Since our wedding was three weeks ago, I figure it’s safe to post our invite suite. We opted for a customized version of Spice Grace from Invitation Consultants. Once the invites arrived, I noticed that the mailing envelope was rather dainty. Given the abuse that our save the dates took getting mailed to our roommates, I began to entertain the idea of creating a protector for my beloved invites. In a moment of true bridal brain, I snapped and decided to make 150 orange pocketfolds. I tweaked Mrs. Teacup’s and Mrs. Deviled Egg’s tutorials for creating pocketfolds.
To assemble the invitations, I placed the invite on the large portion of the pocketfold; stacked the reception card, hotel info, and response card; and tucked these cards into the side pocket. Because the pocketfolds were a rather snug fit into the mailing envelope, we decided to secure the orange flap. We then bought gold heart seals for the orange pocketfold and white C monogram seals for the mailing envelope at Michaels. We nixed a belly band or ribbon because it might incur a hand cancelling fee.
Our invites – Spice Grace from Invitation Consultants
Color: Custom mix of spice and burgundy
Font: Amazone
Cost: $1.32 per invite + $20 for customization – $10 new customer coupon + free shipping!
Hotel info inserts: Cream cardstock from AC Moore
Pocketfolds: Burnt orange cardstock from www.paperandmore.com
Postage: $0.65 per invite + $0.45 per response card
Total cost: $600
Cost per invite: $4.28 including postage
Invite wording:
Say you’ll share with me
One love… one lifetime…
Say the word and I will follow you.
Mackenzie Andres C—
and
Lisa Page V——–
[Maroon band] Love me, that’s all I ask of you.
joyfully invite you to attend
the celebration of their marriage
Saturday, June 9, 2012
five o’clock in the afternoon
Cape Fear Botanical Garden
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Reception card wording:
Eat. Drink. Be Married.
Please join us for cocktails, dinner,
and dancing after the ceremony.
The Orangery at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden
536 N Eastern Blvd
Fayetteville, North Carolina 28301
Response card wording:
Send us a Hokie Hi and respond by May 1, 2012.
M_____________________________________________
Guests ready to Hokie Pokie
Future Hokies ___________
Dietary concerns _________________
Pulled a muscle during Enter Sandman and will have to miss out.
We also included a card with information about the hotel blocks, the shuttle from the hotel to the venue, and an invite to our home for a party on Friday night and brunch on Sunday morning. We printed our envelopes. I read Miss Unicycle’s delightful how-to post on Mail Merge in Excel. What a glorious feature. We kept the Amazone font for continuity. I tweaked the envelope font size and didn’t have to fill in any addresses.
Overall, I was beyond in love with our invites. We received a lot of good feedback from our friends and family about the wording. It was cheesy, and over the top, and Hokie. But I LOVE IT. After all, I did write it. We did encounter a few problems: not everyone knew that “Future Hokies” meant kids. That was easily remedied.
Another was that we didn’t address (ha, I’m hilarious) our mailing and pocketfolds separately. The general etiquette is to address the mailing envelope to the head of household and to specify all invitees on the inner envelope. Our guest list just had the person(s) we knew or the parents, so mail merge only included them. Several of our parent guests thought their kids weren’t invited, and more than several of our non-married friends thought their significant others weren’t invited. If my dating-but-not-married friends responded they were coming alone, I checked with them to see if they wanted to bring their beloved. Our final “issue” was the sheer number of people who lost their response cards. We had four or five guests call or text us around our response date saying they were coming but couldn’t find the card.
How did you design your wedding invitations?
I LOVE the response wording. Of course. 🙂