To Bling or Not To Bling

It's been a few days since my last post (I think). Sorry for the delay, but in my defense, I've been feeling like, well...a co-worker of mine described it as "my head feels like a water balloon" - like there's stuff sloshing around in there. I hate being sick - I know no one likes being sick, but I REALLY hate it. Unfortunately, my job really doesn't allow me the luxury of curling up in my bed and just sleeping it off so I've been going to work, coming home again, taking care of my zoo, and passing out. Rinse and repeat.

Today, while at the Cherry Creek Mall on a job-related errand, FI and I passed by Papyrus. We decided to stop by just to comparison shop. Naturally, I fell in love with an invitation suite that is completely out of our price range. Meet my new love, Bijou:

I love the design on the bottom right of the invitation and how it's carried over onto the reception & reply cards, as well as the note cards. It's exactly what I was looking for - elegant but not boring, timeless but fun, grown-up but still me. The custom print specialist at Papyrus told us you can even further customize the invitation by adding a genuine Swarovski™ crystal to the center the design. Personally, I don't think my guests would mind if we left that particular detail out. Especially since adding the little sparkly thing would cost $1 per invitation. Although we're only ordering 50 or so, that $50 could be better spent elsewhere. And just think about what you could do with the money you'd save by being bling-free if you had 150 or more invites to pay for!

I also adored this Checkerboard invitation suite:

Her name is Braquette - not quite as stylish a name as Bijou, but alluring none the less. My favorite thing about Braquette is the beautiful plum ink - it would fit right in with the colors we've chosen - lavender & platinum. Plum would be a great accent color.
In my dream world, I would be able to combine the two invitations into one super-invite. Said super-invite would be extremely economical in addition to being beautiful and of course functional (since it is, after all, communicating all the important information about my wedding).
Do you have an aspect of your wedding planning - invitation, cake, caterer, venue, band, photographer, dress - that's completely out of your price range but you still love to day dream of?