Invited for the Big RD

Have you created your "Mad Men" avatar yet? When Mr. S suggested that we create avatars and use them on the rehearsal dinner, I thought he had lost it...just a bit. But once I placed that cartoon martini in my hand, I was sold!

Once we had digitized ourselves, Mr. S laid out a postcard with the little rehearsal dinner poem that I see everyone around the net. It might be a wee bit cheesy but I didn't have the patience to try and be clever on my own.


We ordered our postcards from Zazzle because they let you order any quantity you want (we only needed 15), and they came last week - I was so excited to get these out the door!


Unfortunately, the back was laid out all wonky and could not be sent as they were. Sadness! So it was DIY to the rescue. I laid out a little message and printed it out on white cardstock that was a bit small than the postcards. I then cut out green cardstock the side of the postcards and glued one on top of the other (I needed the green to keep the originally wording on the card from showing through...and it adds a nice little pop!). Instead of sending these as postcards, we'll just drop them into white envelopes and be done with it.

I know we didn't truly need to create rehearsal dinner invites - or dinner will be small and our friends and family would have no problem with a simple email. But I felt the need to add just one more project onto the pile, and these were (relatively) simple and fun!

How are you spreading the word about your rehearsal dinner?

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Messages in the Mail

I was so excited to mail our invitations a couple of weeks back, and starting the day after sending them, we've received two response cards each day! I love seeing those little envelopes show up in the mail...and, our guests have really gotten into the Madlibs aspect of our response cards, so we've had some fun responses.

I thought I'd share some of the standout cards...the last line of the card says:

Don't forget to ________ [advice] after you _______[advice]!

In retrospect we wish we had set up our cards differently so that everyone would fill this out, regardless of whether or not they're attending (right now, this is for those who can't make it). Fortunately, our guests are having fun filling this line out whether or not they're attending!

Card #1 - Life Advice

From my dad's cousin and his wife - "Don't forget to brush your teeth after every meal!" Sound advice if you ask me!


Card #2 - Financial Advice

From my dad's friend who cannot make the wedding and enclosed a check with his response card - "Don't forget to cash check after the wedding quickly!" Duly noted.


Card #3 - Relationship Advice

From Melanie and Joe, our good friends (Joe is an usher in the wedding) - "Don't forget to consummate your marriage after the wedding I do's." Umm, we'll work on that one...is that built into the timeline?!

We've had a lot of other fun cards about eating our cake, saving room for dessert, relaxing the day after, etc. So great!

Our guests who are attending get to fill in the line that they will be ready to _______ [verb] with us...party, get crunk and celebrate are the most common for this line.

Even though we didn't set the card up perfectly, we're so glad we made the RSVPs interactive and I think it will be so much fun to look back on these after we have them all and then do something special with the funny ones!

Did your RSVP cards have a twist to them?

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Take It Away, USPS

My invitations are officially out of my hands and out of my mind as of today! I lugged them all to work on the train and mailed them from the (oh so convenient!) post office in my building.

And, of course, who doesn't need an entourage when sending their invites?! My co-worker Megan was kind enough to accompany me down there to snap a few shots of the big ta-da (please don't mind that I rolled out of bed a tad late today and didn't put on a drop of make up, ugh).


Last night I sealed them all and packed them up for the journey on the train. Don't they look nice? That damask pattern across the top of the envelopes is one of my favorite details.


The only minor set back was the fact that the flap on the envelopes was rather large and so there was a big gap on either side after I had sealed the envelopes. Fortunately, we noticed this pretty early in the process, so it was nothing that a little glue stick couldn't fix as I sealed away.

Whew. Not only am I glad to get these into the hands of our invitees, I'm excited that some space will be freed up...these have been stored in our house since February!

Did you breath a big sigh of relief when you mailed your invitations, or were you sorry to see them go?

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DIY Invitation Addressing With a Twist!

I've posted about the in's and out's of our invitations...we've had them in our house since about February, but actually taking the final step - addressing these suckers - took some planning. We have these fabulous outer envelopes, but I just didn't know what to do in order to stay in line with the integrity of the design. Oh yeah, and in line with that pesky budget.

Source: Plush Paper

Along with many others, I fell in love with this easy way to mimic calligraphy, as posted on Project Wedding. I'm sure many others have hopped on board with this great project, including Miss Piglet (her invitations are fabulous!).

I liked this idea, but having done many a mail merge at work, I absolutely hate running envelopes through the printer because I've been witness to far too many fatalities - jamming, crookedness, black marks, you name it. I just couldn't subject my precious invitations to a chancy procedure. But since the whole project just boiled down to tracing, I decided there had to be a way to piggyback on this project.

I present to you my makeshift light box:


Taking one of the little click lights that we have on the underside of our kitchen cabinets, I took the glass out of a picture frame and propped it up on two books, sliding the light underneath. Voila! This setup was perfect for illuminating the addresses (of course, if I had dark envelopes this project would not work).


