welcome bags

[caption id="attachment_1201" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="welcome bags, behind the front desk at the St. Julien"][/caption]

The St. Julien and the Boulderado were great about the welcome bags, no charge! The Marriott on the other hand was a pain in the ass, and the girl at the front desk wasn't very efficient at all. I understand that she wanted to make sure that she had marked on people's reservations that they had bags, but did I really have to be there and confirm each one twice?! It took 20 minutes!

Bag breakdown:

1. canvas tote bag with homemade/printed iron-on logo (please don't sue us, REI!)


2. welcome note/map of downtown Boulder, inc. directions to the synagogue


3. home-made flyer on altitude sickness awareness


4. vanilla mint chapstick (SPF 15)


5. 1 oz tube of Rocky Mountain Sunscreen (SPF 30 with TiO2)


6. 1 bottle of water pp (w/ customized label)


7. 1 snack-size bag of Boulder Canyon potato chips pp


8. 4 york peppermint patties pp


9. 2 caramels pp


10. 1 candy corn pp


11. 4 flavors of tea per bag


12. 2 glittery bandaids per bag


13. tourist map of downtown


14. hiking/biking trail map of Boulder


15. map of public parking in downtown Boulder


16. assorted flyers (Dushambe tea house, Celestial Seasonings tea factory, NCAR museum, FISK planetarium, Boulder Creek winery, etc.)

Total cost per bag:

less than $9, including delivery fees

yes, that's more than we planned to spend, but since there ended up being fewer people than we'd planned for, it still fit within our budget. I'm not sure that the bags would have been quite so elaborate if everyone had been able to come out to Boulder 2 weeks ago.

Custom water bottles were made from Costco water bottles with the labels peeled off. We printed our own labels on waterproof shipping labels and cut them with the paper cutter. It only took me about 90 minutes to modify 4 flats of water.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything else I included in the bags and I'll elaborate.

almost caught up

If Ben and I each write 3 thank you notes tonight, we'll be all caught up!

If I cut 30 yards of ribbon into 2' lengths, singe the ends, and use toxic glue to attach them to wooden dowel rods, we'll be all caught up with the ribbon wands.

Water bottle labels, are they really necessary? I'm starting to think they're not...... If I decide that they are, they're a good TV watching activity.

Once we edit the welcome letter and Ben prints it at work (COLOR LASER PRINTER FTW), we can finish stuffing the flat things into the welcome bags and add the snacks and be done!

Programs..... Honestly, I'm tempted to let them sit and rot until my mom gets here. They are really a job best done with someone else, near the printer, possibly with some wine.

everything has been ordered

This morning, before it was 90+ degrees outside and we went to TWO sukkah building parties, Ben and I picked out a thank you gift for our parents. I'd already picked out and had my mom pickup gifts for the siblings, but we thought we'd get something awesome but more of a token for our parents. I'm happy with what we picked out. Hopefully it'll be as awesome in person.

We also went to the GoBoulder/Boulder Chamber of Commerce and picked up lots of helpful literature for the welcome bags. Tonight's goal: get the bags labeled. I'll work on stuffing them later, now that I have all the stuffings.

This week I've got another dress fitting (it's a little too big now, just an inch, but yey!) and then a "craft date" with a girlfriend to finish the ribbon wands.

does blogging have a pause button?

Things are starting to happen quickly, like dominoes falling. Today we heard from about many people we'd been waiting to hear from if they were coming or not. We also got our ketubah in the mail! It's beautiful and our names are typo free, woohoo! Kippot have been shipped, welcome bag goodies procured, and crafting dates lined up with a girlfriend.

Tomorrow is Erev Rosh Hashanah, the night when Rosh Hashanah starts. Starting tomorrow night it will be 5771, the year in which Ben and I will be married. Wow. That's a heavy thought. I know that from this blog it looks like I'm obsessed with wedding planning, and that it's all I do; I'm not and its not. Wedding planning is my escape from the sad reality of my employment situation. As a bride with a wedding expense account (thanks mom and dad!) I'm a normal, functioning bride, not an under-employed college grad who is addicted to mediocre TV and might qualify for public assistance if not for all the cobbled together part-time jobs I hold.

Anyway, if you've read this far, I just want to say thank you, and I hope that you'll forgive me for any bad stuff I may have said or done this past year. Its the time of year for forgiveness. May we all have a happy, healthy, and sweet year together. L'shanah tovah, happy new year!

craft time!

We've been hitting up Michael's and Costco every weekend to stock up on crafting supplies and goodies for the welcome bags. So, expect to see awesome programs, home made yarmulke labels, ribbon wands (Ben won't let me have bubbles and Boulder won't let us have sparklers), and all sorts of other crafty goodness.

Here's my current favorite logo for the welcome bags, bonus points if you recognize it's origins:

hi, I'm not dead. I promise.

For the past 2 weeks I've been working at the off-campus bookstore, during the back-to-school rush. Tuesday is my last day. I'm disappointed, but went into this knowing that it was a temporary gig. Now, I can get back to wedding crafts! Today, Ben and I have been working on welcome bags and picking out music for the ceremony. I've also been looking at friends wedding photos online.

items left to order: TWO

Kippot AKA yarmulkes (little hats for the men) and benchers (song/prayer books for after a meal).

That's it. Oh, and to pick up the water bottles and potato chips for the welcome bags.

Seriously. That's it. I sent the contracts to the DJ and the brass quintet (for the ceremony) last night. Every vendor we're hiring has been hired! All that's left is to do/finish all my crafty projects, finalize music selections, menu selections, floral decor, get our clothes tailored, and find someone to do my hair (I can do my own makeup).

We also have to talk to Rabbi Marc about our ceremony. A peer from synagogue (who is also a friend of a friend) got married about a month ago and Rabbi Marc was the officiant at her wedding too. He had just returned from a silent retreat and found out that his dad was quite sick and was in a weird/meditative head-space. Apparently, he threw everyone off by asking if they had any thoughts or wishes that they wanted to share with the bride and groom, to be spiritually sealed into their ketubah before signing it, no one was prepared for this question and there were 3-4 minutes of awkward silence (which my friend said felt like 10 minutes because everyone was just looking around like a deer in headlights). I want to go over everything with him, step-by-step, to make sure that there are no silent surprises like that at our ceremony. While Ben's family may be OK with the touchy-feelies, mine isn't. We're more of the silent WASPy types when it comes to emoting than the huggy ones.