My new favorite thing to do

I waste a disgusting amount of time online.  Reading celebrity gossip, stalking wedding blogs, blogging myself, and so on.  It's rare for me to be in a room by myself and not have my eyes glued to the glow emitted from my beloved Dell.  Anyhow, I've recently discovered a fun new way to pass the time when putzing around online.

Step 1: Type the designer and style number or name of your wedding gown into Google.

Step 2: Go to the top left portion of the screen and click on the link that says "more."

Step 3: Scroll down to "Blogs."

By following those three very easy steps, you can probably find a number of blogs that have featured your wedding dress!  It's a fun little activity because if you wade past the pre-owned dress sales, you can usually find some photography blogs that feature other brides in your gown.  A good number of photographers include a list of the couple's wedding vendors at the bottom of the photography entry, which makes it quite easy to find blog entries that feature your dress1  I like this approach better than just doing an image search, since most of those results are photos of models directly from the designer's site, which is a little boring.

While part of me is possessive of my gown and doesn't enjoy the thought of others donning it on their wedding days, a bigger part of me is more obsessed with the idea of seeing the gown in the context of others' weddings.  You get an awesome opportunity to see how others accessorized - what earrings they picked, what type of veil they selected.  You also can get a glimpse into how the dress meshed into the overall context of the rest of the event.  Personally, staring at these other weddings gets me so excited to have my dress fitted to my body to look perfect for our wedding.  It definitely spikes the anticipation and excitement!

My favorite four-letter word starting with the letter F

No, not that one.  Pervs.  Get your minds out of the gutter and let me tell you a story.

A couple weeks back, Mrs. Pain au Chocolat blogged about her bouquet charm fashioned after her Weddingbee icon.  I decided that little chocolately delight was too darned precious for my liking, and I needed one of my own.  I, like every other bride in the history of forever, turned to Etsy to see what options I had for my charm.  I messaged a couple shops whose work seemed impressive, and shortly thereafter, I got a couple replies, but one in particular stood out.  I received this message from Sweet & Savory Trinkets.

I haven't tried to make a snow cone yet, but I am happy to try.  I will try to make one this weekend, and post the pictures here.  If you like it, and I decide to make them for the store, you will get the charm free as a thank you gift for inspiring me to create a new product.

In case you missed it, there was a four-letter word that makes angelic choirs from above sing: FREE.  As in, no cost.  As in, no shipping, no handling, no tax, no nothing.  Just courtesy, generosity, and good will.  I was stunned at this seller's kindness and willingness to go above and beyond to thank me for inspiring her.  As a stupendous cherry on top, her li'l snow cone is totally perfect, and I could not be happier with this turn of events. 

Image via Savory & Sweet Trinkets

Widdle snow cone

 So rainbow!

A bit of scale

Right now, I'm hoping to affix it to my bouquet for a tiny extra pop of color.  I'm also dorkishly excited about the prospect of using it as a zipper pull on a jacket or wallet or something after the wedding.  People who use wedding blog-inspired clay creations in every day life are cool, right?

Moral of the story: Etsy is a fantastic site, the woman at Savory & Sweet Trinkets is incredibly nice, and never be afraid to ask for a custom item that doesn't appear in the shop -- you just may get it for free!

Did you happen upon any freebies during wedding planning?

(all photos personal unless otherwise noted.)

I love bachelor parties.

Before you get any crazy thoughts, let me explain.

Last weekend, Mr. Snow Cone celebrated his bachelor party with a long weekend in Atlantic City.  That left me with a couple days to kill, so I gleefully took advantage of the free time to tackle a few wedding tasks.  In addition to my flower letters, I had one other item that was very high on my priority list - the hair trial.  I don't want Mr. Snow Cone to know how my hair will be styled on our big day, so his bachelor party weekend was the perfect opportunity for me to experiment with my 'do.

Sparklers stink.

I'm pleased to report that the entire wedding planning process has gone pretty smoothly.  Minus a few stressful moments, I feel like things have fallen into place nicely, and usually without too much labor on anyone's part.  We are well on our way to creating the event we've always wanted, and that, in and of itself, is a victory.  Despite all of our successes, one recent failure has me licking my bridal wounds.  I feel stupid complaining that one tiny detail isn't going our way whenever we've nailed down a great photographer, a perfect dress, an awesome bridal party, dashing men's attire, and the list goes on an on.  Nevertheless, hard as I try, I cannot shake this one source of heartache.  The culprit?  Sparklers.

