*Deal Alert* 44 cent personalized stamps for less

If you can find them, this is a good deal for those who are mailing invitations that are lucky enough to fall under the 1oz mark. At Walgreens they have marked down their Photo stamps to $7.19 for 20 1st class stamps. You upload your photo and they mail you your stamps. If you do the math, you can get the stamps for 36 cents. For today only though, there is a 15% off coupon here: http://www.walgreens.com/instorespecials/default.html?ban=flh1_friends_family_15 which drops the price down to 33 cents per stamp. This is quite a deal and if you can find it, it will save you a little money and add that personal touch that you might have been looking for. The stamps are located by the photo section in green boxes. Happy hunting!

Using Vendors for Information

I am shameless. Yes shameless. I have no loyalty to vendors. I am going to get a quote and then pimp that quote out to get one better and then pimp those back to you for a lower one. It is like the circle of saving money. Use one to get a lower one and then use the lower one to get an even lower one. That is how I roll.

Case and point. Alcohol. Everyone knows that the alch can be a big cost. It is quite possible that it could cost more than the dinner if you are doing the typical beef/chicken/veggie. Now I am a big proponent of open bar. I feel that the party doesn't start until the spirits start flowing. You need to loosen people up. People are with other people they don't know, but you want everyone to get to know everyone. You want them to be wild and entertaining. So when we started planning this wedding, open bar was a must. Now setting a budget for liquor is kind of difficult. We gave ourselves one and then started looking for vendors. We stumbled upon Wally's Wine. The best part about this place is that any unopened alcohol can be returned. BAD ASS. Cuz really, what are you going to do with 50 bottles of leftover stuff. When we got the quote from them, I was like W-H-O-A. Hold up here. You are charging me this and this and this much. I had to stop. Breathe. and then start up again.

Now, I did really want to see what they would charge, but more importantly, I wanted to know what they thought I needed for this amount of people. I am not a party planner, I am not a caterer, I am not a bartender. I don't know these things and why not utilize the expertise of professionals. In reality, it only took me about 5 minutes on the phone and a couple of days waiting for the proposal.

So after I got the prices, where was the first place I went. Our favorite warehouse store, Costco. Sellers of everything large and beyond large. You need a 10 yr supply of toilet paper, they sell it. You need enough jerky sticks to build a house, they sell it. You want to buy underwear and engagement ring in one stop, they're full service. You want to buy alcohol for your wedding, boo yah. What is the problem buying the alchy at Costco? They sell it in like 2 gallon bottles. Ok, maybe that is a little of an exageration, but the bottles are generally twice the size. I am sure the bartenders aren't going to enjoy lifting them and twirling them and whatever. Fine, they can't be Tom Cruise in Cocktail, but I will be saving some cash money.

Granted Costco doesn't sell everything, but they sell most of the items. I will finish collecting the rest of the stuff from BevMo, Safeway, and Trader Joe's. All and all, I am going most likely cut the Wally's Wine's quote in half. Yes 50%. FIVE-O suckas.

So if you are looking at providing your own liquor, look no further than Wally's Wine for the information, then go shopping to save some money.

How much time do I spend on my posts?

You may think that these posts are cleverly thought up and thought out. You may also notice that my grammer is poor and sometimes I have spelling mistakes. This is because when I post, it is like a lightbulb went off in my head and I essentially barfed all the sentences onto this site. The avg post time for me: 2 minutes. Yes, 2 minutes. Don't even go through it to see if it all makes sense. I don't realize I made mistakes until my fiancee corrects me. But otherwise, everything is shot from the hip onto this site. That is the way I like it.

Not all Post Offices are created equal

In researching different post offices and stuff I have found that not all Post Offices are created equal. Of course you get the occasional mean post office clerk, but that is the same with all types of businesses. What is really weird is how much they will charge you for things. Here are some things to be aware of when you mail your invitations:

1) The electronic postage system that some post offices have outside of the door cannot be trusted. It is not always calibrated correctly because the little kiddies like to mess with it. If you are right on the cusp of a weight limit, it is better to go to the postal clerk to have them measure it. You don't really want to chance 100+ invitations in your mailbox stamped "Return to Sender".

