Invitations.... (mostly) GONE!

So, they are gone. The lady at the post office let me hand cancel them with their stamp, which only took about ten minutes to do 90. (Let's face it, I didn't really care, but after all the work we did, for ten minutes of time it seems worth it even if only a couple people notice.)

Wheee!! I know for some sending out the invitations has triggered anxiety about the wedding, but I feel GREAT (maybe because one big task on the to do list has been (mostly) crossed off??).

Good luck to everyone who is working on their invitations!! It was one of my favorite projects so far, I think because you get to see the finished product more immediately (as in you don't have to wait until "the day" to see the fruits of your effort--can we say instant gratification??). And I think for us, we found the perfect combination of DIY and purchased items to have a beautiful invitation that we also put some effort and heart into getting just right.

More Invitations...

Has anyone else found invitations to be the project that just won't end?? Well ours were supposed to go into the mail the end of last week and I am going to put them in the mail today (will the Post Office hand stamp them for me? We shall see.) But we still have a couple trailing addresses and about ten or fifteen more that need to be addressed and stuffed... Sigh, soon enough.

So, as I posted before, we purchased our invitations from Bella Figura and had a really wonderful experience with them. We then picked out coordinating envelopes and envelope liners from Paper Source. Of course, we picked paper that didn't come pre-cut so my honey cut out 125 envelope liners, but we really think it was worth it. I "hand addressed" them all by tracing over a the address we printed directly onto the invitation--which worked out really well. And, finally, we ordered the Fling return address stamp from PaperWink.

PaperWink was really great to work with (although the stamp's arrival was delayed due to a mix-up at my apartment). But last night I was able to stamp all the back flaps with my parents' address, as shown here:

And today they will go in the mail--Yay!!

Remember to Breathe

We had a wonderful long weekend and got most of our invitations done--envelopes addressed and lined and stuffed!! I haven't taken any pictures yet, so I'll have to update tomorrow. We are still waiting on our return address stamp that we ordered from Paperwink to get them out the door, but it should arrive this weekend, so we are looking good :)

Also, I wanted to send along this link with the reminder that breathing is a great way to help you get centered and deal with stress and feeling overwhelmed. It is so easy to feel overwhelmed in the midst of wedding planning--with sometimes towering to do lists, dealing with families who don't "get" your wedding planning, and the fact that soon you will be a "wife"--but simply breathing can help keep you grounded, centered, and calm.

Self-Addressed Envelopes

So, I did a test run yesterday on DIY "calligraphying" my envelopes according to Jenn at With This Ring's tutorial. I chose the English font that I found at dafont. The font is a little boring, so I experimented with adding my own embellishments. I am a little afraid that it will look too perfect--since I am tracing over computer printed words. I also found using a calligraphy pen was much easier for me than a calligraphy marker. I couldn't figure out how to get the marker to make clean lines. One of the biggest problems I had was getting my printer to feed my envelopes (that's why the picture is off-center). Has anyone figured out a solution to this? The fiance is going to try with his home computer, so hopefully that will work. Does anyone have any other tips for this method of addressing?

Invitations: Ordered!!!

Printemps Invitation by Bella Figura

As promised, this is my next invitation post and I am writing to say that we (finally) picked out and ordered our invitations. Yay!! I am really very excited about this decision. I have to admit, that I fell in love with the Bella Figura invitations when I first checked them out. But, they were out of our price range, so I searched and searched for what I wanted instead. I sent my dear sweet patient fiance chasing links to many many invitations. The conversations would go like this:

Me: "What do you think of this?"

Him: "I like it."

The next day....

Me: "Hmmm... I don't love it."

And the search went on. I cannot even tell you how many invitations I have looked at, all I know is that it was WAY too many. A few weekends ago when I was in Chicago we visited Paper Source (there isn't one here) and picked this design. The positive--we could get our invitation letterpressed and the reply card flat printed, saving us money. Pricing it out, it came out to more than we had originally budgeted, but at that point we were willing to pay that price to cross one more item off of our list. And I was satisfied. But not excited. I was happy to have one more thing checked off the list. But I wasn't looking forward to having them arrive in the mail and looking at their prettiness.