Simply stated, sparklers were persona non grata in my home growing up.  Parents Snow Cone agreed that giving a flaming stick to a child of any age was probably not the best decision in the history of parenting.  Despite my inexperience with these little fire-sticks, I was still enamored.  I loved the way they looked in photos, and I pretty much made it my mission to use them for a grand wedding exit (never mind the fact that the grand wedding exit doesn't even exist yet).  I wasn't sure how this idea would go over with the parentals or Mr. Snow Cone, so I decided to dream and scheme from afar before making my pitch to them.  Well, I never even got to that point.  Instead, my sparkler dreams got extinguished (haha, I made a funny) by our on-site coordinator.  She summarily stated that handing fire-sticks to people after giving those same people hours of access to an open bar was probably not the best decision in the history of weddings.  Sparklers officially were stricken from the Snow Cone wedding, before they were even officially included.

Rationally, I know that this idea posed a supreme fire hazard.  I also know that you run the risk of singing your dress with sparklers, and I am not interested in that.  Grumpily, I'm pouting that hundreds of other brides at hundreds of other venues gave the go-ahead for sparkler action at the conclusion of the reception.  Now I'm confused if I even want or need a grand send-off.  It's almost as if now that sparklers aren't a possibility, the send-off in its entirety goes right down the drain with the fire-sticks.  I know that other possibilities exist, like ribbon wands and bubbles, but nothing really makes my eyes light up (haha, funny #2) like the thought of a sparkler send-off.

In order to be as masochistic as possible, I'll leave you with a sampling of photos that made my heart go pitter-patter for months on end.  Harrumph.

Image via Intimate Weddings / Photo by Swensen Photography

Image via Intimate Weddings / Photo by Stephen Seward

 Image via Bridal Inquirer / Photo by Melanie Mauer

Image via and Photo by Luster Studios

Image via Sparkle.com / Photo by Shannon Ho Photography

Image via and Photo by David Wittig Photography

Image via and Photo by Joshua Gill Photography

How do you handle wedding planning disappointment?  Any super-awesome send-off ideas or photos out there?  And, best of all, anyone have a miserable experience with a sparkler exit that could help me get over this heartache?

The Snow Cone Invitations!

After giving the postal system over a week to do its thang, I think I'm officially in the clear to reveal our invitation suite to the blog community.  I (personally) think the photos speak for themselves, so without further ado, here is our invitation suite from the Kissin' Krafts shop on Etsy!

Here's what guest saw on the front of their envelope:

 Taken with flash to show off the metallic quality of the envelopes

Close-up of the front address: We used Monterey BT for the names and Felix Titling for the rest.  I've decided that anything written in Monterey BT is automatically happier.  I think that font is my favorite part of the entire suite's look.

On the back, we used the same font pattern for the return address on the envelope flap as we used for our guest addresses on the front:

Inside the envelope, we had the invitation itself:

(Sigh.)  I can't tell you how much I love these pieces of paper.  Just for fun, here's a few more detail shots.

The hydrangea stamp that made its way onto my inspiration board.  OK, maybe I fibbed.  Monterey BT and the hydrangea stamp are tied for my favorite parts.

 I like this perspective shot to show off the various layers and colors

In addition to the invitation, we included an RSVP postcard.

We opted to write in the number of seats each guest was given to indicate who received a +1, and then we left it up to our guests to write the name(s) of those attending.

And here's the back of the postcard, complete with matching font pattern and the proper postage.

For the third and final component, we used a reception insert to notify guests where the party be.

Finally, here's the entire suite without the envelope:

And with the envelope:

Although these invitations didn't come stress-free, any bumps in the road were completely and totally worth it.  Mr. Snow Cone and I are supremely pleased with the finished product, which came out to be under $3 a set (invitation suite + envelope) and I have yet to tire of the positive comments our friends and families have been making to us.  I'm still amazed at how a few fancy pieces of paper can make the wedding itself seem much closer and much more real.  It sounds obvious, but it wasn't until our invitations went out that I fully realized that our guests would be witnessing our vows to one another, and that thought alone puts chills down my spine and a goofy grin on my face.  And I can't wait.

What was your favorite part of your invitation suite?

(all photos personal.)

A DIY Dilemma: Resolved!

