1 and 1/2 Crises Down

So, invitations are done. Sorta. They are being printed, then they will be mailed to me, I'll stamp them and mail them-- then they'll be done. I ended up creating my own through Vistaprints on the super cheap. We've gotten our business cards and save the dates through them and have always been pleased with their quality. I didn't like any of the templates they had, though, so I bought two images at crestock.com, at 50% off for a total of 5 bucks. Then I used one for my invitation template, and another for the rsvps. I did some fancy fading effects through Picassa, then added borders through Paint. For real. I then added text through Vista's regular note cards, which are cheaper than the "invitations" and just copied wording from other invites. I got matching address labels for like $4, envelopes were free, and they are super cute if I do say so myself. Much better suited and individualized for our wedding, at a fraction of the cost and quicker turnaround than any other place we looked into. I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Next project is cakes... I love cakes. Any dessert, really. But as someone who usually thinks some good ol' Betty Crocker beats out fancy boutique cakes any day, I am currently balking at the price of cakes. My wedding place has a list of preferred vendors, the cheapest of which starts at- starts at- $600. And that's the cheapest one. And the starting price. Gross. So don't go off the preferred vendor, you suggest. Ah, yes, I never intended to. I'm sure I can find a cheaper, yummy cake in the area. Oh, but you factor in a $5/slice cake cutting fee for non-preferred vendors, and I'd have to bake the Betty Crocker myself just to break even! Because really, it is $5 harder to cut a non-preferred cake than an approved cake. So, how to get around this? Cupcakes! That's how. This is my latest ingenious idea. Gerard doesn't quite get it yet, but he will. He'll have to. We can have lots of different flavors. And you don't have to cut them, so just try to charge me a cake cutting fee. Just try.

So I tried to set up a tasting at one cupcakery (because nowadays there are a million), and I hear about the most perfect event I could have dreamt up. There's an event, on Sunday, where all the cupcake places set up shop at the same location and let you taste-test the cupcakes and look at their galleries! And it's free! So perfect for the cheapskate on a time crunch! So I RSVP for the event and find out I'm on the waitlist. Apparently I wasn't the only person in the Bay Area who thought this was a perfect idea. So I call the venue and beg. Like, seriously, I pull out all the stops about why I've waited to the last minute because I had a baby, and I don't have time to drive around town to a million places because I have a baby, and I have to have cupcakes because I can't afford a $5 cake cutting fee. She tells me she has 85 attendees, and 30 on the waitlist ahead of me. So I continue with the baby talk. And the poor talk. And next thing you know I'm an approved guest! Who said complaining won't get you anywhere??