little extras - waste of money or totally worth it?

i dont really know where to begin the recaps so i thought i would start small and talk about some of the little details while we await the professional photographs...

favors and escort cards were some of the details we included in our wedding that some cautioned were a waste of money - they would be left on tables and we would have a stock pile of wedding extras to deal with once we returned from the honeymoon. lucky for us this was not the case.

maybe it was knowing our audience? maybe it was how we incorporated the items into the overall vibe of the event? i dunno but we were thrilled that everyone took home the cd's we painstakingly* created and the keys we designated as escort cards. (in fact, we were a little disappointed because we were hoping to have some left over to hang on to as mementos ourselves.)

we have heard countless times, via phone, text and facebook since the wedding that our guests are listening to the cd we created on repeat in their cars re-living the weekend. how could we not smile proudly? even my mom who doesn't always compliment took the time to tell me yesterday that she knows it by heart now, that she loves how it tells the story of our relationship, and that she thinks i should start a business making wedding cd's for people ( not fully understanding that part of why it was a success is because it was so honestly us, but hey...)

on our way home from hawaii we stopped over in LA for a few days to see friends and family before returning to reality and we saw 3 keys in seperate households on display, and were told by one amazing guest how she already went out to find the perfect chain to turn her key into a new necklace. how cool is that?

in short i hope you can see that for us, it was worth it. i can understand that it might not be for everyone. whether it be money or time (because lets face it, if you dont have one you are going to make up for it with plenty of the other) i for one love to throw myself into a crafty project - and as the wedding approached i found comfort in the distractions that they provided. the fact that our guests responded so well was what we hoped for but with something creative you never really do know do you?

* the cds were a true labor of love, from hunting for vendors to supply the raw materials i envisioned, to the learning curve that came with teaching myself to silkscreen, to the monotonous labor involved in folding and glueing the cases. even stamping the thank you tags and donation info was a project but i was lucky to have a partner in crime ready to lend a hand and spend an evening in front of the tv with a bottle of wine and a bottle of rubber cement.