I'm not going to lie.  I had every intention of buying as many cans of spray paint as needed to get letter that were 100% ivory.  Until some good sense kicked in, courtesy of my mother.  She praised the cool pastel look and then suggested, brilliantly, that we run over to the church to see how the letters looked against the building.  Once over there, we determined the size was right, but the coloring was a bit incorrect.  The church is made of light tan stone with dark stained glass doors.  Against the walls, the light letters barely showed up.  Against the doors, the letters clashed and competed with the glass design.  Therefore, ivory vs. pastel took a back seat to pondering what to do to get these letters to show up PERIOD.  We brainstormed some solutions before my mom suggested getting some big poster frames and backing the letters in a dark color, so the light letter would pop against the light walls.  The woman's a lifesaver.

I immediately ran to my computer to look for frames.  Thankfully, Michael's decided to run a 40% off poster frame sale PLUS a 20% off entire purchase coupon a mere 12 hours after this issue presented itself.  I grabbed two pewter frames and two sheets of purple textured cardboard for under $20.  After about 15 minutes of labor, here's what we emerged with:

I was a little skeptical of the frame plan, but it turned out beautifully.  The letters pop off the purple background, the purple plays right into our color palette, the frame protects the letters from any nasty weather... the list of reasons why this was the right decision go on and on.  Sure, they aren't 100% ivory, as my original plan dictated. 

But, they're pretty darned close, and the little spots of color give them a little more dimension and personality, at least in my bride brain.  I can't tell you how relieved I feel to see a project through to the end, even though it turned out a bit differently than I originally anticipated.

Now that I'm on the other side of the floral letter project, here are a few tips I picked up along the way that I found to be quite helpful.

• If you're looking to save money, I was really happy with my decision to do cardboard and staples.  Readily available materials!
• I am still confident that the Hawaiian garlands were the most flowers for the lowest price, but the color turned out to be a snag.  Just something to keep in mind if you're very specific about the ultimate hue you want.
• When stapling the flowers onto the letter, definitely have something under the letter if your cardboard isn't super thick.
• If you go the frame route, I'd actually suggest looking for less expensive ones with plastic instead of glass.  We were able to smoosh the flowers into the frames because the "glass" was able to warp and give a little bit, which real glass likely wouldn't do. 

 Did you have any DIY projects go awry, only to be even more pleased with the unexpected outcome?

(all photos personal.)

A DIY Dilemma

For as long as I can remember, I've oohed and aahed over big floral letters used to decorate the church doors.  These letters were always on my to-do list, and now that the wedding is a handful of weeks away, I figured I may as well get crackin' on these mega monograms.  I poked around the internet, looking at various options and tutorials, because I didn't want this project to tax my weenie DIY skills or cost too much.  After mixing a couple different tactical strategies, I got to work, eager to see how this whole thing would turn out.

Instead of buying pre-shaped letters made of wood, plastic, or styrofoam, I took a slightly different approach by cutting them out of cardboard.  I snagged a spare shipment box from a neighborhood retailer and then kind of eye-balled how I wanted the letters to look, hoping for the best.  I used a combination of scissors and a kitchen knife to slice through the cardboard, depending on the shape I was trying to cut.  Here are the letters after lots and lots of cutting:

I was a bit panicked that the W looked so much skinnier than the J, but they were the same height and similar widths, so I decided to roll with it.

Next came the flowers.  Instead of dropping a pretty penny on buying a buttload of life-size silk flowers or losing years off my life hot-gluing teeny, tiny decorative flower petals, I opted to purchase three nine-foot Hawaiian garlands from eBay.  I got a hearty amount of flowers for under $10, including shipping, so I considered that a success.  The only hang-up was that the flowers were meant for luau decor, so they were a bit on the bright side:

I figured that if Mrs. Seashell had some luck with spray paint, I would do the same, once all the flowers were affixed.  As I own neither a hot glue gun nor any spray adhesive, I was particularly worried about how these blasted flowers were going to get onto the cardboard, until it truly came to me in the middle of the night - staples.  Easy, non-permanent (in case of any erroneous placement), and free since I already had them!  I got to work and started stapling the garland flowers all over my letters.

 
I started out with a pretty spotty amount of flowers, since I wasn't sure how far each garland would take me.  I ended up using each and every last flower, but that resulted in some tightly-packed letters, which helped to obscure the fact that the backing was rinky-dinky cardboard.  Once all the flowers were stapled on, I grabbed a can of ivory spray paint to transform these letters from luau to wedding.  Here's where I ran into my first glitch.  Because the flowers were so bright and so tightly packed, it was impossible to fully coat them with the paint, even after using the entire can of spray paint.  As a result, the finished look was kind of... pastel instead of purely ivory.  At this point, I was wringing my hands, trying to figure out how to handle the color situation - grab a second can of spray paint and be more precise with my application, or shrug my shoulders and accept my pastel fate?

