Blood, sweat and tears

Last week was such a bizarre week. Some Most of it was beyond abysmal and involved lots of swear words, an abundance of tears, and tantrums more suited to a 6 year old child being refused sweeties than a 28 year old nearly~wife. Then came pure, unadulterated joy and relief, swiftly followed by vast amounts of squealing excitement, and the inevitable comedown peppered with nerves. You see, my dear readers, we have finally finished that daunting task ~ our wedding invitations!

As a DIY bride I don't have the luxury of a spare minute, which has never been more true than during the last 2 months. Hour upon hour has been spent printing, sticking, embellishing, folding, mounting, jewelling... I've often sat for 8 hours solid, sans wine/vodka/other alcoholic beverage to keep me sane. I've wrestled with the printer on many occasions, stuck myself to myself with some superglue countless times, gone to bed looking like Britney Spears on crack**{Toxic, anyone?} and had more arguements than I care to relive. But I can hand on heart say every moment was worth it as these, my bejewelled beauties, are my pride and joy.

I should say at this point that I had help from my family. My Daddy was an expert with the guillotine and cut every single thing to the exact mm I specified. The pretty bows? Ironed with precision courtesy of my Mama ~ she's still sporting some burnt fingertips. The teeny weeny incy wincy jewels inside were lovingly stuck on by my 80 year old Granny. And the whole thing was helped together by Gareth contributing to the boring part ~ sticking them all together. But the project as a whole? Mine all mine, and it's not an accolade I'm willing to share.

Being totally honest, DIYing our invitations was not an option to save money {though of course, that's a bonus}, but more the fact that I'm a tad controlling. Not quite 'Bridezilla' level, but if I want something done my way {ie. the right way} then I have to get my hands dirty. Or clean, as the case was on this occasion. Clean and sparkly. A LOT of work went in to them, so when my guests say things like 'wow' or 'stunning' or 'no way did you make them yourself!', I do feel a bit proud.

And smug. Very smug.

These invitations are nothing like I first envisioned. I wanted a flat invitation with vintage fonts and decoration. Letterpressed or foil printed would have been perfect! I didn't want anything sparkly, I didn't want anything fussy, and I didn't want anything too formal. What I made was something very sparkly, very fussy, and very formal. Oh, and it isn't flat, it opens out.

Inside the little pocket we have included:
♥ An information card, detailing the RSVP deadline, venue and parking information, local taxi numbers and gift list information.

♥ An accommodation card, mainly for our out~of~town guests {of which there are many!}. As there is no hotel on the grounds of where we are marrying, we included details of the three most local hotels and also arranged a discount with one of them if our guests quote our wedding. Always handy to save money as a wedding guest!

♥ A map and directions card, again, mainly for our guests that are not familiar with the area. One side has detailed directions, including satnav information, and the other side has a personalised map printed onto it. I just copied the Google map, but it took me FOREVER to personalise it!
*Top tip ~ go to your wedding venue using a satnav. We took a drive to ours using both the satnav built in to my Dad's car, and the satnav we downloaded onto our phone. The one in the car kept telling us to turn off before the venue entrance. We made sure we included this on our card, as it's the bride who is supposed to be fashionably late, not lost guests :) If you're not including a detailed insert like ours, drop it into conversations beforehand with your guests.

♥ An all important response card and self~addressed envelope. We umm~ed and aah~ed over sending them out pre~stamped, but since we hand delivered many of them, we thought they'd hand deliver them back. Just incase, we made them small so that our guests would only have to pay the minimal cost. The postman handed me one this morning and I squealed and danced with delight on the doorstep. I didn't expect them to start coming back so quickly!

Now that those are over and done with, I can relax and get on with enjoying life... Yeah right! A bride's work is never done...

Love Laura x

**I'm not at all suggesting Britney is/was/will be a crack addict ~ merely stating that I didn't look as half as glamourous whilst covered in jewels. I was sweaty, walking like I had pooped my knickers from being sat in the same position for hours on end, and had red bulging eyes from over~tiredness. If you were lucky, you'd get a coherent sentence out of me. Still, at least I glistened.