Another kind of invitation

Now that all the wedding invitations are sent and delivered properly (I think), I had another batch of envelopes that I was waiting to mail out.. the rehearsal dinner invites!

Funny story.. I knew I would be writing this post today and seriously had a nightmare last night about how everyone hated them and thought they were gross and dumb. That was sad.

Anyhoo, the closer the wedding date gets, the more VIP guests (you know.. bridal party and family and whatnot) have been asking us when they need to be in town for any wedding related festivities. I've been telling everyone what they need to know over the phone or email, but I still get questions and concerns and all those fun things that come along with it. Of course I could have just sent everyone one big informative email (which I'm still going to do), but I felt compelled to get all artsy-craftsy again and whip up some kind of "formal" invitation.

I wanted something simple, fun, and that was able to make use of some of the leftover and unused invitation supplies that I still had lying around. You know, like the 40 sheets of card stock I bought from Michael's right after I got engaged, not realizing until later that they were ultimately the wrong color for the invites. #notthinking

For some reason, I became hell bent on writing and using my very own cute little poem that would include all the details.. easy peasy, right? Well, obviously not; have YOU ever tried writing a (sensical) poem for a rehearsal dinner? (If so.. I envy you and you can disregard this.) Once I started running around asking Foxy what rhymed with "rehearsal" and "crab" (blab? drab? flab?), I figured I should maybe Google it (and by Google it, I mean Weddingbee it). Of course you guys had something already whipped up and easy enough to adapt to our specific situation. And so that's what I did.

So what exactly does a poem + some card stock + washi tape + more sparkly paper equal?

How stinkin' cute are those crabs?! I almost did another sparkly heart, but when I saw that Martha  Stewart had a CRAB punch.. well, obviously my mind was made up for me.

Do you also like how I added that there will be more options besides crab (even though it says crab feast and I've already literally told e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. that there will be chicken, shrimp, salad, tuna, etc, in addition)??

Apparently, some people get antsy about things (like crabs). One thing I've learned is that you have spell everything out to avoid repeating yourself a dozen times.. and even then, you'll still get questions. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Are you sending out rehearsal dinner invites in any fashion (mail, email, carrier pigeon, etc)? Have you found yourself having to repeat wedding related things a dozen times to anybody?

Drumroll please...

Finally! It's time for the Fox invitation reveal!

I re-sent the envelopes that were returned to me early last week, and I know that at least my mom got hers already, so I think we're finally good on all that post office nonsense. About damn time.

So let's start with the envelopes (that you've all seen plenty of already). As I opted for a square invitation, I needed a 6" square envelope to send those babies out in. Good to note: square envelopes automatically cost 20 cents more to mail.

Then there was the issue of addressing them. To make a long story short, I didn't want to use labels, couldn't afford to hire someone to write them all fancy like, and I am much too lazy to learn calligraphy (unlike some fabulous other Bee's!). The next best thing was to print the addresses straight onto the envelopes. However, since I opted for the fancy, shimmery envelopes.. the ink basically didn't dry. I tried waiting three days to touch it, tried spraying it with artist fixative, but nothing seemed to work for me.

Gross.

My solution? Embossing. I've seen the word many a time here on the Bee, but honestly had no idea how to go about such a fancy thing. A bit of embossing powder and heat tool usage later, I realized just how amazeballs easy it is. Another thing to note: you cannot use a hair dryer to emboss - you must use an embossing tool. (Just trust me on this one.)


So I ran the 80+ envelopes through the printer two times each - once for our return address on the flap (sprinkle with powder, use heat tool to emboss), and once for the mailing address on the front (more powder sprinkling, more heat tool embossing). While it was all relatively easy, it took hours over the course of several days. I'm a total antsy pants and can only sit still for so long, so I usually only ended up getting about 20 done at a time. It's really time consuming, but definitely worth it in the end. Absolutely no ink smearing!

Ok, enough with the envelope babble. Let's open that baby up!!

Sorry for the blurring! :(

Oh boy...

Well hello, gorgeous!

Notice anything familiar? I decided to keep the "theme" of the glittery hearts (they were magnets in my Save the Dates) and use them as clips to hold everything together. I ended up abandoning the belly band idea that I was so set on before, mostly because I didn't like how it was (or really, wasn't) holding everything together. I think the clips worked out rather nicely, though, especially for our MiniMoo website card!

