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Mrs. Sundae, Chicago/Lake Geneva, WI Age and Occupation: 28, Knowledge Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Investment Advisor Engagement Date: July 20, 2007 Wedding Date: September 2008 Blogging Since: February 5, 2008 Venue: The Abbey Resort About Me: It’s hard to believe that by the time Mr. Sundae and I get married we will have been together for almost ten years. When we first met in college we split dollar pitchers and now we share the mortgage payments. Despite our love for the city we are looking forward to tying the knot in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
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Our Invitations

August 29th, 2008 @ 3:35 pm by Mrs. Sundae

Finally, some pictures! Admittedly they aren’t the best quality, but a makeshift photo shoot on our kitchen counter will have to suffice. :) I designed the invitation suite myself and worked with a local letterpress company to have them printed. I love letterpress so much that we just had to find a cost effective way to make it work, so designing them myself and using a small printing company proved to be the best option. It took a lot of research, and I didn’t actually have the best experience with them, but I am really happy with the end result so I suppose that’s all that matters! I hate to blur out the some of the information but hopefully you can still get an overall feel for how things looked…

In the photo above is the outer envelope, the inner envelope, and the suite all stacked together. We used satin ribbon to hold the stacked invitation and insert cards together, and used a circle punch and glue dots to make our monogram into a seal of sorts. Here is the whole suite. We used the flourish in different places on all of the pieces in an effort to tie it all together. Here’s a close-up of the invitation itself. Here are the insert cards. Instead of the standard terms used in invitations, like “RSVP”, “Reception”, and “Accommodations”, we used the terms “rejoice”, “respond”, and “relax”. “Rejoice” and “respond” were the only cards that were letterpressed. We ordered the “relax” carda from Vistaprint so that we could put a map on the back of it.And last but not least, Lola our dog had to make her way onto the invitations somehow! We ordered custom stamps for the RSVP envelopes with her picture on them.
Here is a close up of the stamp. It’s a little hard to tell but she’s holding an envelope in her mouth that has the same seal on it as the one on the ribbon. We were actually holding the envelope up to her mouth and I Photoshopped a hand out of the picture. You do what you’ve got to do, right?
It was kind of a debate whether or not to leave the response card so open ended, but it wound up working out better than we could have hoped. We’ve received really traditional responses, some that are a little strange, and some that made me laugh so hard I cried (some rather outgoing and intensely hilarious guests incorporated pictures). Finding out what people do with blank spaces is pretty entertaining!

Did anyone else decide to go the letterpress route?

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31 Responses to “Our Invitations”

1.
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Guest
Laura

Thats it, you totally win for cutest stamp!

Love it!

 
2.
ErinMarieMack
Member
ErinMarieMack (message)  642 posts, Busy bee

I second Laura’s comment! I love the way you incorporated your furbaby:)

 
3.
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Bee
Miss Hydrangea (message)  386 posts, Helper bee

LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!

 
4.
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Jenn

I agree that stamp photo is adorable.

 
5.
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Member
soontobemrsc (message)  74 posts, Worker bee

They are gorgeous! That is the EXACT green I’ve been looking for! If you don’t mind sharing, where did you get the envelope liner and satin ribbon?

 
6.
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Nicole R.

Very nice. CUTE stamp.. .so precious!

 
7.
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wildera (message)  7 posts, Newbee

Those are gorgeous- and I love your stamp! Does anyone know where I could go to get personalized stamps like that? I perused the USPS website and couldn’t find anything.

 
8.
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Linzerella

These are so beautiful - simple, classic and totally timeless. You could frame these and they would never go out of style.

 
9.
frenchbulldog
Bee
frenchbulldog (message)  6,063 posts, Bee Keeper

That stamp could not be any cuter!
I think your invited tunred out wonderfully - good work :)

 
10.
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Guest
lou

I love your flourish, and how you used it to tie everything together (I’m also totally stealing your ‘rejoice’, ‘relax’, ‘respond’ if that’s ok).

I normally hate personalised stamps, but the pic of your dog with the envelope is adorable.

I also think your ‘blank’ response card is a great idea … more like the traditional method where everyone used to send their own card - you’re just providing the materials.

I think if there’s tick-boxes, lines etc, you have to make sure you include all the information you need, otherwise people will just fill in what you ask for. This way, they have to actually think about what info they give. Plus, it’s a great way to get more personalised notes etc.

I’m interested though … did anyone write any info you DIDN’T want? (too many people, can we bring Aunt Judy, etc etc)?

 
11.
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Bee
Miss Dumpling (message)  650 posts, Busy bee

Ahhhh…letterpress……swoon! They look amazing!

