Will you be my bridesmaid?

For the past few months or so, I have had an intense girl-crush on Elise Blaha Cripe, a blogger and small business owner. I stumbled across her site when perusing Pinterest for wedding-related things. I knew that I wanted to ask my bridesmaids to, well, be my bridesmaids through some kind of package that arrived in the mail, but when I came across this blog post, I knew I had to borrow her idea. Even though we were engaged almost a year ago, we tried our best to delay asking our bridal party until the wedding was closer. While this was difficult, and we did throw out some hints here and there (and I might have told, not even asked, N.'s sister via Facebook like a day after the engagement), we did a pretty good job of keeping quiet for almost a year. That's hard to do, folks! But the time had come, and I wanted these little bundles to serve as Christmas presents.

I ordered five beautiful, hilarious letterpress cards from Sapling Press (based out of Pittsburgh-- nice little connection to N.'s favorite city). 

They so kindly provided me with five extra envelopes at no cost (even though I offered to pay for them!), so that I could make a pocket by sticking the flap of one envelope into the other to create a "folder" of sorts. Then I lined it with scrapbook paper.

I typed up four little tidbits of info and played with margins and font size until I got them to look like this:

The Sapling Press card went on the left side with a handwritten note, the four info sheets went on the right side.

I had too much fun decorating labels...

Names blurred for privacy.

Rhia's name is not blurred because she already knows she's in the wedding :)

  Tied it off with pretty ribbon.

Stamped the back.

Popped 'em into the mail!

The contents of the little info cards went as follows (heavily inspired by Elise, but edited to include my voice and obviously, info pertinent to our wedding):

Attire:

Dress - I am going to try my hardest to pick out a dress style that will flatter all of you and will allow each of you to tie for the second hottest girl at the party. I want you to feel fabulous in what you are wearing, not break the bank when purchasing it, and be able to wear it again. That being said, I am open to looking at dresses that are sold outside of bridal boutiques. Sadly, I don’t have a color for you yet (wedding colors are TBD), but I am pretty sure that I want everyone in the same dress.

Shoes – I really don’t know about shoes yet. Check back later :)

Hair & Makeup – I will be hiring someone to come in and do my hair and makeup at the Carrollton Inn, which is the B&B connected to our ceremony/reception venue. I’ll be reserving one of their beautiful rooms for us to get ready in. If you’d like to get your hair and makeup done as well, that can definitely be arranged! But it is by no means required. In terms of styling both hair and makeup, you know what you look best in and the choices are up to you! One concession: you might be asked to wear a flower in your hair. If you’re in town early enough, I thought it would be fun to get our nails done together, too, but that depends on everyone’s flights and such.

Expectations:

The only events that you are required to attend are the rehearsal, the ceremony, and the reception.

The ceremony/reception will be on Saturday, March 29^th, 2014 near the Harbor East area of Baltimore (which is pretty much “Downtown”). The venue is called 1840s Plaza, and we’re hoping for the ceremony to be held in the lower courtyard (weather permitting), cocktails in the upper courtyard (weather permitting), and the reception will be on the second floor of the Fava Building, called City Lites. (Apologies for the awful way they spell “lites.”)

The ceremony starts at 5:00pm, followed by cocktails at 5:30pm, followed by a stationed buffet dinner (yes, there will be a slider station!) and dancing. Mandatory, crazy dancing. As of right now, the party will end at 10:30pm, but we’re considering extending it until 11:00pm. No matter what, there will be an after party of some sort :)

No idea when the rehearsal will start, but it will be on Friday, March 28^th, at 1840s Plaza, followed by a fun and laid back dinner thrown by Nate’s parents at a local (TBD) restaurant/brew pub. You will not need to worry about transportation to any of the events. Between our families, me, N., and local friends, we’ll have you covered. We will also try our best to pick you up / take you to the airport. Flights into BWI are recommended—you can take the Light Rail directly into Baltimore.

Most of you are out-of-towners so I will be in touch about hotel arrangements for Friday through Sunday. We are definitely going to reserve a block of rooms for our guests, most likely at the Fairfield Inn that is a stone’s throw (like, literally) away from our venue. If you want to be fancy, you could reserve a cute room at the Carrollton Inn, which will run you between $250-$350 or so per night. Not cheap, but quaint and cute.

There could be a bridal shower before the wedding that you will be invited to, but there is no obligation to make it. Flying back and forth is insanely expensive.

If a bachelorette were to happen, I would love for it to be in NYC. I will let you plan as much of that as you are interested in. As you know, I’d also be extremely content to eat pizza at H.'s place and Skype.

You will all be getting plus-ones to invite to the wedding (of course). You will be sitting with your dates and other cool people you probably know. N. and I will be at a sweetheart table. But feel free to make a toast or say something if you are interested…. especially because I’m not sure that my dad is going to be able to gather his nerves enough to say much of anything that day, let alone give a toast.

I Promise:

To (try) not turn into a bridezilla. I promise to (try to) keep things light and fun and exciting. I need you to help me keep in mind that it is not about how this whole thing will look, but it’s about how N. and I will feel on the day we commit our lives to one another in front of everyone we love. I will count on you girls to tell the jokes and BE HONEST. You’ll have to let me know if my idea to wear a Frida-inspired wreath of flowers on my head for the rehearsal dinner is genius or… ridiculous. Hurl that honesty at me with a heaping dose of kindness, please.

Word cannot express how excited and honored I am to have you five by my side (hopefully, if you say yes!) throughout this whole impending, crazy thing. I love you!

The five of you:

Here I included everyone's contact info and a little blurb about how we met, our relationship, etc.

Definitely feels good to have asked and now I eagerly wait for their responses!

supplies / Recollections Bright and Basic Paper Pad / The Paper Company Large Fashion Tags / K&Company SMASH* date stamp / Offray ribbon