Your trash is my treasure

In order to create a more personal environment (and to keep costs down), we have taken a DIY approach in bringing a few of our wedding details to life.  Printing and assembling wedding programs happens to top that list.  It also happens to top the list of things that have driven me to the massage table during wedding planning. 

I am well aware of the situation – some people don’t even take a program, relatively few people look at programs, and everyone trashes them on the way to the reception.  My rational mind understands this. Emotionally, however, I had it in my head that this was a perfect opportunity to create something cute, personal, and precious for our wedding. And, we all know who wins 98% of the battles between rational and emotional.

We want our wedding to tell our personal story.  In planning the details, we’ve tried to carry the “story” thematic throughout different elements of the ceremony and reception.  Our invitations were created to give a peek into the story of our relationship and to also set the scene for why we picked a specific location for our ceremony and reception venue (it’s where we went on our first date and where we got engaged).  When it came time to design the programs, it felt natural to continue to weave the story element throughout.  What better way to do that than to create “storybook” wedding programs…right?!

While interviewing the most intelligent brain I know (GOOGLE), I found a sample that fit with my wedding theme and my heart was set at first sight!  Little did I realize all the effort and toil that it would take to bring my vision to life.  Never, in a million years, did I think we would drive to three fabric stores, one Hobby Lobby, a Michael’s, and a Wal-mart…first to find the perfect green ribbon for the programs, and then revisit all of the stores collecting enough spools to cover our numbers.  I also did not envision us combing through racks of ribbon on store shelves, or hunting through inventory boxes at 9pm on a Friday night, or calling every store in the St. Louis area until we had just enough Offray Lime Juice Side Saddle Ribbon to make the bows for our programs.   Still engrained in my memory is almost every detail needed to have a clerk at a Hancock Fabric store do an inventory check for this ribbon – 9 feet, sold in a spool, Offray brand, the sticker on the back says Side Saddle LMJ…blah, blah, blah.  Turns out, the ribbon hunt was nothing compared to the assembly. First, I struggled to follow the bow tying tutorial we found on youtube and then, to make matters worse, I had to succumb to the fact  that bow making, something I thought should be well within my womanly abilities, was not my talent, and that Brad was a far superior bow maker than me.  However, after many lessons and tutorials, one night of cutting and folding, one night of tying, a few back cracking breaks, and a skittles binge, our programs were assembled. 

I do not expect anyone else (other than Brad) to view the programs as the output of toil, stress, and perseverance. I fully realize that to the majority of my wedding guests, the programs represent nothing more than a short lived agenda that will be quickly perused before the ceremony and quickly trashed on the walk to the reception.  However, your trash is my treasure.

This is where I would like to pop a question to you.  If you are attending my wedding AND reading this blog AND feel you will find yourself looking to dispose of the program, I urge you not to dispose of it with the same casual ease that I typically use after attending weddings (yes, sorry).  Instead, I would like to present you with a different alternative (which I encourage you to pass on to anyone with a program in hand who is scouring for the nearest trash can).  We will have a card box at the reception.  Since I realize that very few guests will have any desire for a wedding keepsake, I urge you to drop your gently used program into the card box.  My mind is already spinning with creative ways to reuse the manifestation of our toil (and yes, probably create even more toil, I mean memories, in the process).  And you never know where your program will reappear in its next life…it might just find its way back to you afterall… J