Today we sent out our invitations! I’m so excited that people are officially invited, and almost as exciting – I get to cross that off my to-do list!
photo by me - they're too shiny to get a decent picture of...
I have had a weird relationship to the invitations since the beginning of this venture. Being a bit of a stationery nerd, I was really excited about doing the invitations. I wanted something unique, good quality, and reflective of the event. We decided early on that stationery was not going to be one of our major expenses and that, because the style of the wedding was “art deco”, we would be emphasizing simplicity in the design. We ruled out all the super fancy stuff right off the bat, only because it didn’t really suit our wedding style.
I REALLY wanted to design the invitations myself. Like REALLY. But I was wary… First, I felt I didn’t have access to the appropriate resources. Second, I didn’t think that I was going to be able to find a printer I would be comfortable working with. And third, I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to do a good enough job. So basically, I was being a wimp – but only because I didn’t want to end up spending a lot of money to send out embarrassingly awful invitations.
I should also mention at this point that I had done our Save The Date postcards myself. They turned out fine, but we didn’t go high-quality with the printing, paper, etc. because it was more of a quickie job and we wanted to put more effort into the online component and the actual invitations. So while they were kinda cute, I was MORTIFIED when I got emails and messages from people saying “Oh! I got your invitation!” and then asking me for the type of info that would have been on a real invitation because they thought I had omitted it. What?!?! How had these people never seen a Save The Date before? And I was totally embarrassed at the thought of my friends and loved ones looking at that scrubby little postcard and thinking THAT was the amount of effort and care that we had put into inviting people to our wedding. Ok, so it was only a few people, but it was enough to get me all wound up about making sure our invitations stepped things up a notch.
So I started my hunt for someone to do the design and printing. I really wanted someone local so that later, when it came time to print things like programs, menus, etc. we could call them up last-minute if need be. I found lots of great people who did lots of great work (did you know that you can get invitations that cost over $200 each? EACH?!? Those were some NICE invitations). Of course, I found some folks with great prices and nice work, but nothing that got me really jazzed. Then there were options of ordering non-custom stuff online, and they seemed nice enough and reasonably priced, but I was pretty firm on wanting to have access to our designer for further work. And I never really found anything that was quite like I wanted. So all in all, I was feeling a little deflated over one of the aspects of the planning that I had been most looking forward to.
So, this is where Bek stepped in and put her foot down. I love when she does that! She said that I was being ridiculous, the stress of not being able to find something I liked was killing the mood, I was compromising what I wanted and it was ruining what she knew was supposed to be one of my favourite parts of the planning, and that I should consider that maybe she wanted us to do them ourselves too because it would be special to her.
Ok. I guess that settles that. So we did them ourselves.
And I got to pick the prettiest paper you ever did see. And they look just like what we wanted. And the printer was amazing. And I got all giddy when I picked them up.
They aren’t anything out-of-this world, but it was with my own two hands (and laptop). And they made Bek really happy. And she got to help, which was fun for her cuz she isn’t really the desingy-crafty type. All in all, big win.
*BONUS!!! The total cost for our invitations, including all postage, ended up being more than $2.00/invite less than even the cheapest option I had found to have someone else do them (and that didn’t include postage or having them addressed). Now that money can go into showing people a good time at the wedding instead of something that just gets stuck on their fridge!*
Your invites are gorgeous. Well done! We made our own, too, so I know how much work it is to do it right. Kudos!
The same thing happened to us when we sent out save the dates over email. What I realized from that experience is that save the dates are a relatively new thing and that folks even just ten years older than us have never heard of them and won’t understand getting them. I wish I had known that before I sent everyone a save-the-date email! My family was all like “oh, what a neat idea… but I think you should sent invitations to your older relatives.” I was mortified. I felt like they all thought I had no idea what I was doing.
Ug. Yeah, I didn’t really realize it was a newer thing either. Totally forgot to put the “Invitation To Follow” line on it – could have saved myself the trouble. Oh well… I don’t think anyone will boycott our wedding in protest :)
These invites are amazing. What font did you use. (Im secretly planning on stealing your layout- these are gorgeous.)
Aw Schucks! Steal your heart out! The font is Riesling, and it is easy to find and free just about anywhere online!