Most Important Trip to the Post Office EVER.

The invitations are DONE. They have, in fact, been lovingly placed on my friends' and family's refrigerators for some time, but I just haven't gotten around to a blog post. Let me tell you, when I let these babies go at the Post Office, I suffered a minor bout of separation anxiety. I even sprung for the 61 cent stamps because I didn't believe the postal employee who assured me that a regular 44 center would do the trick (although, I may have been persuaded by the adorableness of the wedding cake on the 61 cent, and the sickness of the wedding rings on the plain 44's).

The invitations were something I wasn't always sure I was going to make on my own. I knew sort of what I wanted, so I went to a few stationary stores and websites to price them. I only needed about 50, but the price range of what I wanted (not including RSVP cards or any inserts) was anywhere from $2.75 a piece to $5 a piece! Not exactly in my budget. So, I did some prototyping and came up with an elegant looking invitation for super cheap.

First things first, I decided I did NOT want to make 50 RSVP cards, 50 RSVP envelopes, 50 maps to the venue, etc... so I created our wedding website to house all of the details and utilize a nifty RSVP tool that would help keep my guest list organized. With the website made, I just had to nail down the wording of the invite. I love my parents and future in-laws dearly, but since we are not having a huge luxurious bash being paid for by our parents, I wanted to avoid the stuffy "Mr. and Mrs. LastName invite you...". Instead, we wanted to address our close circle of family and friends and let them know that their attendance at our wedding was really important to us because they have played an important role in our lives. We went with:

"Because your love and friendship have helped us become who we are, we joyfully invite you to share in our celebration of love and commitment."

Under that, we had our names (obvs) and the date and time of the ceremony. To RSVP and get the rest of the deets, we referred our guests to the website.

Once I got the text formatted to the proper width and spacing, I was able to print it out on white cardstock (2 per page, score!) and cut them. Next, I rubber stamped a top border (the same stamp as I used on the Save the Dates). After that, I added a strip of black and white ribbon (again, the same as the Save the Date) using some serious double stick tape action. I mounted each piece onto green cardstock and cut around it to create a border. Here's a few pics of the invites in their assembly-line action:

Once they were all cut apart, I created little pseudo-envelopes for them, black with a green ribbon bow. I saw this look in a book of sample invitations and I LOVED it (but hated the fact that the outer envelope, with the adorable bow, was an extra 2 bucks per invite). I just used good old textured cardstock, a bone folder, and my new best friend, double-stick tape. Here's what the finished product looked like:

After they were all assembled, they got stuffed into their Staples clearance envelopes (I couldn't get the original green envelopes I wanted in the proper size, which resulted in what I'm embarrassed to say was a 2 day temper tantrum, but these envelopes worked just fine) and lovingly addressed by hand with my newest favorite writing utensil, the Sharpie PEN.

And then they were finished! I don't have the exact price breakdown, but I can assure you that these little lovers were finished for well under $50 (thanks in part to a 5/$1 cardstock sale at JoAnn's!) and I have plenty of materials left over to make the dessert description cards and other things we may need for the ceremony.

I have gotten some gret feedback from the invitations, and I LOVED making them. I am seriously considering an etsy shop for personalized invite or holiday cards. Think it would get any business...?