Save the Dates, FTW!

Check it out. I finally got these mailed out late last week, they were printed up by a local printer after I recreated a classic telegram in Illustrator. The envelopes are pretty swank too - I printed them out with a custom made 'First Flight' stamp that I did in Photoshop and custom airmail stripes. Talk about a lot of printing. I thought my printer was going to choke!



After what seemed like HOURS folding... all of the telegrams were folded up into tidy little packages, and then I printed out the custom seals and applied those. Notice that it's a vintage cancelled airmail stamp? It's all about the small stuff folks. All about the small, neurotic, slightly OCD details.

I was up until all hours of the night stuffing envelopes, and trying to work out the last few addresses. I only had 110 of these telegrams printed up, and sure enough there have been some last minute additions to the guest list... I've been crunching the numbers like a mad woman to make it all work! If I have to print out 1 or 2 more on my printer, I think that will be OK. I just like the QUALITY of professional printing so much more. All I need is a printing press in the basement and I'd be all set!





Here's the only problem I foresee with these save the dates: I have now set my bar way, way, WAY too high for the actual invitations. I didn't think these little guys would be so good looking once I got them assembled, and now it's starting to sink in that I've set a high standard for what must come next... the actual invites. I've got a good idea up my sleeve for those, but it's all about the execution... whether it's my own death-by-folding or the death of my poor inkjet. Ha! I'd really like to have my actual invites done letterpress, so we'll see, we'll see...

Next up, the dress and the invites! Time to get started :)

Calligraphy and Save the Dates

I finally got started on addressing our STD's - I decided that I wanted everything hand-lettered, so I broke out the nibs, bought a new pot of ink, and went to town last night on the return addresses. They're not perfect, but they still look nice. I haven't practiced my penmanship in a loooooong time. The fun part will be addressing the front of each envelope.

I did manage to buy some really cool stamps, the "Flags of our Nation" series - so everything is stamped now too. All I need to do at this point is go have the actual STD 'telegrams' printed up, then commence with labeling and folding (and stuffing. Lots and lots of stuffing.)

I really gotta get started on my dress. Shoo.

The bridesmaid's shoes came in the night before last, and they are BEAUTIFUL! So there's a small victory.

Print Design and All That Jazz

I'm designing all of our print goods for the wedding, as well as designing our 'wedsite' and our favors.

I'm pretty proud of the ideas I've come up with so far, our save-the-dates are completely designed and ready to go - I just have to get started on production as those need to go out NEXT WEEK! I don't even have Ryan's guest list yet, I need to get on him (and my future MIL) about that. Our STD's are going to be done in the style of authentic vintage self-mailing telegrams, I downloaded a template from HERE and then recreated the whole thing in Illustrator to lend my own touches and fonts to the layout - lots of tiny details that no one will probably notice!

I still need to design the stamp we will use to seal them after folding, I think I will do something along the lines of old airmail stamps. I also bought cool airmail envelopes to send them out in. My only beef is that I couldn't find any smaller envelopes, just the Monarch standard. Oh well. We're going to print up the telegrams on recycled gold parchment, and then I will either type in everyone's names and addresses with a typewriter OR just have clear labels printed up in my desired font for placement. The envelopes will definitely be clear labeled, unless I'm feeling extra-industrious.

The website is also almost complete, make sure to stop by for a visit when it's done! The address can be found way down in the footer, I don't feel like typing it in here at the moment. I'm so lazy sometimes.

Invite design has yet to be established, I guess I need to get on top of that too. Gah! So much print design to accomplish very, very soon. I DO plan on hand-lettering the outer envelopes (I heart calligraphy!), I'm thinking those brown kraft paper envelopes with the string closure. I DO have a basic outline for the invites, I'd like to do Ryan and I as paper dolls complete with our wedding outfits. I want them to be pretty simple, just because I don't like the uselessness of all that crap that usually comes stuffed into a wedding invite. We're doing email or phone RSVP's, accessed by a contact form on our website. Yay, no extra money for RSVP postage!

I need to hunt down proper invitation etiquette and enclosure info, just to be sure. But again, I really don't want a bunch of stupid junk in there.