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Mrs. Emerald, Chicago Age and Occupation: 26, Hospitality Administration Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal Engagement Date: October 8, 2006 Wedding Date: September 2007 Blogging Since: November 29, 2006 Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
About Mrs. Emerald

This Makes It Real

February 21st, 2007 @ 3:59 pm by Mrs. Emerald

Ok, so I wasn’t planning to post up my invitation designs until they actually went out in the mail, but then I realized that 98% of my guests have no idea that this site exists. (Well, my bridesmaids know about WB, but they don’t have time to read it, darn law/optometry school! haha whateva02) But with the excitement of my monograms, I decided that it is time to unveil my invites! When Mr. E saw these, he said, “Wow, it’s starting to feel REAL now!”
Invite jpg

I love the dark red, the fancy cezanne font, and the flourish. Also note the little fleur de lis along the top and double happiness symbols along the bottom, which incorporate my French/Asian theme!

And here is my matching (almost finalized) RSVP card with monogram.
rsvp jpg
(Truly Smitten designs)

In terms of printing, I’m planning to do something a bit unconventional. While I adore the look and feel of letterpress, it is just way out of my budget. Sooo… I am going to get these printed with Overnight Prints, which I heard about on Weddingbee a while back. I’ve ordered some samples from them and their quality seems to be great (*knock on wood*). The cardstock is super thick, and the colors are really vibrant, which is what drew me to this decision. Instead of traditional white, I wanted something with color; therefore, the invite will be printed as a 5.5″ x 8.5″ postcard, with the map/directions (still in the works) on the back side. There won’t be any mailing addresses on there, so it won’t actually look like a postcard.

The RSVP will be printed as a 4″ x 6″ postcard size, but I will be sending them with envelopes instead. I considered doing an actual postcard, but then I remembered that Mr. E’s parents’ guests often send checks with their RSVPs. I’m also planning to print out little business cards with our website address on one side and an engagement photo on the other.

But I am wondering, how should I enclose all of these? I was thinking of a simple vellum bellyband, but that seems rather boring. My other thought is to use a vellum envelope (I love vellum!), but I’m wondering if it will get beaten up in the mail? I guess I could always do a vellum inner envelope, and a regular outter envelope, but that really drives up the cost. I also considered pocketfolds, but 5.5″ x 8.5″ is an unusual size so I only found one website that carried it (not to mention pocketfolds can get expensive and I’m not up to making my own).

Another consideration is that we will have guests who don’t read English very well. So we have to design an insert with the Chinese translation, and I just want to print it on simple ivory cardstock. Would this look tacky? Mr. E also thinks that we should translate the RSVP card into Chinese as well, otherwise we may get back some unpleasant responses due to miscommunication. I definitely want them to read and understand the line, “We have reserved ____ seat(s) in your honor.”

Any thoughts/suggestions about any of these issues?

11 Responses to “This Makes It Real”

1.
May says:

LOL, this, according to FI is when it became real….

“babes i think it all just hit me. i never realized how married we are getting until i saw a decorative serving bowl and said that would be “cool.”

that was on registering at Crate and Barrel.

Gotta love him!

2.
Mrs. Bee says:

printing invites on postcards - what an original and cost-effective idea!

as far as the chinese insert, we did the same thing, but printed it on vellum - yes vellum! - paper. I think that’d probably look better than white cardstock?

3.
Mrs. Bee says:

oh btw your invites look great! :)

4.
Fal says:

As long as the quality of the cardstock for the invitation and the insert are pretty similar, and the colors don’t clash, it’ll be just fine to do what you’re planning. It would only be “tacky” if you used much cheaper-feeling cardstock for the inserts.

Also, I LOVE the color of your invitations. Dark reds are always so elegant, and such an appropriate wedding-color choice for anything Asian-ish!

5.
Micheal says:

Hi, I see you dealing with prints and printing. Please check out http://www.inkisit.com. A good home solution for printing is Kodak’s new printers for which black ink is only $10 and color ink is only $15.
Would love for you to blog about this for your readers to see.

Thanks.

6.
Weddingbee » Blog Archive » What's On The Menu? says:

[...] done for menu cards, so I decided to have them printed by the same online company that printed my invitations, OvernightPrints. This may sound a bit strange, considering that they are actually a commercial [...]

7.
Jade says:

I was wondering who designed the wedding invitation for Miss Emerald. It is very unique and beautiful. I need invitations for a 50th wedding anniversary next year.

8.
Weddingbee » Blog Archive » Merci Beaucoup says:

[...] the glossy UV coating… I even love the way they smell (yea, I’m strange). I had OP print my invitation, rsvp card, website card, menu cards, and now my Thank You postcards (so it’s all cohesive of [...]

9.
Lauren says:

Can you send me a photo of how your entire wedding invitation looked before packaging to aphilauren@yahoo.com? I’d like to use OP, and am trying to decide if we should try to do a pocketfold, or your vellum idea… Thanks so much!

10.
Yvi says:

Your invitation idea is awesome! I’m thinking of possibly going this same route, any advice, pics, etc. that you have from your experience would be truly appreciated! Thanks!

11.
Invitation - Part 1 » Weddingbee says:

[...] after seeing Mrs. Emerald’s posts about her invitations, I was inspired to do a little designing of my own. And with the Open Office Draw design program [...]


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Mrs. Emerald Mrs. Emerald, Chicago Age and Occupation: 26, Hospitality Administration Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal Engagement Date: October 8, 2006 Wedding Date: September 2007 Blogging Since: November 29, 2006 Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).