wedding stationery

Tuesdays with Ty - Wedding Invitations

Selecting your save the date cards and invitations are very important in setting the tone for your big day!  Brides these days have a ton of options to choose from and that can make it more difficult.  After  your colors, theme, venue and time are selected it is your choice on whether to send a save the date.  Personally, we decided to save a bit of money and fore go the save the date.    That being said, I have received so many cute options before!  Refrigerator magnets, Christmas cards...even a save the date via Facebook...yes, you read that right Facebook is taking over the world! 

In order to get an idea of what style you like look at different planning blogs and websites.  For example, Style Me Pretty has gorgeous pictures of real weddings and lists the vendors they use.  There are also some preferred vendors listed so you can browse their websites and see what you fall in love with and find your personal style.

Personally, I am mix between traditional and fun and I think that reflects perfectly in our invitation.  Luckily, I have a dear friend, Elizabeth Henderson with Polka Dot Papers, that has been helping me with invitations for years now.  In our meeting I told her my preliminary ideas and also came prepared with how many invitations we needed and when we wanted to get them in the mail (8 weeks prior to the date).   She produced some samples for me and we chose the font style and look we liked best!  I LOVE what she came up with and it perfectly incorporates our style and colors without going overboard.  One other thing we did to save a bit of money is a reply postcard!  This saves having to buy another envelope and postcard postage is about half of what a normal stamp costs.  If you are tech saavy, you can set up a wedding website and request guests to RSVP via internet!  One of my New York friends did this last year and it was too cool!

The next question is...to calligraphy or not calligraphy??  While it is traditional and gorgeous, we took an easier route and are having Polka Dot Papers print the outside and inside envelopes for us.  Technology makes this super simple these days via an Excel Spreadsheet and mail merge.  This will save us a ton of time and money, but still look nice and match the font on our invitation.

Bridesmaid Tip: Offer to help your bride with the stuffing/stamping of the invitations!  Have a girls night...pop open a bottle of wine and enjoy!  This will take a load off of your bride's shoulders and give you an excuse for a girls night too:)

Happy Planning!

-Ty