Over zealous postal workers: mailing save the dates

Did you know that any envelope with an "object" in it technically requires $0.58, not $0.41, for the postage? I didn't. This fact holds true even if there is no easy way a postal worker could tell if the "object" is a card-sized fridge magnet. Thankfully our friendly neighborhood post office has an employee that knew this tidbit of information. If we hadn't told him that we were mailing save-the-dates, we might have missed learning about this postage requirement.

After asking if the $0.58 postage was really required for our save the dates, the quirky postal worker stated, "It'd just take one over-zealous postal worker to notice that you missed $0.17 postage per envelope." At that point in time I learned all about what the phrase "postage due" means. Essentially it is a ritual involving the post office holding mail hostage until the receiver pays the missing postage.

Sheri and I had to make a critical choice before leaving with our stamps. Do we pay $0.58 per envelope or shamefully ask for $0.41 stamps and avoid that post office. What did we decide? You'll have to check out your envelope to find out....

And so it begins...

I am a detail oriented, control freak. I like to plan and check things off my to-do list. This to-do/checklist process worked amazingly well in my many years of school. Wedding planning is a whole new ball game. Really? A gobo? A what? Turns out those are the lights that illuminate your new MONOGRAM on the wall or floor at your wedding. Monogram? I haven't even decided if I am going to change my name yet! My to-do list has been thrown to the wind - well at least the traditional version of a to-do list. Jayson will tell you that I still make him sit down and do things that, of course, need to get done "immediately." Note: Our definitions of that word are not the same.

Varying definitions aside, we are actually having a lot of fun with the planning process. The best thing we did was get all of the big vendors out of the way at the beginning. That part was slightly stressful (for me, at least) and, man, we met some characters! Now, we have some down time to enjoy being engaged, to fix up the amazing website that Jayson created, and to pick out the details, such as flowers, colors, and...monograms...or no monogram. I vote no monogram.

On a completely different topic, we sent out our save the dates today! Check one off the list! We wanted all of our friends and family to know far in advance so they could make travel/work/vacation plans, if necessary. There are so many different places that will now make these save-the-dates for you - for a fee, of course. We made our own with some photopaper, a good exacto-knife, and rolls of magnets with one sticky side. Then we found the perfect stationary and matching envelopes at...drumroll please...Kroger. For you west-coasters, that is the same as a Safeway. Jayson and I are very happy with how they ultimately turned out. We hope you like them!

About this blog.

Getting married is a crazy process. One might expect lots of planning, chatting with family, and jokes about how much you'll spend; however, I've quickly learned that there is a lot I had absolutely no clue about before I proposed. This blog is an attempt to share my wedding planning experience with others. I've also convinced my fiancée to post here and share her experience. Hopefully this will end up being a helpful repository of information for people getting married, particularly mid-20 somethings living around Ann Arbor/Detroit, MI.

We'll try to post as individuals. The idea being that you'll get a view of the whole process from his and her eyes. We're not getting paid for this or sponsored in any sort of way. I'm just a geek (she understands) and this seemed worthy of blogging.