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Mrs. Peony, New York Age and Occupation: 27, Marketing Coordinator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, QA Engineer Engagement Date: June 28, 2007 Wedding Date: April 18, 2008 Venue: The Fountainhead Blogging Since: August 7, 2007 About Me: Both Mr. Peony and I are huge computer nerds, and our conversations usually consist of the latest gadgets, programming languages, and video games. At the same time, I can also be very girly with an obsession with handbags, makeup, and high heels. And art! I've studied studio art extensively, almost majored in art history, and freelance as a web and graphics designer. Mr. Peony and I are having a ball of a time planning a wedding for 250(!) guests, doing our best to infuse our personalities (geeky chic) with the wishes of our very traditional Asian parents.
About Mrs. Peony

Save-the-Dates

August 7th, 2007 @ 5:40 pm by Mrs. Peony

When I first got engaged, I was pretty clueless about wedding-related jargon and acronyms. I thought empire (as in an empire waistline) was pronounced with a long i, like the Roman Empire. I had no idea what a bustle was - I guessed that it was a hair term, a variation on a beehive. Needless to say, I felt like a complete idiot the first time I went dress shopping.

At this n00b phase of wedding planning, I visited several boards where the brides would openly talk about STDs. One topic would read, “Help! Problem with STDs!” while another might say, “My fiance doesn’t want to deal with our STDs” - and I couldn’t help but think that these people must be really open with the internet community to discuss their sexually transmitted diseases so willingly.

Now I know better. In the wedding world, STDs are save-the-dates. Save-the-Dates :  wedding diy new york save the dates Silly035 silly035 Silly me. And I just ordered mine yesterday!

At first I wanted to print the month of April 2008 on Moo MiniCards with our wedding date circled. I would then buy some nice notecards, decorate it with stamps and whatnot, and attach the MiniCards on the inside with sticky glue dots. Then the person receiving the save-the-date could put the MiniCard in their wallet, pin it up on their board, etc. How cute would that be?

Excited, I started brainstorming the design and calculated my costs….and realized that this would cost more than $2 per save-the-date. Save-the-Dates :  wedding diy new york save the dates Shocked011 shocked011 Way out of my budget.

So I decided to go the postcard route. Simple yet effective.

First, I found a very reputable company to print the postcards: Overnight Prints had very good reviews, and their prices were reasonable at $69.95 for 250 4″x6″ single-side printed postcards.

I then searched online for some design inspiration, and found this:

Save-the-Dates :  wedding diy new york save the dates Z103476 z103476

I worked on the design using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. I made about 10 different versions using different colors and different width ribbons, and sent them off to Mr. Peony for his input. The final three:

Save-the-Dates :  wedding diy new york save the dates Peonystd.jpg

Save-the-Dates :  wedding diy new york save the dates Peonystd2.jpg

Save-the-Dates :  wedding diy new york save the dates Peonystd3.jpg

The first is using our colors, which I thought looked more appropriate for our wedding date. The second and third look a bit too Christmas-y to me, but the third definitely looks the best. Although I wouldn’t mind the first because it is more season-appropriate, Mr. Peony, my mother, and father all agreed that we should send the last instead.

The best part? While ordering the postcards online last night, I saw the option for entering a promotional code and thought, why not? After a quick Google search, I found a coupon for $40 off!  Try coupon code POSTCARDSALE. I lubs me a great bargain!!!

The breakdown for our save-the-dates:

Stock photo for ribbon
250 single sided 4×6 postcards
Shipping
Discount
Total
$15.00
$69.95
$11.42
-$40.00
$56.37

Although we don’t need 250, the tier below that is 100, which is too little. But with a total of $56.37, that’s only $0.23 per save-the-date! We’ll probably be mailing only 150 of them at the most (since we can hand out the rest) which, at $0.26 per stamp, will total $39.00. So even with postage, that’s only $0.38 per save-the-date. Not too shabby, no?

Tags: diy, new-york, save-the-dates |
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26 Responses to “Save-the-Dates”

1 2 

1.
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Miss Popcorn

uh… I’m getting married in 11 days and I still think it’s pronounced the same way as Roman Empire… how have they been telling you it’s pronounced??

 
2.
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JenniferB

Great bargin! But how is Empire pronounced?

