Janine and Cory's Save the Dates

When my husband and I first started dating about six and a half years ago, he invited me to one of his flag football games to meet his friends. He played with about a dozen other guys, so I figured there would be quite a few people that I'd meet at one time, which was mildly overwhelming for me since after college I decided I was a little less social than I had always thought.  After knowing Luke for a couple of months before officially dating, I knew that he was extremely outgoing, so I figured that in addition to his teammates, he might bring a few other friends to meet me.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.

I remember the evening like this:

I arrived at the game early (for me, most likely three minutes after the game started) and I brought reinforcements. My brother and a good friend of mine accompanied me.  Luke's sister was there, whom I knew from our youth group days. I felt better having them with me; they could be a buffer if things went wrong (I don't know what "going wrong" would have looked like, but it was important to me to guard against it).

We entered the arena and I just remember walking straight over to the bleachers and sitting down. I noticed that there was a large group of people in the bleachers to the left of me, but I didn't think anything of it. I figured that group was comprised of several different player's family members and friends that came to cheer them on.

Oh, no. I was wrong.

Those bleachers were filled with Luke's friends. Luke's friends took up a set of bleachers all by themselves. I had literally brought every person I could think of as reinforcements and that totaled two people. Luke had friends that weren't able to make it and he still had a bleacher full of people.

As I sat with my people, I began to notice that something was happening in the bleachers to the left. People began to realize that I was the girlfriend. Heads began to turn my way. I felt like I was on display. As I type this, I'm getting anxious just thinking about it.

Thankfully, the following took place.

I remember that three girls came out of the crowd. As they moved towards me, I recognized them as girls that Luke had been friends with for a while. They must have taken pity on me, seeing as my bleacher of friends was nothing in comparison to the size of Luke's (of course, this is not to minimize the quality of my bleacher :)).

These girls came over, introduced themselves, and sat down with me. I don't remember what we talked about, but I remember that they immediately made me feel at ease. They asked questions and showed a genuine interest in my life. It was my first impression of Luke's friends and it was welcoming and comforting.  I've told this story several times throughout the years because it meant something to me. It was such a small gesture to walk over and say hi, but it had a lasting impact.

Janine was one of those girls. She has known Luke since elementary school and they're still good friends to this day. She and her fiancé live in Chicago and we've been able to visit them a couple of times over the past few years. When they got engaged last year, Janine contacted me to do Save the Dates for them.

I love the way they turned out.

Janine and Cory are getting married in Cancun in April. Janine really wanted the Save the Date to have a beach-y feel to it. We went with starfish and I think they worked out perfectly.

Luke and I are big fans of the destination wedding. Forcing us to take a vacation? If we have to...

I'm overly excited to introduce a new font. Dear Joe is what we used for the names.  It's free. Context Reprise Light (my fav) was used for the rest of the wording.

We used a beautiful aqua color for the backing of the invitation and a coral color for the envelopes. They fit together so well.

Since I shared my first impression of Janine, I feel led to end with my first impression of Cory.

We were at a mutual friend's wedding and Luke and I were chatting with Cory. The song 'I'm Sexy and I Know It' came on. Cory looks at us and says, "I'm sorry...I have to get out on the dance floor. This is my song."

I knew I liked him right then and there.

Congratulations, Janine and Cory!

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post.