Head(s) Over Heels: Invitations (Part III)

stamping party at the Bottomses'

With such beautiful invitations in hand, we started trying to finalize the look and feel of the envelop we’d be sticking them in. (This was where I think I lost my Dad and maybe even Javs.) I started talking about stamps. That’s right, stamps. I wanted some fun quirky stamps to go with our paper bag invites and Ash Lawn wedding. ‘They’ (whoever they are….) say that the invitation sets the tone for you wedding, so why not start right when our guests see the envelop in that stack of bills and advertisements.

I was in on the stamping fun too :)

Javier and I looked into buying some custom stamps on Zappos.com. They were really cool, but so expensive (over twice what the normal stamp would cost…). We had gone to the post office to have the invites weighed and knew it was going to be at least $0.85 to mail them (an extra $0.20 for the square shape and $0.20 for the weight). With the custom option we could have ordered a $0.85 stamp exactly, but decided it wasn’t worth it in the end. Instead, we started narrowing down current $0.45 USPS stamps to the ones we liked and thought fit our fall/outside/laid back/wedding feel J It was actually Javier (even with his lack of concern regarding the stamp that would mail our invites…) that pushed for the adorable weathervane stamps that adorned your invite. They were rustic and kind of fun!

I had been pushing for stamps that included some color because I was starting to worry that our neutral invites and white envelops would be too drab. But I ended up finding the pop of color I was looking for when another bride suggested I look on ebay for some Virginia/Charlottesville related stamps. And there he was….bright and green and totally fitting in with our plans. I eagerly sent the link to Javs and asked if we could splurge to buy 200 one cent Thomas Jefferson stamps to add to our envelops. (The perfect addition for a Charlottesville wedding!) He sweetly obliged and even remarked ‘how cool’ they were as we licked each and positioned them on your invites J I LOVED them and only commented 194862 times during our stuffing sessions how happy I was with our stamps (particularly TJ).

In addition to stamps, we wanted to have the envelops addressed. Javier and I both have the hand writing of a nine year old boy, but couldn’t rationalize spending $$ to have them professionally written. Lucky for us, our friend (and talented designer) Kate offered to address our envelops as a wedding present to us. Awesome! I dropped off a sample of our invites (she got one of the awful, ink stained ones) and she sent some designs for the addresses. We ended up going with a less traditional design that incorporated the font we were using for our own names on the invite. With the design selected, Kate cranked out 130+ envelops for us….amid finishing up her job and packing for a move to Atlanta. What a trooper! Thanks again Kate, we’ve gotten so many compliments on the awesome calligraphy J

Stamps on, envelops addressed – we were ready to stuff! But stuffing actually ended up bringing about two additions to our invites. 1) I decided I really did want to make envelop liners. I loved our TJ stamps and thought a splash of green when you opened the envelop would tie everything together. 2) (speaking of tying) we decided that we wanted to tie our suite together so that when folks pulled out the invites, they stayed in one stack. When designing them in photoshop we planned it so that you could stack each piece (invite, reception card and RSVP) and our little A&J would line up with each card label. You just didn’t get the same effect pulling the cards out one by one. SO a week later than planned, but with envelop liners and each suite tied, we sent the invites out on Saturday the 18^th (exactly 8 weeks from our wedding date!). Even with a few snafus with the post office, they got mailed and you’ve received them J I ended up being so happy with how they turned out! I hope they made you smile (the tone I want set for October 13^th!)