Invited!

Since I've gotten an online RSVP from the other side of the country, I'm going to assume all the invitations are out by now. In the end, I'm quite happy with them. I'm happy I didn't decide to make them myself, which definitely would have been more expensive and probably messier. I'm happy they came in kits so the pieces were already cut to line up. I'm happy we were able to make them unique, with only a bit of pain (see the last post). And, most of all, I'm happy they're done!

Here's how we started: On a whim, Mom and I checked out the invitations kit selection at Wal-Mart last summer. We found these, and I came around to liking them, both for their design and their $20 for 25 invitations price. The store had 3, we needed 6, so we made a quick trip to a store further away to round out the supply. Straight out of the box, they were black and white damask invitations, with plain black and white insert cards that fit into a black pocketfold with black and white belly band.

After then ignoring the invitations for about eight months, I started thinking about how to personalize the invitations and add some pink. Several samples of pink paper later and a Michael's trip to match ribbon color, we had pink matting paper for the main part of the invitation and ribbon to wrap around the belly band. Vader happened to buy me a stamp pad in the perfect shade of pink last year for my birthday, so I also picked up some little heart stamps to add pink to the information cards enclosed.

A bit more ignoring, and then it was time to start thinking about actually putting invitations together. By this point we were thinking harder about each wedding cost, and we realized that everybody would not need an extra stamp for an RSVP card. We decided to split the reply cards into either online RSVP directions or a physical card to mail in, and created all the pieces with templates that came with the kit. We had Grassroots Graphics in Norway, ME print up all the insert pieces, and they looked great! Meanwhile, my grandmother offered up her beautiful handwriting skills for addressing the envelopes, and we were happy to outsource that task.

All the pieces were ready in the days following my shower, and between MOH Moxie, Mom, me, and the chocolate doughnut that kept Ringbearer Melmo entertained during the process, we were able to mat the main invitations, attach the matting to the pocketfolds, stamp the insert cards, and postage stamp the reply cards. At this point, they looked like this:

After gathering some more adhesive, we finished up the inside. Here's a shot of each invitation set showing off the pink stamps inside: 

Invitations for folks who we think would like a traditional, mail-in RSVP card

Invitations for folks who we think can and will  reply via Internet on our wedding website

Once back in Boston, we got to adding the belly bands, ribbon, and wax seals which I described in detail in my last post. This past weekend while in Maine for Mother's Day, my parents, Vader and I assembly-lined the stuffing, stamping, and sealing process and hit the post office an hour before they closed to get everything mailed. By this point, I had read enough online that square envelopes are more expensive. What I didn't realize was that we also had picked large enough square invitations that we had to attach "large envelope" postage, making them more expensive to mail. The invitations came out to be a whopping $1.12 per invitation to mail (future brides: squares are certainly cool, but pricey!), so it was slightly less of the economical option I thought they were, but I was happy to stamp them and hand them over to the USPS. And, since people are commenting on the wax seals upon receiving them, they must have stayed intact!