 
3.
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Mrs. Bee

i believe it’s ahm - peer. :)

 
4.
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Kate

I’ve heard it pronounced like “um-pier.”

 
5.
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sally

I still call it EMPIRE and in Roman EMPIRE, i think the UM-PEIR thing came later and is not the norm.

 
6.
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em

I agree with Sally. The “uhm-peer” pronunciation did not come until recently… when people like Stacy and Clinton from What Not To Wear started saying it.

I still say “empire,” like a normal person :P

 
7.
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HappyHappy

Great DIY - both on talent and savings. Where did you find clipart that looks like actual ribbons?

You should hear me pronounce Lhuillier (or not).

 
8.
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Melanie

Lordy, I knew someone who said “umpire” — like baseball!

 
9.
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Mrs. Bee

man this has become a discussion about pronunciation rather than miss peony’s great job on her save the dates! I like the third one best as well. ;)

 
10.
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Linda

I like the third one too…

 
11.
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aoedorothee

i love the save the dates! great job!

 
12.
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Melanie

Another vote for #3.

P.S. Something I noticed right away was that your name is really far away from the “&” and his name.

 
13.
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Mrs. Bee

sorry that was me - it’s the last names blocked out! :)

 
14.
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karebearlbc

i work in fashion and we call in empire…
i hate that show “what not to wear”…who are they to tell someone to throw all their clothes out and start over? ha!

i agree..#3 is great! great price too!

 
15.
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April2008

My fiance’ and I are thinking of doing the postcard route for our STDs as well. We were looking at using Vista Print which sells 250 postcards for $38-$53 depending if you want color on 1-2 sides. I also think VP’s postcards are a little smaller.

However, I’ve heard some Knotties saying the quality of Vista Print has declined in the past few years, so my question is - do you think the paper and print job from Overnight Prints is really good?

And Melanie, I think the space is there because she removed their last names - it took me a moment to figure it out! :)

 
16.
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Andrea

I used vista print for our stds and they were perfect! plus they always have amazing specials if you can get on their email list. We paid something like $30 for 150 of the 5.5x 8.5 size.

 
17.
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Tessa

haha.. noob. I laughed out loud when I read that.

 
18.
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MJ

Those are cute with the bow.

I used Vistaprint, but we did their large magnets and custom envelopes. It was the cheapest I found magnets (the FI wanted them– weird for him to care, so I designed them and got them). They were nice and total around $134 (I ordered too many so it should have been cheaper, and that included matching custom envelopes, which obviously shows I was smoking wedding crack!).

If you want postcards, you can catch deals to get them FREE at Vistaprint. Yes, I said FREE, just pay postage. If you upload a photo there’s a fee, but they run specials to “try” their products for free (but like 250 cards at a time). Same quality, which I think is as good as the others I’ve seen.

 
19.
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Lety V.

very cute! my favorite colors!

but why did the ribbon image cost so much?

did the website not provide any nice free images?

 
20.
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eisor

I actually liked #2 the best.

Where did you get your stock photo from? $15 seems REALLY steep compared to many other sites I’ve been too. Also, for ribbons & stuff, I’d suggest other brides look into digital scrapbook embellishments. My sister is big into this and you can get tons of “digital” ribbon & fringes for cheap.

We did postcard STDs as well, but we only paid $10.50 for 200 cards from Vistaprint. I did the 100 free postcard promotion. My sister and I each placed an order for 100. If you click on my link, you can see pictures.

I know some people have had issues with vistaprint, but I’ve always had successful purchases (thankfully!).

 
1 2 

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Mrs. Peony
Mrs. Peony

Mrs. Peony, New York Age and Occupation: 27, Marketing Coordinator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, QA Engineer Engagement Date: June 28, 2007 Wedding Date: April 18, 2008 Venue: The Fountainhead Blogging Since: August 7, 2007 About Me: Both Mr. Peony and I are huge computer nerds, and our conversations usually consist of the latest gadgets, programming languages, and video games. At the same time, I can also be very girly with an obsession with handbags, makeup, and high heels. And art! I've studied studio art extensively, almost majored in art history, and freelance as a web and graphics designer. Mr. Peony and I are having a ball of a time planning a wedding for 250(!) guests, doing our best to infuse our personalities (geeky chic) with the wishes of our very traditional Asian parents.

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