Favors Revisited

A few weeks ago I talked a bit about choosing our wedding favors and the expectations that needed to be met. I was determined to have a non-useless favor, but I also wanted it to pass Momma Coyote's approval. When I stumbled upon these Martha Stewart favors I was pretty sure we found a winner:

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

Momma Coyote approved, Mr. Coyote approved and there were high fives all around. I started researching how to make them myself because purchasing prepackaged bottles was quite pricey. Then Momma Coyote sent me this link and I honed in specifically on this sentence:

"The threat of botulism contaminating your homemade oils is very real and should not be ignored."

Yikes. The point is to thank our guests, not poison them. The only way I felt comfortable giving these out to our guests was if they were prepackaged, but a quick search proved that purchasing almost 200 mini bottles of prepackaged olive oil would be way out of our budget so we quickly shelved the idea and went back to the drawing board. As I continued my hunt for favors I kept finding myself drawn to this inspiration photo:

Photo by: Katrina Louise on Wedding Chicks via Lover.ly

Even though the packaging is a bit casual for our wedding the idea of using coffee as a wedding favor stuck with me. It's no secret that Mr. Coyote and I are huge coffee addicts. Our first real date after he told me he liked me was at a local coffee shop and whenever we run errands on the weekend we always make it a point to end our day by swinging by a nearby Starbucks. It just seemed like the perfect choice. 

But how to execute it?! The burlap bags above are definitely adorable, but just not our style. These are nice and the silver packaging highlights our accent color, but Momma Coyote said it reminded her too much of those single serve packets you get in a hotel. Definitely not personal. And I have to agree.

Image via FavorFavor

I am crazy about these Starbucks favors, but at $10 a pop it was just too much (but you can bet your butt if we had a smaller guest list I'd be all over these!). 

Image via Favors by Lisa

It took a little more searching and brainstorming until we finally found a solution so stay tuned because the favor drama is far from over. ;-)

Did anybody else spend way too much time trying to decide on wedding favors?

What Really Grinds My Gears

You know what really grinds my gears? 

Image via Family Guy Wikia

Facebook. Well, social media in general, but mostly Facebook. Sure, sure, sure, I have a Facebook account... And a Twitter account... And a blog on a popular wedding website, but I enjoy having the ability to choose what is and is not posted about me on such sites. What really grinds my gears is the fact that other people can throw up a photo of me and suddenly the whole world knows exactly where I am and what I'm doing. 

Unless you received an invitation in the mail or read this blog the Coyote wedding might as well not exist. Mr. Coyote and I are very private people and we keep most of the details about our personal lives (including our wedding) off the interwebs. Oh sure I tell the hive every stinking little wedding planning detail here, but it's semi-anonymous and I can hide behind this cute little coyote avatar. When those who are not invited ask questions about my wedding the most they will get out of me is that it's "this summer". My Facebook updates are minimal and usually consist of photos of my cat:

I actually really enjoy using social media sites (as long as I am in control of what is being posted). There is just something very disconcerting about not having control over content of myself that is published on the net. Especially when it comes to such intimate and private moments as a wedding ceremony or a first dance. Now I don't have a problem with people posting pictures of our wedding on Facebook or even tagging us in them, but I do have a problem with photos of Mr. Coyote and I floating around Facebook just mere minutes after we are pronounced husband and wife. I can't put my finger on exactly why it bothers me, but it just seems so... intrusive to me. We carefully selected our guest list and now strangers all over the web (and "mutual friends" who were not invited for one reason or another) are peering into our wedding almost in real-time and without our consent.

I understand that we are in an age when technology and social media are just the way of the world (I myself am guilty of rolling out of bed in the morning and scrolling through twitter updates) but is nothing sacred anymore?

This is mostly a gripe and I have come to terms with the fact that there is no solution (you know, aside from banning cell phones and hiring a TSA agent to give everyone pat downs before their enter our venue). Sure, we could ask our guests to refrain from posting photos of us until after the wedding, but I have yet to find a tactful way to make such a request. And it's sad to say, but I know that certain friends and family members would not respect our wishes for privacy even if we did make some sort of announcement.

Instead, I'm trying to look on the bright side. Professional photos often takes months to come in so hopefully Mr. Coyote and I will be able to scroll through some guest photos while we're on the way to airport. I guess that would be cool. (I'm really trying to be okay with this you guys, I swear.)

Does anyone else think about how social media will affect the privacy and intimacy of their wedding? Or do I just need a reality check? ;-)

Get with the Program!

Remember how I said I wanted simple programs? I lied. I kind of got a little program happy and instead of a small, simple sheet like this:

Photo by: The McCartneys Photography on Wedding Chicks via Lover.ly

I ended up with a big ol' booklet program. I made a list of all the information I wanted to include in the program and realized that in order to keep it to one sheet of paper I was going to have to shorten it A LOT. I didn't really want to take anything out so I just ran with it... 

Okay, so what went into the program?

First there's the cover that welcomes our guests to our wedding ceremony. You'll notice that my monogram made yet another appearance here. I fought with the cover for a bit and ended up with a few different designs:

Some covers that didn't make the cut.

Until I finally settled on something I really loved:

The first page is just a little quote I found.

