Our first Christmas cards

Last week I sent the free Christmas cards that I blogged about last month. We did have to pay for shipping them to us, then postage to send them to our family and friends... but it's still a pretty good deal! The 50 that I received for free was the perfect amount.

I went with this style and chose 4 black and white photos from our wedding day. I think they're pretty cute and have received several compliments on them!

Free holiday cards from Shutterfly

I debated participating in this promotion, because I'm just not sure that we're holiday card people. But what do I have to loose?! This is the only year we can send a fabulous picture of us on our wedding day to everyone we know, so I should take advantage of that.

If you've been living under a rock (because every blogger in the world has posted about it already), Shutterfly is offering 50 free cards to bloggers! Go here if you'd like to participate. I'm loving these ones:

I like cards that cause me to sing a Christmas song in my head :)
Holly & Jolly found here

A close contender.

Cool Blue Holly found here 

I'm excited to send these to all our family members and show off our wedding photos! And the fact that they're giving away 50 is just fate, since that's just about exactly how many wedding invitations we sent.

$23 bridesmaid dress

I haven't had a chance to get a dress for my maid of honor yet, since she's been in Europe since September and will be there for a few more weeks. We were planning to go shopping when she gets back in July.

I stopped by Ross last week and looked through the dress section... and found the perfect dress! It's pretty much exactly what I would have picked anyway, plus it was an absolute steal at $23!

So I decided to go ahead and buy it in not one but two sizes, and hopefully one of them fits and looks good on Rose. If not, we can easily return both of them, but I'll return at least one anyway. We still may hit up the mall to see if we can find something better but I think she'll look like a hottie in this dress :)

Wedding band & flower girl basket

We picked up my wedding band this morning. Look how pretty!

Afterwards we went to my favorite secondhand store, Deseret Industries on Auburn Boulevard. I always find the coolest stuff there! I was hoping to find a flower girl basket, but didn't really have anything in mind. This is what I found for only $1!

I put on some ribbon that I already had and voila! Adorable basket for an adorable girl.

We also went to Off Broadway, where I got these

and these

Tonight we're going to a friend's house for tacos. I made guacamole and it's delish!

Guitarist & Rehearsal Dinner

I never updated my blog about this: Last month we met with two guitarists for our wedding and decided to hire one.

I'm really proud of myself for finding someone under budget. I did a lot of research and contacted tons of guitarists and they were all quoting me way too much for just three hours of playing. I realize that they're talented professionals with expensive equipment, but we have a budget to stick to and I knew there were people out there who'd do it for less.

So, I decided to take things into my own hands and make the performers come to me. I posted an ad on Craigslist with our budget and exactly what we needed. We got over 20 responses, many of them from professionals with years of experience! And almost all of them were fine with the price we named ourselves. Take that, expensive guitarists!

We met with two guys in Santa Cruz, and if we didn't like either of them I had at least a dozen more in San Francisco and Oakland who would have worked too. It turned out that both were great and would have done a good job.

We also ate at two different Italian restaurants that we were thinking of to cater our rehearsal dinner and Kianti's was the clear winner. Yum!

Save the Dates

We sent our Save the Dates last week, and now that they’ve been received I can blog about them (wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise)!

I loved the string of lights on these, even though they don’t match our blue & green color scheme for the wedding. I don’t think it matters!

Here’s the image from the site where I designed them (private info concealed to deter stalkers):

And here they are as received!

I was a little disappointed because I felt like the text is too small. I used the sizes they had on the sample card, and even enlarged them a bit, but I still wish it was bigger. I've since gotten over it.

However, I got these cards for a steal! They are from Vistaprint.com, a company that offers some great deals. If you sign up for an account with them and opt to receive email offers, they’ll email you frequently with offers of free products – you just have to pay shipping.

These emails can be annoying if you don’t want the offers, but if you’re looking for free Save the Dates it’s worth it!

In December I finally got the email I had been waiting for – offering the cards I had already designed for free! You can get 10 free per email address, so I ordered 10 each with my two personal email accounts, and one work email account.

