Rats.

Well we blew our chances with 41 cent stamps on the invites. My fella took a dummy invite to the PO and it turns out the wax seal makes it too lumpy & they won't fit through "the slot" whatever that is.

So now we're stuck with those pastel heart wedding stamps. They're ok and they'll get the invitations where they need to be... but we were both really looking forward to using the Marvel Comics ones. But I'll live, they're still going on the RSVP's. ;)

Tonight we're putting our invitations together. It's an all out invitation blitz. I have my station: right in front of the computer addressing envelopes. And my unbelievably helpful Tanner will be at our far-too-small kitchen table folding our belly bands. As soon as I get a few put together I'll take a photo and show you all a finished product. (Please forgive my lack of photography! My time is being devoured by the guest list monster.)

Edit: Here is a hastily taken teaser photo of poor quality... It's our first invite (so excuse any goofiness please!) I got excited and wanted to share. :)

Man, that flash really shows off that unwanted glossiness. :/
Oh well, better pictures later. Back to work!

The Look of Love

My major inspiriation...

I want so badly to be able to achieve this sort of warm glow at my reception. The photo on the top is so close to what I have in mind that if you took out those tables you'd pretty much have it. The lanterns & twinkle lights are spot on.
The photo on the bottom is so romantic. Again, those lights and the autumny feel are just perfect.

I don't know who this little girl is but I love the pathway behind her. That's something i'm going to shoot for. Perhaps on the path from the barn to the bonfire and surrounding the garden. Lovely.

Replace those beautiful flowers with some beautiful autumn leaves (courtousey of my new Mother in Law who will be bringing them with her from West Virginia) and you've pretty much got my centerpieces. I'm thinking dark brown tablecloths instead of white so that the leaves will really pop. By the way, said tablecloths won't be cloth at all, but instead paper. I know it sounds strange but it was *so* much cheaper than renting and I think they're actually quite nice! Also there's none of the hassle that comes with renting, and if anything gets on them it's no big deal.

Instead of getting married under an arch of some sort (which isn't really my style) I've decided we're going to string up some flower heads (fake I'm certain, but who will notice?) and hang them like these in the photo behind us as our backdrop. Our wedding will be held in the garden so these beauties will be hanging from the trees. So romantic. I think we'll add some ribbon in there too just to give it weight.

Isn't that the coolest thing?! I'm going to figure out how to make these in bulk. I found this little sweetie on etsy.com (a wonderful site for homemade works of art) for sale by maryink and realized my ideas actually were possible! Yay! I'd been wanting to somehow put an autumn scene on a votive using ink & tissue paper and now that I know it's been done I just need to get to an art supply store!

*The* Cake

Behold... divine inspiration:

My wonderful aunt has offered to make our cake, (free!! bless her soul) and we have given her these photos as inspiration. I love the earthy feel of the one on the right. (I want to stick my finger in that icing.) But Hubs said that looks homemade, which broke my heart because that's part of why I love it! He, on the other hand, loves the clean lines of the one on the left... So we're hoping for a blend of the two. She'll take the icing and leaves from the cake on the left and the mix of autumn goodies from the one on the right to create our perfect cake. Sounds delicious to me. And she's a brilliant cake maker, the woman is an artist (I believe she's going to use fondant and an airbrush to create those leaves. So cool!) So I know our cake is going to be beautiful. I can't wait to see it!