Invites are out - on to the next project!

We are still rounding up some addresses, but for the most part, our invitations are out. hooray! I love people who send their rsvps back right away! We put the bulk of our invitations in the mail on Monday, and most of our guests had them by Tuesday! We had three RSVPs sent back by Wednesday and 5 more throughout the week! I love our family and friends! They are so nice, prompt and responsible! ;) So far, no "regretfully declines" so I am happy. :)

There was a little bit of drama regarding the hand-canceling of our invitations at the post office, but I am now over it and just think it's funny - in a sad sort of way. You can ask to "hand-cancel" your invites so that they don't get fed through nasty machines that will add that ugly barcode thing to the front of the envelope and likely tear or mark it up. After hand-addressing all of the suckers, I didn't want to risk them getting ripped up because they have a little bump due to the ribbon inside. Some post offices say they can't hand-cancel (but it's just a lie, cuz they are probably too busy), so it is good to go to a small one and offer to do it yourself.

So I took our box of about 130 invites to a small neighborhood post office and asked the clerk for a hand-canceling stamp, offering to do it myself.

She looked confused at first and then said, "oh! You don't want them to go through the machine? Well, you have enough postage to cover that (so it was worth it to spend a few more cents on our postage!) and make them non-machinable, so you can use this!" She lifts up a big ugly stamp that says, NON-MACHINABLE, and waves it at me.

I was like, "ummm... no. I think usually it's a cute little circle thing that has the date or zip code and I can stamp it directly over my postage to show that it is hand-canceled?" (*big smile*)

She assures me that this is the same thing, but better! (say, what?) because even when mail gets hand-canceled in the other/cuter manner, it can still get fed through a machine to be sorted. This way, she says my invites won't go through any machines at all!

"But where do I stamp that one? Still over the postage?" I ask because it is a pretty big stamp and will probably cover up my nice little heart postage that I painstakingly chose at the other larger post office.

"Oh!" She says confidently and grabs one of my invites before I can stop her, "Right here, like this!"

CLUMP! I couldn't believe she marked a big, ugly red "NON-MACHINABLE" stamp on the bottom of my pretty, pink envelope. I literally gasped and felt my heart stop. It took me a split second to realize I was over-reacting and that I was probably the only person who would notice or care how hideous that ugly red thing was. So, I said thank you, took the stamp and sat at a little desk to hand-cancel each of my invites. With every stamp, I inwardly fought with myself and tried to make myself stop, but kept going to get it over quickly - like ripping off a band-aid to get the pain over with as fast as possible. I convinced myself that it was better this way, cuz they would never see any machines at all! In any case, 15 minutes later, I handed over all my invites and quickly went on with my day.

When I saw eddie later that day, I showed him a picture I had taken of the envelopes so that he could tell me that it wasn't that bad, and that I was being drama about the whole thing. But when he saw the picture, he laughed out loud and said, "seriously?! I can't believe you did it to ALL of them. Why didn't you just go to another post office?" I nearly cried! "it's THAT bad?!" He laughed again and said, well... no... that he was just surprised that I didn't mind. but that he thought it was a sign of me growing up that I could let it go. :) I could almost feel the wind from his flurry of back-pedaling... but decided to just believe his excuse and think of it as "not that big of deal, not that noticeable."

Like I said, most of our guests received our invites by the next day! (woot for USPS!) I can't tell you how many texts, e-mails, voice and facebook messages I received asking:
"What does NON-MACHINABLE mean?"

lol.

On the plus side, Connie was able to edit some of the pics she took of the invite making process and even met with me at a cafe to hang out and take some pics of the completed invitation suite! Maybe these pics will help show how much work went into these babies, and clarify why I am so protective of them. Or just how neurotic I am ;) either way, enjoy! More images available on her blog!

We just took our engagement pictures with our wedding photographer, Amelia Lyon! I can't WAIT to see the images! She is super sweet and took us to two great locations. I will be sure to post about it as soon as she sends us some teaser pics!

Eddie also chose and got fitted for his tux this week. More about that later. But for now, all I have to say is that he look surprisingly super hot in a bowtie! not penguin-y at all! ;) lucky me!