We finally sent out our wedding invitations a few weeks ago… and phew… what a weight off our shoulders! Even though we sent some Save-the-Date cards that I covered in a previous post, the wedding somehow feels more real with the formal invitations sent out.

I am really proud of the work that we put into these invitations. Can you believe that more than 100 hours of our own time and hard work went into these? Although they were printed elsewhere, I am really happy to say we did these 100% by ourselves: designing it, handwriting it all, illustrating it all, mailing it, and putting it all together.

I designed our wedding logo and ordered an embosser and plates to do our gold seals for the envelopes. We’ll also be using the embosser for other parts of the wedding such as programs and napkins. Good job to Allan for getting these perfectly centered while doing the pressing

As before, we continued to use our custom return address stamp from Paperfinger on Etsy…

And I spent hours upon hours doing all the hand calligraphy with a dip calligraphy pen, and also did all the heat embossing myself for the gold tree on the envelope as we did with our save-the-dates before.

We really wanted to do a unique invitation, so we continued with the theme of the wooden wedding invites and thanks to my awesome bridesmaid Charmainne who gave us the idea of doing a #10 size card. It was hard to find envelopes that size that matched our save-the-date envelopes… but I managed to find some at Paper Source.

It turned out really cool and I love the length of it. I designed the text and the logo and we sent it all off to Night Owl Paper Goods to be printed on wooden birch cards… Kudos again to Night Owl… they turned out beautiful!

I also designed our insert cards in Illustrator — 2 double-sided cards with lots of information about the wedding and the area.

One of my favourite hidden parts is the pattern at the top and bottom of the cards… they are actually surfing waves if you look really closely. Thanks to VanPrint for doing an awesome job on the printing.

(click for larger)

Probably my favourite part of the wedding work we’ve done so far is actually the custom wedding map that Allan and I made together. Both of us laboured over Adobe Illustrator for probably 60 hours alone just on this map. Allan did all of the illustrations himself… what you see here on the image is actually all done by vector work from scratch. I also did the text work, the actual road map, and the colouring. I had a pretty clear vision of how I wanted this map to look, so it definitely took some time and some heated discussions and tons of compromise between us to get it to look just right and represent both of us. It sounds funny, but it was a good test of our relationship.

Check out some of the little personal details… that’s an actual representation of Allan’s little green VW golf with surfboards on top.

And of course our interpretation of the Black Rock and the Ucluelet Community Centre … and us on the little patio getting married Hee hee!

I can’t believe the wedding is only 2.5 months away… scary and exciting! Yay!

It’s important to me this year to be more conscious of my spending. I gave some tips in my post on how to spend less in a recession, and of course it applies to myself.

While I’m still planning on snowboarding, surfing, and furnishing my apartment this year… I will be cutting down on a major expense… and that is travelling outside of BC. I love travelling. I love the photographs, I love meeting new people, I love exploring, trying new food, and learning about how people live in the rest of the world, outside our little bubble.

I’ve been to a number of places, and there are still SO many places I want to go. Alaska… Africa… South America… China… Russia. Ah well, that’s what the rest of my life is for, right?

So in my decision to not travel anywhere this year, I couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic. So here are some pictures from my trip to Europe and the Mediterranean in 2002. I’ve also posted a few here in previous posts, and here. These were all taken with my Nikon D50 back in the day.

The harbour in Cadiz, Spain. Such a beautiful place.

Gaudi’s work in Barcelona, Spain. Gaudi is all over Barcelona and it’s easy to see why it his art has become such tourist destinations. Talk about a visionary for his time.

Some workmen lining up outside in Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal is was one of my favourite stops. The food was delicious and the people are incredibly warm, kind, and have a passion for life you don’t see much anymore.

The sidewalks and roads in Lisbon are incredible. Such intricate detail on something so everyday.

Aging columns in Athens, Greece. If you get a chance to lie down in the grass and stare up at the sky and the columns, it’s easy to feel like you are back in ancient times and Adonis or Athena will come charging by.

This statue in Florence, Italy was one of the sculptures that touched me most during my trip (and trust me, we saw a LOT of statues… especially in Florence).”Il ratto di Polissena” or “The Rape of Polyxena” by Pio Fedi has such incredible emotion and detail carved into it; it’s hard not to feel moved by something immovable while standing there.

These donkeys/mules? in Santorini Greece did a lot of work… whether it was carrying people around or heavy loads. It’s amazing to see how people can get along just fine in life without cars, planes, or computers. It’s definitely a simpler life on Santorini.

A flower shop in Rome. There are no big box stores or sprawling shopping malls. Just normal people selling their wares on the street… anything from flowers to fish to shoes. Shopping takes on a whole different meaning and feeling.

A single rose in the trash in Barcelona on their version of “Valentine’s Day” there (La diada de Sant Jordi). Nope, this wasn’t a planted shot.

A gorgeous vista from Nice, France. One of my favourite places in the whole world. Nice moves at a different speed it seems, and when the sea is so blue and there’s so much sun it’s hard not to feel at peace. Just take a moment to yourself on a bench…

That’s it for now. On Saturday I hope to finally post those moving pictures I’ve been struggling to compile. Darn timelapse! Plans for this weekend: Seeing my best friend off from the UK with dinner, drinks, and TheatreSports… more furniture browsing, and cooking. Your weekend plans?