I was a bit nervous that people wouldn't flip the card over and see the web address, but guests have assured me that they noticed it (I can also tell by the increased views on the website)!

Then, finally, we have the main invite itself.

I got both the main part of the invite and the RSVP card printed out via CatPrint (the same as my Save the Dates), and I was quite pleased with the way they turned out!

These babies were absolutely a labor of love (and, let's be honest, some hate.. there were frequent curse words involved). But I love the result. And while my friend(or) Michelle designed the actual face of the invite and RSVP card, I was responsible for sprucing the suite up a bit. There was a lot of cutting, taping, carefully aligning, and wine involved.

::Phew:: Well, I'm glad they're done.. but it's all a bit surreal! The RSVP's are already coming in, making mail time even more exciting! Now I just have to get Foxy to stop opening them before I have the chance to. I worked hard on those, yo! I wanna open them myself! ;)

On further aggravations with the post office

Oh hey. So I was all ready to post a bit about my invites, how I spent obnoxious amounts of time on the envelopes alone, how I asked to have them hand cancelled, be all helpful and such.

And then I get this in the mail:

Yes, that is a stack of invites. No, I did not mail myself 7 invitations. Those are ones that were returned to me, with this stamped on the back of them:

Basically saying I need 20 more cents of postage.

Um. Excuse me, post office. NO. You know why? Because I had my envelopes weighed, and was told they would be 65 cents each. However, once I saw the amazing cherry blossom stamps that Miss Mink recently posted about, I decided to overpay by 25 cents on each invitation so that I could have the complete cherry blossom vista (I'm kind of obsessed with them.. recall my tattoo?). I know for a fact that several people in Maryland and Pennsylvania have already received their invites, no problem. And all those invites that were returned to me? They are addresses in either New York or New Jersey.. including my mom.

So, yes, I'm pissed. Upset. Annoyed. Confounded that someone(s) clearly can't see that there are not one, but two Forever stamps on each invite. Because there is no other explanation, except for the notion that certain people just didn't pay attention. What's to say that when I mail them out again, I don't wind up with them back in my mailbox the second time around?

Ugh. Ok. ::breathing::

Anyway.. part of the point of the original post I was going to write was about hand cancelling envelopes. A lot of us late spring/early summer brides have been writing posts including invitation reveals and the mailing process of said invites as of late (Unicycle, Boa, Mink, Wizard, Doe, Hawk), and I wanted to join in on the fun.

See, this all started when I brought my invites to the post office last week to be hand cancelled. All this means is that, instead of running the envelopes through a standardized machine to sort the envelopes and "cancel" the stamps, someone physically sorts and cancels. This is a good idea for larger or oddly shaped envelopes and packages, as you'll end up with a lower chance of something getting mangled a la Miss Doe's invite.

Alas, the first post office I went to said "we don't hand cancel envelopes". Weirdos. So I went to another, bigger post office, where the clerk looked at me all fishy like and had to reassure me several times that yes, I can just leave my box of invites with him and they will all be hand cancelled. Cue slight panic and distrust on my end, because yes, I'm a crazy person. Of course I sent one invite (not seven) to myself so I would know how they would look when they arrived.. so if they weren't hand cancelled for some reason, I would know. (I swear I'm not a bridezilla. Just really anal.)

To date, I know of at least four different people who have received their invites, and so far there have been three variations on all this hand cancelling nonsense.

First variation: nothing.

Two people have received their invites like this. The folks above actually asked if we just dropped it off in their mailbox, because the envelope was so pristine looking. I mean.. the stamps aren't even cancelled. It's like a gift of 90 cents that they can use again. Your welcome, friends.

Variation two:  we're in kindergarten and need to scribble over a perfectly nice envelope and ruin it.

This was how ours came. That's the lamest hand cancelling ever. (Mind you, we live no more than 3 miles from the people with the lack of hand cancelling.) I think they knew it was us and wanted to spite me for being so nuts at the post office. I seriously hope other people don't get theirs like this. It just makes me a bit sad.

Variation three: oh hey, we actually know what hand cancelling means.

This was brideslady M's invite. Clearly hand cancelled. Looks good. Crazy Miss Fox approves.

