How I did our invitations...

In May, I rejoiced over finally deciding on our  invitations after several weeks of procrastinating. 

In July, I rejoiced over being able to mark "assemble and mail out invitation" off our wedding to-do list. 

Today, I will explain the process of designing, for those of you that may care. 

I started looking at invitation in early January, and shopped around for the best prices. I compared prices from different websites like 123print.com, vistaprint.com, and minted.com. I liked some of the invitations I saw, but none of them "struck my fancy". The ones that did strike my fancy were outrageously expensive for the amount that I was inviting. We needed 500 invitations, and they would have $927 on minted.com. Now, if I were having a smaller wedding with 100 invitations, I would have considered minted.com because they have  really cute invitations. However, that just wasn't going to work for this bargainista. 

We have a family friend that is a vistaprint.com queen. She knows how to get the best deals on the best things, and she shared her knowledge with us. I found an invitation that I liked on there, but I still didn't love it. I saw where you could upload your own design, so I decided to try my hand at some photoshop stuff. 

I found this cutesy invitation on minted.com...

I then used photoshop to make my own. I used brushes for the border, found on brusheezy.com, and I downloaded fun fonts from dafont.com

I ordered a few to see if I liked them in person, and waited for them to come in. They said they would ship in 21 days, and in 3 days they were on my door step. I liked them! However, there was a typo. Sad day. Yes, I could have just edited it, but I decided the color was a little dull, and I wanted to try something a little brighter. 

I then found this one on minted.com, and I used it for inspiration. It looked fresh and clean. Well, it looked as fresh and clean as any invitation could look. 

This was the finished product. As you can see, it's not identical to the $927 for 500 invitation, but it is similar. I actually like it better :). I uploaded it to vistaprint.com, and looked to see what specials were going on. Our vistaprint.com queen told us the specials could be different everytime you sign on. I looked after I uploaded and the invitations were 25% off. It was a decent deal, but I wanted it to be cheaper. I waited a few minutes, and reloaded...still 25% off. I wait a few more minutes and checked my email in the mean time. Lo and behold! There was an advertisement on my AOL screen for 50% off invitations! BINGO! I clicked and was able to order 550 invitations with a linen finish for $145. 

As I said before, Mom kept a meticulous Excel spreadsheet of the guest list. When it came time to address them, she printed them straight onto the envelopes in a pretty font. We knew we were having an invitation party, so she printed them several at the time for a couple weeks. 

Also, because I had the photoshop brushes (border), I used the same brush and idea to make thank you cards, an insert card, and a tag for hostess gifts. I printed the insert cards and tags on business cards, and I'm still in the process of tweaking the thank you note. 

Ironically enough, I don't want matchy matchy things in the wedding...with the exception of my stationary and invitations. My, my, I am so complex.

You're invited...

Tonight was the night. 

Tonight we made a huge mark.

Tonight we dominated our to do list. 

Tonight we stuffed. 

Tonight we stamped. 

Tonight we sealed. 

Tomorrow we mail. 

You guessed it. Tonight, we had an invitation party. Our sweet friends hosted it for us, and we were able to knock out the assembling process in, what I consider, record timing. 

There was much preparation that went into the invitations. While designing/choosing the invitations was stressful for me, the guest list was an even greater task. My mom compiled the list, along with Wesley's mom, and organized it meticulously in Excel.  She then mail merged them and printed the envelopes. Last night, the night before the invitation party, she and Dad proofed the envelopes carefully. The chose the Santa Claus approach of making a list and checking it twice. 

They so diligently double and triple checked addresses, names, and spellings. I must say, they make quite a team. Have I mentioned that I'm not sure how I'd get married if I had to do everything myself? 

Anyway, we carried our envelopes, invitations, stamps, and handy dandy envelope moisteners over to our friends' house. We ate a delicious meal, consisting of foods that I may have to try my hand at after Sept 24th, and then set up stations to assemble the invitations. 

We began around 6:50, and we finished around 7:25. Record timing? Yes. The time flew by and before we knew it, 460 invitations were ready to mail. 

The "Mommas"

Sweet friends that came to help

The wonderful hostesses

We had a great time, and we are so thankful for such sweet people to help with what could have been such a daunting task. Thank you so much!!