Our Postcards Are Here

Our thank-you postcards arrived on Friday, a full week earlier than scheduled. So bonus points to Vistaprint for that (though I get the feeling that orders set to ship “slow” generally arrive ahead of schedule).

Overall we’re happy with the postcards. Yes, the paperstock could be heavier/higher quality but considering that we paid $30 for 100, glossy, coloured, custom postcards, I can’t really complain. Besides, I believe Vistaprint does give you the option to upgrade your paperstock if that’s important to you.

I should note that the back of these cards have just enough space for the addresses (we had our return one preprinted) and a short note. Personally I’m fine with that but you’re the type of person who likes to hand write notes, you’ll want to go with a proper card instead of a postcard.

I kind of wish we’d cropped our image a little different so that Shawn and I filled more of it. But then considering how awkward I generally look in closer up shots, it’s probably for the best that we didn’t.

So if you’re wondering if I would recommend Vistaprint, I totally would. Just make sure to unsubscribe yourself from its mailing list after you’ve received your order; otherwise be prepared to hear from them multiple times a week.

Postcards Ordered

So we’ve just crossed one more thing on our post-wedding to-do list: We’ve ordered our thank-you postcards.

As I discussed in this post, we decided to go with Vistaprint and so far our experience with them has been positive.

We went with this design, uploaded our photo and then Vistaprint automatically, and quite nicely, cropped it. We then added in some copy on the front, a return address on the back and we were done.

Well, we did have to skip past several pages of personalized crap (like key chains and business cardholders) before we could fully place our order but whatever, it was a small annoyance in an otherwise smooth process.

We bought 100 postcards and went with the slow shipping option so our total was $44.11. Obviously the more postcards you buy, the cheaper your per-card cost and since we went with the smallest available quantity, we didn’t really get the best deal but whatever, all we needed was 100.

Vistaprint does offer a range of shipping options. We went with the 21-day choice since that was the cheapest at about $9. But if you’re willing to pay they’ll happily get your cards to you in a few days.

We placed our order on Saturday so I expect we’ll get our postcards on either Friday, November 5 or the following Monday. Here’s hoping they turn out (I think our sample looks good)!

Great Groupon Deal

Coupon-site Groupon is offering a deal that will appeal to many recent brides: $35 for $115 worth of stuff at Photobook Canada. While this amount doesn't count towards taxes or shipping and does have to be redeemed in one order, you can use it on any style of book.

Photobook Canada isn't really cheap but I've read good stuff about the site and they do offer plenty of options. They also seemed to be used by some professional photographers so that says something about them.

The one thing about Groupon is that if you want the coupon, you need to buy it today. I have used Groupon before and it's really quick and easy to use and while the deal does seem really, really good, it's totally true.

What To Do With Your Dress

While post-wedding tasks are nothing compared to pre-wedding ones, there’s still a small list of things you need to get done and one the trickier ones is to decide what to do with your wedding dress.

There seems to be three main options:

1. Keep your dress
2.  Sell your dress
3. Trash your dress

That third option has becoming increasingly popular and if that’s your thing and you’ve got some money to burn, hey, go for it, but personally it doesn’t appeal.

OK, there are some amazing trash-the-dress photos out there

Right now I’m debating between option #1 and option #2. Option #2 is definitely the more practical one but it’s also kind of sad. I have to admit that a part of me wants to keep my dress even though I realize that it will likely spend the rest of its life in a box.

I did read somewhere (I think on a blog) about a woman who puts her wedding dress on every year on her birthday (I think she just does this at home and doesn’t wear it one in public).  That’s kind of a fun idea and it does mean that at least your dress is getting out of its box. It also doubles as a sort of weight check.

So maybe I’ll end up doing that. The only thing is that my dress is currently in Alberta. I deliberately left it there after our out-West reception because my parents have way more storage space than Shawn and I do. But at some point it’ll make the trip back to Toronto.

Besides sentimental reasons, the other big reason why I’m not that interested in selling is that it’s a hassle. Both the Canadian Bride and the Wedding Bells forums are packed with dresses for sale so there’s a ton of competition out there, most at great prices.

If you plan on selling your dress, don’t expect to be making even close to your money back. I’ve seen more than a few dresses being offered at around half price and that’s not necessarily including the money that went into alterations and cleaning.

And once you have an interested buyer, she may want to come over and try on the dress and she’ll probably want to negotiate a lower price and really, it just seems like a big pain.

I know I could skip some of that pain by taking my dress to a consignment or second-hand store but the prices those places offer are generally poor unless you have an amazing, big, big name dress.

There is a fourth option I didn’t list above and that’s to donate your dress to The Bride’s Project, an organization that sells used wedding dresses and donates the funds to cancer-related charities, including Wellspring, The Canadian Cancer Society and The Breast Cancer Foundation. The Bride’s Project also accepts and sells accessories such as veils and tiaras.

It really is a great cause and worth looking into if you know you don’t want to keep your dress but aren’t interested in selling or trashing it.

Our Thank-you Postcards

So we’re still waiting to get our photos back (so much for three-four weeks). I’m not worried we won’t get them, just anxious to see that at least some turned out and also anxious to get going on our thank-you cards.

Actually, we’re doing thank-you postcards instead or regular cards and yep, we’ll be jumping on board that trend of using our wedding photos on the front.

We decided to go with postcards because they’re quicker (no envelope) and a bit cheaper, at least with the company we’re going with.