Needless to say, I'm (not so) eagerly awaiting to see what other variations undoubtedly pop up; I may have also asked several people to send me a picture of the envelope as soon as they get it. Like I said.. #anal.

Can you tell I'm in a snarky mood today?  Some things just irk me, especially when it deals with something that I worked on for countless hours to make as close to perfect as I could manage. I also just want these invites to be out and delivered so that I can finally reveal them to you all!

Has anyone else encountered issue with the post office lately? Did it affect your invite timeline at all?

You've got questions, I've got answers

Well hive, the invites are ready. to. go.

I'm not quite ready to share all the nitty gritty details just yet (give me a week!), but I will tell you that we included a website card for information like accommodations, directions, registry information, etc. And seeing as I plan on taking these to the post office tomorrow (and have already given a few out to family members), I figured I should probably update that long forgotten website, yes? (Because I kind of haven't given it much thought since September.)

Back when I originally created the site, I had all the basic information on it: place, date, time, random details. I revised it when I sent out the Save the Date's to try and keep some mystery until the invites themselves would be sent. Since that time is now upon us, I needed to re-revise (..?) and re-include all those little details that people will surely want to know but will be clueless about based on our invite suite alone.

So what did I re-include? For one, all the details about the venue, ceremony, and after party, as well as some more recent pictures. But my most favorite part of the updated site would have to be the new and improved Wedding FAQs section. Instead of including a tab just for registry information or just for directions, I kind of just mushed it all together!

So far, here's what I've got:

So.. do we get to eat at this thing?

Of course you do!! Immediately following the ceremony, there will be a traditional cocktail hour in the Vandiver's main room and outside on the porch. We will then migrate over to the outdoor pavilion to eat, drink, mingle, and dance the night away!

What kind of food can we expect?

Anything and everything! There will be red meat, white meat, pasta, seafood, salad.. we are positive that you will find something you can enjoy!

What should I wear?

Well, clothes would be a good start! As for the "dress code".. think of a slightly dressed up version of business casual. Men can wear anything from a full suit to dress pants with a nice shirt and tie. The ladies can wear anything from a nice summer dress or pantsuit to a cute cocktail dress. We'd like for you to get dressed up, but still be comfortable!

Where are you registered?

If you are wanting to come with a gift in hand, you can find a registry under either of our names at:

How do I get there?

The Vandiver is right off of I-95 via exit 89. Their website has wonderful, detailed directions here. Once you're in town, you might find this map helpful, as well!

I'll be in the area for the weekend.. any advice on what to do?

Lucky for you, Havre de Grace is just a short drive from the Philly, Baltimore, and DC metropolitan areas! But if you'd rather stay around town, check out all the things to see and do!

________________________________________

I'm pretty sure that's all the pertinent information (at least for the things not mentioned elsewhere on the site or the invites). That last diagram is my favorite, too - I would love to find a way to stick a printout of it in everyone's room upon arrival!

((Side note: I linked the images of the BBB and Potterybarn logos straight to our respective registries there, and totally unintentionally noticed that people are already buying us things!! Total accidental registry stalk, I swear, but it was so freaking exciting. Like, pee in your pants exciting. Oh muh gah.))

If you have a wedding website, did you include a general FAQ section or have a more specific page for each detail? Should I add anything else to mine?

I love the mail, it never fails..

((..it makes me want to wag my tail and when it's here I want to wail MAILLLLL!)) (Blue's Clues anyone? Just me? Ok, I'm done.)

I had such an exciting mail day yesterday, hive!!

Not only did I get brideslady's M's fantaaaabulous wedding invitation (on the right), but.. you see that envelope on the left? Guess what that is?!

That's my shower/bachelorette invite!!

Apparently MOH Copper took the reins on this, and given our shared crafty history from our high school days, I knew it would be good. And the lady did not disappoint!

Even the packaging is amazing; I'm kind of in love with the envelope liner. And.. it will likely be better than my actual wedding invitations will be packaged, hah!

Anyway, this just got me ants in my pants giddy for some shower-y and bachelorette-y goodness. Word on the street is that I didn't get "the entire package", as MOH Copper is trying to keep some things a surprise. I can't decide if that makes me nervous or excited, but let's go with the latter!