How do you handle unexpected issues in your projects?

(all photos personal.)

Forever Young

Way, way, way back when in the wedding planning process, I came up with the ingenious idea to display childhood photos of us at the reception.  I liked the idea of having them on a static display so that our guests could mosey on over and take a peek whenever they wanted to, as opposed to halting the flow of the entire evening and forcing everyone to feast their eyes on a slideshow.  I really loved thinking of guests meandering past our photos, laughing, reminiscing, and talking about how awesome Mr. Snow Cone and yours truly are.  Because we truly are.

Anyhow, I debated with a few different display options.  My first draft included making posters on Snapfish with collages of our photos and displaying them on easels or hanging on walls.  I eventually realized that could be cumbersome with the easels, I didn't know how hanging things on the walls would work, and it just wasn't hitting the nail on the head.  I toyed with setting up a digital frame like Miss Cinnamon Bun, but that just wasn't tripping my trigger either.  Plus, it kind of diminished some of the static dimension to the display.  After brainstorming a bit more, I think I've come up with a display option that fits the bill, but I want to put it together before officially declaring it the winner. 

Even though I don't have the exact display format determined, I couldn't resist sharing some of the photos with you, since Snow Cone tots are just too friggin' cute.


First up, Mr. Snow Cone:

And then me!

 

See?  How can you look at these photos and not immediately want to start telling stories about your own childhood or a Snow Cone childhood?  Actually, don't tell stories about a Snow Cone childhood... you don't know me, so that would be creepy.  Just focus on your own stories.

Are you displaying childhood photos of the happy couple at your wedding?  What display method are you utilizing?

(all photos personal.)

Step one: cry. Step two: problem-solve. Step three: cry again.

Last I left you, we had discovered a set of typos in our invitation suite, and we weren't very happy about it.  I immediately worried that I had put the misspellings in myself and the printer had simply reproduced my errors.  I speedily rifled through my email archives and discovered that my documents were clean of the typos, indicating that the error had occurred during the vendor's side of production.  While I was relieved that I was free of spelling guilt, I was just so emotionally spent that I couldn't even focus on problem-solving.  I deteriorated into a moderately weepy mess while Mr. Snow Cone started rallying our Pittsburgh troops to brainstorm for some other options available to us.

Once I had wiped away the tears from my eyes, I notified our vendor of our unhappiness.  Given that the errors in production were caused on her end, I felt it was appropriate to either get a new batch immediately, at no additional cost, or to receive our money back, as we had not received the product we intended.  Fortunately, she responded very promptly, and immediately offered to do a second batch for us in under a week.  Unfortunately, she pointed out that she had sent along some proofs for me to examine a few weeks back, which I had approved.  I had no recollection of this, so I went through our conversation archives, and sure enough, she was right.  And sure enough, the typos were in the proofs that I had given the go-ahead. 

Looking back, here's what happened.  At the time I placed my order, I was worried that we'd be cutting it close with getting our invitations to our guests in a timely manner.  When she sent me the photos, I was really interested in signing off on them to keep production going; I decided to view the photos on my teeny, tiny cell phone screen instead of waiting to get back to my laptop to view them at a fuller size.  On top of the screen size issues, I also let my eyes focus too strictly on little details.  Immediately prior to the photos, the vendor and I had been discussing font and color details; when I got the photos, I focused on the fonts and colors only, allowing my eye to pass over a handful of typos that had crept their way into the proofs.  The fonts and colors looked good, and I wanted to keep things moving along, so I said A-OK to the photos.  Meaning I said A-OK to having them printed with the typos.  Meaning I most definitely played a role in my own invitation demise.

I was perfectly content to let myself be all riled up at the vendor for what I perceived to be her errors; when she pointed out that I had indeed weighed in on this matter inadvertently, I completely crumbled.  I was a sobbing, runny nose, drippy, wet mess.  I was so disappointed in myself for not taking the time to really look over the proofs to ensure that no errors had arisen.  I was angry at myself for being so stern with her about her mistakes when they had, indeed, been our mistakes.  I was upset that our invitations would be delayed by another week.  I was experiencing a maelstrom of emotions, none of them positive.  It was easily the most bruising experience of our planning thus far.

