Wedding Blog

I’m in the process of trying to create our wedding announcements. These’ll be sent primarily to out-of-staters and others who could not join us at our celebratory picnic.

With our other paper products, I knew what they needed to say (and pretty much what they should look like, too). They were serving a specific purpose. These wedding announcements? I thought we could have a little more fun with them. Be creative. Really make them our own.

Yet, my designs say stuff like “We are pleased to announce our marriage!” and “We said our Vows on the Ninth Day of September, Two-thousand Nine, at Four O’clock in the Afternoon.”

I feel like I should straighten my pantyhose and lift up my pinky finger or something.

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When I showed the design to Mr. Mary Jane, he liked it, but when I asked him about wording, he said he was sorry but that he’d be little help. In fact, he said something to the effect of: “I’d just say: ’We got married, thanks, bye.’ I’m not used to this ’pleased’, ’knot-tying’, or ’unifying-of-family’ gushy-ness.”

And it hit me that I’m not either. It doesn’t sound like me at all. Doesn’t sound like us. My creativity is being stifled by my apparent responsibility to fit in to a comfortable norm.

Take a look at these invitations below. Even though we may not specifically be in to zombies, toys, books, etc., I would still love it if Mr. Mary Jane and I were able to represent ourselves in the ways these couples have.

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I love this Zombie-themed wedding invitation because it’s so different. It has the important details, but it’s really interesting and (I assume) reflective of the couple’s interests. I think “We could do something like that!” And then I think “Dear old aunt Martha would have a heart attack if she got something like this in the mail.” The groom wielding an axe, dead people closing in on the couple…

Now check this out. Truly one of a kind:

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Two words: View Master. Click on the source link above to be amazed. The point here isn’t that they used tons of cool vintage toys (and, I assume, a lot of postage). The point is that they made a truly magnificent, nothing-like-it-in-the-world, perfect-for-them wedding invitation suite. This is not something their guests are going to take one look at, write down the important deets and toss in the trash. This is out-of-this-world. This is amazing. This is… something some grisly old man we know would open up and say… “WTF is this thing? Some kind of kid’s toy?” And toss it in the Goodwill pile, possibly without even figuring out what it’s for.

Now how about this next one? I first saw it when Miss Star posted it. And I immediately fell in love with it.

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Our story isn’t quite that interesting, but I’m sure we could come up with something. Something like:

Boy meets Girl.
Boy moves in with Girl.
Boy and Girl don’t date; they just kind of become a couple.
Boy and Girl get engaged.
Boy and Girl buy a house.
Girl marries Boy.
Grandma reads the story of Boy and Girl and disgustedly drops invitation on the table; “That little skank,” she exclaims as she reaches for her bible.

Now, let’s take the “shock” factor down a notch. As Internet-Saavy as we both are, something like this (for our picnic) would have made perfect sense.

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Mrs. Eggplant’s invitation suite requested that their guests to RSVP online. But in our social circles, we Mary Janes (and a few others) are the “techies”. When family or friends call, it’s often so we can help with their computers. (If they have a computer - some don’t.) Sending out something like this would simply open us up to a lot of verbal responses (combined with possible complaints over why a ’normal’ RSVP card wasn’t included).

And so, even though Mr. Mary Jane and I don’t consider ourselves a particularly traditional couple of people, I find myself feeling inclined to stick to something more like this:

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*Yawn*

I guess there are two schools of thought on this: on one hand, it’s OUR WEDDING. It’s US. We should be able to announce it however we want to. If that means taping the announcement to the side of a horse and having the horse run by each person’s house, so be it. On the other hand: they are our loved ones. Our family and friends. Or at least, people our parents care deeply about. In the case of invitations, they would be our guests. Don’t we owe it to them to deliver a thoughtful-but-clear message that’s polite and within their comfort zones?

Obviously there is a lot of gray area here. Many brides and designers have done amazing things with color, texture, and layout to create unique-but-still-grandmother-approved wedding invites. (OMG, Mrs. Piglet!) Perhaps for this endeavor, it’s all about compromise.

But I still often wish that I had the guts to really do something different. More on our announcements soon.

Have your intended recipients (i.e. a “buttoned down” family or friend-group) kept you from running with some of your more “out there” wedding or paper-product ideas? Or did you just say, “eff it” and do what you wanted? (If so, what was everyone’s response?)