Wedding Invitations 101

So who knew it was so difficult to figure out wedding invites? It's not just what they cost or what they say, it's how they look and the secret/hidden/subliminal messages they convey (think: theme, dress, etc.) Who knew it was such an art?

After reading up on all the protocols and laws I could find, I decided to toss most of them out the window and do what I wanted. My situtation is slightly more difficult in that I have to find a way to convey I am Mrs. Blair Zaffke's daughter, but not Mr.'s. So, here's what I came up with (draft number one):

Mr. and Mrs. Blair Zaffke
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of Mrs. Zaffke's daughter
Alaina Lynn Fisher
to
Darren Scott Bundy
son of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Bundy
January twenty-fourth
two thousand nine
at three o'clock
Lakeside Baptist Church
Backus, MN

Sounds easy, right? Um, not so much. Took a while for me to get that far, and it involved the dictionary to determine the real way to spell honor. Still haven't decided for sure, but no one I know spells it h-o-n-o-u-r so I gave up on that pretty quick. And, did you know that if your wedding is in a church you should say 'request the honor of your presence' and not 'the pleasure of your company'? Nope. Lesson learned there.

After the first draft I decided I didn't want to have it sound so stuffy and formal and we wanted to go with "Blair and Garnet" and "Patrick and Shelly" instead of "Mr. and Mrs." But how do I phrase that without it sounded SUPER unformal?

Blair and Garnet Zaffke
request the honor of your presence
at the marriage of Garnet's daughter
Alaina Lynn Fisher

?????

Comments? I think it's a little too 'unformal'. My mom mentioned something about having my dad's name in there, but I don't think I'm supposed to, according to the "rules". I better do more research. Hopefully there's some way out there that will work. Ugh...

things that tick me off

Lately I've been getting annoyed by some of my professors. Class time always runs over and it's really annoying. Heaven forbid class start twenty seconds late, but it's almost a daily occurance that we get out two or three minutes after we're supposed to. Um, excuse me, professor, is your time more important than mine? Ugh, it's frustrating. Especially because they make such a big deal about people being late and how we have to start right on time so we don't waste a single minute. One of my professors always says, "Let's shut the door so we embarass anyone who walks in late." And this is like five seconds before class is even supposed to start. I really don't like him very much...

Other things that annoy me:
-The campus shuttle bus stopping in the middle of the road every day to pick up students. No one can get by. Today the campus security drove around on the right (by the door of the bus) and other people started following and the bus driver got off and stood in the way so no one could pass. If campus security can do it why can't I? Annoying.

-How crowded chapel always is. Give me 30 skips and some of those poor people sitting on the floor can have my chair more often. Can you say "fire hazard"? Chapel also has an annoying tendency to start early and run late. Yes, I agreed to attend, but that was when I was told chapel would be a 30 minute block, not a 40 minute block. So I do homework instead.

-People stopping in the middle of the hallway/doorway/aisle/mail center/etc. to "stop and chat." Get out of the way if you want to talk. Otherwise, move.

-Traffic. Stoplights. Cars that don't move when the light turns green. Buses that stop on the dumb railroad tracks to make sure there isn't a train coming.

-Chewing with your mouth open. Case closed.

-When professors assign about four hours of homework and then never discuss it in class or have it on the exam. What's the point?

This list is hardly comprehensive. Just some things that have been annoying me lately. I probably could have just summed it all up and said "school" but it's more fun this way. :)

my friends at Best Buy

Last night my computer broke. It won't bring up the desktop unless it's in some crazy weird mode (the Best Buy guy was trying to explain to me but I didn't quite get it) and I can't get on the wireless internet. Dang it. So today I hauled it in to Best Buy and waited in line for the Geek people for forever and a day, and finally this guy tells me it needs $199 work of "diagnostics and repair". That comes to $215 with tax. Ugh. So I paid him and will patiently wait a week and a half for him to fix my computer. Or, I will pay him, wait a week and a half, and then listen to him tell me why he can't fix my computer and I'm really better off just getting a new one. Time will tell.

The Best Buy people and I actually have a pretty good relationship. I've gone in there with my laptop at least twice before, so it's not like we're strangers. The first time I went in there was freshman year when my power cord had a minor short and wouldn't charge my computer. Well, unfortunately it worked when they tested it, so I didn't get a replacement. The bad part is that it still sometimes doesn't work. I've found that if I just wait a little bit, it usually kicks on again, but it's touch-and-go there for a while. Last summer I went to Best Buy because my computer is obnoxiously loud and I wanted them to fix it. It also had this nasty tendency to get so hot it would nearly melt my legs off when it was sitting on my lap. I thought it was the fan so I asked them to replace it. They did. It still is loud. It still gets hot. And I gave up. In general, I would say that giving up is really the only thing one can do when faced with insurmountable technology problems. Because really, in hindsight, the people at Best Buy didn't do a single thing to help me, and I really would have been better off pretending my problems didn't exist in the first place.

my wedding dress

When I got my wedding dress it actually wasn't really my number one choice, it was my mom and sister's favorite. I like it okay--it was my second choice--but every so often I wish I would have bought the dress I really wanted. My is simple and classic, but the one I wanted was more modern. Everyone always says, "In ten years you would have wondered what you were thinking." Probably true. Mine also needs to be taken in a little bit, and it will look better after that. Anyway, tonight I was on David's Bridal and I found my dress and I fell in love with it. I think it looks better online than on me, or maybe it's just that I can't get the whole effect at once while I'm wearing it, but it's gorgeous. Everyone says it looks really beautiful on me, and I guess maybe I'll start believing them.

