After putting it off for *way* too long, Tony and I are at the stage where we have to send our invitations out. (Plus I've finished exams so I no longer have that excuse).
The problem now becomes what kind of invitations should we send? Ideally I'd like something original, clever, attractive (but not to cutesy) and oh yes, cheap.
I'm figuring there will be about 100 going out. I really want to limit costs. For that reason I am not buying anything from specialised wedding invitation shops.
So... any ideas o crafty people of Hatrack?
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Oh yes - the wedding itself is very informal. Vows at sunset in a rose garden and straight into cocktail (well, wine and champagne - we're not that generous ) party at the same venue.
There is no real theme to the wedding - the planned decorations so far consist of said rose garden, lots and lots of paper laterns and a couple of big trees lit up with fairy lights. And whatever flowers are in season and cheap.
So invitations don't have to be any specific colour/appearance.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Do you have a laser printer (or access to one)? If so, and you want creative-but-traditional (as opposed to creative-and-entirely-non-traditional ) -- buy nice cardstock (surely y'all must have some office supply stores? they're ubiquitous here), find a nice template, and go from there.
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I’ve been doing massive invitation research. Would you believe some people actually spend $10-12 each on invitations? We’re making ours, too.
A little more non-traditional than rivka’s suggestion would be to print a nice picture of the two of you on cardstock, then print your invitation wording on vellum and fasten it over the picture. (This looks really nice if you have a picture with you off-center and can have the wording over the scenery and your faces show through.)
If you have a colored laser printer, find a nice picture of a rose and use it for a graphic with your text. Or just buy specialty paper with roses already printed on it.
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dkw, I know someone who spent $50/invite -- and sent out several hundred invites. In my book, this should be sufficient proof for a long stay in a padded room. (Admittedly, they were spectacular, but YEESH!)
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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We have office supply stores. And running water.
Some of those templates look nice though. And vellum - ooh, I love vellum. I wonder how much it costs? *off to find out*
The problem with the photo idea is that I don't actually think we have a nice one (not one that is recent anyhow). We're remarkably unphotogenic together.
And dkw I know! The amount people spend on wedding invitations is bizarre. I'm planning on spending the money we save on nice food. Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote: There is no real theme to the wedding - the planned decorations so far consist of said rose garden, lots and lots of paper laterns and a couple of big trees lit up with fairy lights. And whatever flowers are in season and cheap.
At dusk, right?
Sounds gorgeous.
Other than that I have no ideas.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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The prettiest in my file-o-invites is a little more complicated, but probably still fairly inexpensive. The printing is on a half-sheet of vellum, with a flower (it’s a photograph of a flower with the edges faded) on the top left and lower right corners. The text is centered between them. Then the whole thing was trimmed with a edging-scissors to give it a lacy edge. The edge was traced with a gold pen, and the vellum was fastened to a half sheet of heavy parchment with a gold ribbon in the upper left corner. (If you like the sound of that I can give you a more detailed description / send pictures.)
You’d need a color laser printer, vellum, parchment, a gold pen, ribbon, and a decorative edging-scissors.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote: The problem now becomes what kind of invitations should we send? Ideally I'd like something original, clever, attractive (but not to cutesy) and oh yes, cheap.
I recommend something simple, and not original or clever.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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When dear hubby and I got married, we sent out email announcements after the fact. But then we eloped. . . Can't get much cheaper than that. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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*laugh* It wasn't meant to be insulting! I remember when we DIDN'T have office stores next to each Starbucks. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Here's the one I was talking about. It's not too flowery. (Sorry about the crease in the corner, I bent it.)
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Eh. Hard to read. I hate it when the vellum is over words printed below, or the words are printed on vellum in gray, and it's hard to read.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I agree with ElJay on the hard to read bit. On the one in the picture the text is printed on the underside of the vellum to give it a "softer" look. If I were doing it, I'd print it on the front to make it more readable.
What about taking a picture of the garden where you're having the ceremony and using it for the background of your invite?
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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For our invitations we sent two pieces of paper one was a picture and the other was the anouncement. We bought cardstock that was perforated in fourths. We got the cardstock from a paper store. Then we had everything printed at Kinko's.
Posts: 747 | Registered: Aug 2004
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For our announcements, we did a bit of a reversal on the photo/velum idea. We had a black and white picture of us printed on vellum (it was subtle so you could read through it) that we fastened with a heart shaped brad on top of the carstock with the details. The only thing we had someone else do was the printing of the photo on the vellum (our printer didn't do a nice enough job). I think they averaged less than $1/invite.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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We have ours ready to mail out. They're semi-do-it-yourself. A printer friend of Mom's did all the cutting and ordered the paper and envelopes for us. And when we couldn't find a paper for the outside in a color we liked he offerred to custom dye it!