But!  All's well that ends well, right?  The invitation vendor got us a second batch of invitations in barely over 48 hours, and they are exquisite.  Every last detail is beautiful and perfect, and we couldn't be happier.  Now that I'm a week recovered, I can most definitely tell that the invitation typo saga will be one of those stories that gets told to children and grandchildren to illuminate how things can seem downright horrible in the moment, but everything patches up pretty swiftly.  It seems like nothing more than a distant memory now that our lovely invitations are en route to their new homes.  Despite the hundreds of tears that flowed freely on that fateful afternoon, the ultimate conclusion is that we have invitations we love being delivered to people we love, and even Hank 'n' Pat can't really beat that!

Did a miscommunication ever cause a wedding mishap for you?  How did you react?

There's going to be nude people... at the church... on a Wednesday!

My family loves a good episode of Everybody Loves Raymond; I mean, what's not to love about awkward family dynamics and situations that everyone can relate to?  Anyhow, my absolute most favorite episode is the one in which Robert is tasked with composing the wording for his own wedding invitations.  Here's the synopsis: Robert's brother, Raymond, convinces Robert to botch the wording so badly that he'll never be asked to do a wedding task again.  Of course, as you would expect in sitcom world, the purposefully pitiful proof never gets examined and accidentally gets distributed to the entire guest list.  If you're stressed about your invitations (or any part of your wedding planning, for that matter), do yourself a favor and indulge in a 4-minute chuckle by watching the video below.

Video via YouTube / Credit: CBS

For years, the simple phrase of "Hank 'n' Pat" was enough to put a smile on my face.  Now that I'm on the other side of my invitation world, I can say that that episode has a heightened significance to me, courtesy of my own first-hand invitation boo-boo.

As I explained in my last post, I picked our invitation design MONTHS before I needed to; I felt on top of the bridal world for my impressive advanced planning.  However, I was so relaxed with all the invitation stuff that I forgot to actually determine how long production would take.  I assumed 2-3 weeks, so you can imagine my shock when I was told 6-8 weeks.  Angry at myself for not getting the order placed sooner, I quickly pulled together our wording, proofread it a couple dozen times, and sent it off to our invitation vendor, relieved to be done with that chapter.

Fast-forward a few weeks, when Mr. Snow Cone and I returned from our retreat, eager to tear into our awaiting invitation packages and get these babies into USPS's trustworthy hands.  We opened the first set of inserts and I was dismayed to see that "regretfully" had been spelled as "regretfulley."  The perfectionist in me reared her ugly head, but Mr. Snow Cone pointed out that one minor, inconsequential typo wouldn't be THAT big of a problem.  So we moved onto the second set of inserts, and found that our wedding website URL was directing guests to a website that was not ours.  The entire point of including the URL is so that our guests will actually access our website, so that second strike was kind of a doozy.  I was doubly frustrated and Mr. Snow Cone was a little off-put as well, but we decided to roll with the punches.  We opened up the invitations themselves, hoping and praying to find no more surprises.  No such luck.  Pennsylvania, which is admittedly a tricky state to spell even for a lifelong resident, got a little twisted around into "Pennslyvania."  

Unfortunately, we had batted a solid 3 for 3 with invitation pieces and typos.  

We were at a crossroads; we could send them out as they were and deal with the consequences, we could try to have them re-printed (although we had no idea how long that could take and we weren't exactly swimming in time), or we could come up with an entirely new plan at warp speed.  

What did we choose?  Tune in for part two of this saga, coming to a computer near you very soon!

What was your biggest planning bump in the road?

A walk down invitation memory lane

14 months ago, we got engaged.

9 months ago, I selected an invitation design (and got Mr. Snow Cone's approval on it, of course).

3 months ago, I got the ball rolling on the ordering process, finalizing the design details.

6 weeks ago, I ordered our invitations.

1 week ago, we had a bit of a hiccup in the process.

2 days ago, we got it all straightened around.

1 day ago, I sat down with a couple hundred stamps, a box of envelopes, and a color-coded spreadsheet, ready to finally finish these babies off.

2 hours ago, our beloved wedding invitations got dropped into the mailbox, ready to officially invite our guests to our upcoming nuptials.

Mr. Snow Cone, heading out the door, invitations in hand

My very own Vanna White, modeling the lucky mailbox that got to swallow our invites whole

The first drop! 

All of this reminiscing means two things.  One, our guests should be receiving their little slice of heaven (aka our wedding invitations) in a matter of a few days.  Two, I can finally reveal the Snow Cone invitations later this week!  Stay tuned...

