Thursday, September 25, 2008

invite breakdown

So, if you were sent an invite in the mail you probably already have seen all this stuff but humor me, okay? Maybe you'll learn something?

--Oh, and if you didn't get an invite in the mail, or you can't come, stay tuned for a special way we want you to be involved in the wedding...coming soon!--

So first we designed the invites...our main inspiration were vintage vaudeville and circus posters...something that conveyed an event that was fun but, at the same time, totally epic.

image source

image source

We made a mock up with the fonts we had on hand just to decide positioning, ratios, spacing, etc., then we downloaded probably a hundred or so fonts and then just got to playing, and this is what we came up with. (All the design was done in Photoshop...I know it's not as clean as other programs but it's what I know)
We printed the reception information on the back to cut down on paper waste

There was much debate about the reception information. Could we dictate the kind of costumes people wear? We're not requiring costumes for the reception, but I also didn't want people dressed like slutty nurses or grotesque monsters. I wouldn't really want that at any Halloween party I would throw, let alone my wedding. I think we found a nice (and very "us") way to say what needed to be said, and also imply that maybe you should save it for the reception...at least, if you're an adult.

Putting the registry information on there is a MAJOR no-no etiquette wise, and I understand why that rule exists. Yeah, it's kind of tacky. However, for really casual invitations, I don't think it's quite as bad. We received an invitation to a wedding last winter that had a little note on the back "the couple is registered at target but they also really enjoy shopping at world market and whole foods." We ended up getting them something from Target, but it was kind of nice to know another option and I did actually consider going to whole foods and making them like a huge basket of cheeses or something. Also, since most of our guests are from out of town, they don't know that every couple that gets married in Omaha is registered at Target. It seems so obvious to us, but I didn't want there to be confusion.
And, well, I am really tacky and I broke etiquette all over the place. So...meh.

We also wanted to include a map with the reception information both for out of town guests (pretty much all of our families) and for in town guests that have maybe never been to the Scoular before. It also let them know how close they would be to their hotel, in case they were worried about long commutes. Greg made up the grid of streets (including the hotel's logo, nice touch Greg!) and I used pictures of the venues to make paintings that guests can refer to if they're confused about which building is which (they're not very clearly marked).

Here's a close up of the painting of our ceremony venue...I recreated the building in the most basic shapes possible to make it easy to print and easy to read on a small invitation.
Once the invite design was finished we had it printed on plain kraft paper at Kinkos (classy wedding over here!) and they cut it for us as well at no charge.

This is where the "pain in the ass" part of invitations began happening.

Unfortunately the image was a little smaller than half a sheet of paper, leaving an awkward little blank edge on the side. We went back through and re-cut about a quarter of an inch off each invite (total pain in the ass #1).
Neither of us has very pretty handwriting, so we typed our addresses in a pretty font and printed it onto white labels. But I bought the wrong size and we had to go back and buy new ones (total pain in the ass #2) which they couldn't print on at Kinkos (total pain in the ass #3) so we had to drive all the way out to Walmart in the middle of the night to buy new ink for our own printer to print them ourselves (total pains in the ass #4 and #5).
To fancy up the labels a little bit we bought a corner punch that both tied them into the oldish timey theme of our invites and made them look a little less like...you know...labels. Unfortunately (there's that word again) the corners had to be square to fit in the embosser/puncher and the labels' corners were rounded. So we cut the sides off the labels and punched them (pain in the ass #6)
Here's how the labels turned out...click the picture to really see the embossing (it's subtle, but very pretty in person)

We bought beautiful dark purple envelopes from the Eames Furniture collection on envelope mall, since all the orange options we scoped out were either too bright, too small, or too expensive...and, I mean, Eames furniture! Makes envelopes! Weird!
The envelopes have a very long pointed closure called a "euro flap" that makes them all classy stuff. The glue on this fancy classy flap doesn't extend all the way down to the end of the point. Which means they don't close all the way like normal envelopes. Meaning we went out at four in the morning to find appropriate seals (pain in the ass #7) but luckily there were very pretty ones that went with our palette.

We stayed up all night stuffing these babies, but despite the seven (or more, I may have forgotten them) pains in the ass...they're gorgeous. We love them. Everyone who has seen them has loved them. They're very "us."


Oh, and they cost about twenty five cents per invite. Sha. Bam.

Sometimes I love this wedding stuff.

6 comments:

Carrie Mae said...

Ha! I just ... I just sat down to start design on an 'old circus poster'-inspired invite *yesterday.*

Yours are fantastic! I love them.

Must be something about Halloweddings.

Jen said...

You creative kids! I should talk to you sometime about Coming Home Announcements. Since we're not doing birth announcements, I figure we'll be able to do some for Patrick leaving the hospital. And if you can make yours for around 25 cents a piece...

Jen said...

Also, I don't think that Patrick will be able to make it :) Thank you for including him on the label! (He might be home a few days later though!!)

Unknown said...

i just wanted to point out that he exists. and that i like him.

yes, i would LOVE to design coming home announcements! we could even cut prices even more by making postcards instead.

Anonymous said...

1. i love the invites (obvs)
2. i showed my mom. she laughed at the comments about reception costume appropriate-ness and said, "that's so shannon..."
3. this is my rsvp that i will be attending (again, obvs)
4. although considered "rude," i enjoy when people put where they are registered cause then i know where to go and i don't have to ask around (because i'm sure asking the couple is just as much of a no-no as putting it on the invite). so, thanks?

Unknown said...

you're welcome. now go buy us a present.

ha!