city girl

I'm back to the cities for another fantastic (or not) year of school. At least it's not a full year, only one semester and then I'll get married (yay!). I came down last night and got all settled in and unpacked at my aunt and uncle's house about 10 minutes from school. Then I went to bed early and slept 9 and a half hours since I'm recovering from a cold. It was SO nice to sleep in. I don't even remember the last time I was able to. Probably not in the month of August...not even joking. Anyway, I ended up waking up pretty early this morning, so I got my stuff more organized and headed out to run some errands. I went all the way to school so I could get my parking permit and my textbooks but then (ugh) realized I forgot my student ID so I turned around and came back to pick that up. Went back to school again and got everything accomplished there. They tore out the tennis courts and built a huge new parking lot and it's way different driving onto campus than it was last year.

I went and saw some of my old roommates from last year. We visited for a while and then one of them, Laura, and I went out for lunch at Subway. We had to stop at the mall quick because I needed new bras, and I also got a little something for when I get married. Wink, wink. Laura encouraged me a little, but it was fun. After that I went and got an oil change, which took a day and a half, I swear. I should start going to Jiffy Lube or something because I always go to the dealer and it always takes forever. And it's more expensive. Well, really, Darren tells me I should "buy my own oil and change it myself". Yeah. Right.

My sister is coming down tonight to get her apartment somewhat cleaned and organized and I volunteered to help her, so I'll be washing dishes most of the night, I'm sure. I'm excited to see her apartment, though. My mom says it's cute.

It's so weird being back here. I walked through one of the buildings today and seriously felt like I was there last week. I can't believe how fast summer went. It's gone already! Sometimes when I think about the past three years of college I'm amazed at how different I am now than I was back then. If I would have know where I'd be now way back in freshman year...well, I probably wouldn't have believed it. Today when Laura and I were having lunch she was saying how amazing it is when you're little and you think, "I'm going to do this when I grow up, and I'm going to be that." And then one day you wake up and realized that that time is now. Crazy.

crickets

Last night I hardly slept because of the stupid chirping crickets. One in my room woke me up at 3:15. I spent about 15 minutes looking for it before giving up and heading to the couch. Unfortunately by then I was wide awake and couldn't fall back asleep. It didn't help the couch is uncomfortable. Finally, when I had almost drifted off, I heard another one. I wanted to tear my hair out. I would walk over to the corner of the basement and it would quiet down. Then I would go back to the couch and get all settled and five minutes later I would hear it again. It went on and on and on. I tried moving the fan really really close to my head so I couldn't hear it, but it didn't work. Then I eventually went and got my iPod to drown out the noise. That worked until I started singing instead of sleeping. I tried turning it all the way down so I only heard that faint static sound but I could hear the cricket over that. I seriously wanted to find that thing and rip its legs off. I was up until 4:45 because of these stupid crickets. I don't know what God was thinking when He created them...

Girl's night tonight. I went out to eat at Poncho and Lefty's with one of my current coworkers and one of our former coworkers. Stuffed my face and probably gained about five pounds, but it was SO good. Ugg, the weight has been depressing me lately. I was so good last week and then with the wedding this past weekend and pigging out all day Sunday I gained a little. Oh well.

I just ordered this crazy belt thing online and had to pay almost $10 for ground shipping! That's ridiculous. Anyway, the belt thing is called Invisibelt and it has this plastic-looking band with a small, thin buckle so it doesn't make your shirts bulge out. I have high hopes. I hate it when my shirt looks all weird from my belt buckle.

Well that took so long it's getting late and I have to get up early to work off dinner. Plus, I didn't sleep much last night...

wedding update

I've been doing a lot of the wedding planning recently. Last night Darren and I went to the photographer's and we chose which engagement pics we liked the best. We got several nice pictures. I'm excited for them. I also asked her about invitations and it sounds like that might be a better deal than any of the other invites I've found so far. Plus they'd be more personal--would have our picture and everything. So that's something more to look into.

Today my mom and I went up to Bemidji to check out this floral shop that one of my coworkers recommended. The woman there was very helpful and I've pretty much decided on white hydrangeas with dark pink roses. Cotton candy roses, the lady called them. Just nice and simple. Another one of my coworkers pointed out that pink roses would complement my blue bridesmaids dresses really well, and I really liked her idea. Unfortunately, Bemidji is a long drive, so I think I'm going to look for something closer. My coworker said this woman, who is one of her friends, would give me a good deal, but I don't really think she did. Anyway, I think I'm going to look in Pequot next.

Tonight before dinner Darren and I went on the Pampered Chef website and created a registry on there. So much fun stuff! I seriously wanted everything, but we tried to keep it to a minimum. :) We're also going to register at Target. Pampered Chef didn't say anything about those handy little notices you stick in the invites, though. I really don't want to have to make my own, but I might end up doing that.

Oh, AND I called the David's Bridal up in Duluth and set up an appointment in September for my bridesmaids to find dresses. So yeah, a lot accomplished in the past two days. Once I get the flowers and cake done, I'll be (almost) home free. Invites are still left, I guess, but I'm slowly chipping away at the big stuff...