Formal Invitations Part 3: RSVP Cards

I mentioned RSVPs already in a previous post (and had my French corrected before I made a fool of myself). So I won't rehash it too much. But I did have a second kind of RSVP card, for the jam session. We didn't send one with every invite, just to some of the key players. Hopefully we'll get a good group together and others will let us know if they have some interest in playing with us!

I made two different jam session RSVPs because I just couldn't decide between the two record players. They were both so pretty!

This is what I started with. I initially wanted to just edit out the text and use the book/roses for something in the invite suite, but I couldn't get it to look good.

I also designed two versions of the RSVP; one for single invitees and one for couples. Some people aren't aware of the convention that the names listed on the envelope are all that are invited. If your name is listed singly, than they aren't allowing you to bring a guest. I mentioned this to John, and he said he wasn't aware of that distinction. While some people know this from going to other weddings, others may be like John and unaware that they shouldn't tack on a +1 to their RSVP.

As I mentioned in the invite post, we have a super strict guest limit imposed by our venue. For a friend to bring a guest, an aunt or uncle would have to get axed, so we opted to include only engaged couples and those living together. Basically, we went with examples where we knew both people in the couple well, which in most cases meant they were living together/engaged/had been together for several years so we had gotten to know them anyway. 

Hopefully this won't cause too many issues. It really was an attempt at inclusion, not exclusion: trying to bring together those that know us well and mean the most to us. If we don't know your girlfriend or boyfriend, chances are they won't know many of the other guests either.

I still have doubts. Should I have had a place to put a number on the multiple invites? How will people let me know if only one of them is coming? I know it will be fine and I can always just call somebody if I am confused, but I suppose a little stress about the RSVPs is normal, right? I just want to get a clear sense of who will be there!

Formal Invitations Part 2: Directions to Mohican

My dad is the one who suggested we include directions to Mohican in the invitation. I figured most people have GPS in their cars now and can punch in the address, but I also know that some of the roads are a little confusing right as you get close to the park, so I decided to go for it.

I wanted something that was a similar shape and would pair well with my unusual-shaped invites:

Perfect! But the pink had to go. Ugh.

I ultimately went with the peach/mint combo. From there the directions cards came together much more easily than the invites. Since I didn't have a ton of room to put turn-by-turn directions, I uploaded a more thorough version to the website for further reference. Or, people can input the address into their GPS and use our directions more as a guide.

Formal Invitations Part 1

I wasn't blogging much in the last two weeks, because I was in crunch time to get my invites finished and sent. Round 1 is out, and I'm already receiving enthusiastic responses back (hooray!). Round 2 will go out if/when we get some people declining. There were so many people we loved and wanted to include, but we have really strict limitations on space for our venue, and are held fast to exactly 150 invitees. I hope they understand that they aren't necessarily second-fiddle in our eyes, we just have giant families!

Enough explanation, on to the main event!

As you may or may not know from my other posts, I started with vintage soap and perfume labels, edited out text, messed with color, and added my own text back in. They were a labor of love. For the invite itself, I was drawn to this label in particular:

From there, I tweaked the heck out of the colors, until I achieved something like this:

But then, of course, was the issue of wording. I knew I wanted the top to say "Together with our Families" since this is a family effort, and I knew I didn't want proper titles or middle names to imply our casual setting. From there, I came up with the following wording:

For the curious, I alternated Jugend WF and Lullaby. The fancy type for our names and the Shakespeare quote are KellyAnn Gothic. 

The quote is from Henry VI (Act 4, Scene 6) by Shakespeare. I enjoy how the quote seems to imply a wedding ceremony if you take it out of context (it's about politics and the fate of the government). So then the tough part was trying to place it all in the invites to create a pleasing aesthetic.

Looked too sparse in the orange middle section.

Better, but I missed having the Shakespeare in there.

It ended up coming down to the two above, I went with the second one, because I decided we needed to have the address for Mohican on there and not just on the directions card. I had to cut the line "Dinner, a jam session, and merriment to follow." But oh well. You win some, you lose some. I could have spent many more hours tweaking everything, but I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Wedding Favors Part 2

After my previous entry on favors, I presented the idea to my mom and fiance. Both thought vanilla extract was an awesome, unique idea. So, I bought 4 lbs. of vanilla beans in bulk and 108 amber glass bottles (12 8-oz., 96 4-oz.).

The larger bottles will go to some of the key players-our officiant, our parents, John's grandma-just as a way to show them a little more gratitude for all their love and support.

Following this tutorial on Ruffled, John, my dad and I cut up over 500 vanilla beans (!) and placed them in handles of vodka to steep. They are currently housed in the dark in my old mini-fridge from college, since they're supposed to stay out of the light. I go over and give them a good shake every now and then (once a week or so).

Next came the fun part: designing a label for the bottles! I started with a soap label (found on GraphicsFairy's amazing blog of vintage art) and massively cut it down:

 - all the excess border

- the text "Savon Olgalia au Muguet" 

+ "John & Dana's Vanilla Extract"

+ Border I cut out from another random label

=

Ta-da!