2) There is no charge for hand canceling. What is hand canceling? Hand Canceling is process of a postal clerk manually stamping the envelope to postmark the stamp and cancel it out so it can no longer be used. Generally the mail is run through a machine to do the canceling. People rather hand cancel delicate mail, like invitations, to reduce the wear on the envelope and contents inside. If a Post Office charges you for hand canceling, report them to the Postmaster General because it should be free of charge.

3) Not all Clerks are created equal. Each postal clerk will vary in the amount that they charge you. I went to mail through the electronic machine and it was 44 cents. I gave it to one clerk and she said I was right at the 61 cent mark. I gave it to another clerk at the same office and she said it was 44 cents plus 20 cents for a bump. Not everyone is the same. Measure it on the electronic scale first to get a gauge, then take it the post office clerk to try to get that amount. If one gives you a higher price, take it to another until you get someone who gives you the lower amount.

4) Bumps may not incur an extra 20 cent charge. The post office has a machine for which all of the mail is run through. If they can't run it through the machine, then they will charge you an extra 20 cents on top of the paid postage. This includes bumps, rigid articles, fragile articles, etc... For bumps, this is the most arbitrary of them all. It is all up to the clerk to determine whether or not the bump is major enough that it won't go through the machine. If a clerk charges you for a bump, you can ask her to run it through a slot that they have that mimics the opening of the machine. If the mail passes through that slot, then you are fine and do not have to pay that extra 20 cents. You may think 20 cents isn't a lot, but when sending 100 invitations, that is 20 bux and a good dinner.

All and all, just try to go to a post office that isn't busy and has nice clerks. If they aren't nice, go somewhere else. If they are busy, come back another time. A lot of couples spent a lot of time putting together the invitations, there no point in being hassled while sending them, so do yourself a favor and try to make it as easy as possible.

All the things we could have at our wedding, but can't

You think your wedding can be a party? Well some people think it should be the biggest party in the world. If my wedding was to be one big party, what would I do?

I would dance down the aisle like these guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

And do my first dance like these folks:



Have a choreographed dance like:

Or like the one in She's All That.

Entertainment with the guests wouldn't stop with the dancing, but continue one with




or



I would also higher a Taco Lady and a Donut Lady. It would just be off the hook.

Too bad the bounce house got shot down at our venue. You thought I was joking huh?

Numbers, thank god for numbers

Ever get those RSVP cards with no names on them? They say no, but you don't know where da heck it came from. That is where the numbers game comes in. Every guest group is assigned a number. That number is either printed or penciled on the RSVP card. Now you know who is who without them actually writing so. You might think, "How often does this happen?" And you know what I was thinking the same thing. But low and behold we got a our first one, 3 days after we sent out our invites. The first blank NO came back. Thank god for numbers is all I have to say.

Number your RSVP cards and save yourself a headache.

Obamarama

So I guess you can invite Obama to your wedding. So how cool do you think it would be it you did that and HE CAME! I would totally give Obama seating up front with my family.

But I hear that the Pres responds with an 'Out of the Office' or traveling or something like that. What a crock. What does the president have to do anywayz.

I think we are going to send him one just for the heck of it.

Oh Pretty Fonts, Let me jack you

If you are one of those people who are doing DIY invitations or cards or what not, you always need that pretty Serif or Script font. I was looking all over the place for the free fonts and they never fit the bill. Let's face it, if they are free, how creative do they really want to get when they can sell the good stuff for moola. So I stumbled upon this site, www.myfonts.com. This site has tons of pay fonts and allows you to scale to pretty large sizes. You can type in what you want to print out on the site and it will render it in the site. They also have tags on the fonts so you can find all the Script fonts or invitations fonts, etc...

