Our Video STD

Since starting this blog, I've been a little top secretive. I don't really like putting much of myself out there on the interwebs and have generally kept this pretty anonymous. But as we continue along in planning, there are a lot of things we have done or are going to be doing that I'd like to share more of.

This includes all of our DIY stuff. Which isn't too much, really. I'm pretty lazy but I'm also pretty cheap...so we are doing a few really easy, cheap DIY projects and I should share! Because I scoured blog land for ideas and then modified them to fit our needs. So now I have 'new' projects to put out into blog land that hopefully someone else can use or take and modify for themselves! Blog land, I love you!

So our first DIY project was our Save the Date. I didn't want to spend any money on paper STDs -not a big priority item for us- so we decided to make a video. There are so many cute options out there and after some brainstorming this is what we came up with:

Our Video STD
(Not sure what the problem was with the embedded video. It was too big and ate up the right side of the blog! So with no time to trouble shoot, you just get this link!)

Yup! That is us - all bundled up for February in Minnesota! And now the secret is out! You know our NAMES!!! and what city we are in!!! AHH!!! ;)

I should also talk about the process we used to actually send out the video. Once we posted it to YouTube we were very careful to keep it under wraps until we were ready. We gathered everyone's e-mail, crafted a STD e-mail and then sent them out. The e-mails were sent out just as paper STDs would be - to individuals/families/couples and addressed accordingly. So they would read "Ms. Cake and Guest" or "Glaze Family" so that they knew who was invited, that kids could come along and all that other etiquette jazz.

The e-mail read like this:

Ms. Cake and Guest,
Brett and Jenna are getting married! And we want you there to celebrate with us, so save the date!

View your Save the Date here (insert link to our wedding blog)on our wedding blog. Invitations will be in the mail as the wedding nears, but until then you can keep track on the blog! Ceremony and reception will be held on August 28th, 2010 in St. Paul, MN.

Can't wait to see you there!
Jenna and Brett

Our last concern that, being the internet, people who were not invited might see the STD and be all "Can't wait! Yay!" and an awkward moment would then follow. We wanted to make sure only we sent it out to only those people who were invited. We showed them to our parents and the first thing both of our fathers said was, "Oh! This is great! I'm going to send it to everyone!" wtf? NO! Do not do that, papas! So first, we limited it being sent out only by us. Then, we didn't give out much info in the STD - like time or location - so no unexpected guests would show up. Finally, we included a note under the STD on our wedding blog. It read, "Please note that this video is intended for invited guests who received this from Brett or Jenna personally." Hopefully this will all ward off unexpected guests and help avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. so far so good!

The song is Love by G. Love