Post office lessons

When making your own invitations be very careful to make everything according to post office regulations. My sister chose to DIY her invitations after my success with the same project. Somehow in the process her rsvp postcards ended up 3x5 instead of 3.5x5. Well the post office has delivered the postcards but has also decided that since they aren't exact that they are going to charge her 78 cents more per card that she recieves. I don't know how exactly they will enforce this, but it's not necessarily welcome news.

Secondly she did wrap around labels, used spray adhesive to adhere them to the envelopes. The post office machines damaged some of them even to the point of completely ripping them off resulting in lost invitations. Needless to say this has caused her significant headache and extra work. It's not any help now but lesson learned to make sure to double check all post office regulations and send a test invitation before mailing them all out.

Our invitation that made it safely to us!

T's Wedding

Despite the fact that my wedding is over I seem to still be working on weddings. My sister's wedding is the focus however this go round. Today I proofed her wedding invitations at the printers. She lives out of town and wanted to use the same printer I did. However she waited until last minute so I will most likely be driving them out to her tomorrow.

I also did a mock up flower arrangement for her shower. And of course if you know me you know I LOVE fresh florals, so any excuse to buy flowers I jump at. I wanted to test putting sliced limes in the vase to see how well it does or does not work. I started the arrangement yesterday and put in the limes. I quickly learned that the limes will turn overnight so I definitely can't put the limes in until the morning of. However I was really happy overall with the look. I don't know if I will be making an arragement this big, I might make a bunch of smaller versions to space them out. But the look will be similar. Her wedding colors are green and brown, but her flowers will be white and green at the wedding.

R.S.V.P

The RSVPs started rolling in yesterday which was very exciting! We got our first RSVP on Sunday handed to us but the ones in the mail are also now coming. This signals the final stretch and I am looking forward to finding out who can and can't come after months of speculation. Knowing the numbers also means that I can get working on programs, escort cards and all those other last minute projects where it is essential to know exactly who is coming.

In the Mail

Today I put all of our invitations in the mail! It was such a wonderful feeling to hand them all off and know that this project is done and all I have to do is wait for RSVPs to come in. I took them to the Loveland post office and stamped them all with the circular stamp that has the date and city name. I know it's cringe worthy cheesy that I drove the extra five minutes so they could be coming from the land of love, but it makes me smile like a little girl so it's totally worth the teasing.

Finished!

Da Da, the invitations are complete! They are all assembled, addressed and stamped. Now they are waiting to go to the post office. This project has been a labor of love. Many hours and help from my Mom, Tiffany and Heather was needed in order to get these completed. But it was all worth it in the end! Here they are:

Putting all the stamps on.



The front with the brand new wedding stamp and the return address on the back flap.

All ready to go to the post office.

Almost Done

The invitations are almost done and my excitement is palatable! Tonight my good friend and DOC Heather came over to help with the process of assembling invitations. There are only a small number of people who I would allow to help me with such a detailed project but Heather and I are cut from the same cloth and she understands my penchant for detail. She was such a huge help especially since she was extremely more efficient than me. I definitely would not have gotten as far as I did if it hadn't been for her help, thanks Heather!

I am proud to say that I only have five more invitations to go. Through the process of assembling the invitations and putting them in the correct envelopes I found a few errors that unfortunately can't be corrected until tomorrow. But tomorrow evening they will all be done and ready for me to go to the post office, determine outer postage, and mail them off!

The assembly line all ready to go!

All the pieces separately.

All the pieces stacked together ready to be enclosed by the ribbon.

All set ready for the envelope.

The invitation as it will look in the envelope. I am very happy that I went with the black envelopes because they will be more dramatic to receive them and the purple looks great against it!

Woman on a Mission

Today I will again be calling the different local post offices in search of the new postcard stamp. They all said they should have it by Monday or Tuesday of this week. Here's hoping that I find them!



Update: I found a local post office today who was able to sell them to me! So I have the stamps and will begin assembling tomorrow!

