cheri armour wedding

The invite list.

| cheriarmour

We’re coming up on over a month of being married, and as I’ve stated again and again, being married is amazing.  It’s like before when we were dating, but even better.

On Thursday night last week, our wedding photos, courtesy of Blest photography came in the mail, and I’ve spent the last few days looking through 900 amazing photographs again and again.  I’m debating how to share this with you all, if at all, but here’s a little taste for you guys, one of my favorite photos of the day.

CHERI+AUSTIN0501 (1)
At this moment, Cole had just asked us if we minded playing around in the tobacco for a while.  Of course we didn’t, and Austin helped me pick up my dress and sort of frolic in the field.

But I’m getting distracted.

Let’s talk invites.

So I’ve hopped around the wedding thing a lot, trying to give you the best info.  But since I’ve just gone through it and my sister is going through it (she’s doing a wedding reception with her husband in December), and it’s something that is the source of a lot of grief.

Who the heck do you invite to your wedding?  Who don’ t you invite? How do you keep from insulting folks?

This is something we went through – I have a large family, and my parents got married in the 80s, when a lot of times, your parents would invite whomever they wanted, and you, the couple-to-wed, has very little say in who is invited.

Things have changed since then, so here are a few rules when you’re trying to figure out who you invite.

  • Immediate family.  Duh.
  • Friends.  Invite folks that you would invite to your housewarming.  Do not invite frenemies.  You don’t need negativity on your day.
  • Work people.  For my small, more intimate job at Fleet Feet, I invited everyone, as we often invite each other to big life events.  At my new job, I invited no one, and my husband invited folks that were on his leadership team at work.
  • Family/your parents’ friends.  This one got a little tricky for us.  We wanted to invite everyone our parents had ever met, but it simply wasn’t possibly.  Our venue would only seat 140, and we really wanted to make sure we got everyone in that we could.  We invited family friends that we’d grown up with, and Austin’s mom invited a few of the same.

The tricky thing when going through this list is figuring out how you can keep from insulting folks when you don’t invite them to your wedding.

Here’s your answer.

Who cares?  It’s you/your partner’s day.  And real acquaintances who care for you will understand that you like them okay, but not necessarily enough to spend over $100 for them to eat up all your food and drink all your liquor.

How do you decide who gets invited to big events?  

 

Errr….Wedding Wednesday?

| cheriarmour

I know it’s not Wednesday.  But you know what, I think you guys can deal with it and forgive me right?  It’s been sort of a crazy week at work (and I promise that once it kind of gets smoothed over I will tell you about it) but rest assured, there is a ton of stuff going on, and I’m sorry if you feel neglected.

So let’s do some catching up.

Numero uno, have you met my favorite song yet?  I heard it like a week-and-a-half ago, and it’s currently climbing the charts, like number 8 on Billboard, and a little higher up on Spotify’s list.  The song is the perfect mix of blue-eyed soul, plus a really sweet reggae feel that I haven’t heard in a while.

Behold ‘Rude’ by Magic! The group releases the album July 1st, and once that happens, I will definitely be looking for their shows. Their lead singer, in particular, is so interesting to look at, and the way he moves is really unique. I just loved discovering new loves!

Wedding Updates + a legitimate dilemma. 

  • I called last week to check on my dress, and to be completely honest, the situation with my dress is cutting it really close, and I’m not comfortable with that, but I really can’t do much about it now.
  • My wedding bands came in yesterday.  I was tempted to go pick them up so I can put them on, but is that bad luck?  Did anyone else “test” their wedding bands and wear them before they actually got married?
  • I’m not sure what I’m going to do about my last name, and I’m actually lost.  Custom would dictate that I take his.  But I like my last name.  In fact, I love my last name.  I love my family, and I love my father, and part of me might mourn the loss of that.  Do I want to keep it completely?  I don’t know.  Do I want to have part of my new husband’s name?  Yes, because we’re a family now.  But I’m not sure how to make that happen.  Please let me know if you have any cool ideas.
  • The invites are sorta ready.  I have the .tif file for them, and I am exploring some printing options for them.  If you will recall, I wanted to have them sent out by now, but things don’t work out the way you want them when you’re getting married.  Learn that, and you will have a really easy time 🙂
  • Me and Austin may have a big (non-baby) announcement soon (calm down), but I can’t tell you yet.

Okay, what’s new with you?  What should I do about my last name? 

Is the craft store dead?

| cheriarmour

I discussed this with a few friends this week, but since I decided that I’m taking on a lot of the crafting, painting, glueing, and marrying for my wedding, I’ve spent a good bit of time, and a little bit of money at craft stores.

The past two weeks I’ve hit up some weird little scrap exchange in the area, a JoAnn’s Fabrics in North Raleigh and one in Cary, and a Michaels in Cary, and all of the experiences have been similarly discouraging.

The experience goes a little something like this. I walk into the craft store, and look around for a second before I realize I’m completely lost and I don’t know where anything is.  I contemplate asking one of the old women walking around where the section is for the buttons, for the wedding stuff, and for the ribbon, but they all look pretty busy.

Okay, find someone who can help.  So I look for someone in a smock by wandering for a few minutes before I decide that I’m wasting time by aimlessly wandering, and I head to the register, where I wait for the associate to finish up before I ask where the buttons are, for starters.

“They’re on 18B”

I think to myself, where is 18b.  What is an 18b?  I look at the associate sort of desperately, and I spread my hands out, and ask, “So is that…like 18b, where would you say I should head to find that?”

The associate points, almost wordlessly, and I start to count aisles as I try to navigate the Wal-Mart of crafting.  I repeat this at every big box craft store I go to, until, horribly upset two Saturdays ago, I almost dissolve into tears.  Austin could immediately tell that something was wrong.

What happened to customer service?

I work in retail, so I get it.  You don’t always feel like helping some idiot, but guess what, sometimes YOU are the idiot.  So you treat customers the way you’d like to be treated.  When a customer asks where something is, you don’t point, you don’t ignore them, and you certainly don’t huff and puff like you’ve got better things to be doing.  And yes, I’m talking about you, rude lady at the Michael’s in Cary who couldn’t be bothered to tell me where the floral wire was without rolling your eyes.

Collector’s Corner of NC

So yesterday, totally frustrated, and not completely willing to buy everything online without getting to hold/touch it first, I went to Collector’s Corner in Wendell, NC, where a friend had sent me in order to collect buttons, brooches, and little doodads for my button bouquets.  And not only was it small, the owner/operator, Laura Wagner was actually nice to me, accommodating, and pulled out a bag of buttons, and boxes and boxes of brooches for the bouquets.

photoHere were some of my finds.  Laura is pricing them for me, and additionally, with each paycheck, I will be down at her place to give her business, and to collect little bottles, suitcases, vintages razors and other odds and ends for the wedding.  Michaels, JoAnns, and other crappy big box stores be damned, I found a place where they actually would love to have my business for our wedding.   (Also check this place out, because it’s the tits!)