I had a letter from the White House in the mail today:

About a month ago, I sent an invitation to the Obamas and Mickey Mouse just for fun. I didn’t think they’d actually attend, of course, but I thought it would be a neat keepsake. I had to order 250 invitations when I really only needed about 75, so I figured why not. It only cost me two stamps.

I first read about inviting the president on a blog and I found this on Polictico.com: While there are no known studies ranking wedding guest popularity, the White House says it receives dozens of wedding invitations each week — which means hundreds, if not thousands, since Obama took office. This story was written not long after Obama took office and I should note that the Bush administration offered this service as well.

As you can see, it’s preprinted, but still something cool for a scrapbook. I sent one to Mickey and Minnie, too, and got this response:

Apparently, the Mouse family has scaled back, because I found this on an older blog:

It might be hard to read, but it's personalized with the couple's names.

In addition to the 8×10 photo, the blogger also received a pin that said “Happily Ever After.” I feel gypped.

Did you invite anyone famous to your wedding in hopes of getting a response?

If you want to send an invite to Mr. and Mrs. O, here’s where to mail it:

Honorable Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama
The White House
Greetings Office Rm. 39
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20500

An invite for the Mouse family can go here:

WALT DISNEY WORLD INFO
Guest Letters
Letters to Mickey Mouse
P.O. Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-00100

Well, I’m officially married! Saturday was the wedding and it was a gorgeous, gorgeous day.

Clayton and I had a wonderful time celebrating with our friends and family, the rain held off and everything went smoothly.

I was a little sad when the day was over. All those months of planning and it went by in a flash. And while every former bride told me I’d be excited to take my dress off, it was actually pretty comfortable. I didn’t dance or climb stairs very well, but at least it wasn’t heavy and I could walk fine in it. So in addition to not wanting the night to end, I also didn’t want to take my dress off. (Thank God one of my friends was staying in the same hotel as us, though, because my new husband could not figure out how to unbotton my complicated dress.)

Wedding planning was a lot of work and sometimes a tad stressful, but in retrospect that’s not what I’m going to remember. I’m just going to remember the day and how wonderful it was. Someone asked me today if it was all worth it and without hesitation I responded, “Totally.”  We could have had a six-month engagement and had a small wedding, but waiting the extra year to have the wedding we wanted was definitely worth it. To have everyone we love and care about under one roof to celebrate with us was great. The worst part was the lack of time to get around and truly visit with everyone!

In the coming weeks, I’ll post more about our big day, including pictures, of course!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted to my blog in awhile. I’ve been really busy, because, you see, I’m getting married in SIX DAYS.

It’s crazy. I thought when the the wedding neared time would slow down, because I’d be so anxious for the day to get here, but it’s been the opposite. Once February hit, time just flew. These last few weeks we’ve been making all the decisions we’ve been putting off. I told myself this would be the one time in my life I wouldn’t procrastinate. I still did. Not horribly, but I did. I’ve thought about all these decisions, but never decided on a lot them, such as picking the music for the ceremony and reception, deciding on the type of cake I wanted, deciding on centerpieces and other little and not so little details.

There’s a part of me that wants time to slow down, because it’s a special time in our lives. You go through months and months of preparation and anticipation and then it will be over in the blink of an eye. I guess that’s what pictures and memories are for.

While a part of me does want time to stand still, there’s the other part of me that’s super excited to move forward and start our lives together.

Did you feel the time dragged or that it flew by before your wedding?

Saturday was the requested date to have received our RSVPs, so we’ve had to send Facebook messages, texts and make a few old-fashioned phone calls.

Only about 15 RSVPs weren’t received, so that’s not so bad. I was a little worried going into the last week. Most of them were Clayton’s out-of-town family, who he suggested we don’t call, because they live so far away it’s safe to assume they’re not coming.

For most, I assume if they didn’t mail the RSVP it means they’re not coming, but I’m glad we checked. One person had just mailed theirs the day I contacted them, another found it between her car seats and another just plum forgot. And they’re all coming. I suggest always contacting the person to make sure.