Postal Frustration

I am slightly frustrated at the post office. I need to put the postage on my RSVPs before I am able to assemble them and seal them in the envelopes. I picked postcard RSVPs so that we wouldn't have to pay for full postage. On May 11th the postage rates are changing. So I need the new stamps so that when people mail their RSVPs they actually make it back to me. Unfortunately no post office carries them yet. I called multiple post offices today and no one knows when they will be carrying it either. So for now my invitations have been stunted until I can track down the new postcard stamps. O well.

Ribbons

Today was all about ribbons. I went to two different JoAnn Fabrics to track down more spools of the 1.5 inch, orange, satin ribbon since my local store was out. Unfortunately after I cut the ribbon I am still three short so I will have to go track down one more spool.

Today's project was the most tedious thus far. We folded them so that when the ends are secured under the square tag they taper in. I thought this looked a little bit more elegant or fancier than just attaching the ribbon flat. If you remember from the trial run the ribbons will look similar to this:

It was important to be precise so that the folds on each side of the taper are equal and that the dip in the middle is actually in the middle and not off-centered. Overall this part took around 3 hours with the help of my sister. Sure it could have been much worse, but again it was just tedious.

Here are all the folded ribbons ready to be attached.

Invitation Progress

Today I may significant invitation progress. I was able to score and fold all of the purple cardstock to make the gatefolds. Then later in the evening Tiffany and I adhered all of the invites to the gatefolds. I would say the scoring and folding took about 2.5-3 hours total but that was doing it by myself since I only had one scorer and at different intervals during the day. It took the two of us about 1 hour to adhere the invites to the cardstock. The project really ended up being painless and much easier than I had anticipated. Here is hoping the next step of cutting and folding the ribbons is just as easy.

Here they are waiting for the next step in the process and below is us working on them.

Back from the Printer

My invitations are back from the printer. They look wonderful and I am really happy with the outcome! For anyone in the Cincinnati area you should definitely consider using Pro Graphics.

I enjoyed working with them, they were very patient with me making sure that we picked the correct ink colors, updating sizes and spacing from my original files. The whole process took 2 weeks but I had lots of corrections to make since I didn't do a great job of proofreading before I sent them in. The actual print time was one day, they sent them to print yesterday morning and they were all cut and ready to go by the afternoon.

UPDATE TO POST:

It has taken me awhile but finally here are the pictures of the invitations back from the printer. I realize the black boxes detract from the design but I also appreciate my privacy, so sorry. Its a bit difficult to tell from far away but all of the script font is purple which matches the purple cardstock I am going to mount them on.

This is one of my favorite features of the RSVP post card that when you flip it over the graphic looks like it wraps around. Sorry for the blurry pictures but it at least shows how the graphic wraps.

This week I also got the purple paper cut to size at Kinkos for $3, which was a life saver because they did it in 2 minutes and it is very precise. If I had cut them, it would have taken over an hour or a few hours and would not have been as crisp. I also purchased the scoring blade that I am going to use with Heather's paper cutter that I am borrowing. So all that left to do is to begin assembling them!

Ta Da!

So I finally found it, the purple paper I am going to use for all our paper products. It's perfect! Yep that's right I am enamored with a piece of paper, my brain has officially been kidnapped by the wedding bug. After weeks of searching online, ordering samples, and scouring small scrap book stores I found it at the nearby Hobby Lobby. I am excited because it is very vibrant and unmistakably purple.

Addressing Invitations

Through the wedding planning experience I have learned that I am more of a feminist than I realized. If you haven't realized this check out the posts about my inner dilemma over my name change.

One current concern was how to address invitations while staying true to my feminism but also following proper ettiquette. I am so excited to have found a post over on A Practical Wedding about this exact topic! They actually just laid it out for and gave examples of each scenario. You can find the post here.

Black Envelopes

As part of the invitation process I also have to pick out envelopes. Depending on the paper I could get an envelope that matches the invitation perfectly but I'm not sure if that would be too much purple or too matchy matchy. Also I'm not sure what cream or white envelopes would look like with a true deep purple. I never even considered black until someone I know posted her black envelopes with white calligraphy and I thought it was fabulous! Using a black envelope might be in my favor if I have to use a really deep purple so that next to the black envelope it won't look as dark.