Then at checkout, they gave me the opportunity to add an additional 10 to the order of 10 for $7, with free shipping. I opted for that option with two of the orders, for a total of 50 Save the Dates.

30 free cards… shipping = $12
20 upgrade cards = $14

Total cost for 50 Save the Dates = $26

I also decided to do envelope liners for these - I know it's totally silly and something only I actually care about. But look how cute!!

Instructions for envelope liners can be found here. This absolutely perfect paper is from the local store Pulp Papery. I just wandered in one day hoping to find yellow paper with white polka dots and it was a success!

Thankful Thursday: Flat iron

While I am not thankful that my flat iron decided to stop working last week, I am thankful that my coworker directed me to Overstock.com to purchase my first CHI for a great price. I'm hoping that the fantastic things I've heard about this brand are true. It was supposed to arrive by February 13, but my UPS tracking number tells me that it's out for delivery right now! Yay!

Christmas weekend

As expected, Christmas weekend was a great time. James and I drove to Corning on Christmas morning and we opened presents once everyone was there.

My secret santa was my sister Samantha, so I got lots of stuff from Thailand! She and her husband spent 3 weeks there recently. I got jewelry, a jewelry box, a key chain, a cute little buddha, pillow covers, candle holders and placemats.

Later more family came over and we played games, like always.

The day after Christmas I went wedding dress shopping again with Mom and Victoria. I ended up ordering my favorite dress from last weekend [final choice is a secret]! I realized that I compared every dress to that favorite, and nothing could compare. I love it! It'll be delivered in March.

That day we also went after-Christmas clearance shopping and got some cards and ornaments for next year, and tons of white lights for our wedding reception! 50% off woo hoo!

Now we're relaxing at home. Aside from this cold I've had all weekend, Christmas 2009 was a success. Happy holidays!

Thankful Thursday: Farmers' market

Today I’m thankful for living half a mile from the best farmers' market in the region. Every Sunday until noon there’s a huge farmers' market in the parking lot under the freeway at 8th and W Streets in Sacramento. It’s crazy crowded and traffic is a nightmare. But, we always walk. It’s fab!

During the summer we go almost every week to get fresh strawberries, blackberries, peaches, melons… when it gets colder we don’t go as much, but I’m planning to go the Sunday before Thanksgiving to get all the fresh herbs and vegetables I’ll need to make that meal.

Buying your fruits and veggies at the farmer’s market really saves a lot of money. On our walk home we always add up how much we spent and what it would cost at Safeway. It seems to consistently be about half because you’re not dealing with the mark-up grocery stores charge to make a profit.

But on top of the savings, it’s a really fun atmosphere that gives you a sense of community. Going there allows you to interact with your neighbors (even if it’s just a smile) and the farmers who grow your food. I just love it, and I’m really thankful that going is so easy for us because of our location.

Free stuff from Traylor Papers

Traylor Papers is offering free stationary! To get it:

"Send us an email to VIP@traylorpapers.com with your name and address and we'll send you a free customized card with your name. Tell us your favorite colors and/or style (i.e., whimsical, classic, girly ..., etc) and we will try to make you a match :) BONUS: post this offer on your blog or wall, send us a link, and we'll send you a few extra! Good thru 10/28/09!"

Here are my faves!

Lime Links Note Cards

Pink Kiwi Note Cards

Patio Lantern Note Cards

Thanks for the info Kelsey :)

$159.50

The last few nights James and I rolled the change that he's been leaving in my piggy bank for the majority of our relationship. It's seriously all from him - I rarely contribute.


Our total: $159.50. Cha-ching! We're going to cash it in and spend it on our vacation in a few weeks.

Free Noah's Bagels

I go to Noah's bagels with the girls in my office pretty much every Friday. For the next few weeks we're getting free bagels - woo hoo! I'm sharing the free bagel coupon here to help my readers out. It was advertised on the news, but really hard to find. Enjoy.
http://www.fox40.com/images/0902-163_cs_noah_advo2sac_2.pdf