Please don't keep us in suspense

So we’re at that time…the time when we should be having floods of RSVPs arriving in our cute, little mailbox. Did you see how I said should? Yeah.

We’re a week away from our RSVP deadline and we are still waiting on over half of our RSVPs to come back. Nervous? No…no, I always look like this.

(source)

And here’s the kicker: our own family members are dragging their feet. Granted, I pretty much know who of them is coming and isn’t coming but still, that’s not the point. Same goes for the bridal party – hear that everyone? Ahem. We didn’t design and print up those adorable little RSVP cards, then secretly number them with the spy pen and stamp them for them to not be sent back. Not to mention that we have that great little space on the back for people to write well wishes or draw us pictures.

Speaking of…would you like to see some of the fantastic “artists” that will be attending our wedding? I thought you might. If there is anything that has made the waiting on RSVPs easier, it’s knowing that when one arrives in our mailbox, there’s a good chance we will have major entertainment inside that little envelope.

Behold the skillz:

Froggie kitty sign of approval

From my talented cousin and groomsman.

From our good friends in Seattle – this is actually part of a joke from their wedding, we loved it.

Although this one is labeled as from Frogger’s brother, we’re pretty sure this is the brilliant work of his lovely wife. Clearly she has us pegged. Hey, don’t laugh.

From our friends in Florida, we are thrilled they are going to be able to fly up to celebrate with us.

From our fellow wedding planners, these two are tying the knot in Hawaii in Feb – can’t wait! PS – this is what the majority of our time is like when we are in Chelan, I couldn’t have drawn it better. Drew it better? Yeah, I blame any grammar issues on bride brain.

From Frogger’s cousins who just had a baby, we can’t wait to see them.

From another of Frogger’s cousins – personally I love the stick figures since that’s on par with my skills and we are so excited they can come. They live in Nashville so I will finally get the chance to meet them.

I will say, after going through the RSVPs and looking back at the fantastic responses we have received, I definitely feel better about the situation. In addition to drawings (which we have received quite a few, I couldn’t include them all here), we have also gotten so many wonderful well wishes – we feel very loved.

So my question is this…with the deadline looming, am I right to be a little concerned about the low number we have received thus far? How many have/did you receive when you were about a week out from your deadline? Do I need to start throwing elbows?

My latest obsession

I’m going to assume that during every bride’s planning process she comes to this point. You know what I’m talking about…the moment when she first lays eyes on her invitations in all their glory.

I wouldn’t say that I’m particularly a big paper person but…I’m telling you, I about passed out from the excitement of opening the box when they arrived on our doorstep. And I am most definitely a paper obsessed convert now…whoa nelly. Yes, I just said whoa nelly, I'm sorry.

We were lucky enough to find our fantastic wedding invitation designer through none other than Etsy. As soon as we found Melissa at Design Circus, I knew it would be a perfect fit. We wanted something chic but not formal, friendly but not overly casual and no matter what, we needed personality. We asked, she delivered:

It's painful to have to blur these out.

The element of the invite we created ourselves – our wedding map…we’re in love with it. I honestly can't even tell you how accomplished we felt when we finished it.

The bottom says: "Please use the back of this card to write your wishes and blessings for Miss Frog and Frogger or better yet, draw a picture of them."

We’re hoping for some fun drawings and notes on the backs of these for our wedding scrapbook.

Then came time to put it all together – self healing mat, ruler, razor blade, bone folder, hole punch, baker’s twine and super secret spy pen.

And the final package – we numbered the RSVPs with the spy pen, wrapped each invitation suite in vellum, tied with baker’s twine and included a tag on the front with our website information. They were a labor of love but completely worth it!

We placed these lovey little packages in gray envelopes with side wrap-around labels (sorry no picture of that, I’m such a good blogger). I then tucked them into a Trader Joe’s paper bag (reusing makes me feel good) and carefully carried them to our local post office. Not only did they equal out to exactly a 61 cent stamp…but get this…the 61 cent stamp is none other than a wedding cake!

It was totally meant to be. Our lovely postal woman even helped me stamp them and allowed me to hand cancel each one. I couldn’t have asked for a better invitation experience.

Are you obsessed with your invitations? Are you a paper person or a new convert like me?