Crafting the Invitations -- Rehearsal Dinner Invitation

I know I've alluded to this a bunch of times but never got around to actually talking about it directly. For our rehearsal dinner, we're going to a Louisville Bats game! We knew from the start that we wanted a rehearsal dinner we could invite everyone to, since 90% of our guests are from out of town. That pretty much crossed fancy sit-down dinners off the list. I was excited by the possibility of having a big BBQ picnic at Cherokee Park, but then we came up with an even better idea -- going to a baseball game!

Everything worked out perfectly; the Bats (the triple-A affiliates of the Cincinnati Reds) are at home on our wedding weekend, and their Saturday night game starts at 6:15. We'll have a catered meal on the patio deck in right field, and then watch the game. Casual, laid-back, and a great group activity. Plus, since it's a minor league team, it's not too harsh on the wallet, either.

I wanted to make the rehearsal dinner invitation a little bit more laid-back and fun, to match the event. I thought about using catchy/witty wording, but nothing really came to me. I turned to the Weddingbee boards and asked for help, and an awesome girl named Melissa sent me the baseball ticket invitation her sister used for her engagement party:


Using that as inspiration, I turned to Google to look for pictures of other baseball tickets. I eventually came up with this:

Once I found THAT, it was just a few clicks and some minor frustration to produce this:
I'm still pretty impressed with myself over this one. It took a lot of photoshopping (using Paint.net) and layout trials and errors (using Open Office Draw), but it finally came together. The picture is from our engagement shoot in fall 2007. They're 7x3" and I laid them out three to a page and had Eric from The Reliable Printing Company print them out on the same cardstock we used for the invitation suite.

Even if you wanted a step-by-step for making something like this, I couldn't show it to you, because I just did everything a little bit at a time, with very few saves in between, until I had the final product. Conceptually it's not that hard, though: I made a single background of the ticket outline, bar code, and yellow banner, along with our faded engagement shot. Then I imported that into Draw and added the text for the seating assignment, Slugger Field address, the "MVP Holly and Eric" bit, the date/time info and the instructions at the bottom. The banner was a little bit frustrating to make, but I just played around with word art in various programs until I found something that wasn't too offensive.

I'm really happy with how this invitation came out, and I'm really looking forward to our rehearsal dinner! The only thing I'm kind of sad about is that I won't get to wear as fancy of a dress to the game as I might have to a sit-down dinner. And I have an awesome dress hanging in my closet I have never had the chance to wear. Oh well. I've also got plenty of more casual dresses that will look great, too.

If I were planning a bachelorette party

If I were planning a bachelorette party weekend getaway (and I'm not), for someone like me (but not necessarily me), here is what I would plan.

(Inspired by the last few weeks of living at the shore and enjoying the nightlife right next door in Atlantic City.)

We would all get together in Atlantic City. Yeah, yeah, it's not as glamorous as Vegas, and it's got a bad reputation for being seedy and slimey, but so did Las Vegas before 10 years ago! Take it from a (kind of) insider; A.C. isn't that bad. And it's definitely getting better, exponentially, and quickly!

(And for me and my girls, AC is easy for everyone to get to, but still a good getaway spot.)

We'd stay at the Borgata, which is the city's BEST hotel and casino. Second maybe only to its brand new sister hotel located right next door, The Water Club. When the Borgata opened in 2003, it had the best commercials, with these hip 20-somethings all riding Vespas from Philly down to AC. Not going to lie; we bought into the marketing and were sucked in. I have some good blackjack and poker memories from that casino, and I've stayed there before as well, courtesy of a poker rate, and it was a GREAT hotel room.

The Borgata (left) and The Water Club (right). Picture from TripAdvisor.

So anyway, since money's no object in this little imagination exercise, we'd upgrade and stay at the Water Club. Dinner on Friday would be relaxed, since we'd all just be arriving -- maybe we'd go to The Continental at the Pier Shops at Caesars. There are great views overlooking the ocean, and the food ("global tapas") is great -- yes, it's the same Stephen Starr-branded Continental as in Philly. Or Buddakan, or somewhere else fun and girly and celebratory.

The Continental A.C.

Friday night we'd just relax and chill. Hang out on the boardwalk and have some salt water taffy and play mini golf, or maybe go back to the hotel to play some blackjack or roulette. Nothing too risky, though :)

Saturday would be full of options: Relax poolside at one of the Water Club's indoor pools, or more likely, in one of the cabanas by the outdoor pool. Enjoy some snacks and drinks poolside, and just generally relax. Alternatively, we could take a short drive into Brigantine or into downtown A.C. to hang out on the beach. Personally, I'd choose Brigantine for boardwalk-free beach time. If anyone felt like splurging, there is supposed to be an amazing spa at the Water Tower.

Saturday's dinner would be a foodie experience -- the Bobby Flay or new Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the hotel. YUM. (Is A.C. trying to pull a Vegas with fancy hotels and big-name restaurant stars? It sure seems like it, and I think it's a great idea, personally.)

Saturday night would be the main event -- dancing and all-night entertainment. Depending on the bride, I would either plan to stay at the Borgata and party at one of their clubs (which are legitimately cool, not your average casino club, so I've heard), or else drag her out to one of those ridiculous male strip shows. Or, if you were planning an A.C. bachelorette party right now, you could go to Thunder From Down Under, the Australian male revue! Standard bachelorette embarrassment required, of course.

Oh my god, I can't even keep a straight face looking at this photo (source).

After a long night of dancing and drinking (it probably wouldn't last too long, we're all getting much older than we want to admit these days), we would fall asleep on the luxurious, comfortable hotel beds.

Sunday would be necessarily low-key, complete with dark sunglasses and coffee. More lounging by the pool? Or shopping, perhaps? We could head back to the Pier Shops, or else go explore the new Atlantic City outlets. Confession: I've already spent a bunch of money at the J. Crew outlet, I've got my eye on a wristlet from the Coach outlet, and I haven't even had a chance to set foot into the Banana Republic outlet yet.

Other food options (hey, you have to eat more than just dinner, right?) include our Brigantine favorite, Primo Pizza; Little Saigon, a Vietnamese BYO (and lots of other Vietnamese restaurants), the classic Jersey diners, and the delicious-but-not-so-nutritious boardwalk favorites. Oh, and who could forget a late-night Wawa run?

So there you have it. Just thought I'd share. It's a really expensive weekend (mostly the hotel and the expensive restaurants), but it would be a fun trip to plan!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I'm not a spokesperson for the Borgata or anything (hmm, think they'd pay me?), but it honestly is the best hotel/casino in the city, it has great marketing (which this city sorely needs), and it's doing good things for the city by building newer and better establishments and raising the bar on dining and entertainment.

Oh, and did I mention that at night it's lit up in purple and green?

(Bad picture, I know. But I was driving and trying to snap at the same time, the building was far away, and I wouldn't know how to make the purple neon lights look purple and not blue no matter what.)