We had already decided that we didn't need any enclosures except a reply card, because all the details are on our website and all the enclosures increase the price in muliples, plus it wastes paper. We are hoping that our guests will RSVP online, which left us wondering what to do with our reply cards--do we address and stamp them all knowing that only a few will get returned because most of our friends and family are pretty tech savvy (my grandfather RSVP'd once he received our Save the Date). So, fiance suggested including RSVP information... on the invitation. Gasp! Really?! More paper saved. More money saved. So, I looked--what is the price of a Bella Figura oh-so-pretty letterpressed invitation if all we ordered was the invitation? Slightly cheaper than our Paper Source option. And, Bella Figura's etiquette page has this to say about adding reply information to your invitation:

We've seen this idea become more popular as clients approach letterpress wedding invitations with both budget and the environment in mind. Printing your reply information in the bottom left hand corner of your invitation is an acceptable alternative that can save you money. Reply cards are a relatively modern invention, so by placing reply information on the invitation itself, you are still being traditional.

Sold! Oh, and they are eco-friendly, which also makes us feel like the invitation reflects our values as a couple. The invitation we ended up picking (pictured above) is more traditional and romantic than the designs we had previously entertained. But, I like it and fiance likes it. And I am excited to see them arrive at my door. So, today we ordered our invitations!!!

Thank you for your support as I have struggled with this decision. Now, I just need to figure out what DIY tasks I will take on to get these in the mail: envelope liners? calligraphy?

Invitation Redux

We still have not ordered our invitations. Why? Because I am indecisive and we'll make a decision and the next morning I wake up less than enthusiastic about it. I know, its just a piece of paper people will throw away. But, I want it to be pretty. We already decided that we don't need a reception card--we are just going to put "reception to follow" on the invitation. Information and directions are on our website and we'll probably also add directions from the Church to the reception location in the program for good measure. Last night I think we decided to skip the response card as well and just advise people to "kindly reply" online at our website. This will save us money and allow us to get the very pretty invitations I have wanted all along. And it's good for the environment becuase we are using less paper that will just be discarded. Thoughts? Is the concept of sending invitations with no (zip, zero, zilch) enclosures insane?! Have we lost our mind?

P.S. I promise that my next invitation post will be titled "Invitations: Ordered!" (because otherwise I think I may have a very grouchy fiance on my hands--even his patience must wear thin at some point)

Back to Wedding Thoughts

After spending a couple days contemplating this new decision/ opportunity, I am trying to re-focus on the wedding planning. The wedding is more imminent than any traveling we decide to do and desperately requires my attention (and me to make some decisions!). While in Chicago for Easter this past weekend I tried on a dress that I thought might be the one, but even on a second look it still wasn't "right," so we're back to the drawing board on that front.

We also visited Paper Source (my first time ever-gasp!, I know). I think we are going the Paper Source route and getting our invitations letterpressed and our response cards flat printed. This seemed like the most economical compromise for us and I really like how you can customize everything, but keep consistent shades and colors. We are deciding between two options:

This invitation (in dark blue, I forget the exact color name):

Colonial Stencil Invitation

Or just going with plain lettering (no design) and adding a stamp. Here are a couple that I found at Terbearco's shop on Etsy that could work:

Invitation Thought for my Honey

Honey, I think that you should head over to YeeHaw, a letterpress studio in Knoxville, TN that does wedding invitations. According to Good Mouse, Bad Mouse, they "love thowing things together for cheap." And, in case you needed further encouragement to check them out, I know you will love them because they made this sign:

By YeeHaw Industrial Letterpress via Good Mouse, Bad Mouse

P.S. Zombies are not a phenomena that particularly interests me, but they tickle/amuse/intrigue my honey. I must admit that part of what I like about our relationship is that I am able to enjoy or appreciate things in which I have no real interest merely because they mean something to him. That is, that in our sharing a life, I get to share in his quirky interests. And that just makes life more fun! I am the serious part of our relationship (although he does tend to wax philosophical from time to time) and I love that he embraces the whimsical and ridiculous in life. We help create balance for each other and, hopeful, in our life that we will build.

Wow!

I have been having the hardest time picking out invitations that I adore. Most I find are fine and will get the job done. But, I haven't found any that I was head over heels about until I checked out Printable Press that Meg posted about today. Kimi's designs are AMAZING! And because I couldn't pick just one, here are my favorites (so far):

All images from Printable Press