Here's a sample of a finished envelope (don't mind the messy blurring that I did to hide the full address):


It's not perfect, but it fits with our design exactly. The rest of the invitation was done in a typewriter font, so I used that for the addresses. This font also tends to be a little irregular, which lends itself perfectly to tracing! It would be fun to try this out with a more calligraphy font, but that's another project for another day.

If you're thinking of going this route because you can't stand the thought of running your envelopes through the printer, here's what I did:

1. Set up a labels mail merge through Microsoft Word
2. Use Avery Label 5168 (5" x 3.5")
3. Set up your font, centering and spacing preferences, and set your address text toward the bottom of the label (you'll need to experiment to find the right place; the first line of mine started at the 3" mark on the label)
4. Before completing the merge, also make all borders thick black lines
5. Complete the merge and go through the individual "labels" to make any adjustments, check for errors, etc*
6. Print your "labels" onto regular printer paper
7. Use a paper cutter to cut out the "labels" - the black lines at the bottoms of the rectangles can be used as guides when you're cutting them to ensure a straight line, especially if you don't have a paper cutter and are using scissors
8. What are intended to be labels are actually perfect for slipping right into your envelopes to then trace

*You will probably want to go through a couple of trial runs before you complete the merge to get the address located on the right part of the "label" so that it falls on the right place on your envelope.

For me, this was such a painless process, except for the pain in my hand as I addressed away! The mail merge makes it incredibly seamless, allowing you to pull straight from the Excel list you're maintaining.

Of the 73 invitations I have to address, all but six are done! And, I didn't mess up on a single invitation thus far...I think it's safe to call this project a success.

How did you choose to address your invitations?

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Invitation Innards

I was so excited to finally have my maps, which meant I could then put the "innards" of the invitations together. Since we had this extra piece to include, it gave me a perfect excuse to create belly bands with some extra ribbon I had. What do you think of the final product?


After downloading Dafont's LP Flowers 2, I found a shape that would match our damask theme. I laid these out in Microsoft Publisher and then printed them out on white cardstock. Using my handy 2-inch scallop cutter (that I think I use for every project now!), I cut out the disks.


I had a bunch of black grosgrain ribbon that I was previously going to use for the bridesmaid bouquets. I cut the ribbon into lengths that would tightly "bundle" the invitation pieces with a little overlap for taping. I had enough to bundle over half of our invitations. Not wanting to spend any more money, I used some thinner white ribbon that I had on hand to finish the rest. I ended up really liking the look of the white as much as I liked the black ribbon.

Using super strong double stick tape (the package claims it's permanent), I wrapped each invitation packet with a piece of ribbon and secured it with the tape. I then taped a circle to the center of each one, hiding the place where the ribbon overlaps. Sneaky!

Stacking them as I went, I gathered quite the pile sitting precariously next to me on the sofa...and they magically didn't topple over, even when I got up! (to get the camera, of course, to document my stellar stacking abilities)

This was a project that I easily completed in one evening. Yes, it got a bit tedious toward the end. I was hunched over, sore, and my finger was shredded by the end of the tape dispenser. But I'm in love with the final results and hope that our guests - at the very least - appreciate that pieces of paper won't be fluttering to the ground when they open their invitations!

While I wouldn't claim that the tape I used ("Duck" brand double sided tape) is permanent, it seems to be quite secure. When I took the bundles out a few days later, only one of the 75 had come unstuck and the rest were holding strong! It's out of my hands once those babies hit the mailbox...

Were you able to complete an extra project from start to finish, using only items you already had?

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Fabulous Mappin'

Say it with me: "Map love, love, love!"

Source: Pantomime Papers

"Penny" of Pantomime Papers a.k.a. Miss Snapdragon a.k.a. Heather has truly outdone herself! When I heard she was creating custom maps I jumped on it immediately and contacted her about creating one for our wedding.

Since everything on our wedding day will be very close together within Oak Park, we didn't feel our guests needed a map to show them how to get from point A to point B. Instead, because Oak Park boasts so many sites to be seen (from Frank Lloyd Wright's studio to Ernest Hemingway's birthplace), we wanted to make sure our guests knew everything that Oak Park has to offer - in addition to the Stiletto festivities, of course!

Heather seemed very excited about creating a whimsical map that was focused more on fun and not at all on coordinates. I sent her a list of locations we wanted to include, and Heather went to work designing a 4x6 map.

I definitely wanted to include the historic Lake Theater - it's so iconic! The Green Line "L" train to downtown Chicago was a must, also. Take the Green Line to be "green" for our wedding, people!

Source: Pantomime Papers

It's great how the Frank Lloyd Wright studio was not only worked in, but Heather suggested this great Wright motif for the map overall. And see? Ernest Hemingway is hard at work right by our reception site!

