Family Connections

I've been so jealous of people who have connections, especially in the wedding industry. As for Sean and I, 90% of our family consists of nurses and computer programmers - helpful, but only if someone has a heart attack at the wedding or the DJ's speakers short out. Unfortunately, there's a lot of places we haven't been able to cut costs. We don't know a baker, or a DJ, or a photographer. While we pride ourselves on hunting and bargaining for the best deal, our wedding costs are quickly accumulating.

We are planning on doing DIY invitations. I'm a crafty gal - I can totally pull it off. However, there are some things I don't want to sacrifice, even though we're going the DIY route. Example: I want pocketfolds. Solution: I am making my own.

One thing we were having issues with was the printing of the invites. We didn't necessarily want to print them on our own printers, because, frankly we want them to look damn good. We thought about embossing powder, but that's a pain. And then when you consider cutting all of that? Ugh. Serious dread. So then we were talking about having the components of the invitations printed professionally, and then we would assemble them. Now that seems much more feasible.

And then, lo and behold, I learned that Sean's cousins own a printing business! Bryan and Jen own Wagner Graphics. While they don't actually print things themselves, they can get things printed at cost. Even better? They can get them printed using thermography, for the same cost!

Thermographic printing, for those not obsessed with everything wedding, is the shiny, raised printing that's usually used on business cards, diplomas, and greeting cards. It looks much more professional (and formal) that plain inkjet printing and even laser printing. Plus, when you consider the costs that we would have to pay for paper and ink cartridges (when we could get them at wholesale prices through Jen), and the hassle of printing and cutting all of the inserts...letBryan and Jen just might be my new favorite people.

At last! We have a vendor connection! Now, I'm definitely spurred to figure out and finish designing our invitation suite. I've played around with it before, but I've yet to make any final decisions.