Sidenote: I searched high and low for a few appropriate quotes to include in our program that weren't too long or too mushy-gushy (aka not us). This was one of the few that made me giggle every time I read it.

"Love is when you break a cookie in half, but you let the other person have the bigger piece."

When you open the booklet you've got the full meat of the program.

The left hand side lists the order of events and right hand side introduces the wedding party (sorry for all of the blanking out, gotta keep my VIPs private!).

On the back page I included a little note about our wine box ceremony. Our officiant will explain it in greater detail during the ceremony, but it's a unique tradition - especially in my family where the unity candle is the norm - and we thought it would be nice to share some information about it. We also included a small thank you to our guests for sharing this day with us and our parents for their support along the way.

Finally, I managed to find one last quote that didn't make us want to vomit and slapped it on the back. The program itself is just two 8.5x11 pieces of paper folded in half and bound with some white thread:

I already had all the paper in my possession as well as the white thread to bind the pages together, so all this really cost me was some printer ink and just a wee bit of my sanity when it came to the design and assembly. ;) And there you have it!  My simple-yet-not-so-simple programs.

Are you designing your own wedding programs? What kind of information are you including?

Wedding Program Inspiration

Getting real creative with my blog posts titles, eh? ;-)

I love wedding programs. I know that sounds like such a weird thing to say, but it's true. I love being able to follow along during the ceremony and learn about who is involved in the wedding. Although I will admit that they are definitely a superfluous expense (like welcome bags or bathroom baskets), I absolutely want them for our wedding ceremony. The problem is there are way too many great options out there and I am easily overwhelmed by all the inspiration. Seriously brides!! Stop making such cute paper products because you are making me want them ALL!

Mrs. Elephant's Passport programs are seriously way impressive:

 Image via Mrs. Elephant on Weddingbee

These cootie catcher programs are hands down the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time:

Image via Daisy Gal on the Weddingbee DIY boards

Mrs. Mink impressed me with her gorgeous fan programs:

Image via Mrs. Mink on Weddingbee

These fabric covered programs are so unique and absolutely beautiful:

 Image via Ruby Lane Moments on Etsy

But at the end of the day we spent a boatload on our invitations  and I decided I wanted something simpler (but still informative!) for our wedding programs. I came up with a few different ideas and we finally have the final version nailed down. Stay tuned!

Are you having wedding programs? Where did you find your inspiration?

Coyote Invitation Cost Breakdown

Now that you've all seen the invitations, I wanted to talk a bit about what went into them. I spent a little more than I thought I would and I probably didn't save any money doing it this way, but at the end of the day I super big puffy heart our invitations and I'm happy I went this route. It all started with the design. I tried to make my own a few times, but nothing I created really stood out to Mr. Coyote, our parents, or me. After many failed attempts I decided that this project was important enough to take to the professionals. After browsing millions of designs and ordering wayyyy to many samples:

(That's only half of them!)

I stumbled upon Printable Press. With this company you can order print ready designs and then take them to a local printer or even print them yourself. The main invitation cost $79, the response card was $35 and the insert card was $37. I took the files they gave me and sent them off to Catprint. After much discussion we decided to go with their heavy cotton card stock and the printing came in just around $150.

The pieces ordered from Printable Press and printed by Catprint.

The directions card was designed and printed on heavy card stock by me. I managed to fit 10 little cards to a page so I didn't go through too much paper. The monogram on the belly band was one I created with help from Wedding Chicks. I printed it on white heavy cardstock and the backing was just 12x12 silver scrapbook paper. The monogram was about 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches and I think I managed to get about 20-25 monograms from each sheet. Let's just say my paper trimmer got a serious workout from cutting out all these little pieces!

I took advantage of a sale at Michaels for 25% off all ribbon and completely wiped out their supply of burgundy ribbon for the belly band. After layering all the pieces I then used tape runner to secure everything.

Finally, the inner and outer envelopes were purchased from Envelopper Ink. They were one of the few companies that offered both sets of envelopes without having to purchase an entire invitation suite. I printed the addresses and return addresses on the outer envelopes and then completely wiped out Michaels' supply of scrapbook paper to use as liners on the inner envelopes (they were having one of their 7 sheets for a $1 sales... How could I resist?!)

The outer and inner envelopes.

Total cost breakdown for 100 invitations:

Invitation, RSVP and Accommodations designs from Printable Press: $151
Printing and RSVP envelopes from Catprint: $150
Inner and Out Envelopes from Envelopper Inc: $53
Ribbon: $15 (This is an estimate as I misplaced the receipt!)
Cardstock for monogram backing and envelope liners: $5
Postage: $110
Total: $484*
Total per invite: $4.84

*This cost includes materials purchased solely for the use of assembling our wedding invitations. Other items such as:

• tape runner
• paper cutter
• plain, white cardstock (used for directions card and monogram)
• computer ink (used for directions card, monogram and envelopes)

are not included in this breakdown because they were pre-owned and used for other projects aside from our invitations.

So there you have it! It's crazy how quickly the costs add up and yes there were things we could have done to lower the costs (been a bit more patient and created the design myself for instance. Or choose a less fancy and therefore less expensive paper for printing), but the truth is I am crazy in love with these invitations and would probably do it all over again if given the choice.

Did you have any projects that ended up costing more than you expected?