Of course, I immediately called Foxy and relayed my giddiness upon receiving both this and brideslady M's wedding invite (which is beyond amazing as well, btw), thus leading to the following conversation:

Me: I'm sooo excited! I need to get a new dress!
Foxy: Wait.. you need a new dress for M's shower?
Me: No.. I already went to her shower and wore an old dress, thankyouverymuch. I need a new dress for MY shower.
Foxy: I thought you just bought a dress for that..?!
Me: No.. that one's for the bachelorette.
Foxy: Good lord, woman.

Oh Foxy, how little you understand about women. Yes, it's true - I recently ordered that little lace number from ASOS that I raved about a while back. Perfect for a bride-to-be's night out on the town.

Trust me, it's cuter in real life.

Not so much for a shower, though. I mean.. I don't need a new dress just for the shower. But hey, why the heck not? I'm only doing this whole marriage/wedding shindig once, and all these events provide perfect excuses to get some new frocks (that, and I hate everything I own). So the dress search will commence!

Were you just as surprised and excited by your shower and/or bachelorette invite? Did you end up getting a new outfit for one/both?

Prettying up a package

I've never loved my ruler so much.

That's my handy Publisher work right there.

One of the issues regarding my Save the Dates (and invites, for that matter) is the actual size. When I go about designing things on the computer, I tend to disregard measurements and proportions and such; hence, I end up with a 7x7 design coming out of my printer when I meant for it to be 4x4, or visa-versa (that zoom function is tricky). You get the idea.

Honestly, I initially didn't care what size some things ended up being. But then I realized that I need to put all of these paper goods into envelopes and stamp them.

A funky size STD/invite = a funky, custom sized envelope = lots o' monies.

Dear lord, I wish.

Enter: my ruler and my paper cutter. I LOVE those things right now.

While a lot of what I'm doing is trial and error - designing, printing, cutting, resizing - it's also based on what size envelopes I can (affordably) buy. I've heard it a million times in the wedding world and I will definitely reiterate it: make sure you choose/have the envelopes BEFORE you go designing and ordering any paper products. Wedding rule number 12, fyi.

All well and good. My initial plan was to use a good old belly band to hold together my invite, RSVP card, and possibly the website card as well. All I would need to buy is an envelope for the RSVP's, and another one for the whole invite package itself.

Image via Kaboodle | Image via Project Wedding by DK Designs

Image via It's a Date Design

And then.. I fell in love with vellum envelopes.

Image via Elizabeth Anne Designs | Image via Mrs. Gloss!

They just look so.. sexy. I especially love the idea and the look of Mrs. Gloss's invites.. to have one regular envelope, with all the invite pieces further contained in a vellum envelope. (I also kind of love how she did a twine "belly band" too.. why pick just one?!)

So of course, using a vellum envelope would bring us up to a grand total of 3 envelopes, each one slightly bigger than then next so they all fit inside each other. And probably increased postage, too. Oh, and did I mention our invites will be square? Well they will be. And for some reason, square envelopes cost more.

It's funny (read: dumb) how all these little things add up, cost wise - the trick is to keep it DIY and still as economical as possible. I have yet to calculate and compare price points, but I still keep seeing those silly little dollar signs.

How did you assemble your invites? Did you go for cost, practicality, maybe a nice combo?

What do cats and paper have in common?

I've made random comments about our invites here and there, but have been holding out on you for the most part. Which I will still be doing a lot of today. Cue the boo's.

Way back at the beginning of mine and Scot's engagement, I had every intention of completely DIY'ing our invites - from the design, to the printing, to the assembling. I quickly realized I would be much better off having my good friend and amazing graphic designer, Michelle, do at least the design aspect of it. From there, I could still print and assemble.

Heh. Can you tell where this is going? After the design was pretty much completed, I tried to print it out on our inkjet.

Yeah, it was a fail.

Part of the invite is a really vibrant (but not obnoxious) orange - or so it appears on the computer screen. When I printed it out, it ended up looking like a really dirty burnt sienna color. So very much not what I wanted.

So, in true Steph fashion, I freaked a little bit and started looking for local, affordable printers who could also cut the invites down to size (it's kind of amusing how terrible I am with a paper cutter). One place that kept popping up on my search was CatPrint - not necessarily local, but you send them your jpeg or pdf file online, and they mail you the finished product a la VistaPrint.

