Weddingbee Blog

So here it is – the big invitation reveal! In case you missed it, I have already talked a bit about these invitations: how infatuated with the calligraphy I am, how much in love with the invitations I am, how amazing the vendors I worked with are. I could go on and on and on about my obsession with our invitations, but I think it probably would just be better if I shut my trap and showed you the gorgeousness.

I probably don’t need to tell you how excited I was to rip open these packages. Like a 4 year old on Christmas!

For our reception insert, I decided to make (well, have Kristin make) a little coaster. I thought this would make the suite a bit less formal and more fun. Um, and an indication that there would, indeed, be drinks. Mmm, drinks.

A close-up on the beautiful letterpressing of the coasters. Isn’t it lovely? Kristin did an amazing job. I loved the deep, earthy green she used on “Dancing;” how perfectly it matched our envelopes, and how nicely it complemented the warm gray of the main text.

Pretty letterpressing! It seriously pained me to blur things out; the invitations were just too beautiful.

Our silhouettes! Yay.

Possibly my favorite part of the invitation suite: the animal icons for the meal choices!!

Another fave: I asked Kristin to put little heart icons, rather than check boxes, for the guests to indicate whether or not they would be attending.

After reading lots of fun and witty response options on the Weddingbee boards, I knew I wanted something similar. Mr. CA didn’t really like any of the options I came up with, so he did some thinking on his own. I LOVE what he came up with! As I have mentioned, Mr. CA is fairly stylish, so we thought it would be fun to do a play on that. While the three responses may not be grammatically correct, we loved how they read. I’m not entirely sure some of the guests ’got’ it, but ah well. I thought it was clever.

One of our guests actually added a fourth ’response’ that they subsequently checked: “Insert other witty response here.” He got major bonus points.

Kristin also letterpressed the RSVP envelopes (and the backs of our regular invitation envelopes) with our return address, in the same gray ink. I forced her to use the filled-in heart icon rather than an ampersand, and I LOVE how it turned out.

More invitations. Seriously, you guys – I took at least 100 pictures of these things.

Love. Stacks and stacks!

And, ta-da! The assembled product! I kept it super simple:

1) Tuck the guests’ RSVP card into the stamped RSVP envelope.

2) Stack that on top of an invitation

3) Top everything off with a reception coaster

4) Wrap twice with pretty twine

5) Add a Moo card

6) Stuff into a double-stamped envelope

7) Rinse and repeat!

Easy peasy! But seriously, it took me forever. Like, 4 nights, and I stayed up to 2AM the last night because I’d be damned if I was spending another night working on them. I’m anal and had to get everything lined up juuuuuuuust right, the Moo card positioned juuuuuuuuust right. Oh well. They turned out purty, I think.

We used traditional “Nuptial Mass” and “Sacrament of Marriage” wording, to indicate that we would be doing a full Catholic mass with the wedding ceremony.

Another shot. Because I’m in love.

This was a shot from 2AM when the lighting was all funky. I took a million pictures because I was delirious in my happiness that everything was done.

Okay, and another shot of Michele’s beautiful work.

Our full suite!!

Another close-up of the silhouettes. Because they rock.

Beautiful, thick coasters.

Everything ready to go.

We received so much positive feedback: excited texts, emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages. I know they may not be the most involved invitations, and I didn’t DIM (Do It Myself), but dang was I proud of those things. They turned out even better and more beautiful than I had imagined.

People loved how much of our personalities went into them; I stopped counting the number of times people said ’your invitations were amazing, and SO you and Mr. CA!’ I loved it, and I loved each piece of the invitation set. So much happiness.

Were you as relieved as I was when your invitations went out? Were you as excited as I was for people to receive them? Pleased with how much of yourself you put into the invites? Did you use any fun wording on the RSVP card, or the invite itself?

• Invitation Design and Printing: Twin Ravens Press
• Calligraphy: Calligraphy by Michele
• Baker’s Twine: Divine Twine
• Mini Cards: Moo Cards
• Silhouettes: Blue Clara