Extra invitations -- pix and wording

I see a good amount of people searching for wording for the invitations that go along with some "weekend-long" weddings and I wanted to post the images of our invitations, thinking it may help to see what someone else included on theirs.

First up is the Spa Day invite -- for the moms and the bridal party. We went out to lunch before the "treatments," but that was just communicated personally.


Second was the rehearsal dinner. People involved with the wedding (wedding party and helpers) were included, as were their spouses. I addressed the envelopes to the couple, hoping that would get the point across that both were invited. If I did it again, I would have made "significant others welcome!" more explicit on the actual invitation, as there was a bit of confusion the day of.


Third is the bridal brunch, which was held the morning after the wedding (some bridal brunches are the morning of the wedding). I wanted to include everyone who was invited to the rehearsal dinner as well as all out-of-towners (those who were staying at the Sheraton as part of our room block the night of the wedding).


Fourth and last was the gift-opening party, which was held immediately after the bridal brunch and included just immediate family. We invited only those people that we could feel like we could kick out at a certain time because we had a Jimmy Buffett concert to get to that evening.

Magical invitations

Dana has done an incredible job with the wedding invitations. She printed the words on opaque vellum and attached each sheet to a lovely piece of seed paper, hand-deckled the edges and tied each sheet of vellum with twin blue ribbons. Then she punched patterns of dragonflies and butterflies into the seed paper to tie into the wedding theme. She's also printed reply cards and hotel directions and custom-ordered enveloped to hold everything together.

She's spent hours and hours on this project. The effort saved money, yes, but more importantly, it made the invitations distinctive and very personal. I hope the people who get them appreciate all the love and dedication that went into them!

Progress

I've made mockups of the invitations. They're sorta cute, I have to say. All the invites are printed, but not yet assembled.

The RSVP cards are also all printed out. Cutting and a teeny bit of embellishment needed. TG I got a paper cutter -- I can't imagine doing all these with scissors. Totally worth the $12!

Printing out the hotel info cards as I'm typing.

Inn info next, although it'll be hard to figure out which directions to include... Maybe I'll just use the map that Joan gave me and let people figure out their own specific directions. No worries, I'll include the address!

The problem with making your own invitations

We've selected the paper, the pattern, the style. Everything's a go. Except I can't start making the invitations until we find the right envelopes.

So I'm looking through the cataloges I have and researching envelopes. It's tedious and boring, but it's a means to an end. The fun part will be the invitation making!

Some possibilities:

• C.C. LowellInvite.com
  
• Invitations By Dawn
  
• Mountain Cow (thanks, Liz, for finding this ones months ago!)
  
• Wedding Paper Divas
  
• Botanical Paper Works, which has a completely cool product -- handmade paper that has seeds embedded in it and that you can actually plant and grow

Let us know with a comment if you know of any other good online sources for envelopes!

Things we're waiting for

-- Proposal from Tastings Caterer
-- Proposal from Currier & Chives Caterer
-- Color swatches for bridesmaids' dresses from Maggie Flood (we're not locked in yet, I just wanted to get this started so we can decide where to get the bridesmaids' dresses)

When we get the caterer proposals and decide on which one to go with, I'll know if we need a florist or not (C&C has their own, which I'd be happy to work with). If we go with Tastings, I'm really thinking Joan at the Inn would be a great florist, but I'd want to see her pictures again -- she has a few good albums.

And when we get the bridesmaids' dresses settled, I can take the color we decide on and work on things like the placecard holders (I'm making the frames for them and then those frames will be favors, too), napkin weights (we're incorporating our backyard into this -- for those of you who've seen our backyard...), invitations (which we'll be making).

Self-printed invitations

Liz also found Mountain Cow for us... Software that lets you print invites at home. If nothing else, I need design ideas.

Invitations

I was in A.C. Moore last night for almost 2 hours and came home with the firm decision we're going to make our own invitations. Or, rather, I will make the invitations. It's nutters to spend hundreds of dollars on something you can do yourself (and cuter/better) for a fraction of the cost.

I think a few things for this wedding will be made by yours truly. I have 7 months... That's enough time to put my crafty self to work! Personal touches are always better than something you buy from a catalog.