Photo taken from hrparker

Belly Bands

To close the gatefold and hold everything together we are going to use a ribbon belly band. It took some trial and error but finally figured out how I wanted them made. Originally I started with a thinner ribbon and all the pieces were orange. I like the thicker ribbon better, it seems more balance. The thicker ribbon was also easier to fold to create the luxe taper look. I followed directions from thecheshirekat on how to fold the ribbon. The graphic on the inside is orange but decided that it would be best to switch it to purple for the outside. Two of the mock ups are below, keep in mind these are ROUGH mock ups just to give ideas and help us figure out the final product. We are going to go with the one on the bottom. I think I need to make the cream square with graphic larger and I'm not completely sold on the shimmer orange paper since the rest of the invitation is matte cardstock.

Purple Paper Problems

The samples that I ordered last week came in on Friday. Over the weekend I made a few rough mock ups. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled with any of the purple paper selections. The shimmer papers were just too light, especially since I have made a conscious choice not to include anything lilac colored. Orange also doesn't go well with lilac it goes well with a true purple. The other paper selection was just too dark and in certain lights looked almost black.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think finding paper would be a difficult task. I have found many purple colors that I like but each side of the paper is the same one side is rough and one side is smooth, the front is matte and the back is shimmery, or one is lighter and the other darker. Because we are using a gate fold both sides need to be the same which has been the biggest problem. I really wanted to use a shimmer paper but none of the selections are darker than a lilac.

So the hunt is back on. I found a paper at Paper Source that I ordered a sample of and might be a viable option. Additionally we went to Archivers to check out a few things and I found a purple paper that I had somehow missed every other time I had been there. If the paper source sample proves to be a failure then I will go with the paper from Archivers.

Paper Source Cardstock in the color Beet

Paper from Archivers that is a purple in between the two mock ups.

Paper, paper and more paper

My current hunt is for the perfect paper, purple paper to be exact. I haven't had any trouble finding good cream or white cardstock for the invite card to mounted inside the gatefold. But finding the purple paper to make the gatefold has turned into my new obsession. I never thought that choosing my main color to be purple would send me in constant searches for the right shade in bridesmaid dresses, now paper, and who knows tomorrow maybe pew bows.

Today I made some headway and went downtown to Xpedx a paper store to be able to look at specific paper shades and feel their weight/texture. It definitely helped me cross out some options and narrow down my choices. They let me take home some samples and those I couldn't get samples from I ordered off of anchor paper online. Once they come in I am just going to have to settle and make a choice because deciding between a lighter metallic paper or a darker matte paper is beginning to make my head spin.

Invitation Mock-ups

With yesterday's and today's snow days I was able to make some real headway in regards to our invitations. I played around with many different design ideas and formats and have ended up with two top choices. One is more simple and classic, the other is more modern. I like both but am drawn more to one and Andy is drawn to the other. So now I have the dilemma of picking one and refining the design. Which ever one we choose we will also use the design on all paper products: programs, table numbers, photo sharing cards etc...

Here are the two designs we are deciding between. Keep in mind these are rough mock-ups so yes the cutting is crooked and they aren't printed on ideal paper. The invites will eventually be sent to a printer and printed on a ivory card stock. We also are going to be deciding whether or not to just mount them onto the purple card stock like in the pictures or to use the purple card stock to create a gatefold. In each picture is also possible reply cards and escort cards that coordinate.

Let me know which one you like better and any other suggestions!

Here are some of the many other designs I made and rejected.

Snow Day

Today we had a snow day, which means I had extra time to finally play around with invite design ideas. I have to say once I got started it wasn't so scary after all and I had some fun. I am in the process of making multiple mock-ups and then will decide which design I want to go with. I will be posting some of them later.

Envelope Lining?

In my invitation quest I have been procrastinating by thinking about possibly lining our envelopes. Yes I know I shouldn't be creating another project for myself until I check a few off my list, but I can't help it. I think I might have found a possible option, especially if we put the invitation on a purple backing. If we use this I'm not sure if I can go with an ivory envelope. Just another thing to add to my list to consider.