Your Ticket to Save the Date

I can finally write about our save the dates!  (or STD’s if you’re down with the wedding lingo)  They went out last Wednesday, so most everyone has theirs already (I have a few left to do, but it’s okay).  I am so excited about these, you don’t even understand!

Even before we officially decided to have our reception at a football stadium, I found a template for a football ticket save-the-date.  I knew it would be perfect for us.   So I sat down with photoshop and got to work.  Here is the finished product, ready to be sent to Vistaprint to be made into magnets.  FYI: I used the large magnets and put two “tickets” on each magnet.  Of course, then I accidentally ordered 2X as many magnets as I actually needed.  Oh well!

(Obviously the blue rectangles are to protect my secret identity).  Do you like my bar code at the bottom?  I am a big nerd and totally looked up the “code” for a bar code.  It should say 052120110330, corresponding to our wedding date, 5/21/2011, and time, 3:30pm.

Anyway, I knew that I didn’t want to just send the ticket in an envelope, so I also designed a 8″x4″ invitation to put the magnet on.  And remember that monogram that I designed?  I used it for our return address labels.  Did I mention that when I was 8, I wanted to be an art teacher?  I love doing crafty, creative stuff.

So, 7 days after placing the order with Vistaprint (get on their mailing list for great deals!  I got all of my STD stuff for $200, which should have been more like $175, if I hadn’t ordered double the magnets), the box arrived!  I was so excited!  Of course the evening that it arrived, I actually had to go back to work and finish up a project.  Luckily for my worklife, I also wanted to go to work to use their cutter to cut the magnets, so I went in and cut them up AND finished my project!  I’m so efficient.

Last Tuesday night was the official “ASSEMBLE THE SAVE-THE-DATES” night.  Matt had to work late, so after our long evening walk with April, I settled in to watch trashy TV and get the STD’s ready to send out.  It took me 3 hours to address those envelopes.  By the end, my hand was cramping, but I persevered!  Then I set up a little assembly line:

The magnets, the address labels (with our address scribbled out), envelope, pink pen, magnet mat invitation, Tivo remote, envelopes, straight edge used to use a guide to writing the addresses, removable glue dots, and the excel spreadsheet address list.

Matt helped by using the fun “glue dot” contraption.  He put together 5 in the course of 15 minutes.  I did the rest (like 90 of them) in about 20 when he decided it was no longer fun.  At least he helped a bit!

When it came time to lick the envelopes, I was complaining about the yucky taste.  Matt reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Susan actually dies when she is poisoned by the glue on the envelopes for their wedding invitations.  After that reminder, I decided to use a wet paper towel to moisten the glue.

The finished product:

Do you like my border of mini pink footballs?

The envelopes ready to go to the post office:

And the trash pile (thank goodness for extra envelopes)

I am so happy with how these turned out.  And I’ve been receiving tons of compliments.  These just fit us so well and I got to show my creative side.  YAY!