We ended up with really snazzy invitations and the most expensive part of them was the glue. (We used the nice scrapbooking adhesive pens that kept our fingers from getting all messy. Quite the luxury item. )
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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We had one of Mark's graphic designer coworkers make some nice designs for each of the three pieces of the invites (Ceremony, Reception, and parking voucher), and we got one of the local printing presses to print them out on decent card stock. I think we spent about $30 for 100 invitations. What we really cared about was the website for the wedding, the invitations were merely vessels for the URL.
Because, you know? When it's all said and done, people are going to be throwing these things away. People who spend $10 or more per invitation ought to think about that every now and then. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Oh but you’re wrong . . . on a website that you mentioned during your wedding planning, the brides are very clear that their invitation are a keepsake that all of their guests will want to put in their scrapbooks and cherish forever!
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I saw a wedding invitation once that was on green cardstock wrapped in copper wire with a few stone beads on it.
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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We took some time to do ours, and I know that at last one of my old aunt and my grandfather are going to keep them. Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I’m sure a few people will keep them. And I really have no room to talk, since we spent extra for custom postage stamps which half the people who get them probably won’t even notice.
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Heehee, but, see, dkw, now that I'm just a married old hag, I'm free to criticize the entire wedding planning process however I see fit! It's one of the privileges of surviving the wedding.
Did you know that, at least once a week, I have a nightmare in which I have to plan the wedding all over again, because the first one didn't "take"? Last night, I dreamt that we were having the wedding at JC Penney's (I once dreamt we were having it at Sears, so this is a theme), and I'd told everyone to be there at 5pm. Amazingly enough, everyone showed up on time, so when I was still searching the store for a dress at 6:30, they were munching on my catered appetizers and looking pissed. When I found out, I had to show up to the wedding wearing brown slacks and a teal sweater.
I used to have nightmares about falling.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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imogen, you're going to need a photo of the two of you for the announcement. My photographer was extremely expensive (all the good ones in NYC are outrageous), but I was so glad that we went with her when I got the pictures back.
I went with the classic bright white panel with black engraving, which was moderately expensive. Back in 2000, the home printing technology just was not as cheap and good as it is today. I think I'm going to do my own birth and/or adoption announcement myself when the time comes, though.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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So far my mom’s the only one who’s having wedding mishap dreams. I just keep finding ways to pay other people to do stuff I had intended to do, for less than it was going to cost me to do it. I’m starting to worry about that. Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Worst-case scenario, Dana: none of the people you paid come through at the last minute, so all the guests are given Internet terminals and forced to log into Hatrack for the ceremony and some virtual cake. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I'm sure Bob's place needs a woman's touch. Have you considered dropping by to remodel it extensively?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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There's not enough there to remodel. And besides, he's moving in *checks calendar* two months and 27 days.
I think he’s worried that I’ll plan to do too much myself, get overwhelmed, freak out, and spend our wedding day a sobbing mass on the bathroom floor because the centerpieces didn’t get finished.
For a guy with a degree in bio-psychology he sure doesn’t know much about adrenaline rush. Must be ‘cause he was never a theatre tech.
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Even though everything I just tried to type was meant to be complimentary, on re-reading I decided it was best not to post it. So I'll just say I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Or Bob.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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My next door neighbor's wedding invitations were made of paper that you planted and it had flower seeds in it. It's sort of a cool idea, but I don't know how many people are going to plant them. However, when you consider her mother flew from Bloomington to Ithica multiple times in order to set things up at Cornell, I guess it doesn't seem like that much.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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We etch invitations for anniversary gifts. Usually, it's a big anniversary, like the 10th or 25th and someone needs a creative idea, but we take the original invitation and etch it onto anything they want. Actually, right now, my husband is off doing a plate for a couple's 40th anniversary that has a picture of them cutting the cake on their wedding day on it.
But I love the etched invitation. And if people didn't have an invitation, it gives the kids a chance to create one for their parents.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
) party at the same venue.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) -- buy nice cardstock (surely y'all must have some office supply stores? they're ubiquitous here), find a nice template, and go from there.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Would you believe some people actually spend $10-12 each on invitations? We’re making ours, too.![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
In my book, this should be sufficient proof for a long stay in a padded room. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
Can't get much cheaper than that. ![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
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![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
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