Wedding Invites: Saving time, money AND the planet

I am getting married in April 2013 and when I first began wedding planning I was astounded by the amount of time, money and wastage it takes to pull off this special day (astounded face). If it were entirely up to me we would have eloped or gotten hitched on the very very cheap. Unfortunately it’s not entirely up to me and my fiancé does have a say in the matter (I did say unfortunately) and hence we are having the big family wedding (130 guests). So even though I didn't get my way there, I was determined to save as much of anything as I could in this very involved process. Unlike many others, I don’t take naturally to wedding planning; I find the amount of small details and decisions overwhelming. However, I have taken it one step at a time and so far so good.

One fantastic idea I happened upon, and I know this is not new to everyone (except me living under my wedding-free rock), is the whole wedding website invite. When I realised that this is not only an easy way to do invites, totally free AND they don’t end up in the bin, I was hooked! This is one of those rare things that ticks all the right saving boxes –time, money, planet :)

I used the offbeatbride.com website, clicked on WedSites, signed up and I was A-for-away. The whole process was so easy and pain free (well, except for getting everything checked and approved by my fiancé {rolls eyes}). It didn't cost us a cent, there was no time spent approving invitation layouts or waiting for them to be printed. There were no postage costs involved only to have them get lost (in SA this happens A LOT) and no trees had to die in the process (big smile).

The sites are really user friendly as well, guests can RSVP directly on the website, send you messages and even post song suggestions. You can view your website stats and change details whenever you want. Security is not a problem either as you can set up a password entry as well as delete your website when it is no longer needed. 

And the best part is…our guests totally loved the invite!

Below is a sneak peak into my actual wedding website.

This is the first page our guests see once they have entered their WedPass. On the  left you can see all the other  pages we added (there are tons more to choose from).

This is the cute timeline I added just for some romance (it is a wedding after all!)

The WedPass screen - no stalkers here!

A Christening Gift?

My Fiancé and are invited to a christening this coming Sunday. Now, I have attended bridal showers, weddings, baby showers and birthdays, but never a christening (guess you know you’re getting long in the tooth when you get these types of invites!). So the first thing that went through my mind when I received the invite was, “Do I take a gift? What gift? Where do I find this gift!?” Needless to say I was quite perplexed. Of course, I turned to trusty old Google and here is what I found.

Some suggestions were: 

• Jewellery (e.g. engraved pendant/bracelet/ring)
• Jewellery box
• Toy chest
• Money
• Bank Account to deposit into each year
• Bible
• Cross
• Silver engraved picture frame
• Photo album with pictures & messages from family
• Book sets (e.g. Peter Rabbit/Wind in the Willows)
• Silver engraved spoon
• Engraved decorative plates

Just FYI - A few moms commented on forums that their babies christening gifts ended up just gathering dust and recommended gifts of a more practical nature. Perhaps asking the mom might help.

It seems that, when it comes to christening gifts, think:

• Silver
• Valuable
• Sentimental
• Investment
• Heirloom
• Religious
• Educational
• Collectables

So what did I end up getting? Well, I must say I am pretty chuffed with myself. I found this ultra-cool, silver, helicopter money box (it’s obviously a little boy’s christening). 

From Birthdays in Clearwater Mall, West Rand, Johannesburg.

I even managed to get my hands on a 90^th anniversary South African Reserve Bank R5 coin to add to it. 

All wrapped up...

Finished product

Hopefully my gift will be appreciated! You never know maybe this will stick somewhere in your subconscious and SAVE you a lil’ bit of TIME if you ever get a christening invite! Happy shopping!

I would, but...

Some excuses reasons why we (okay, okay - I) fall off the saving money/time/planet (MTP) bandwagon:

 

1.      Too ______ (you fill in the blank - lazy/busy/naïve?) to bother

 

The fact is - saving anything requires some sort of planning and then sticking to the plan. Some of us are either just too lazy, busy or just plain naïve (or all 3 [me – Yikes!]

We also lack patience, everything is bigger, better and faster and if we can’t get results/info in a nanosecond…we lose interest faster than Usain Bolt. We live in a happy bubble of ignorant bliss, as long as we aren’t aware of what is happening to our bank accounts, our planet or our time, then everything is A-OK and it’s someone else’s problemo.

 

2.      All or nothing

 

Like any other habit, saving (anything) takes time and practice. I am very much an all-or-nothing girl and it doesn’t take much for me to cry “Bore SNORE!” and throw in the towel. If you’re anything like me, you freak out at the thought of going totally vegetarian {or worse the dreaded Vegan [which I have been before okay, Vegans out there, tighten your leashes this is not an attack on you ;) in fact I salute you!]}, we scream in horror at the thought of wearing hessian dresses [although quite stylish and ultra-cool in summer ;)], we faint at the thought of saving HOW MUCH a month (face of horror!) and we get tired (we are human after all), and then decide to skip those plans to get ahead on the washing, cooking a week’s worth of meals to freeze etc. We are creatures of habit and comfort; things that threaten scare the banoodles out of us!

 

3.      You hypocrite

 

Similar to point number two, I feel we feel we need to be 100% perfect in every category and if we do things that contradict each other then we are hypocrites. For example, how can you worry about saving water when you enjoy a candlelit bubble bath, how can you say smoking is a waste of money when you drink that bottle of wine every night. How can you preach about recycling when you buy ready-made meals. We feel guilty and then avoid it all together, and stick our heads in the sand, which only makes us feel guiltier.  Well if we had to only do something when we could do it 100% we wouldn’t do anything at all. Believe me, the extremists out there will find something to criticise you for, but in my book, even if you do only one thing positive to help you save MTP, you are making a positive change to your life which is helping you feel happier which is sending out positive energy into the world (ooo how tree huggerish of me!).

 

4.      Your environment is not geared for it

 

Humans are social creatures and tend to follow the crowd. Yes there are those who don’t conform but these are not the norm (hence – nonconformists). We experience a certain degree of anxiety when we are not part of the group (I don’t care how much you say you don’t). Therefore, when your environment is following a certain trend and encouraging that trend you are more likely to move with the movement. Here in SA, we still have a long way to go in terms of living green and recycling. It is not easy to find somewhere to recycle and many times it involves a huge growing mountain of material in your back yard until someone finds the inspiration (or time) to drop it off. We also love credit (okay who doesn’t love the magic world of imaginary money) and every second day we receive retail account cards with our name on it, or bank calls offering more credit. The temptation is as persistent as a Jozi traffic light vendor.

 

5.      Saving doesn’t go with our image

 

We are a shallow generation, unfortunately, if something isn’t fabulous, awesome, expensive, amaze-balls, unique or branded we are just not interested. Who wants to care about saving money when you need to splash it around in the form of dinners, clubbing, clothes, cars, and holidays. Who wants to save the planet when it means “wasting time” growing an organic garden and cooking in bulk (which could break my newly manicured nails doll!). Blah! What a bore snore! We are training our brains to believe if we want it, we can damn well have it, and pity the poor soul who gets in the way of my Jimmy Choos!

 

I’m sure there are hundreds of other reasons why people as a collective, and you and I as individuals prefer the happy place of denial. However, I am not going to waste precious blogging time (see-saving time!) on excuses. I know that for a long time I have felt I need to hop on the saving bandwagon (especially for the planet) and this blog is in a way my effort to stay on track. So, I dare you to dare me to stay on track!