Was your invitation process a lengthy one?

(all photos personal.)

Close encounters with the shapewear kind

A good wedding day look requires a good number of facets to be working together flawlessly.  The hair, the make-up, the dress, the jewelry, the veil, the shoes.  All brides want these pieces to come together effortlessly and beautifully, creating a vision in bridal beauty, no doubt.  One piece of the puzzle that doesn't get its moment in the spotlight but is still hugely responsible for the overall look coming together is the undergarmentry.  Without the proper underwear, it's easy for a beautiful dress to drape awkwardly over any one person's body, a rather unsightly smudge on the otherwise ideal look.

In order to avoid any lumps or bumps in my mid-section, I decided to invest in my first piece of shapewear for w-day.  I decided to go with Spanx Super Power Panties, as seen here:

Image via All Things Chic

I opted for this model because I was looking for something to go above my navel without being too high up on the mid-section, and I thought this was a perfect fit.  I'd heard all about the wonders of Spanx from many of my female friends, but I'd never really had an outfit or event that warranted investing in any shapewear pieces.  For that reason, I was pretty curious and nervous to see what all the fuss was about, and how they would actually work on yours truly.

In order to get a clear picture of the Spanx effect, I decided to take a couple before and after shots in my rehearsal dinner dress, just to (objectively) see what differences, if any, emerged.  Here are the results!

No spanx:

Looking at the Spanx against the width of my torso:

With the Spanx on:

And, for easy comparison's sake...

Before (left) + After, front:

Before (left) + After, profile:

The final verdict?  They're definitely keepers.  I'm not completely razzled and dazzled by their slimming attributes, but I am quite content with the way they just smooooooth everything out, making you look like frozen yogurt instead of lumpy gravy.  Everyone likes frozen yogurt better than lumpy gravy!!  I'm pretty confident that these "power panties" will help me to look smooth and toned for the rehearsal and wedding day, allowing me to eat and drink a bit without getting any excessive pooch.  Plus, they'll prevent any weird belly-button suction thing in my gown, which is always a plus.  The only downside is that there's no easy way to relieve yourself in these.  I'd heard that other Spanx have little openings to make bathroom trips logistically easier, but no such luck on these bad boys.  Thankfully I'm like a human camel, but I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to brainstorm some solutions to this quandary between now and August...

Are you wearing any shapewear for your wedding?  Any great bathroom tips for other shapewear brides?

(All photos personal unless noted.  Sorry if me talking at length about my underwear dilemmas made you uncomfortable, Dad!)

I might be a bad bride...

... but there's one specific detail I don't care about.  As in, I don't give a flying you-know-what about the finished product revolving around this detail.  As long as it serves its function, we're cool.  It could be the ugliest thing on the block, as long as it does its job.  So what wedding detail doesn't excited a single bridal bone in my body?  Stamps.

Image via MovieWeb

I'm slowly but surely preparing to send my invitations out into the big, bad world (more on that to come soon!).  Obviously, with any mailing, stamps are involved in the mix.  I've seen other bloggers lament the monopoly over postcard postage that was previously held by the polar bear.

Image via Soon to Be Mrs. P

And I've heard horror stories about brides' invitation suites weighing in at just over the limit for wedding-themed stamps like these:

 Image via USPS

... meaning they had to tack on some eyesore extra-cent postage, like the injustices you see below:

Image via USPS

Image via USPS

I just don't feel a single ounce of emotion related to these issues.  Back when I sent our STDs, I purchased a hearty amount of polar bear postcard stamps, knowing I'd have leftovers that would help me with our soon-to-be-existing RSVP postcards.  And then USPS, in an attempt to make my life a bit more difficult, decided to raise postcard postage one whole cent.  Meaning my poor polar bears have been rendered obsolete.  Thankfully, I'm not freaking out about the dozens of polar bears I have left in my arsenal; instead, I'm just planning to invest in some one cent stamps to cover the difference.  Sure, some of our RSVP postcards will have two stamps, neither even remotely related to weddings or our color palette.  And I can't even begin to tell you how perfectly OK I am with that.

All I want is to buy the appropriate postage to ensure that our invitations get delivered to their respective destinations without being returned to sender.  I don't care if they're wedding themed, pop culture themed, or bodily function themed, frankly.  I just want to spend the requisite amount of money (and not a dime more) and carry on my merry way.  

Are there wedding details that don't get your heart racing?  Where do you stand on the wedding stamp debate - do you go for looks, or sheer function?