Weddingbee Blog

By now these packages have made their way into the mailboxes of the Tartlet guests, lovingly protected with a wrapping of 40# brown kraft paper:

The vintage stamps were purchased off eBay as part of an online estate sale (check out Miss Jam’s post for more on how awesome these are), and I paid less than half of face value for these. Score! These were an homage to Mr. Tartlet’s childhood hobby of collecting postage stamps, something our guests may not be aware of–but have special meaning for us as a couple. I wrote each guest’s address on the front using a calligraphy fountain pen. On the reverse side, guests will see our return address and bit of extra flair:

The paper wrapping was secured shut with standard packing tape in addition to washi tape. The latter isn’t terribly sticky, and I was concerned about it popping off when exposed to the elements of a Michigan winter/”spring:”

Washi tape is made of Japanese rice paper, and I purchased this particular roll from The Tinted Mint. It’s 15 mm “Old Text” in Rust, and is patterned with text that looks like an old book. Unfortunately, the boxed invites were astronomical to mail outside of the USA, so our international guests* received a modified version using a traditional A7 outer envelope in Matte Natural Kraft or Coco (purchased from Paper Presentation):

Before I go any further, I have to spread some love for Mrs. Cupcake–her post about the Twelve Steps to Creating DIY Wedding Invitations is a must read! Also, for those of you considering the boxed invitation route, once weighed ours priced out at $1.90 to mail. After removing the brown paper wrapping, our boxed invitation makes it debut:

We used Paper Source’s A7 Box Mailers in Chocolate. I designed the belly band using Adobe Illustrator, printed them onto Aged Durotone Newsprint text weight paper, and cut them to size with a Fiskar’s Paper Trimmer.

They were glued onto the box mailers using 3M General Purpose Spray Adhesive.

It’s a good idea to open your windows (even if it’s f’in cold outside) if you use any kind of spray adhesive. The fumes are pretty potent, and for a while I was really concerned about our fur-babies getting a bit of a contact high. Don’t worry, Buddy is just asking for a belly rub in the photo below, but he does look a bit maniacal, wouldn’t you say?

Buddy assumes the position

*In addition to our international guests, some of our local guests also received invitations in envelopes (versus boxed mailers). I thought I purchased enough box mailers to account for mistakes/guest additions, but alas-poor planning and a gut-wrenching “sorry, this item is currently out of stock” message had us scrambling for a Plan B. Originally we had planned to mail 35 invitations. We ended up sending out closer to 50. Learn from my mistake, and if at all possible order oodles of extras!

Were you surprised by the number of additions to your invite list? Up next in the series: a look at what’s inside!