And that company is: Vistaprint. I came across Vistaprint while researching invites and though they didn’t quite have what I was looking for invite-wise, they do offer a ton of great make-your-own-postcard options.

Since we don’t have any photos yet, I’m not sure what template we’ll go with but I’m sure we’ll be able to find something that works since Vistaprint offers dozens of options. They also offer plenty of options if you’d prefer a folded or flat card.

While I’ve never used Vistaprint, the reviews I’ve read online about them are generally good (at least the Canadian version). They’re quick, give you want you asked for and while the quality isn't amazing, the prices are great.

The site layout is a bit clumsy but I think anyone who can figure out Facebook photo albums can figure out how to create an invite on Vistaprint.

So far the only downside I’ve seen is that the company is a horrible over-emailer. I mean, it’s great that they want to tell me how much money I can save but I don’t need to hear from them multiple times a week. I’ve also read that your checkout process is slowed down by the endless upgrade and special offers they present though I’m not too worried about that, they’re not getting me to buy anything other than my postcards.

If you’re curious to know more about Vistaprint, check out this article where it’s compared to 123Print.com, a company that doesn’t ship to Canada.

Once I get my cards back, I’ll make sure to post and let you know how they look.

There are also lots of other options out there if you want to do a photo thank-you card. I recommend actually starting at home and seeing if your computer or printer came with any software that could let you put something together. Craft store stores like Michaels, as well as those photo printing booths at Walmart and Black’s, also offer their own approach to photo cards.

If you’re a Mac user, you’ll definitely want to check out what you can make with iPhoto. But I’ll talk a bit more about that in my next blog entry.

What We Bought For Alcohol

One of the trickiest things we had to do in regards with our wedding was figure out how much alcohol we needed to buy. While there are plenty of alcohol calculators out there, we still were left wondering if the numbers they gave us made sense for our group (around 100 people, mostly adults, with 30-25% being heavy drinkers).

Thankfully we had a pair of friends get married in June who also had to buy their booze. While their numbers and crowd make-up was a bit different than ours, we used their quantities to figure out what we needed.

Still, we didn’t quite get it right. Here’s how things broke down for us:

Wine

Bought

• Three cases of red (all Shyrah)
• Three cases of white (two Chardonnay, one pinot grigio)

Returned

• One case of red
• One case of white (the pinot was never opened)

Leftover (includes opened, combined bottles):

• At least a dozen bottles of red (this included opened, combined bottles)
• Fewer than 10 bottles of white

Beer

Bought

• 14 cases

Returned

• 7 cases

Hard Alcohol

Bought

• 5 bottles of vodka (40 oz)
• 5 bottles of rye (fifth)
• 3 bottles of gin (fifth)
• 2 bottles of dark rum (40 oz)
• 1 bottle of light rum (40 oz)
• 2 bottles of Raspberry Sourpuss (40 oz)
• 1 bottle of Raspberry Sourpuss (fifth)
• 2 bottles of tequila (40 oz)
• 2 bottles of blue cucacao (fifth)
• 2 bottles of Jagermeister (40 oz)
• 1 bottle of scotch (40 oz)
• 1 bottles of Kahlua (40 oz)

Also, one 24-mix pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, all of which was consumed

Returned

• 1 bottle of vodka
• The fifth of Sourpuss

Leftover

• Most of the scotch
• Half-bottle of tequila
• Half-bottle of light rum
• A third of gin
• Just a few ounces each of vodka, rye, blue cucacao and Sourpuss
• Oh, and the entire bottle of Kahlua that we couldn’t return because the seal had been broken

The leftover wine number didn’t shock me but the beer number did. I think the reason for that was that all of our beer came from Mill Street and I guess our crowd wasn’t big on Mill Street (though Shawn and a few of his friends do regularly drink it).

We were though pretty dead-on when it came to the hard alcohol. Except for the Kahlua; I wonder why no one drank any of that…

Preserving Your Wedding Bouquet

So my attempts at preserving my wedding bouquet failed. I was able to preserve a little bit of it but sadly, most of it had to get tossed because it became moldy.

If you really want to make sure your bouquet gets fully preserved, you should get it professionally done. Your florist can generally recommend someone or maybe even do it for you. But be warned, this process isn’t cheap. You’re looking at least $100, probably more, and depending on what process is used, it can take as long as 10 weeks. And for best results, your flowers should be dropped off at the florist as soon as possible, so this becomes yet another task for your post-wedding to-do list.

However, on the plus side, you will have a beautifully preserved bouquet and if you want, you can even have it turned into something you can hang on your wall (some people will have a sort of “wedding college” made that includes a copy of the invite and some pictures).

If you’d rather take the DIY route, there are two methods that are generally used and you can read more about them over here. The first is the basic way that I sort of did. It involves hanging your bouquet upside down to dry and then, once everything is dried, spraying the flowers with a dried flower spray or hairspray.

With this method you’re supposed to take the bouquet apart and hang the individual flowers to dry and I didn’t totally do this and as a result I don’t think my flowers were totally dry (hence the mold).

Also, my bouquet contained a lot of orchids and apparently it’s hard to preserve those yourself (though oddly enough they looked better than the lilies did). Roses though are quite easy to preserve so if your bouquet is quite rose-heavy, you might want to consider the hang-drying method.

The second method, which involves placing the flowers in silica gel, is more complicated though generally has better results.