 
12.
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Slicey19

I think you can do the photo stamps on http://www.snapfish.com

 
13.
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Bee
Miss Pomegranate (message)  956 posts, Busy bee

Oh they turned out gorgeous! I looooove the letterpress!

 
14.
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clevelander

did you address those yourself? the calligraphy is bea-u-ti-ful!

 
15.
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Bee
Miss Hot Cocoa (message)  1,715 posts, Bumble bee

Lola is such a star! I love these invitations — they remind me of the Kate Spade stationery sets at the paper source.

 
16.
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Bee
Miss Sea Breeze (message)  912 posts, Busy bee

Beautiful! I love the open-ended response card. Now I’m dying of curiosity as to what those responses were that cracked you up…

 
17.
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Lindsay

I love your letterpress! Who did them? I am looking for a local company in the Chicago area. It is so elegant!

 
18.
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Bee
Miss Sundae (message)  198 posts, Blushing bee

Thanks everyone!! I’ll try to answer all the questions…

soontobemrsc - The paper is from JoAnn fabrics, it was just in their cardstock aisle. It’s from The Paper Company, the sticker says it’s “Color Connect Texture” and the color is “fern.” I bought one spool of ribbon from there and the rest on JKM Ribbon. It’s single face satin ribbon from Offray and the color is Kiwi.

wildera - I ordered the stamps through PictureItPostage.com

lou - Of course you can use the idea! Part of the reason I used the blank card was because it was like the more traditional method, I am a sucker for traditions. I have to say that we didn’t get one single uninvited write-in, it was a pleasant surprised!

clevelander - I wish I had those calligraphy skills! We used Michele Clark, who I can’t possibly say enough about. I wrote a post about it here: http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/07/16/happy-day/

Hot Cocoa - I LOVE those Kate Spade invitations! What a compliment!

Sea Breeze - I will totally write another post about some of the response cards ;)

Lindsay - I had a bad experience with the company I used, so I can’t say I would recommend them. The invitations actually had to be printed twice. I was THIS close to going with another company, so if I had to do it all over again I would probably work with them. http://www.letterpresschicago.com You can find contact information for Gary on the site, he’s super helpful.

 
19.
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Bee
Miss Sweet Tea (message)  461 posts, Helper bee

I thought of the vibrant Kate Spade stationary too! But yours is much prettier because it’s custom by you! love these.

 
20.
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Guest
The Blissful Bride

These are soooo cute! I love it! Every ounce of effort you put into these shows — they are just lovely!

 
21.
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Bee
Miss Champagne (message)  1,068 posts, Bumble bee

So nice! I love the letterpress look.

 
22.
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Miss Pineapple (message)  676 posts, Busy bee

Lovely Sundae! I think designing your own invites and having them letter pressed is a great idea. Also, I must say the staml is adorable!

 
23.
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Miss Espresso (message)  1,064 posts, Bumble bee

They’re gorgeous Sundae! I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

 
24.
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kseniya

Black and green together=so nice. Less is almost always more!

 
25.
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littleholiday

sweet and elegant.

 
26.
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ljcadv

Ok you gotta tell us some of the responses now! you cna’t leave us hanging!

 
27.
Miss Cupcake
Bee
Miss Cupcake (message)  1,167 posts, Bumble bee

Miss Sundae! These came out so great. I LOVE the punch of green. Everything looks beautiful!!!!

 
28.
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Guest
tealeaf

miss sundae, these are awesome! i’ve been following several wedding blogs for about a year now and hardly ever comment, but these really stood out. i’m getting married in december and these are just the kind of look i’ve been wanting for my invites. would you be willing to share your design with me? (i know this is a lot to ask, so totally understand if not) or let me know what font you used and how you created the design? i’d be so grateful!

 
29.
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Guest
Personalizing the Totes » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] using them in the future. So I decided that using the same flourish that we incorporated into the invitation suite would make sense - provide a little consistency and still keep it rather [...]

 
30.
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Stephanie

Hello-

I’m also wondering if you’d share your invitation suite design layout? I’d be willing to pay for it too!

Thanks!

 
31.
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rhiannon

I love these invitations! Wondering if you’d be willing to share the font you used? Thanks!!

 


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Mrs. Sundae Mrs. Sundae, Chicago/Lake Geneva, WI Age and Occupation: 28, Knowledge Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Investment Advisor Engagement Date: July 20, 2007 Wedding Date: September 2008 Blogging Since: February 5, 2008 Venue: The Abbey Resort About Me: It’s hard to believe that by the time Mr. Sundae and I get married we will have been together for almost ten years. When we first met in college we split dollar pitchers and now we share the mortgage payments. Despite our love for the city we are looking forward to tying the knot in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
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