Children for Dinner. . . .

Over the weekend two of my bridesmaids came over to help me print and assemble our invitations, which are scheduled to be in the mail by May 10th.

Months ago Dave and I bought a really nice Epson Workforce 600 printer; our intention for this machine was not only for business use (the copier and fax features are amazing) but to be the workhorse for our wedding invitations. We were promised by both Best Buy and online specifications of the model that this copy-scan-print-fax device was going to do the trick.

However, in preliminary testing here at home it failed miserably; while being fabulous for business use, it refused to run print on the heavy card stock we would be using for the invitations. Every time we set it to print something the rollers would spit out several pieces of paper before crying out that it was jammed up or otherwise needed to be turned off and left alone to sulk. Fabulous.

Feeling the crunch as of late to solve this problem and get the invitations prepped for mailing we looked at our options:

a. Take the Epson back to Best Buy and haggle for something that *would* actually work. This would be difficult seeing that we've had the printer for several months now. We love the Epson for everything else, so it stays.

b. Go to Kinkos. In my experience, Kinkos is really good at messing up print orders. . .not to mention the $1.00 page fee for color printing. Yikes. My stubborn theory is that I wanted to do the invitations myself, not trust them to any high schooler who would be working the counter that day.

c. Buy another printer. Sounds easy enough, right? Dave said that they have this cheap little HP printer at work they use for cardstock, and never have any problems.

So, I went on the hunt for the cheapest little printer I could find; bonus points if printing was all it did! My search landed Kirstin and I at Staples, where a man who worked there offered to run 110lb card stock through some of the cheapest printers they had. As we were getting discouraged, he remembered a Brother fax machine they had up front on clearance for $35.00.

Yes, $35.00. Half the price of the cheapest printer they had in stock. . .a fax machine that printed in color.

After confirming the 14 day return policy, the printer/fax came home with us. . .and believe it or not it worked without a hitch! Upon closer inspection, the print quality is just as good (if not better) that what the Epson was offering on the rare occasion we could get it to take a piece of card stock. The only caveat? It's very very slow to print - so we have to set it to print 20 sheets and walk away.

Now, the title of this post is 'Children for Dinner,' and for that I shall explain.

I have been meaning to reformat the RSVP cards for months now, never having been happy with the wording. Theresa cut the card stock to size while I made my edits (edits that were meant to make the card much less confusing, as well as some little things that my wonderful future Mother-in-Law pointed out) and in our haste to get started we never really proofread the new card. All 3 of us took a look at it, said 'looks great!' and set the fax machine to print 45 of them.

It took it just over 2 hours to finish the process, and only after we had started on another piece of the invitations did we realize the absolutely awful, yet hilarious mistake that I had made on the card.

We were offering children for dinner.

We were so excited to start printing and assemble the invitations that this was completely overlooked. In addition to fixing that, I'm going to change the date so it reads June 5, 2009 instead of June 5th, 2009, and will set the printer to have at it again.

On a better note, I have plenty of card stock leftover to re-make these, and as of yet our $35.00 lonely clearance printer is still not out of ink!

DIY Head Piece

I have never imagined myself as a bride in a veil. While trying on gowns in the bridal salons our consultant would always insist that I try one on: and after experimenting with everything from the popular fingertip length to a full out cathedral (the only one that would be appropriate for my dress) I never got comfortable with the idea. Not only do they make me feel silly, but Dave made it clear months ago that he also is not a fan of the veils (nor is he fond of pickup skirts, mermaid dresses, or giant sparkly ball gowns. . .great! Me neither. . .).

So, I set out to find something appropriate to wear as a head piece with my simple, elegant a-line not-sparkly dress. What I found was pictures of brides who had embellished their hair with flowers; that was all the inspiration I needed!

I haven't been for my hair trial yet, but am looking to keep my hair in a low, loose chignon with bangs and to place the flowers to one side of it. One of my favorite photos of bridal hair is from this gorgeous wedding (right).

At Michael's I found, in the bridal aisle, 3 ivory roses that are soft and made of a foamy type of material (so they have that same shimmery touch as a real flower). Previously I had also found some purple berries, and having had trouble finding somewhere to place them until now were a perfect match for the roses and offer an nice, colorful touch.

I used hot glue and floral wire to secure them to a clear hair comb; it was that simple and took less than 20 minutes. The roses match the ivory of the hydrangeas in my bouquet, and the pearl earrings and necklace I found at Kohls (another great clearance find that couldn't be more perfect for my dress) are the icing on the cake.

I'm definitely not good at doing my own hair, and need a bang trim, however I managed to sweep my hair up into a messy bun for effect and am happy with the results!

Off-Topic

I haven't posted in a while, and for that I apologize!

This is a not a wedding related post as much as it is a rant about our local grocery.

I've been shopping at King Soopers (aka City Market or Krogers) and have been happy to see that our overall grocery bill has come down with the decline in gas prices. A loaf of bread (at least the healthier kind that isn't loaded with corn syrup) came down from the $4.50 price range, and even Tide detergent has retreated from it's exaggerated price.

Two weeks ago, they came out with this new gimic and advertising campaign that they have 'Lowered Prices on Produce'. Fabulous! Or so I thought. . . .

Things are not what they seem, ladies. I'm really surprised that King Soopers thinks that we wouldn't notice the corresponding price INCREASE on everything else!

Let me just say, it's blatantly obvious that King Soopers 'lower prices on produce' and new, bright sunny yellow price tag boards are a desperate attempt to lure us away from Colorado's up and coming grocery chain: The Sunflower Market. Knowing that, it should be no surprise that this smaller, friendlier grocer offers absolutely unbeatable prices on locally grown produce advertised on, yes, bright sunny yellow signs!

Unfortunately we don't yet have a Sunflower Market in our city, or I would take my business there. More than anything else I'm irritated that King Soopers is trying to make out like they've done this great thing by lowering prices on produce, that they are helping our community during turbulent economic times, and that they are 'responding to the way we live'. All the while bread has magically crept back up to $4.50, the energy bars I get for hiking have gone from $1.25 to $1.50, and Dave's hair gel has gone from $6.00 to $12.00 (no kidding).

I understand that the cost of business must be incredible, especially when you factor in the most important distinction between King Soopers and the Sunflower Market: local produce. On that same note, a majority of my grocery bill does consist of produce considering that both Dave and I love to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. I buy a lot of produce each week, but regardless of this 'price decrease' I'm still spending the same on groceries. Hmmmmm. . . .

It really just boils down to the principle of the matter more than anything else. Dave also noticed, and went so far as to call the manager out on the overnight $6.00 price increase on hair gel. The manager stuttered and had nothing more to say but 'we'll look into it.'

One other thing I've noticed, is that the quality of the produce has SHARPLY declined. They are all stamped with a 'product of Mexico' sticker, which did not exist before because our produce came primarily from California. Every box of strawberries I've purchased since the price change has included at least one slimy berry and another moldy one. Neither are visible - they are always in the middle of the box. The tomatoes are mushy, the lettuce wilted, and the grapes soft and much to squishy (not to mention the occasional moldy one in there as well).

I'm happy to pay a little more for produce if I'm getting quality food; after all we are landlocked here in Colorado and don't grow a lot of our own fruits and vegetables. Next week I'm going to Safeway. . . .