Stamps: One Big Hidden Cost

So, while I was thinking about what to do about save the dates and invitations this thought came into my mind. "Sending all these invitations may cost more than the actual invitation". I mean how much are stamps right now? $0.43 a piece and I have to put them on all the save the dates, invitations and reply cards. So while I am saving my pennies for the larger costs, I almost forgot about the little necessary cost in stamps. What would be your solution? I came up with a little plan. Just in case the postal service decides they aren't making enough money, I am going to buy stamps a little at a time. The problem with that plan is that I don't think they sell those cute little wedding stamps as forever stamps. So, anyone who receives invitations from me, will get whatever they have. LOL One of my coworkers had polar bear stamps on her save the dates. Now a picky bride would want the stamps to match the theme or have those cute little rings on them, but I can't be picky. So, don't talk about me if you get American flag stamps on your wedding invitations when its time to send them out. I probably bought it back in the summer.


To all my penny pinching brides out there, how did you handle the hidden cost of stamps. Because there is no real way around spending hundreds of dollars on them. I welcome any suggestions. Keep saving those pennies. By the way I checked our wedding website  on the knot and I am under 400 days to go until my big day. Getting more excited everyday. 

Surprise Surprise the groom is keeping change too

So my honey, John, cleaned his room this past weekend and I ended up with a big bag of change from him. I teased him about saving his change for me, and he said that he wasn't he just found it all in his room. Now I am inclined to partially believe him. He and his buddies have teased me about saving my pennies for this wedding. Ha I will have the last laugh when my changes starts really adding up. In fact I have over 10000 pennies since I started this blog. I am really getting excited and actually think I will get to over 100,000 pennies by the time I get married.

On another note. Me and my maid of honor, Brandy, were talking this weekend about these save the dates. This has been the first major disagreement on this wedding planning between me and John. He thinks they are pointless and I have made up my mind that I want them. Now that I know that you are supposed to send the invitations out at the earliest 2 months before the wedding, I have to think about my out of towners and people who need to know when to take time off from work. Brandy suggested I only send them to a select few. I have finally decided to do Christmas card save the dates. That means I need to start purchasing stamps now so that I don't have a bunch of stamps to buy for Save the Dates and the actual invitations and reply cards. Fun times. I am going to make a cute little Christmas card for all of my family members and since I send Christmas cards out every year anyway it won't be that big of a deal. "Merry Christmas from the future Mr. & Mrs." Haha I love it. Have a great evening everyone and save those pennies.

Pennies Are My Wedding's Best Friend

So, I have been getting some strange looks from people on my DIY projects. Yes, I want to save money by doing some things myself, but I also want to do some of this stuff to have a personal touch to my wedding. I mean why have someone design your invitations when you are practically a Microsoft Publisher Pro? How will I know what I can do if I don't try some things out? My mom is still clowing me about my boutoniner experiment.

I also got a joking response from some of John's friends asking him why he has me saving pennies to pay for our wedding. Hey why not? If people don't want them how about I save them. AND I got my first donation on my blog. I wants so happy that I sent John a Facebook message to tell him. His response: lol...ok. SMH He will be happy soon enough when my plan works LOL. I would like to thank the person who broke the ice and decided to help. I was so excited, I couldn't believe it. Thank you again.

So my next fun experiment is to decorate my own veil. I was looking around Joann Fabric's website and found this:



Ten Bucks People. I mean come on. All the veils at the bridal stores cost like $200. I can buy a hot glue gun, pearls, jewels and needle and thread and see what I come up with. For ten bucks I can mess up a couple times and still save a bunch of money and have fun while I'm at it. Who knows what I will come up with.

Well that's it for today. Save those pennies.

Experimenting On My Day Off

So for the first time in a long time, I have a day off and I think I am going to take a fun trip to Joann Fabrics have start some experimenting. Since my friend (shout out to Gab) gave me the most amazing book, I am going to try out some of the crafts in it. The first one is the boutonnieres. They make it look so easy in the book. All you need is your choice of flowers, flower tape and a pin and you just roll up the flowers in the tape and voila there is your boutonneires. Sounds easy enough. Here are some ideas.

      

There is some stuff about them all that I dont like, but its good to have something to start with before going. I am also gonna look at decorating my own veil. They have plain veils at Joann Fabrics and I'm going to decorate it with pearls and rhinestones to match my dress. Like I said before, me and Joann are gonna be best friends by the end of this whole process. Since I have a whole year, I feel like I have time to make mistakes and make stuff that I don't like. Well. thats it for now. Enjoy your day and save those pennies.

Here is what I came up with...I think they are pretty cool for my first attempt. My mom and stepdad like the second one the best (2nd & 3rd pictures are of the same project).