invitation samples

I'm knee deep in wedding invitation samples. Some invites I paid for and others were free. I have more coming. I started organizing them in the Hello Kitty expanding file and ran out of slots so I ended buying individual expanding file folders.

When I started wedding planning, I was set on ordering my pocketfold invites from Cards and Packets. I wanted the Vertico pockets in the shimmery lagoon color. I wanted the actual invites to be either floral, paisley, or chandelier and I wanted the inserts to be "step" or "layered." It was difficult for me to design it because I don't know how to use Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. I got someone to give me her high resolution paisley pattern and I attempted designing in Word on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I tried printing it and then cutting it. Ugh...the printing just didn't look professional and the cutting was a pain.

I then thought about ordering pre-printed invites in the correct size and gluing it to the pocketfold. The cost of purchasing professionally printed invites plus the pocketfolds was really high and still looked too DIY. I see a lot of DIY invites and well they look unprofessional and I really wanted professional-looking invites.

I've also been looking at weddingbee.com quite a bit to see some of the DIY invites. Pocketfolds are really popular. We received three pocketfold invites in the last few months. I can understand why people love them. Everything is in a neat package. I then started looking at other types of invites.

I fell in love with a lotus design and I ended up using it for my save the dates. I'm not sure if I will use the design for the invites but it's an option. If I do, I will probably mail the invite and all the inserts in a box.

I kept on looking and found these all in one invitations. I ordered a sample and people didn't like them. I think the reason they didn't like them was because of the font used. I would of course change the fonts. It's a tri-fold invitation with a perforated response card. People don't like the hand but I don't mind it.

I then ordered some letterpressed and Crane invitation samples. I think invitations printed on Crane paper or letterpressed are just classically beautiful. I actually ended up liking the letterpress paper that American Wedding used more than the popular Crane lettra paper that many letterpressers use. But letterpress, no matter where you order them from, are very pricey.

I think a very nice but less expensive type of printing option is thermography. It gives you the raised letters of more expensive engraving printing. I was able to find a few printers with reasonable thermography prices.

I really do like all sorts of styles of invites. I think it's a matter of me picking a style and sticking with it. I love the more modern styles but I also love the classics. I want something different but at the same time, I also want to be traditional.

I also ordered layered booklet invitations that I really like but I think I'll use that layout for my programs. I really like how they bound them using rivets. I visited Hobby Lobby after work one day and I think riveting will likely be my next project to tackle.

Save the Date Cards

The Save the Date postcards arrived yesterday. I'm in love with the printing company. It all started with me looking at various printing companies when I thought about designing my own invitations. I then ordered invitation samples from them and fell in love with a design.

As of now, I'm still undecided about the invitations so I held off on ordering the Save the Dates because I felt they had to match. I've come to terms with this -- my invites may or may not match my Save the Dates. Did I just say that?

I initially wanted Save the Date magnets and then I started messing with the online designing feature of the postcards. I loved the fact that I could put important information on the backside of the postcard. With a magnet, most people will open the envelope and toss the envelope. I wanted people to have our mailing address handy just in case. The postcard has our phone numbers, my email address, our wedding website address, and a little message to our guests encouraging them to visit our wedding website. I still like the idea of the magnet then I looked at our refrigerator and wondered why I had no magnets on the front. Our refrigerator is not magnetic on the front side so all of our holiday cards are stuck on the side.

I addressed most of them today. I had to visit three post offices in order to buy postcard stamps. At the second post office, the worker suggested I buy a bunch of .20 and .01 stamps. I reminded her the current postcard rate is .29 and adhering 10 stamps onto a postcard may be problematic.

I realize that they are going out a little earlier than usual but our wedding is semi-destination and all guests will have to travel. Las Vegas is not very difficult for many of our guests to get to but we wanted to make sure people had a heads up -- even though, we've been talking about it to our family and friends so they're aware.

Colors

It's been really difficult for me to make up my mind about almost every element of this wedding. When I cannot make up my mind, I end up going with all the options. The wedding colors are also causing me grief. At one point, I wanted a wedding of many colors.

I originally wanted to red and aqua or aqua and yellow.

I then ordered invitation samples. One of the samples was purple. Anyone who knows me, know how much I love purple. I then decided to add purple to the color palette. By adding purple, I think I'm opening up more flower options for myself.