So you may be asking, what is a cheap a$$ like myself doing on a site where you have to pay for stuff? Jacking it of course. You may gasp, but just treat it like you do music. If there is a way, then why not take it. Soooo, here come my instructions on how to get your font from MyFonts.

Instructions for Photoshop
1) Get your font up with what you want (bigger size, better results)
2) Right click on the font and select 'Copy Image'
3) Go into Photoshop and paste the image onto your canvas. You will notice that it shows up black
4) Use the Magic Wand with a 10 tolerance, uncheck 'Continuous', check 'Anti-Alias', and select the black part then delete it
5) Deselect the area and change to the Paint Bucket
6) Select the color you want the font to be
7) Set the Paint Bucket tolerance to be 20, higher if you chose a smaller font size and there are a lot of thin lines, uncheck 'Continuous', check 'Anti-Alias', then paint the font

Bam, you now have a font in your color and that you like.

I know with the bigger fonts this gets tedious, but the amount of quality fonts that they have, it is super well worth it.

The world is getting smaller and smaller

Ok this is a little freaky. The world is getting a little too small for me. So first I met Miss T. because she is friends with my fiancee's friend. Now I got my other friend telling me that her friend (who I actually had classes with) actually went to HS school with Miss T. and found out that I am blogging through her Facebook post.

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF is going on here.

It is like the circle of life man. I feel like I am Simba and should be singing Hakuna Matata with Elton John.

Now where is that crazy monkey who can tell my future.

I should sell my invitation templates

I got to be able to sell my wedding invitation templates. For all those who don't know, we are DIY on our invites. I am wedding invitation layout number 7 and I think it is going to be final. Now granted I didn't think of this stuff by myself. I took liberties with invites I found on the web and in store and put some personal touches on it. I bet with these 7 invites, I can open up shop and have a collection of simple wedding invites. I can already envision my web site name: InvitesSuckSoBuyMine.com. Our motto will be, "If you find it, we can jack it and make it for cheaper!" I am Chinese, so it is in our blood. I hope this mess ends soon or else people are only coming to our wedding by word of mouth. I actually don't know if we have to send out invites since people are finding our wedding website now and grabbing details from there. Let's hope this madness ends soon.

My dad is Mayor, beat that!

So you are the mayor and you want to give a unique gift, what do you give?
I can think of a couple crazy things you can do:
1) Name the day after me
2) Give me the key to the city
3) Void all my parking tickets

Pretty much that would make my day. I mean check it: how many people get a day named after them? Can you imagine, let's celebrate 's day. Awesome. Or getting a key to a city. I guess that isn't as important because every single American Idol contestant gets a key to the city. I want the KEY to the city. Yeah, give me like the master key to all the doors to city hall, accounting, treasury, and local banks. Spanks.

But I mean what do you give your kids when you are the mayor. You got all your political friends at the wedding, so its got to be something good. You get a certificate commemorating the day signed by no other but, YOU. It is kind of corny but very cool at the same time. It is definitely something you don't see all the time and just adds another memory that the guests go home with.

I'd rather still have the key to the bank though.

Dancing Solo

Here is a tip: When dancing begins, the bride and groom HAVE to be on the floor otherwise the party doesn't start, no matter how much spirits the party has consumed.

So at the wedding that I just attended I had to do a little solo performance demonstrating all my horrible dance moves. The result of my two minute performance, 1 additional dancer. I told you it was bad. So bad that I went on with people rooting me on and I high stepped it through the tables to the floor to all of them proceeding to sit down as I fake break dance spun on the floor. But at least one of my friends showed sympathy and got on the floor and started bouncing with me. As our friends laughed and wolves howled, people eventually got up and danced. Good effort and good thing there wasn't a videographer otherwise that POS would be on YouTube right now.

PS I am a shy person, really.