The Invitations Close-Ups

The last big decision that I made regarding the invites was the inner envelope. I had just assumed that I would have one. With the pocketfold being Black Stardream, that meant that the inner envelope would be Opal Stardream (matching the paper) and the outer envelope would be Black Stardream again. A nice tie in, I thought. Until I realized that I can’t print on Black Stardream envelopes. Hmmm...yes, there were several solutions.

1 – do the “calligraphy” trick that so many bees and other brides have posted about, like here
2 –use address labels for both front address and return address on back
3 – use a wrap around label on the outer envelope that I could design and print on my Opal Stardream paper to match again

Well, I can tell you that I didn’t like the look of regular address labels. Even if I could make them cute somehow, it just seemed off. The thought of hand writing all 80 invitations didn’t appeal to me either. I got on board with the wrap-around label idea, but B nixed it right away. Wouldn’t even consider it, which led to a discussion about why you needed two envelopes. He had good points; I have to give it to him. He won this battle. There would be NO inner envelope, which would allow the outer envelope to be Opal Stardream and printing would commence directly on the envelope. But what to do about differentiating who the invitation was addressed to? On the outer envelope? That thought didn’t appeal to me. And although, in most cases, the entire household was invited, there were a few invites where I felt the need to specify who in the house was invited...and of course, you needed to invite your plus ones, right? I didn’t like the idea of putting “& Guest” on the outer envelope...I know that doesn’t make much sense, but these are my invitations and I have to allright with it all.

So I came up with the idea to print and mount labels on the pocketfold itself. We were already adding our monogram and a quote that we felt was appropriate to the outside of the pocketfold, why not add one more thing? And since they all wouldn’t be on the same place, it was a perfect solution. I had originally thought to put the label on the back of the pocketfold, but MOH stopped me. She made the valid point that not everyone opens their mail the same way. Who’s to say how they would open the invite and how they would pull it out of the envelope? They could open it in such a way that they would miss the label entirely...and the nightmares started up again of massive amounts of people showing up. Luckily, we agreed that mounting the label above the monogram on the front of the pocketfold where they were SURE to see it was an ideal solution. Placing the quote on the flap beneath was a no-brainer. It reads “Once in a lifetime, someone comes along who changes everything.” It was a stamp that I found early on during the planning process at Hobby Lobby and I knew that it HAD to be in our wedding. You see, being an encore, sometimes you think that you’ll never marry again. That you would rather live alone for the rest of your life than in the situation that you left. You don’t expect to meet someone and get a second chance...that’s the stuff of movies, right? Wrong. Sometimes in real life, you do get another chance. Sometimes in real life, you meet someone and everything that you thought you knew changes in an instant. This quote was perfect for us!

So you get your invite out of the envelope (carefully not throwing the envelope away because it’s SOOOO beautiful!) and you see your name and our monogram. You open up the flap (it’s not tied or tacked down in any way) and you read our quote, which most will understand since these are close family and friends only, no strangers here. Folding that flap down you see our invite in the middle and the pocket full of inserts below. Each insert’s title is carefully shown...and all information is displayed nicely...but I’m biased! You find your written Directions on the largest insert, with a note that there is a Map on the reverse side... And turn it over to see the CUTEST map ever made by me! (Yeah, yeah. So it’s the ONLY map I’ve ever made – whatever!) Next, you have your Accommodation instructions about the room block that we’ve got and the expiration date on those rooms. I also included the hotel’s street address (for GPS users) and 1-800 phone number to call, along with our group code, to make the reservations. This insert is just mounted on black cardstock. And last, but not least, is the RSVP insert. It has our deadline date in bold...along with a place to mark yes or no and how many guests we can expect. Then on the reverse side, just our mailing address and the discreetly placed RSVP#.

Here’s the whole set with the outer envelope displayed as well.

I love it. Plain and simple. There just aren’t any words to describe the pride that I feel for these invites. I would do this for a living...except not on that Stardream cover weight paper and my printer EVER again! LOL.