a priest. If I'm the man you love the most, you can say I do at least.)

-Moon of Alabama/Alabama Song/Whiskey Bar by the Doors (we're in Alabama, it's an awesome song, and the original version is sweet and creepy sounding. It was our "last song" because of these lyrics: "Oh show us the way to the next whiskey bar")

-Alabama Waltz by Hank Williams (Garrett loves Hank Williams and here we are in Alabama again. It was really pretty and was our first dance. Garrett's grandma and my uncle were tres impressed.)

-If you want to sing out, sing out by Cat Stevens (from Harold and Maude, one of our favorite movies.)

-Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes (Big hands, I know you're the one.)

The biggest hit of the night was probably 500 miles by the proclaimers. Check out what Mitchell had to say about the night.

Garrett's friend Allison (Mitchell's girlfriend) recommended Shake your bon bon by Ricky Martin for the reception and when it was played the dance floor cleared. Garrett and I stayed and kept dancing, but laughed hysterically. So, just saying.

Mitchell has a full time job improving education in D.C. but was incredibly generous to offer to come home to Sweet Home Alabama to mix our reception and he was amazing. So many people told us during or afterwards how great our DJ was and how much fun he had, and that's just the way Mitchell is. I'm sure we'll get back a lot of photos of him dancing as well, and he signed our guestbook with "if I'm writing this, who's handling the music."

So, what are/were your must-haves and suggestions, and do not plays?

The best part of the reception was dancing with my husband and our friends to all the music we like. Singing along to all of the songs was amazing and I wish every night was a dance party.

Marriage by a 'civil priest'

(this one is by me, all the rest by Matt)

After our Blackberry Nuptials, Garrett didn't really feel married. I don't blame him at all, it's hard to feel married when no one would recognize you as such, except for the room service guy who referred to me as "Mrs. Cummings", which was delightful and made me quite giddy.

The morning of the 14th, we waited around for our overnight package with Garrett's passport in it and got ready for the day. I ditched the long dress for the short Jessica Simpson number I purchased the day before we left for San Francisco, with the intention of changing into it after our ceremony to go to lunch on the 13th. I left my hair down, straightened it with my new straightener (apparently appliances go bad right before you get married, because my hairdryer passed on about a week before the reception), and opted for the same makeup with subtler lips. I was a little more incognito, and Garrett dropped the tie and jacket.

If they couldn't tell we were trying to get married, they couldn't stop us.

Garrett's best friend, Matt, skipped out on work another day (luckily he'd been sick the week before) and took pictures for us after a very brief tutorial. I haven't had the holga pictures developed yet, but if any of those come out it'll be fun.

My favorite part of the civil ceremony was the officiant saying that no one had the power to marry us, that us being married was based on the vows and promises we made to each other. That made me feel like our blackberry ceremony was a little more legit. I meant it, and that mattered. We didn't re-exchange rings. We had our first legal kiss and as far as San Francisco was concerned, we were hitched!

(the clock so that we'd know the time. suggestion of our 'civil priest' [garrett's term]

(first kiss!)

...

Here we are, much later, without our marriage certificate because the courthouse has struck again. My check wasn't good enough (being non-CA) and now I'm headed to get a money order so I can finally change my name and make this thing permanent everywhere! I wish the SS office was immediate. Like, check a box and they send your info to Social Security and they'll send you a new card. I'd pay a lot for that option. *hint hint, I have good ideas that could get the government out of the poorhouse*

It is done!

I know I have a lot to catch you up on but now we are really, truly, in all possible ways married! We've had a fake ceremony with real champagne and sentiment, a civil ceremony with our "civil priest", and a blessing by an Episcopal priest surrounded by a small group of people that love us. And then we partied. Don't worry, I'll be replaying the whole story now that it's done and I have time to breathe.