That means we can expect around 140 people, which is actually a better turnout than I expected. Now I just need to figure out how many tables we need.

There’s a slight problem with the topper for our wedding cake: it’s too big.

I signed a contract with Kelsey’s Kakes last summer and looked at different cake styles and prices. I had decided to do a round cake because it was slightly cheaper, but when I brought my topper to her this week, I learned I might have to spend a little more for the square cake in order to fit the toppers.

Source: http://etsy.me/HQA404

Mine are, of course, gray and purple to match my colors. The set was $10 on Etsy including shipping, which seemed reasonable, but when you add the extra money for the square cake it doesn’t feel like a deal. I’ll probably just get the square cake, though, to ensure it looks good.

While speaking to her, I learned a lot about cake:

When alcohol is absent, people eat more cake: Linda said a bride once called her to complain she ran out of cake. She had 175 guests and bought a cake to serve 190 and it wasn’t enough. In talking to the bride, she learned it was a nonalcoholic reception, which was something the bride hadn’t divulged. I, as I’m sure the bride in this story, had no idea there was a correlation between alcohol consumption and cake consumption. Apparently, though, guests tend to eat more cake when they’re not drinking. It makes sense when you think about it.

Guests love trying different flavors of cake: Actually, I did know this before this week, because I’m pretty sure we ran out of cake at my brother’s wedding for this reason. Or came close to it. People want to try the different kinds, so they go back up for more instead of taking just one slice.

White over chocolate: Chocolate lovers are more apt to eat any type, while white cake enthusiasts prefer to stick with white. As a lover of white cake, I’d agree with this.

Lastly, doesn’t this cake look like the way people might frost cookies?

Source: http://bit.ly/HjMTxU

Looks easier to make than, say, this:

Source: Kelsey's Kakes

Well, it’s not. Apparently the first cake is harder to make. I thought it would be more fitting with my theme, but I picked out something more like the one above, except my ribbon is gray and purple.

You learn new things every day.

I love getting packages in the mail. It’s like a mini Christmas. We’ve been getting oodles of shower presents and wedding-related items in the mail as of late and I was very excited to receive today’s:

If you can't read the ribbon, it says "Lottie Da." It's a lovely Etsy store with reasonable prices. Google it.

And this was inside:

Yes, I finally bought a ribbon for my hair.

I’ve been eyeing these headbands since I bought my dress a year ago. I found this one on Pinterest. I think it goes with my dress and sash well. Of course, I have a veil for the ceremony, so this will just be for the reception. I couldn’t decide which to do, so I thought I’d just do both if I can find them for reasonable prices. Shipping and all this was $60 and my veil was $35. Now I just need some studs and I expect to come in under budget.

Here’s what it looks like on:

Source: Lottie Da Etsy shop

I like that the bling is only on the side. I like the hair, too, actually.

Did you buy a fun headpiece for your reception?

These days our small apartment has felt especially tiny.

This past weekend was my bridal shower and the weekend before that was our couples shower. We have gifts everywhere. It’s a pretty awesome problem to have.

My bridesmaids and I at the bridal shower.

We have a pile of items we can’t fit in our kitchen and a pile of boxes I don’t want to throw away because I think we might need them to haul reception decorations. We have two boxes full of items to bring to Goodwill, mostly filled with cheap stuff we bought to get us through college (but have really had to last about seven years) and hand-me-downs from family and friends.

Being the youngest of three means I received a ton of hand-me-downs, which saved us a lot of money. I appreciate free stuff, but it’s nice to pick out my own things. Something about it makes me feel more like a grown-up. It was nice to get rid of the brightly colored, mismatched towels I bought to bring with me to college when I was 21. I thought all different colors would be fun … at the time. We now have new, matching towels. Grown-up towels. There also was a particular food processor I took great pleasure in putting in the Goodwill pile.

When my mom married, she said for a moment she looked out at the church pews and couldn’t believe all those people were there for her and my dad. We’re not even married yet, but I must say how grateful and blessed we’ve felt for all the family and friends who have been so generous and supportive through this.

