Crafty (& proof of my cheapness)

As I've been cleaning out the old apartment, I've stumbled upon some old gems. Things I've put in places that are labeled action needed, but as of now, no action has been taken. I swear some day I will do every project that I intend to do.

Today's find was from my wedding. Whenever I tell people I got married in Las Vegas, they assume it means it was quick and lonely. Not so much. We actually had an awesome wedding surrounded by both Erik's entire family and my entire family, as well as many of our close friends. We kept our guest list small, and we were incredibly lucky to have had 40 people show up to celebrate with us. 

The big reason I chose Vegas was because of how low stress and high on fun it'd be. I also knew I could keep it quite inexpensive. We found the perfect place to do it, and we had to actually have very little input on the way that the wedding would work. Aside from a few minor glitches and disappointments, we were so thrilled; we knew these small things were so unsubstantial and insignificant, and really, quite funny looking back.

Something that drove me nuts the entire time of planning was finding the right invitations. As much as I love my friends and family, there was no way I was spending $20 on invitations for each one of them, especially when I thought they all looked tacky, ugly, boring, or like every other wedding invite I had ever seen.

I decided to make my own.

After debating for eons about whether or not to send a "save the date" invite, we decided to go for it simply because we were having a wedding outside of our home states. Plus, we were getting married on a Thursday evening (hello, discount and hello people needing only to take 2 days off work to enjoy a 4-day weekend in Vegas!) so we wanted to give people plenty of time. 

Our wedding colors were red and black. Not coincidentally also the colors of playing cards. We added a honey colored yellow, too, to make it less stark and more weddingesque, I suppose.

With the help of one of my bridesmaids, a few hours, and a few trips to local crafteries, I made the perfect save-the-date cards myself. They were small, and we included magnets on the back. The total cost to do it myself was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than paying for tacky ones. 

Since those were so well received, I decided to go ahead and do the actual wedding invitations myself, as well. After a little bit of drama on the paper -- I had chosen a different design but could not acquire enough of the apparently retired style -- I was able to find something that spoke well to what we were all about in this wedding -- fun. Everyone invited received one of these pretty pups except for our wedding party. I don't have any remaining pictures of what theirs looked like, but the background paper was not the same, and it was instead bright blue with cowboys all over. I was moving to Texas and all.

It's funny now that a lot more of my friends have been getting married or have been planning weddings. I continue to tell them that it's truly not worth going into debt over nor is it worth choosing to do something stressful. My wedding was incredible because I spent so little time worrying about it or planning out how it could be perfect. We didn't even have a place for dinner figured out until a couple of weeks beforehand, and we told all of our guests about it about a week before they left. Everyone had the opportunity to go, have a mini vacation, and only had two commitments to attend. Sure, we did a lot of other things but none of it was scheduled; my bridesmaids and I were swimming in the hotel pool just a couple hours before the ceremony and honestly, who cared that I didn't spend hours on my makeup or hair? No one would remember that anyway.

I often think about how I'd love to go into business making invitations. There's an abundance of ugly and expensive out there when there really needn't be. I think I'm an exception, though. I think most people have a dream and an image and they can buy it. Me? My memories are in the fact I got to do it ALL myself and make it entirely my own. I hope some day someone wants me to help them do it, too. 

(I assure you my invites were not this crooked. This is thanks to the marvels of technology and my desire to scan and edit photos quickly rather than accurately).

Random things about me

I thought that today would be as good a day as any to tell you some of the most random bits of personal information. I expect my loyal readers to do the same (I think I have 2 readers, so I can officially say "readerS").

1. I don't eat red meat. In my house, we only ate white meat, and we never had real bacon. When I went to my dad's house and my step mom made it one night when I was 9, I asked her what it was. We had only ever had turkey bacon. Much as I like bacon now, I still prefer turkey bacon.

2. I'm missing a front tooth. This has been the source of many fun stories in my life. I took Spanish in high school, and for two years, I had the same professor because I really, really liked her (and switched to her course the second year). She overheard me talking about this once, and I had to go up to her, open my mouth, and count my teeth for her. Then she believed it. My front bottom tooth just never grew in.

3. I cannot sleep under a sheet. I can only sleep when there's a fitted sheet and a comforter. 

4. I'm a total morning person. 

5. It wasn't until my iSchool friend FORCED me to learn that I figured out how to work a dishwasher. For 24 years, I lived in the dark, and when the thing malfunctioned in October, I gave it up again. I've used a dishwasher exactly 3 times in my life now. 

6. I've lived in 5 different states. 

7. In high school, my English teacher used to ask me for book recommendations. 

8. I played interscholastic badminton in high school. While I was good at singles, I was a killer doubles player. I had the same partner freshman year all year, and then she quit half way through sophomore year when I got a new partner. My new partner and I stuck it through two years, and we walked away with a few medals. 

9. I was [and to an extent, still am] a troublemaker. In junior high school, a group of friends and I created a website that mocked our junior high and the teachers. It wasn't mean spirited, but instead a total lampoon of the place; it's still talked about to this day! Unfortunately, it was one of those Angelfire websites, so it is long gone.

10. I've overcome about every obstacle possible in terms of statistics. I came from a divorced family and an absent father; I was a first generation college student; and I grew up very poor. I often think about how grateful I am to be where I am today because people took chances on me and because I worked hard despite the odds.

11. I do not have taste receptors for bitterness. 

12. I am not a big fan of chocolate. At all.

13. (Though a lot of people know this, there are still so many people who don't)...I got married in Las Vegas, and I would not change that for the world. Planning took an hour on the phone. I hand made all of my save the dates and invitations, and all of my family and good friends came out. That was the best week of my entire life. 

14. Gambling is the reason I was able to go to college, and whenever people get angry or frustrated at the casino industry, I get very, very frustrated. Casinos put people to work and casinos allow people who would otherwise not have opportunities for education to get it through taxes and scholarships.

15. I used to play flute. When I was in elementary school, it was my DREAM to play french horn. When I got to junior high and started french horn, I HATED it. It was too big, bulky, and the spit valve turned me off something fierce. In 6th grade, I changed to the flute and outplayed those with a year more practice. Then, in high school, I took up tenor saxophone because the fingering was the same as the flute, and they needed a second tenor. I miss playing some days. 

16. I didn't fly for the first time until I was 21. Now, at 24, I've flown more than most people fly in their lifetimes. I LOVE it. 

That's 16, and that's enough for now. I have a post in the works about something very, very cool I did in high school. 

What makes you different or unique?