Save the Dates

We designed a postcard through Zazzle.com that turned out pretty good if I say so myself.  Although I can't save a picture of it to post on my bio, you can see it here. 

FI designed the majority of it on Photoshop Elements which involved a lot of cursing and calling my administrative assistant several times on a Saturday for assistance.  We got it done though and they did the job.

We also made a stamp with a picture of our dog on it which was pretty cute - I think people got a kick out of it.  I doubt we would do the same thing for our invites though - its costs signifcantly  more to do them.  Not that big of a deal for 26 cent stamps, but for something like a 62 cent stamp it could get expensive.  We are probably going to do a postcard RSVP card though, so we might get creative again. 

The picture we used for our custom stamps.

Invitations

Since we have at least 70% of our guests coming in from out of town I think we're going to do a pocketfold invitation and cram a lot of info in there for everyone.  We will be doing an invite with the French blue of the bridesmaid dresses with accents of gold and ivory. 

For some reason I am obsessed with wedding postcards and really want to do an RSVP postcard.  Christina from PaperZest (www.paperzest.com) in Virginia had done an RSVP postcard for another couple with a vintage picture of their reception location on it and I think we're going to steal that idea.  The St. Regis was nice enough to give me permission to use either one of these shots:

Our invitation designer can actually fill in the names for us on the RSVP cards which will eliminate (at least hopefully) people brining univited guests. 

Update:  Our invites came in and I loooove them.  At first I was nervous about the gold, but I really think they are perfect now. 

Seating Chart/Placecards

I am debating the idea of doing placecards vs. a seating chart.  I think a seating chart, if done right, can be really elegant.  I had a friend who got a great vintage gold frame from the fire sale at the Hotel Washington before it closed for renovations - we would use that frame the chart.  I am picturing something like this:

We may end up doing regular old placecards though.  If we do I will probably use these:

Guest Book

If we get engagement pictures done in time we are going to try and do a photoguest book with either Blurb, Picaboo, or MyPublisher. 

I also really want to include shots of our family members' weddings somewhere at the reception site as well.  This looks like a good spot. 

Random Other Stuff

I really wanted to get candid shots from our guests but I always thought that disposable cameras were kind of tacky and 90% always turned out horrible.  We just bought a Flickr Pro Account and its really great.  We will do something similar to this:

Also, I think we are going to do table numbers with shots of our dog around DC.  Or maybe just pictures of him if we decide traveling all over the city with him is a bad idea.  Anyway, here is what I'm talking about:

I LOVE this idea from Knottie MrsHoya, I think its such a fun idea:

I would really like to do gable boxes for our out of town welcome bags, something like this:

I think we will put a bunch of DC maps, and a mini champagne bottle but that's all I have right now.  I have time I guess - famous last words.  Ha.

These are too adorable...we might use them as favors, too.