My initial idea was to create my own. I'm sort of crafty and can kind of be creative when the mood strikes---how hard can it be? Very. This thought process lasted about 2 weeks. During that time I attempted to make a few mock ups. It was only after days of frustration and agony that I realized that 1. technology and I do not get along, 2. I am only crafty and creative when it comes to non virtual things (hello paper and pen!) . Added to all that is the fact that I literally knew *nothing* about making invitations. A tiny piece of information I had failed to remember. Long story short after 2 weeks I was left with a massive headache and quickly decided to start searching online for alternative ideas.
I hit up a ton of highly recommended places (thankyouverymuch wedding blogs), all of which had beautiful designs but nothing even close to my vision or even my price range. Eventually though, my searching turned to Esty. And that dear friends is where I found the amazing vendor Arippke. It's a husband and wife team that specializes in affordable custom wedding stationary and graphic design. They were extremely helpful and wonderful to work with. I gave them my colors, my overall vision and thoughts on what I was looking for and boy did they deliver! They were cost effective, quick and wonderful. While the final product turned out a bit darker than I was anticipating (looks a bit more black than dark purple) I really have no complaints.
We ended up going with a invitation and response card. To save postage our response card asked guests to please either RSVP by phone or online at our website where we had set up a RSVP feature (which was amazing by the way). We had those two pieces in an inner envelope which we lined with a gray/lilac-ish paper which played off the gray and purple hues in the invitation. Everything was then placed in the outer envelope which was sealed with a dark red wax emblem of the initial of my soon to be new last name. Even though we have some family friends who are calligraphers we decided to print out the names instead. We used a cursive font and found an awesome gray/ lilac-ish ink color that tied everything together. Since Arippke offered a 'package' we were able to get thank you notes that matched the invitations as well. All in all I thought they turned out pretty damn well and was pleased with the outcome.
invitation set with invitation, response card, inner and outer envelope (both sides so you could see the front and back).
One last word to the wise (or not so wise as was the case with me).....when you're ordering invitations, don't make the same mistake I made. Don't order based purely on the number of people you are inviting. Instead order based on the number of couples, or families you are inviting. That way when all is said and done you don't end up paying for almost 100 extra invitations like this girl right here. Oh yea, I am that good.
