Gocco for Sale

I'm selling my Gocco PG-10. It comes with 10 bulbs, 5 screens, 15 BRAND NEW inks, 4 less-than-half-used inks, and all the bells, whistles, instructions, etc.

I will sell it for $250 with free shipping to anywhere in the continental US.

If you're interested, send me an email me at kel (dot) schultz (at) gmail (dot) com.

Gifts for Aunts

My mom has three sisters, and all of them were involved some way or another in the planning and execution of my bridal shower.

So to show my appreciation, I gave them each a gift... a box of truffles and a stack of personalized correspondence cards.


The truffles came from a local chocolate company, and the cards were Goccoed by yours truly.

The Gocco-ing may or may not have been so I could practice for our upcoming invitations. And I was excited to put to use one of the other inks that came with it.


It's a vintage typewriter, and their names in typewriter fonts, then tied with bakers twine. I presented them to my aunts at the end of the shower, after everyone had left.

Thanks, aunts!

Printing, Emailing, and Burning Calories

Oh, so much happening!

Invitations

First... invitation printing has officially begun... and it's exhausting! I thought all those other brides who complained about it were just being wusses.

I can't show specifics yet on which design we chose, but here are some action shots...


I kid you not... I broke our coffee table on the first day of printing because I pressed down too hard on my Gocco! We both heard a loud "crack" sound, but didn't know what it was. Then, a couple hours later, I noticed it: a giant crack on the side of our coffee table! Oh well... thank goodness it's a cheap table.

There are cards everywhere in our house. Every inch of every surface has cards drying on it. And that's just the RSVP cards!

Bridal Shower

Shower planning is in full swing (or so I hear). My aunts put a Google Doc online with all the RSVP responses so everyone could see.

But I'm totally baffled.

It must be a generational thing... because only one of my friends has RSVPed to the shower! And it's not like it's hard... they can do it via email! All my relatives and moms' friends were very prompt... and I just had to send a reminder email to 10 of my besties.

Sigh.

Weight Loss

I hit 15 pounds lost today at my Weight Watchers meeting. I'm halfway to my goal, and only 2 pounds away from the coveted 10% mark! Here are some before-and-after photos...




I've been taking photos in a bathing suit too... but I'm saving those until the very end.

Happy Thursday, everyone. It's almost the weekend! (And half marathon training starts Saturday).

Outside the Box

I was going to write about invitations (I promised), but considering we've made absolutely no progress in that area, I'll postpone that topic for another day.

Ryan and I spent the morning cleaning up our apartment that had been taken over by boxes.


I seriously love all the mail we've been getting recently... but man, does it make a mess!

Amongst this pile of boxes was part of my bridesmaid gifts...


An invisible-ink pen for numbering our RSVP cards...

"Hi Ryan!"

Bulbs and Screens for printing our invitations on my Gocco...


Another necklace for one of my bridesmaids...


And lastly, cardstock and envelopes for our invitations...


Sidenote: We ordered 150 of each card, but the labels say "150+" with a little smiley face next to it. Thanks, cardstock people!

On my personal "To Do" list for this weekend? Work on our invitations! Stay tuned on Monday... I have something very interesting for all of you!

Save the Date Reveal

The Save the Dates have landed!

According to my calculations (and the text and facebook messages I've received), our Save the Dates should have arrived at their respective destinations (and if yours hasn't arrived yet, your mailman probably hates you).

So now that the majority of our guests have laid their eyes on our adorable cards, I can reveal them here... including a breakdown of how they were made and how much they cost to make.

Supplies
Gocco PG-10 (used): $150.00, WeddingBee Classifieds
125 A6 Notecards in Blossom (Pink): $20.50, Paper Source
100 A6 Envelopes in Night (Navy): $34.50, Paper Source
Silver Pitt Bullet Tip Pen: $3.95, Paper Source
93 4x6 Photos: $11.84, Snapfish
100 44-cent Stamps: $45.00, USPS
Total (minus the Gocco, which will be used for Invitations and then resold) = $115.79
or $1.41 per Save the Date (82 sent so far)

First of all, here was our inspiration...


Ryan and I are both pretty creative people, and good with graphics, so we knew it would be a breeze to recreate this.

After I made the design in PhotoShop, Ryan transferred it over to InDesign. I created the screen for my Gocco, and I was ready to print!

First, I mixed the blue and black ink to make a Navy Blue...


I set up my work station on our coffee table...


I inked the screen and was ready to print!


