Weddingbee Blog

As we get closer to our wedding date, there have been a few moments recently that have made the wedding seem more real, as opposed to this abstract event I’ve been planning for 12 months now. One of those moments was when I received a huge box in the mail recently—the invitations had finally arrived!

This is the outside of the pocketfold invitation with our monogram (and of course a peacock feather!) / Personal Photo

This is the right interior of the invite, showing the RSVP postcard. The insert behind it called “Cocktails, Dinner, Dancing” has more information for guests regarding the reception, booking the hotel room and RSVP’ing for our Rehearsal Dinner / Personal Photo

As I mentioned previously, I ordered these from a shop on Etsy and opted to have the designer include guest addressing and return addressing on both the outer envelope and RSVP postcard—we are inviting 137 people, so we needed 70 invitations. I also ordered 10 blank invites just in case we have some last minute changes to the guest list and need to invite a few more people. In terms of making sure we have no surprise guests, I paid extra to have her print out each guests names on the RSVP postcard. Because of this, we skipped the inner envelope (which also helped save a bit of money).

When I received the invites, I thought they were absolutely stunning. But I think there may have been some slight miscommunication between myself and the designer—I thought she was going to print in the number of guests invited on the RSVP postcard as well, but she didn’t—I guess I forgot to specify that. So to me, this was truly the first DIY project I’ve had to do so far (and I know that it’s pathetic of me to consider this DIY, but as I’ve said before, I am terrible at most arts & crafts).

So, I journeyed to Michaels (which is actually quite a fabulous place!) and bought an extra fine permanent marker to write in the number of invited guests per RSVP card and x-small glue dots to seal the pocketfold, then headed to the post office for those pretty white rose stamps. Here is a pictorial account of my “DIY”:

Step 1: Remove the glue dot seal on pocketfold

Step 2: Very carefully write in the number of invited guests on RSVP postcard

Step 3: Add stamp to RSVP postcard

Step 4: Re-seal pocketfold with a fresh glue dot

Step 5: Carefully ease the invite into the envelope (I love the huge peacock feathers but it was difficult stuffing them into the envelope)

Step 6: I cut a piece off of a dish sponge to make an envelope moistener and put a bit of water in the ramekin to seal the envelopes

Step 7: Since each envelope is over one ounce and supposedly “odd-shaped,” I had to use two stamps each

Mr. Mongoose even helped out at the end—I sealed the envelopes with my makeshift envelope moistener and he put on the stamps. Oh, and quick tip—apparently the postage is increasing in price starting this Sunday 1/27, so I literally just dropped the invitations off at my local post office today to have them hand cancelled. I know it may seem like I’m sending these out a tad early, but since it’s a destination wedding, I’d like these in our guests’ hands sooner rather than later so people can book their travel arrangements. Like I said, it’s gettin’ real!! Now let’s see how many people actually complete and return the RSVP postcard…

Did you also have an “it’s gettin’ real” moment when you received/mailed out your invitations?