So, as many of you know, we both have family spread out all over the country. On August 21st we will be having a casual reception at Mike and Margie Eveland’s house. Scotia and I wanted to do something different for the invitation for the reception so we came up with this. I think it turned out pretty awesome!

For more information about the California reception click here and if you live in/around California, look out for the invitation in the mail!

Today we went to the Men’s Warehouse in Redlands to choose tuxedos. We decided to go with a classic jacket and more modern vest that’s cut lower. Instead of a bow tie we thought a skinny neck tie looked better (obviously tied better than the one photographed). Scotia and I thought it would be cute if Trent, the ring bearer wore a bow tie. We have a few surprises in for the guys so you’ll have to wait to see the big reveal. It was pretty exciting to get measured and try everything on, makes us realize how close the big day is. I think Ben was more interested in choosing shoes and vests rather than getting fitted.

Today we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and set up our gift registry. We spent hours walking the aisles lamenting over colors, models and every option imaginable. The kids came with us and hung out in the massage chair aisle while we shopped. Ben was a bit perplexed how the store would hand over a scanner and let you pick whatever you wanted (He really wanted a scanner of his own).

We are planned to also register at Home Depot and Khol’s this weekend. To check out our gift registry at Bed, Bath & Beyond click here

Scotia and I had decided that we wanted to make our own invitations for the wedding instead of just ordering them online. We ended up spending a whole day looking for just the right materials to put the invitation together. Joanne’s, Michael’s, Target, Walmart, and few random craft stores later we found everything we needed. We knew that we would be using a lot of ink so we decided to try out the inkjet cartridge refills. Big tip: If you plan on using refillable ink cartridges use rubber gloves, Scotia’s hands were covered in ink for days. We came up with the wording and design for the invitation relatively easily. Next we needed to tie small bows to each invitation. I found that with my dry hands I did a better job of snagging the ribbon rather than tying it, I was much better using the glue gun and left the bows to Scotia. So we stuffed all the envelopes and sealed them all up, remarkable neither of us sustained any paper cuts.  The real obsticle we found was the fleur de lis wax seals. We had purchased wax that would fit into a glue gun rather than melting each one with a candle. We thought this method would be much cleaner and easy to apply, we were wrong. So the first 10 invitations went great then the glue gun got clogged up with glitter that was mixed with the wax. We dismantled the glue gun and took turns picking bits of wax out of the glue gun. Turns out there isn’t much information online about the anatomy of a glue gun. Needless to say we finally got the glue gun working again only to complete 10 more invitations before it got clogged up. Completely frustrated we decided to take all the wax sticks and put them in a can cut in half and heat it over the stove. Surprisingly it worked great although it did take some teamwork to sling the hot wax out of a metal can and stamp them before the wax hardened. Eleven o’Clock and we had finished, we were both pretty relieved to get the invitations done and ready to ship. The next day Scotia delivered the invitations to the post office to have them hand canceled to be sure the invitations wouldn’t be damaged. Unfortunately the seals that had been such a problem the night before came back to haunt Scotia. Turns out that little bit of wax required extra handling charges to ensure that it wouldn’t get jammed in their machines. Who knew those little wax seals would end up being so much trouble-apparently they clog up glue guns AND post office machines! Needless to say “the invitations are in the mail” and we hope you enjoy getting them, especially the seal on the back.

So, Suzanne and I went out today and tried on a bunch of bridesmaids dresses at Alfred Angelo. Our bridesmaids are spread all over the country and most of them are about my size, so I decided that would be the best way to see how dresses looked on at least someone (plus, if it looks good on me, maybe Regina will give me hers after the wedding).  My Uncle Peter swears that it’s impossible to choose a decent dress for your bridesmaids, but hopefully we’ll prove him wrong with our choice!

Here’s a picture of Suzanne and I in the dress we chose, but the real dress will be green with a  white trim, instead of the colors here.