Source: Pantomime Papers

As soon as Heather sent me the file, we places an order for 4x6 postcards from Overnight Prints. On the back, we included a message from Mr. S and I to our guests, welcoming them to Oak Park and encouraging them to see the sites while they visit. We also took this opportunity to plug our hotel block as well, since it's only been listed on our wedding web site and we really want people to stay there (not only will it be fun, we need a certain number of rooms booked in our block for us to stay in the suite for free!).


I can't wait to share with you how we're incorporating these maps into our invitation suite! For more of Heather's maps, check out Miss Bruschetta's Philly map and Heather's web site.

What extra piece really put your invitations over the top?

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Google Has Nothin' on This Map

Miss Bruschetta just posted her fabulous Philadelphia map created by the ever-so-talented Miss Snapdragon of Pantomime Papers, more familiarly known as Heather. As soon as I saw Miss Bruschetta's post I couldn't wait to share my map too, but I'm not prepared to show the full enchilada! Plans are in place to use this map as a fun insert in our wedding invitations, so you'll see the map in full when everything is printed and ready to go.

Both Mr. S and I were blown away by Heather's work - I had thought it would be fun to have a cute map, but when we saw what Heather had created I realized that this will most definitely be one of my most favorite keepsakes from the wedding. I can't wait to frame a copy!

So here's a sneak peak of our whimsical Oak Park map - complete with some Frank Lloyd Wright influences and a whole lotta sights to see.

Source: Pantomime Papers

Stay tuned for the whole map and to find out how we're going to use it in our invitations as a special touch for our guests.

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Cherish, Dream, Live

I've had my invitations since February, but they were designed back in December by my fabulous designer who I hired back in September. Yes, I'm a little crazy like that, but I wanted to start getting this detail worked out. Is it hard sometimes seeing a lot of fabulous invitations out there and knowing that mine have been printed for months? Sometimes - I've had my fair share of invitation envy, but I love what we'll be sending out to our guests in just a couple of months!

Source: Plush Paper

I had originally thought I'd DIY my invitations in order to save some money. I'm not very paper crafty, though, so I think that DIY idea was more of a pipe dream. One evening last summer, Mr. S and I were struggling with the look/feel of our wedding. I decided we needed to pick a font and once we had that font, everything else would fall into place. We both agreed on typewriter font, so I started searching on Google for invitations that incorporated this font. And I landed on these:

Source: Plush Paper

I loved how the typewriter font was used...and how fabulous is the picture?! I'd kill for this picture. I bookmarked Plush Paper's site so that I could reference this great invitation later on, but certainly knew I couldn't afford custom invitations.

A couple of month's later I decided on a whim to contact Plush Paper and just see what it would cost to have invitations designed and printed. Kathleen of Plush Paper gave me a quote that was only $60 over what I'd been budgeting for invitations - what I'd considered to be a pretty small budget overall...her quote covered a custom design, printing, 80 invitations, 80 reply cards, 80 inner envelopes and 80 outer envelopes and priority shipping to me (since she's in Detroit). Woo! I was so excited to know that I'd be able to do something that was unique to us, but wouldn't break the bank.

We chose to use a picture from our engagement shoot, shot by the fabulous Laurie Peacock. While it's not a soft and romantic picture - I mean, we're strutting across a parking lot! - we both kept on coming back to this shot when we were trying to decide on the perfect picture. I like that it's a strong picture and we're walking hand in hand. We incorporated a quote that seemed fitting:

Cherish yesterday
Dream tomorrow
Live today

Kathleen added some great damask details to the front and back to soften it up a bit (on the back our names are on that white stripe in a typewriter font).

Source: Plush Paper

I knew exactly what I wanted the inside to be - Madlibs! Once we had settled on using a typewriter font and wanted a vintage feel overall, Madlibs immediately came to mind. They use a similar font, were started in the 1950s and are very playful. This was a fun way for us to share the details of our day! And, breaking with tradition, we included the ceremony and reception information on the same card - easier for our guests to have the information all in one place, and less wasteful as well.

Source: Plush Paper

In keeping with the Madlibs theme, our guests get to play a little Madlibs too with their response cards.

Guests who are planning on attending get to fill in the sentence:

__________ [name(s)] will be there ready to __________ [verb] with you!

Guests who can't make it get to complete the following:

__________ [name(s)] won't be there on the big day. Don't forget to _________ [advice] after the _________ [advice].

I'm hoping we get some fun little pieces of advice in there and overall some silly responses. I think these could be a great keepsake after the day - maybe even scanning a couple of these and adding into our wedding album!

Source: Plush Paper

And finally, our envelopes. Kathleen did a fabulous job with the damask accents on these. It was an option for us to have the addresses printed on the envelopes, but that would have meant printing these much closer to the send date and me giving up control! I just couldn't do it. While I'm sure Kathleen would do everything perfectly, I wanted to control the final addressing of each one! I've got some plans for addressing these that I plan to share as we get closer.

Source: Plush Paper

What special touches do you think make your invitations unique?

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