The Oblivious Bride – Invitations & Save-the-Dates

Comment Written by jenny on August 23, 2010 – 5:00 am

It’s funny how these things come in waves…  Chris and I just attended a beautiful wedding this last weekend but it’s only the first of 5 weddings we’re going to this year.  And I know at least 7 other couples who got engaged this summer who are all planning weddings for 2011.  With so many friends and family getting engaged and getting married, I realized that we would need to lock down a venue and date quickly!  But not only that, we know that we need to give our guests ample time to figure out if they can come!

Generally speaking, Save-the-Dates are sent between 6 months and a year prior to the wedding date.  The practice became popular because people needed more notice to request time off from work and save up for the travel costs.  Since regular wedding invitations are typically sent only 2 months before the wedding, they do not leave enough time for guests to prepare – especially if travel is involved.  For Chris and I, about 50% of our guests are located outside the Bay Area (including some who are out of the country), meaning we want them to have plenty of time to make the appropriate arrangements. And since we’re sure many of them are also getting invited to numerous weddings each year, we feel like the advance notice doesn’t hurt.

So our total stationary needs include 175 Save-the-Dates, invitations, Thank You cards and 250 programs on our extremely conservative budget.  And, we’d like them to match.

Photo by William Arthur Fine Stationery

Thinking Creatively

I began the process by browsing and admiring the stationary from online sites like Wedding Paper Divas, Papeterie, and Minted.  Each site had beautiful, original designs to fit any style or taste.  But it was difficult to find anything in our wedding color scheme or in our price range.  I searched some other sites and found things closer to our price range and ordered samples – but I was always disappointed in how they turned out.  There’s a reason those invitations were cheaper…

We want to get those Save-the-Dates out soon, but how are we going to get what we want on our budget?!

After talking to my fiance about what we wanted in our invitation, I started to sketch the idea out in PowerPoint.  In my previous job, I became a pro at sketching out complex images in PowerPoint – I was finally getting to put that skill to good use!  I showed him the sketch and he loved it!  But, wait, are we really going to make these ourselves?

Just for fun I looked into how much it might cost to make our own invitations and save-the-dates.  With sites like Vistaprint, you can upload an image to turn your original creations into invitations and magnets.  The prices are very reasonable and you can order proofs to check the quality.

So while I’d never consider myself a DIY gal, we may be going this route.  We’re asking a friend who is a graphic designer to help fine-tune the sketch I made in PowerPoint and we’ll order some samples up.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll see our creation on Minted yourself one day!

Next week: The Registry Experience