4 Months

Wedding Countdown

Despite the current events of the world, I am still finding joy in planning our little wedding 🙂 There is so much to worry about and it’s nice to let my mind settle on something that is positive. Time is quickly passing by and I get to say, “I Do!” to the love of my life! In this month’s post I will share my experience with finding the perfect wedding party invitations for our special occasion.

If you aren’t up to speed on the specifics of our wedding plans, check out my post about Choosing the Right Wedding for Us. With all that being said, I was looking for an invitation that was simple, yet elegant. I needed to assure my guests knew that the invitation was for a wedding party; not a traditional wedding and reception. Along with that, I wanted something affordable. One of the main reasons for deciding to go the civil ceremony wedding route, was to save money that could go toward our dream honeymoon. Any type of formal invitations can be expensive. You’re not just paying for a piece of paper. You’re paying for quality and craftsmanship.

In March, I went on the hunt to find the right shop for us to work with. When I went through the process of ordering samples, I was not only looking for great quality and affordability, but keeping an eye on the shop’s communication and turn around time. I’ve heard wedding invites can take up to six weeks to make! So, I wanted to start as early as possible. Here were the samples I rounded up.

This invitation was from LibbyKateSmiles shop. If I were to create my own invites by hand, this was exactly what I had envisioned! Ultimately, I didn’t choose these because they envelopes and assembly were a separate (pricier) fee. I also found the shop’s turn around time or a sample that was in-stock, unacceptably lengthy.

If I had an idea on what ‘luxury’ wedding invitations were…this was it! These were completely out of my budget and the colors available weren’t quite what I wanted..but I thought I’d get a sample just to see 🙂 This set is created by InvitingCardCreation.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I am a huge fan of tasteful glitter. This was one of my #1 things I wanted in my wedding party invites. This simple, but elegant design was the polished version of what I envisioned. Also by InvitingCardCreation

A lot of people have asked me why I didn’t design my own wedding invitations, since I am a graphic designer. To some degree…I did! However, I chose not to attempt printing, cutting and mounting them myself. I am not the best with that, and I wanted these to look as professional as possible. Working with Barbara of InvitingCardCreation was a dream! Her responses were prompt, she proofed my word choices to make sure the message was just what I wanted and production/shipping exceeded my expectations. I am so glad I went with this shop and I highly recommend it for any invites you may need.

We chose our ‘wedding colors’ to be ruby red and gold! For any wedding party decor, these will be our colors of choice.

By shopping on USPS.com I was able to find more decorative postage stamps for our invites. Surprisingly enough, they took about 2-3 weeks to arrive after I placed my order.

Overall, shopping for invitations was fun but definitely a learning experience. I never realized just how expensive they can be! You’d think I’d know more about it since I am a graphic designer, but I don’t frequently design invitations that are to be printed. I decided to go the route of Etsy, simply for convenience and because we didn’t have a lot of time for me to screw it up and start again (haha!) With my deposit and final payment, in total (plus shipping) I paid $250.62 USD for 40 invitation which included:

• 5×7′ 3-Layer Invitation
• Metallic Invitation Envelopes w/ Printed Return Address
• Glitter Envelope Liners
• 3 1/2″ RSVP Response Card
• Metallic Response Card Envelope w/Printed Return Address
• Glitter Belly Band w/ Double Matted tag Assembled

I definitely feel like I got my money’s worth, especially with the turn-around time, all the pieces included in the set, and assembly. I’m happy and Mr. Right likes them as well 🙂 Well, that is it for my May wedding update! These posts have been lacking due to the halt of society surrounding the coronavirus, but I am praying it won’t hinder our special day.