invitations

i realized that i still hadn't posted any pictures of the invitations. i thought it was about time to do so.

we purchased all the paper, the stamp, the "belly bands" (ugh! gross), the envelopes, the adhesive + the printing for 250 invitations for under $140. the total cost to assemble one invitation was $0.54.

we were able to keep the weight of the invitation down by not including rsvp cards (i mean... who really uses those things, anyhow? just a bunch of wasted paper + postage), so it was only $0.44 to mail each envelope. tim's mom (who is a genius), bought about 750 "forever" stamps just before the postage went up. she was kind enough to sell them to us at the $0.42 rate.

so... each invitation only cost $0.96 to assemble + mail. pretty danged awesome, if you ask me.
a whole bunch of my girlfriends volunteered their cutting, folding, glue-ing, stuffing expertise + we were able to complete the entire process in four evenings.

i hand-stamped every single invitation three times + every envelope once. between the save-the-date cards + the invitations, i used that stamp over 1,250 times. i got our money's worth out of it, to say the least. but i tell ya what, if i never see that stamp again, it will be too soon for me.

alright... here are the pics.

the front of the invitation.

belly band. (such a terrible name!)
little swatch of paper, dictionary page background

with our initials + the date of our wedding.

inside.

close up of the inside

i used century gothic + edwardian script

information sheet.

this included info on hotels, how to rsvp, our wedding blog, etc.

there is a map to the church on the back.

the labels were a take on an idea i got from martha.
you can get the template here:

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/goodthings/ready-and-labeled?autonomy_kw=labels

the labels wrap around the envelope so that the return address is on the back. pretty great, huh? especially if you're lazy like me + don't want to hand-address 250 envelopes.

i printed the labels on the same paper as we used for the center of the invitations. we used a rotary cutter to dice them up + that double-sided permanent adhesive tape that comes in the handy-dandy cartridge to attach them to the envelopes. we didn't have any trouble with the post office or with people receiving their invitations. i was a little worried, so... phew!