So why have I ultimately decided on using them to print out both my STD's and invites in the near future? For one, they are super affordable. They also send you a draft hard copy before your entire order is put through to make sure your product is exactly what you wanted. They have tons of different paper styles and options, and their online uploader/designer is very detailed and user-friendly.

I've been holding off on ordering my invites until the "appropriate" time to do so (according to the master wedding checklist), but you know what? Screw it. I'm ordering those babies within the next few weeks. One more thing I can check off the list!

Now I just need to figure out how I'm assembling and packaging them. Still have no clue about that one. Obvs.

Once again, it's never too early.

I don't have a save-the-date picked yet. I haven't printed out or assembled (or even decided how to assemble) our invites.

But you know what I do have?

Image via USPS

Stamps!!

180 stamps, to be exact.

I have no idea if this will be enough, or too many. Or if we can get our invites to an appropriate weight so that each one will only (hopefully) need one (or exactly 2) stamp(s). What I do know is that I couldn't resist USPS's new Forever stamps. They are not only incredibly fun and say "love" on them (as all mush-tastic wedding stamps should), but they kind of totally match our color scheme in a non-matchy kind of way. As in, the background color is a certain shade of teal. Which is similar to turquoise. And some of the flowers are orange. So it works.

Huzzah!

I guess I should probably explain why I seemingly went out and spontaneously bought "wedding" stamps real quick, though.

See, I'm not really a fan of the usual wedding stamps - you know, the cake, rings, hearts, etc. It's cute and all, but it isn't really mine or Foxy's style. I feel like I have come to expect those stamps on wedding invitations, and it always comes as a nice little surprise when a couple decides to do something a bit different. True, most people don't even notice silly things like the stamp on the envelope, but I do. Hence, I needed to find some stamps.

I first saw the new Garden Love Forever stamps a month or  two ago and instantly fell in love with them for the aforementioned reasons. I bought them now because they always seem to change up the Forever stamps, and I didn't want to miss my opportunity. Easy peasy. Pretty stamps = happy Fox.

Though I'm sure everyone and their mom will be using these stamps by the time I send out anything.

CRAP. I just realized I didn't factor in stamps for the RSVP envelopes!!! Ugh. Back to the post office I go.

Anyone else care about really, REALLY trivial details.. like stamps?

Change of plans..

Our wedding is definitely on a budget. We were originally thinking of capping it at 10k, but I soon realized that, even though this is a hefty chunk of change, it does not get you very far in the wedding world - especially not in the DC area. I have been trying to squeeze out my creative juices and find alternatives to your "typical" wedding venues and receptions, which Scot and I had hoped to do anyway. We aren't ones for tradition, generally speaking (except for the whole marriage thing of course!), so I figured that having 2 years to plan would be on our side. More on that later.

One thing I was SURE that I was going to do in an effort to save money was make our own invites. Way back in the day, I had a certain level of imagination and artistic ability, and was even considering majoring in graphic design instead of or in addition to dance. Well that never happened, and I stopped doing anything graphic design related for the past 7 or so years. I wasn't going to let this deter me, however, and downloaded a decent program for my Mac (I only had Illustrator and Photoshop for my busted PC and wasn't about to spring a couple grand for those programs just for invites), bought a pack of 10,000 fonts, and went on my way. I basically had the whole thing planned out and designed before we even found a venue. I still wasn't entirely happy with what I had created, and Scot was rather indifferent. Again.. good thing we have 2 years, seeing as I'm a perfectionist to a fault.

And then! I feel like a huge jerk, but I COMPLETELY forgot that my good friend Michelle is a freelance graphic designer. I have seen her work, and this girl is incredible (you can see her stuff here). She sent me a message on Facebook, letting me know that she would love to help out with the invites, with a special friendly discount that was actually a price we could afford. And of course I would pay her that and then some, she is an amazing friend and I want to help her and support her in any way I can. I sent her the invites I had already "made", plus some other inspiration, and I must say that I am so excited that she will be creating something special and unique, just for us.

In the end, I know I would not have been happy with whatever I came up with, since really, it would be amateur. Although I do have my paper cutter at the ready to put those invites in the cardstock I already bought at 4 different Michael's stores!