But, of course that wasn't enough. What is the use of extract if you aren't much of a baker? What ever will you use it for? That's why I decided to make a recipe card for one of our favorites, Saveur's Honey Chocolate Chip cookies. A hole will be punched in the top left corner and the card will be tied around the bottles with twine.

Front of card

Back of card

Though, depending on how much printer ink I want to buy, I may just print the recipe side and tie that on. We'll see how ambitious I get.

I love the mismatched vintage vibe of the paper goods. My goal is for things to be quirkily mismatched and yet cohesive in their aesthetic.

Hand-drawn invite love

The groom hand-drew details from their entire relationship
I love how the response card is tucked in with photo corners!!!

Above the outgoing address, it said "Dear Postman, warmly deliver
this tender parcel to our fine guests." LOVE.

What a fine invitation set! To see the whole wedding, check out the feature on Martha Stewart.

Invite Suite: RSVP Cards

In deciding to design and print my own invites, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I didn't expect the process I have gone through (the countless hours, and I'm not even done yet!). Case in point: the RSVP cards. Just a simple little card with which to reply and tell us you're coming, right?

Well, you know me. I have about 3 different designs mocked up with multiple fonts. You have to play around to see what works (or, at least, I do, since I'm not a trained graphic designer and I need to see different combinations to know what will look best).

Here is one such version. This was the starting point, a vintage french soap label with the text removed.

Which I then took and made a "backside" which extended the open space for text:

Then I had to settle on RSVP wording. I don't want to simply have a "yes" and "no," so I looked up all sorts of different ways to word the card. Some were overly cutesy ("I'll be there with bells on" and "Can't make it, but heard there will be people wearing bells"), some were silly ("I'll be there come rain or come shine!" "Sorry, out of umbrellas and sunscreen.") and others were stupid (many of them). 

Since the wedding is so vintage themed, I wanted something classic without being boring, and a little elegant. I settled on using "in body" for yes and "in spirit" for no. I like it.

So, then it was time to play with fonts.

...And several versions later, it was getting frustrating. I then decided the images needed something even more visual, so I thought putting a little divider or image between the two sections would help:

They're definitely cute. But the diamond seems a little out of place with the rest of the image. So then I went for background images, which consisted of three steps:

1) Dig up my old letterpress image files from briarpress.org
2) Open them up individually in GIMP (freeware photoshop-type program), add an alpha channel, select all the white in the image, then clear to make a transparent background.
3) Add the transparent image as a new layer to the RSVP card, and edit the opacity of the image to make it lighter and put it behind the text.

The result of all this was that I ended up with two that I liked:

What do you think? I think both are pretty great, it's just tough deciding. Perhaps once the other pieces fall into place, one will look better with the other elements. 

I know it's weird to design such a small part of the paper goods first, but I was just drawn to this image and it screamed RSVP card to me for some reason. I couldn't tell you why. This isn't to say these are the RSVP cards, end of story. By the time the invites are done I might go with something completely different.

Note to all fellow brides: DIY IS HARD. Just so you know. I am undertaking all this because I am stubborn and it's a labor of love, but don't think it isn't insane of me.

Pig Wedding

I was scouring Etsy this morning, looking up vintage graphics (if you've been to the wedding website or seen the save the dates, you know I love that aesthetic).

What I didn't expect to find: Pigs getting married from phenomenon1859. I wonder what their original use was? Perhaps to not-so-subtly tell somebody you didn't approve of their marriage?!?!

They're ridiculous!

My organizational secret weapons...

I need only two things to stay excited about being organized:

My Moleskine planner (yes, I am one of those annoying hipsters who swears by Moleskine, but hear me out). I was never one to use planners. I didn't like the setup, so I would just ignore them. These are expensive enough that I feel compelled to use them, but even more so, I fell in love with the format:

A weekly planner on the left, lined paper on the right for notes and to-dos. It is a format that I am completely besotted with and I don't think I will ever stray.

My other secret weapon? Diary stamps.

?

Yes, diary stamps. I often find them on Japanese and Korean supply stores on etsy. Diary stamps are meant to be used with a planner, and have the cutest little icons that you can use. I use them to add a little fun to my planner and as a visual code for the different events in my life.

These are the two sets I already own:

"Happy Life"

"Love Diary"

They are completely unnecessary, but I love them, and seeing those little stamps in my planner makes me smile. For example, the wedding bell from the Love Diary marks out wedding gigs with my string quartet, and the bunch of roses represents a recital or concert that I am performing in. The speech bubble with exclamation points represents a meeting or special rehearsal, the syringe represents a doctor's appointment, and the book represents an academic deadline like a paper due date.

I found a bunch more of these cute little stamps on a new favorite etsy store, Violet Gift Shop. I am ordering these to add to my collection:

Aren't they the cutest?

Here's some more that I think are sweet but didn't get this time around:

Love the Payday one, and the whole bottom row.

Hiragana and Katakana! So cute!

The "couple" set. I just adore the little steak dinner.

I know it's a little silly for a 24 year old girl to want to play with stamps and ink pads, but I won't apologize for it; it helps me to enjoy the tedious process of staying organized. How do you motivate yourself to stay organized? Are you good at sticking to a system?