I’m almost done with the invites. I promise! Until then… the paper details. When I was researching for invitations and first started reading Weddingbee, I was so overwhelmed with paper terminology and types.

overwhelmed with invitation details

Here are ourinvitation details – hopefully to help someone out there!

Sizing

I used a standard A7 (5″x7″) size for the main invite and 4bar (3-1/2″ x 4-7/8″) for the reception and RSVP cards. This made it easier to find pre-made envelopes.

Weight

Mrs. Pug did a nice series on paper here. I also found this reference guide from Paper and More very helpful. I recommend around 110# to have that invitation “feel”. For the envelope liner, go as thin as you can cut for two reasons 1) it’s easier to cut and fold thin liners and 2) saves on postage.

Paper

Envelope Liner: Print Icon 24# Text in Silver Dot

Main Invite (A7 size), Reception, and RSVP (4bar) Cards: Crane Lettra 110# in Fluorescent White

Card backing: Paper Presentation Classic Linen 80# cover in Charcoal

• The Crane and Linen papers have very nice texture. The Lettra is made for letterpress but if you use digital or offset printing, your printer person might recommend a less textured/less soft paper so that the print stays crisp and doesn’t bleed.

Envelopes

Outer A7.5: Paper Presentation Classic Crest in Solar White

RSVP / Reception card 4bar: Paper Presentation Classic Crest in Solar White

Inner A7: Print Icon Vellum in White

Twine: Divine Twine in Oyster and Lemon

• Originally, I sent my envelopes to a printer to do the addresses. The professional sized machine warped the envelopes and the heat sealed them shut. I ended up printing them on my home printer (came free with my Mac). I did have some creases but I’m blaming that on USPS.
• Tip: Buy EXTRA envelopes if you’re printing at home. You’ll run into snafus like printing on the wrong side or upside down, etc. Or test print on some envelope-sized papers.
• Printing on vellum? Change your print settings to draft or transparent to lessen the ink used. Allow enough time for the ink to DRY completely for no surprise smudging.

Twine tying options

First attempt at printing envelope – creased with rando dashes

Postage

The invitation ended up weighing in at 81 cents and that’s because of the twine tie adding the “package surcharge”. Be sure to bring it in to ask your friendly USPS rep and don’t say you want to mail it “regular mail” because it doesn’t exist. It’s called First Class mail and Mr. Lobster learned that the hard way. LOL.

a king and a queen for my 81 cents

Lobster Lesson: start putting together your details WAY ahead of time. I procrastinated because of indecision and didn’t account for snafus that ended up adding a couple of weeks. Now I’m pushing the envelope (HAHAHA – is that an invitation pun? I hope so.) on the proper RSVP window time for my guests. And please. For the love of invitations. Proofread. A LOT.

Did invitations take much longer than you expected? What kind of obstacles did you run into?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Couples have been advised they can make their big day an environmentally-friendly affair by handing out plantable wedding invitations.

Julie Greco, writing for the Standard, said these invites are made from recycled paper and are embedded with seeds that can be grown afterwards.

"Guests simply plant the card into the soil and, eventually, it will blossom into beautiful flowers that could also serve as mementos of the wedding day," she explained.

Ms Greco stated weddings generate a lot of waste and she was determined to have an eco-chic style when she married her husband.

Wedding invitations are not the only element of the ceremony that can have a negative environmental impact, she went on to say, with disposable cups, monogrammed napkins and thank-you cards also offenders.

According to Green Uses For Waste, vintage or second-hand wedding dresses are becoming increasingly popular for brides looking for a more sustainable option for their ceremony.

Wedding invitations are the first step towards filling your wedding with friends and family. Make sure you do it right by getting the wedding invitations right.

This article was originally posted onHitched.

Aww… and there it is! The set in all its glory (except for the blurring). This DIY “masterpiece” and absolute nightmare at times has literally taken me a year to dream up, design, create, and mail off.

General specs:

• DIY tri-fold pocketfold
• 2 invitation panels in English on the far left and Vietnamese in the middle
• Pocket holds3 inserts (ceremony info, reception info, and RSVP card) and the RSVP envelope
• DIY monogram of first names with rhinestone accent
• Ceremony & reception cards with directions on the backside
• Computer printed RSVP envelope address and main envelope return address
• Handwritten cursive addressing
• Wrapping paper cut and double stick taped envelope liners
• Faux wax sealed
• Designed using Adobe Illustrator
• Orchid design via IStockPhoto

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Outer envelope…

Flip it over to see our faux wax seals…

Unseal the envelope flap to reveal the hand cut and taped envelope liners…

The front displays our faux belly band with a monogram of our first names.

Open her up and you’ll see…

Compare these with our more casual save the dates. I think the only thing that make these match are the paper choices.

Our invitations are purposely mismatched. I had different goals for each. I wanted our Save the Dates to convey sunny San Diego summer fun. For our invitations, I wanted to convey to guests, “don’t forget your formal wear. Flip flops will not cut it.”

Do your invitations match your save the dates? Or did you have a different goal with each of them?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Like several bees before me, I was enchanted by accordion-fold programs. When I saw a packet of 11″x17″ paper on sale at Paper Presentation, I knew it was meant to be. I purchased some navy cardstock (both glittery and matte), pulled out the trusty Gocco, and got to work on the covers.

I like having options.

