Labor of Love #2

The invitations are in the mail - hallelujah!

In an amazing effort by KJ and myself - our invitations made it to the post office early Tuesday morning and we've had a good response that people have seen our pretty pink envelopes filling up their mailboxes already.

Warning to any soon-to-be brides out there, DIY Invitations are SUPER stressful.

They are also worth it - take a look at our completely one-of-a-kind custom

invitations:

It all started with a bag:

and inside that bag was a lot of paper courtesy of Paper Source:

I had never been to Paper Source, but its one of my new favorite places. Its so colorful inside!!

Very important in DIY Invitations: A Mom with pretty handwriting and a heart of gold, willing to hand address envelopes for hours and a time.

Exhibit A - Mom's pretty hand writing:

And I've talked a lot about BM (Best Man - NOT Bridesmaid Kris) Kris' design talents - here they are in real life:

He worked from the inspiration invitations that I ordered (but never actually came in the mail) from minted.com

BM Kris also designed a Directions Card and our RSVP Cards:

KJ took over postage and stuffing while I manned the hot glue gun to assemble the ribbons and wax seals.

Before stuffing, each invitation was topped off with a Moo Card - the idea came from the super crafty ladies of weddingbee:

And a must have for any DIY Invitation project: a fiance willing to personally lick 111 pink envelopes:

I think I've said it over 20 times in the last four days, but I LOVE our invitations. I feel bad for loving them so much, because "paper" was one of the things I was willing to let take a back seat in wedding planning. I feel they get thrown out so quickly, or lost, or like a lot of my invitations - coffee-stained. But when you put hours and hours of work into these invitations, well they kind of find this very special little place in your heart.

I sent them out Tuesday and got the first RSVP back in the mail today! I'm SO excited, so keep 'em comin' folks!

InBites!

Excitedly I ordered a handful of sample invitation from a common online invite vendor last week! Trying to be good and get lots of stuff done this month (hence the lack of blogging, I'm actually getting off my computer and crossing things off the list). I was very happy when the big envelope came to my office today. I tore open the package and...

well...

and disappointment followed.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but what was stuffed in the envelopes just wasn't it. The invitations themselves look very similar to what was promised on the website, and surprisingly, the invitations are a nice paper weight - not to flimsy and light. Here are my new acquisitions:

#1 - cute & fun
There are about 4 inside layers beyond just the blue frame. When you get down to the actual paper where the invite is printed its pretty small. It seems like a lot of paper is wasted just to get the effect!

#2 - fancy font
I love the fancy aspect of this - it's so formal and it SCREAMS wedding wedding wedding! The initial pretty much sells the whole thing. While the font is pretty, the invitation its self is very lack luster. It's just another piece of paper. I'm sure we could spice it up if we decide to do something like this (mmm, creativity already flowing) but it's rather unimpressive for the most part!

#3 - simple and Shiny

This was one KJ liked online, and out of the three, it made the best sample. The shiny boarder gives the paper more dimension than #2 without being as excessive as #1. Still, I think we can do better.

When I started thinking wedding (almost a year ago now) there were some areas I was willing to compromise in, invites being one of them. I've gotten quite a few beautiful invites that wind up coffee stained from sitting on the counter a week to long, or as Sadie's treat from falling off the fridge. I tried to put them in a scrapbook from weddings KJ and I have been to, but I haven't updated that scrapbook in awhile and it's just become this overflowing pile of paper. Needless to say, invites usually end up in the trash (sorry friends), and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something I don't treat well.

I've definitely had expensive invite dreams....

...a la these beauties by Vera Wang

But at somewhere around $6/invite, I can't say anything even resembling a "Yes".

So, these three are just not what I had thought. I don't want anything extravagant, but I do want something that addresses our event in a fun yet formal matter, and puts off a good first impression for our guests. I'm back to the drawing board for invites... anyone have any recommendations?