Royal Affair

It was released this weekend that Prince William and Kate Middleton invited 1,900 people to their April wedding at Westminster Abbey.

To put things in perspective, our guest list is barely 7% of that of Kate and Will's.

My favorite factoids from this royal affair:

• Envelopes were "pale brown"
• William's aunt wasn't invited
• Kate is really a Catherine

On this side of the Atlantic, brides-to-be can invite American "royalty" to their wedding. By sending a wedding invitation to the President and First lady, formal etiquette requires a letter of congratulations be sent in return. How fancy!

Consider adding two more to your guest list under:

The Honorable Barack and Mrs. Obama
The White House
Greetings Office, Room 39
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Cheers!
BTB

Snow Day!

It's a winter wonderland outside! I don't have to go into work today which is probably the case for all the mailmen about town. My save the dates will just have to stay one more night in the cold, rusty mailbox. As for me, I'll be having another Mad Men marathon with Adam.

For now, look at this creative wedding invitation.

Bundled up,

BTB

Vendor: Wedding Invitations

The invitations and save the dates arrived on Friday.

Admittedly, the thought did cross my mind to wait until Adam and I were together to open the box. It was a strange twilight zone moment where I felt an insane sense of urgency to move forward yet was paralyzed by indecision.

Meh. It didn't last long.

I ripped open the box to reveal the most darling dainty & rustic wedding stationary I could've imagined. They are pitch perfect.

Then I was struck with indecision again:

• squeal to my mother over the phone
  
• squeal via text to my roommate
• squeal in person to Adam
  
• squeal to myself

So, in all my 24-year-old glory, I skipped through the hallway squealing and waving a single invitation until my mom picked up the phone-- thankfully, she picks up the phone 97% of the time I call her.

She listened as I described every inch of the invitation, then promptly asked me to mail her a sample.

They arrived on her doorstep yesterday.

She loves them, too. I can just hear her squealing.

For lovely and affordable wedding stationary, check out Wedding Paper Divas.

-BTB

DIY: Bridesmaid Invitations

There's nothing like a good craft around the dining room table! With thanksgiving, I sat down over the holiday to finish a project I started well before deciding on dresses and dates: the bridesmaid invitations.

If you've been following, you'll remember the execution of this plan was thwarted when I found the bridesmaid dresses before these little suckers were dropped in the mail to my unsuspecting bridemaids-to-be.

The idea came from a blog post I remembered from August 19, 2009. Yes, people, 2009. Some ideas just stick with you- plus, the star feature on Google Reader helps, too.

From the looks of the original, a card serves as a formal invitation to join the bridal party while the paper doll chain reveals the other gals in the line-up.

While I had already asked my attendants, I did not reveal the composition of the entire bridal party until now. Therefore, the invitations did serve a specific purpose other than fulfilling my childhood dream circa 2009.

A note on the hilarious spread above:

1. The infamous wedding binder. Here is it open to the "stationary tab," as I was working on the invitations, of course.
   
2. Crafting cocktails. A mixture of champagne, orange juice and cranberry juice.
3. A porcelain marker jar. Only my mother would keep markers in a porcelain jar.
4. Throwback souvenirs. Has anyone been to the Flying Monkey in Key West, Fla. ?

And here is a picture of my finished product!


Cheers!
BTB

P.S. - Ensuring the hair had a nice swoopy side bang was the trickiest part of the entire craft.