I know some people don’t look at which items have been purchased off their registries, but I did. I’m a self-proclaimed snooper. Here’s something I didn’t divulge earlier: I found my engagement ring months before my fiance proposed. It was one of the few surprises in my life I didn’t want to spoil by peeking. After all, the actual proposal was already spoiled having found the ring. As hard as it was, I did not open the box.

But as far as registries go, you have to check to make sure you still have enough items in various prices. Right? Well, that’s my logic and I’m sticking to it.

Our friends advised us to number our RSVPs for our wedding. They received a few RSVPs back with no names.

We did not number our RSVPs, but we haven’t received any blank RSVPs yet. We did, however, receive one from an uninvited guest. Mrs. Barack Obama cannot attend our wedding, because she will be on the campaign trail.

When my mom told me, I figured a friend was playing a practical joke on us. But which friend? And who spells “Barack” and “campaign” wrong? Our first thought was a friend who had already RSVP’d, but maybe we accidentally slipped in two cards. Then I thought what if someone tampered with the mail and it went to the wrong house and some kids are playing a joke? I thought it might be someone in the wedding party, because their invites are really just a formality. I quickly dismissed that, though, because I didn’t think anyone in our wedding party would do that.

On Sunday, we had a couples shower and the very last gift we opened was there when they arrived, or so they said. I opened the card and who was it from?

The Obamas. If my brother’s mischievous laugh wasn’t enough to give him away, this note was clearly written by him. The night before he told my mom it was him who sent the RSVP and when he learned how much I labored over who sent it, he decided he couldn’t let it die thus deciding to sign the card for our couples shower “Michelle and Barack Obama.”

As you can see, he disguised his hand writing on the RSVP. Sneaky, sneaky.

I don’t know why I so quickly dismissed the wedding party. My brother has always been a practical joker, from throwing rubber spiders at my sister and I when we were kids to spilling buckets of water in our parents’ basement to convince our mom the basement was flooding as an April Fool’s joke.

So if a lesson can be had from this, number your RSVPs, future brides.

As of today, our wedding is one month away. Part of me is saying “Finally!” while the other part can’t believe it’s most here already.

Since it is but a month away, our invitations have of course been mailed. I’ve been wanting to share our wedding invitations, but I wanted people to see them for the first time in their hands.

I think by now, though, all of our guests should have received them, so without further adieu:

Our generous friend Candy, of iCandy Graphics & Web Design, designed them for us for free, so all we had to pay for was printing and envelopes. Envelopes from Paper Source cost $40 for 100. Printing cost about $120, but I paid about $20 for express shipping because I was worried we wouldn’t get them in time. We ordered from M13 Graphics, which isn’t a very user-friendly site, but it’s cheap. The smallest order was 250, so I had to order 250 invitations and 250 postcards, even though I only need about 80. I guess we have a lot of scrap paper now.

My brother bought us the envelopes at Paper Source in Oakbrook, so the total for invitations was the $120 for printing and shipping, which means we came in under our $200 invitation budget making it one of few things that actually ended up costing LESS than we budgeted for.

I looked at several (and I mean several) designs online to find the invitation I was looking for. I was drawn to trees and birds. Our cake toppers are birds, so the invitations tie in with the rustic theme. I narrowed it down to about five different designs and Clayton and I chose one from there.

I was really happy we were able to get awesome invitations for a good price. Did you have a friend or relative whose expertise helped you save money for your wedding?

My sister-in-law’s parents gave me a gift — an old typewriter. Given my line of work, they thought I’d appreciate it.

I don’t think I’ll be typing any stories for the The Times on this any time soon, but I may be able to use it for the wedding.

I'm guessing it's from the 1920s, based on my Internet research.

I went to a wedding a few months back where guests were invited to use a typewriter to type their names on a guest book page. I already have a guest book, but I think I have a way to incorporate this into the wedding. I’ll share if it works out.

Did you take anything from around the house and use it as wedding decor?