Cyperus Papyrus {Dallas wedding invitations, Dallas wedding portraits}

As you probably know, or at least you should know, Tuesday was my birthday!  And what better way than to celebrate with some wedding planning.  Mom came down to spend my birthday with me and to help me pick out save-the-date cards and browse wedding invitations.  For the past couple of weeks, I've been looking online at a million save-the-date card ideas.  You'd think I'd find a design that I liked among the millions I previewed, but that's just not the case.  My goal/theme is to be different, unique and eclectic.  However, being different and finding something unique is challenging, so that's why I decided to just design our own save-the-date cards!

Our first stop to look at save-the-date cards was at Paper and Chocolate.  Mom and I walked in and were greeted by the sales associate.  She asked what I was looking for and I told her a couple of my eclectic ideas and she responds, "Well, I don't know if that will work."  Really...?  So I tell her, "Um, I can make it work."  I was immediately turned off (good customer service is so important, especially with a bride to be!), but looked through one of their sample books anyway.  Blah!  The cards were very out dated and uninspiring.  So we left.

Our second stop was at Swoozies, one of my favorite stores!  Mom and I headed to the back to find their sample books.  A sales associate joined us and answered all our questions and said that since I will be sending our save-the-date cards in January, this was the perfect time to begin the process.  She also introduced me to their creative designer and together they explained how I could change anything and everything on a card.  Hallelujah!  So mom and I looked through several sample books, taking notes from the save-the-date cards I liked.  Then we switched gears and looked through the formal invitation sample books - again, great ideas, but with every invitation there was something I would change....until I found the one!  (I lied, there are still some changes I'd make to it.)  This invitation was so cool and so different!  We priced it for 175 invitations and because of the total cost, we decided to continue our search.  I took pictures of the invitation just for reference and mom and I were off to go to our next stop.

Our final stop was at Papyrus.  I was still on a high from Swoozies and my imagination was in overdrive, which was overwhelming me a bit.  The associate at Papyrus set several sample books in front of mom and me and we started thumbing through the save-the-date card ideas.  I found a shape that I loved and was the perfect "precursor" to the formal invitation I loved at Swoozies.  So I pulled it and discussed options/my ideas with the associate and by the end of our discussion, I had changed the whole card up.  And I loved it!  Mom looked over at me and asked if I wanted to look through their invitation books.  I hesitated, but agreed to scan them.  The first page I opened to was the sample of the same formal invitation I fell in love with at Swoozies!  Meant to be?  I was thrilled to see it again and showed the associate the card and described the changes I would like to make to it if possible.  She responded to my requests:  "Yes, yes and yes."  She then explained that if I purchase my save-the-date cards this month, I would receive 20% off the order.  And then later when I order our formal invitations, I'll receive another 20% off that order (glad we continued our search)!  I said, "Yes, yes and yes!"

  

Pages and pages of fonts to choose from!

Thanks, mom, for the birthday lunch & for helping me design our save-the-date cards!

To top off a very fun and successful day, I received an email from Allison, my photographer, that our engagement pictures were posted on her blog!  What a fabulous birthday gift!  Mom and I quickly wrapped up our day and headed to the apartment in a flash so we could view the pictures we'd been so anxiously and [not very] patiently waiting for!  The photos were AMAZING!  I am so thrilled to have Allison as my photographer and to have these amazing photos for years and years to come!

If you could help us out by going to Allison's blog HERE and commenting under our photos as the more comments we get, the higher print credit we will receive!

Please enjoy this slideshow Allison made:  

Loren & Matt's Engagement Portraits 

Thank you, Allison, for AMAZING pictures and memories!  And thank you, Courtney, for doing my AMAZING makeup!