Bees, you'll have to pardon my hiatus of a couple of weeks. My students' state testing started yesterday, and things are pretty crazy around here until next week. Then my job calms down and I will have time to blog my bridal heart out!
As you might recall, we ordered invitations about a month ago and Blue Mom, Mr. Blue Moon and I have been trying to find the time to get together and stuff them to get them ready for mailing. We settled on last weekend, and after furiously cleaning my house for a week, Blue Mom and Daddy Blue Moon arrived from Tennessee. I love having house guests, but this weekend was all business.
Blue Mom and I spread all of the stationary out across my kitchen table, and it sure looked overwhelming at first. I had put her in charge of handling everything wedding-related during the three weeks leading up to my students' state testing, and like me, Blue Mom tends to go overboard so that we have a lot of choices. We had lots of different envelopes and stamps to choose from, and different materials to tie up the invitations.
We stuffed each invitation in the order you see here, following the traditional order of invitation, under reception insert, under reply card. We tied up everything with hemp twine for my rustic element, and to throw back to the kraft brown envelopes we used on my save-the-dates.
It took a lot less time than I expected to tie all those bows and stuff every envelope! We got an assembly line going where I was tying and Blue Mom was stuffing in the envelopes. We did about a third of them on Friday night, and got up early on Saturday to finish the rest. I think it took about three hours total to finish everything. Mr. Blue Moon and Daddy Blue Moon were supposed to be helping, but ended up binge listening to our vinyl collection in the den instead. I guess boys will be boys!
Instead of forking over for professional calligraphy, Blue Mom had a college acquaintance do it for half the price. We chose lavender inner envelopes, and sealed them with matching labels. We ended up having A BUNCH of these little labels left over, so I'm thinking about putting them on our favors.
The outer envelopes are ivory, and look like this with my lavender inners. We got envelopes from a local stationary store because I don't like the quality of Vistaprint's.
Overall, I'm super happy with the way my invitations turned out. They feel customized to us without being over-the-top expensive. During the process, I learned a few things that I want to share with you all as you get ready to send out wedding invitations.
1. Get Help: It would have taken double the time to stuff invitations if Blue Mom had not been around to help me with everything.
2. Don't Try To Please Everyone: Vistaprint sent us several versions of my invitations free of charge to choose from because we were second-guessing the small font size. I stuck with my gut in the end even though there were a range of opinions and used my original choice. Make sure whatever you choose makes you and your partner happy!
3. They Might Not Be Perfect: We had to add some names at the end, and Mr. Blue Moon addressed them in his best calligraphy. It bugs the crap out of me that my invitations aren't uniform, but the guests won't know the difference, and theirs will be that much more special for being addressed by the groom himself! I realized at some point that I was getting dragged down by these tiny details. Don't sweat the small stuff!
4. Thank Your Helpers: Whether it's your fiance/fiancee, your parent, or your bridesmaids helping you handle invitations, make sure you thank them for their time spent. Blue Mom drove three and a half hours to do invitations with me, and I know it was boring work. I was able to take her to lunch on Saturday and spend some quality time together, so it felt like a nice weekend even though some of it was spent working!
I will say that now that invitations have been mailed, this whole wedding thing finally feels like it's really, really happening! I have never been more excited for something, and I can't wait to share the rest of our details coming together. Mr. Blue Moon is here in Mississippi during a long lull in his final exams week, and we are saying "goodbye for now" for the last time tomorrow morning. He graduates on Saturday, and then he's moving in for good! I can't wait to have him around all the time!
What kinds of exciting things do you and your partner have coming up? How did you feel when invitations went out?
*All photos are personal
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