Making the Invitations: Part 2

Our second task was to assemble the invite, reply card, and map card and secure them with the band. We did this at my parent’s house because we’re total space moochers (and I was sick that day, so I didn’t want to drive all the way to West Des Moines).

Here are the invitations, all banded and ready to be stuffed into the labeled envelopes.

What we failed to capture on film:

• Brad meticulously printing each component, often one sheet at a time.
• Brad painstakingly cutting each and every piece with an x-acto knife.
• Joanna trimming the bands very carefully and then folding each one individually to Brad’s exact specifications.
• Brad dry-embossing the return address on each envelope.
• Joanna hand-writing each label (I only made six mistakes out of 170 invitations…whew!).
• All the stamp-affixing and envelope sponging and sealing.

Making the Invitations: Part 1

I know I’m backtracking a little bit, but I wanted to show you all a few photos from the invitation-making process.

First, Brad and I used spray mount to line all the envelopes (holy mocha, that was difficult) and attach the labels. We took over Nick and Kristel’s basement to do this, since they had the open space Brad’s town home doesn’t. These are shots Jenn took of us while we were in the thick of it. We had to wear masks because the spray mount is toxic to breath. We also had to wear sweatshirts because we not only turned the furnace off to prevent any accidental combustion (the spray mount is pretty flammable), but also cracked open the sliding door to help with the fumes. It was a cold, hard job, but someone had to do it.

Invitations: Basic Style

Brad and I have started tossing around ideas for our invitations this week. One hotly-contested detail? Asymmetrical versus symmetrical. People who know us well might be surprised to find out that I’m in the asymmetrical camp and he’s a hard-core symmetrical fan. (I thought he was the free-flowing, easygoing one!) Also: Borders. Not the bookstore, but the pretty illustration that will be around either the entire invitation, our names on the program, or none of the above. I thought a few of the ones we looked at looked like cheap-o labels, but Brad pointed out that my all-time favorite wedding invitation inspiration in the world (for now), is symmetrical and has a border. Touche.

So, after thinking about it for a few days, I’m leaning towards totally trusting my fiance on this one (he is an internationally-recognized designer, after all) and seeing what he comes up with. Did I mention he’s designing all of this in his spare time? I love him. We’ll definitely collaborate, but I’ll play a consulting role once the rough design is done.

In the meantime, enjoy this yummy shot from Minna Designs that helped in persuading me to accept my type-A, symmetrical, border-loving tendencies.

image courtesy of Minna Designs