I practiced on a few pieces of printer paper...


The first few prints turned out kinda splotchy...


But after a few practices and ink readjustments, they started coming out pretty good. I finally just sucked it up and began printing on our pink cards.


When they were all done and dry, Ryan and I made a pile of "good" prints and "bad" prints so we could make sure everyone got a legible Save the Date.

We had a photo of the two of us printed to include in the envelopes, then Ryan helped me stuff...



I did some lovely faux-ligraphy (aka fancy cursive) to address all 82 envelopes...


We stamped them with 44-cent King and Queen of Hearts LOVE stamps, and they were ready to go!


Into the mailbox they go!


Here is the final product (click to enlarge)!


I'm really excited to receive such positive response from family and friends. Totally worth our time, and not too costly.

I Heart Weekends

1) The paper arrived and the Save the Dates are done! The Gocco wasn't nearly as scary as I had pictured, although I probably could have done a slightly better job with my printing. Well, practice makes perfect. Hopefully by the time Invitation-printing rolls around, I'll be a regular pro!

2) My handwriting is way better than I thought. And, surprise-surprise... I remember cursive! All this means that self-addressing my Save the Date envelopes (and dare I even say... our Invitation envelopes) is not at all out of the question.

3) Major Honeymoon research is happening. Despite our instant gut reaction of "bleh", I think we are actually leaning towards Mexico. I am amazed to discover that they have some fabulous all-inclusive resorts. I'm wishing it was time for our honeymoon right now.

4) I informed my ladies they should be on the look out for a knee-length navy blue dress and silver heels to wear to my wedding. Cut, style, fabric all optional. Gigantor orange floral print not (that's a "no").

5) Now off to tan myself! Ryan and I are headed to the Michigan dunes tomorrow for some much needed beachy relaxation. Mmmmm.....

More detail-oriented posts are in store for next week, so stay tuned. Happy weekend!

Save the Date... or Else!

I designed our Save the Dates last week. This weekend, Ryan transferred my Photoshop file to InDesign. We printed it out at his office, cut it to size, and now we're ready to print.

So what's the hold-up?

We don't have paper. We went to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and JoAnn Fabric. They had cards and envelopes... but they didn't have the right size, price, or quantity.

$1.00 per card? Are you kidding me?!

So I bought our cards on Paper Source. We went with 125 A6 Notecards in Blossum (pink), and 200 A6 Envelopes in Night (navy blue).


I received an email that said our package was our for delivery, so now my Gocco and I just wait patiently. I think I have my weekend activity planned out. Is it lame that I'm excited to start printing?

My Gocco Arrived!

The last time I talked about Gocco, I was trying to decide whether or not to buy one. My mom thought I was crazy. "How much money will this really save?" she asked.

But then she uttered that one little phrase that make it all better: "It's your wedding. Do what you want."

So I bought it!


Sure, I could probably design something and have it printed at Kinkos, but then it wouldn't look as cool. And, sure, I could probably design something and have someone else print it, but then it would be expensive. So I see this as a happy medium.


The moment it arrived on my front door, I wanted to bust that sucker open and start printing! Too bad I don't have anything designed yet. We don't even have our colors finalized yet.


So my pretty little Gocco will just sit in the corner until I can convince Ryan it is not too early to start making Save-the-Dates. (It's really not!)

Gocco, My Love

I am dangerously close to purchasing a Riso Print Gocco PG-10 on Ebay.

Did I lose you?

For those that don't know, this is a Gocco...


It is a magical little machine that makes beautiful prints like these...




It has become really popular in the past 10 years for DIY brides who want to save money on invitations.

It essentially works like screen printing. You can use any design you want, then the image gets burned into a screen, which you then ink and press onto your paper (yeah... that's the way condensed version).


Why do I want one? A) Because I don't like Kinkos. They are expensive, it's not as pretty, and I don't trust them. B) Because I've convinced myself that DIYing my invitations will save money.

Will it really? I have no idea. Which is why I'm stuck hovering my mouse over the "Buy Now" button on Ebay.

Let's break it down... The Gocco costs $145 used. Then I have to buy paper or cardstock to print save-the-dates, invitations, maps, information, menus, rsvp cards, etc etc etc.

If I knew how much all that paper would cost, and if I knew how much it costs to print at Kinkos, then I could do a lovely comparison right about now. But, alas.

I have a feeling the DIY, Gocco-loving, money-saving bride inside me will win this battle.