For the innards, I fit 2 program onto an 11″x17″ sheet, with each innard 4 panels long. I included the ceremony program, bridal party members, and an e.e. cummings poem. I also included a quote incorporated in Mrs. Peep Toe’s and Mrs. Hot Cocoa’s programs, which will not be recognized by most of our guests but appreciated by a select few. Then, in the continued practice of recruiting family members (especially on holidays), Sis and Mom Hamster helped me cut, paste and attach ribbon, like so:

Sis Hamster Folding the Program Innards

Reinforcing the crease with the trusty bone folder

Mom Hamster cutting the program innards

I believe it was at this point that she said “Put the camera down and get to work, child.” But for blogging posterity, I soldiered on.

The folded innards

Sis Hamster gluing the covers on

The inside of a completed program

To hold the programs, Mom Hamster found a basket as well as – *get this* – a gorgeous piece of velvet left from when her mom, my grandmother, sewed the bridesmaids dresses for my mom and dad’s wedding. How’s that for something old and borrowed?

The finished product

Are you having ceremony programs? What will they look like?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Many moons ago it seems, I showed you my save the dates and I mentioned I would be working with the same Etsy seller, Twin Ravens Press, on the invitation suite. I thought you might enjoy this little peek at the envelopes and the letterpress process! (All photos by Kristin and sent to me)

The paper for my envelope liners, before

This paper is natural lotka paper with embedded flower petals.

The envelope liner in the die-cutter machine

The liners after being cut

The envelopes fully lined

The letterpress

The printing plate for our return address with the blue ink on it

Our envelopes going to meet the printing plate

Our envelopes coming off the printing plate

And the finished envelope!

I’m so happy that Kristin sent me these pictures, and I could share a tiny sneak peek of what’s to come with you!

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Dear Wedding Santa,

I’ve been a good engaged bride-to-be. I took careful time picking our venue, flowers, and dress and even stayed in budget. I haven’t yelled (a lot) at my fiance and I haven’t (yet) been called a bridezilla. So when you check you nice list twice, I should be there. Here’s my invitation wish list:

1. calligraphed envelopes

Bella Figura

2. vintage postage stamps

100 Layer Cake

3. customized envelope liners

Smock Paper!

4. baker’s twine somewhere

Oh So Beautiful Paper

5. edge painting

Mrs. Gloss

6. hand canceled

Source

7. letterpress

Bella Figura

8. return address stamp

For Yoo from Etsy

Um, what else. Oh yeah, a new Barbie doll, a pony, and an E-Z Bake Oven. Oh, and a Snoopy Snow Cone machine.

Snow Cones!

Thanks, Wedding Santa!

xoxo,
Lobsty

What’s on your invitation wish list? Think you’ve been good enough for Wedding Santa?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Lamberdoodle’s sweet cousin handed out programs on the day of our wedding. She was so excited to be part of the festivities and took her duties quite seriously.

I was really proud of how they turned out, but of course, there’s a whole, long back story.

One day, I was at Michaels. (Aside: Michaels probably wonders where the loony scavenging for black and white goods on discount went – or maybe they just think I morphed into the lavender and sage hunting crazy getting married in June?) Since I had previously left some very good, cheap paper in our wedding colors on the shelf to never be found again, I jumped at the chance to buy them out of 3 stacks of 8×8 crafting paper. I had no earthly idea what I was going to use them for, but gosh darn it, I would have them laying around when the time was right.

The time was right when I conceived of the idea to make programs. I quickly cut out a few pieces of scrap paper to ensure the measurements would work out. Lo and behold, if I cut the 8×8 sheets exactly in half and then created a tri-fold program on 8.5×11, I could get two programs from each piece of paper and tuck them neatly into their little jackets.

It took a few hours and several printing tests, but I finally was able to squeeze all of the information we wanted into the allotted space, using Publisher.

I used Abigail font for the titles and Californian FB for the rest of the text (with some italicized). Both of these fonts were standard in my version of Office. I set the margins so that they would all be equal when I cut down the middle of the paper. In execution, I sent a PDF to Kinko’s and had them print and cut the cardstock. For $24 dollars, it was definitely a sanity saver not having to print double-sided on my home printer and cut each by hand.

The day after Christmas, I set my family to work. I had previously cut and folded all of the jackets while burning through my Netflix queue, but tri-folding the freshly printed insides was taking a bit of time. I also had a 1/16″ hole punch that was the needle eye to my 1/8″ ribbon camel. I also had quite a bit of pre-cut ribbon; however, I overestimate how many we would get from each roll. Since we needed more ribbon, I decided to break down and buy the 1/8″ hole punch while at Michaels. To top it all off, I had a ribbon length sample from a previous project, so Ewe Mother inadvertently cut all of the new ribbon into ties about 2 inches short, making them harder, but not impossible to tie. There was some rough going, but nothing says holiday cheer like everyone gathered around the table, carols on the radio, and teaching your Dad how to handle the bone folder. He’s a regular Martha Stewart now!

Did you con your family into wedding craft projects during a holiday gathering?

*First two photographs by our wonderful photographer Sam Hughes, and the rest by me.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Our invitations arrived on Wednesday, and I am just giddy with excitement! Our mailman probably thought I was crazy, considering how fast I grabbed the box out of his hands and closed the door on him.

I know I haven’t shared much about our invitations yet… but I love them so much that once I get started, I’m sure you’ll be begging me to stop. For now I’ll just say that I designed them myself and had them letterpress printed by Kristin at Twin Ravens Press. They turned out even better than I’d imagined, with double thick Crane Lettra paper, delicious indentations of my most favorite fonts, and pink envelopes, of course! I will slowly reveal them to you over the next couple weeks as I’ve only begun the little touches I’m planning to add!

Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! How are your invitations going? Are you designing them yourself, or turning to a trusted professional? Is the process going better than you expected or turning out to be a disappointment?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.