Invitations: The Pieces & Details

Last weekend and the beginning of this week, I spent my free time assembling 60 invitations. You've seen the finished product, now we are going to rewind and take a look at the pieces and details.

Last Friday, I was greeted at the door by a box from Twin Ravens Press. Our invitations had finally arrived after what seemed like forever. It was really only a week. Inside the box I found this:
Starting from the top and going clockwise: the invitation, rsvp envelope, rsvp envelope stamp (purchased from USPS), the insert card and the main envelope for the invitation.

Our invitation. It reads:
Because you have shared in their lives
by your friendship and love,
Jennifer
and
Justin
Invite you to share the beginning
of their new life together.

Marriage vows will be exchanged
Saturday, September 25, 2010
at five o'clock in the evening

The Valentine Museum
Richmond, Virginia

Dinner and Dancing to Follow

Our insert card. Can you see that line? It's perforated. Yep, I saw it on our printer's website and had to have it.

Ok... it's hard to tell in the pictures, but the invitations were printed 5x5, which when in your hands, turns out to be VERY small. I didnt want them to get lost in the envelope and they were looking kinda plain, so I decided to use cardstock to mat them. The cardstock is from Ben Franklin and I believe the color is Deep Burgandy. You cant see in the picture, but its also textured which I think gives it a little personality.

Here's a close-up of the monogram. It was free from weddingchicks.com.

These are the stamps used on the rsvp envelopes. I love animals and what better way to show it than by using the Adopt a Shelter Pet stamps. And look at all those cute faces.

And last but not least, probably my most favorite. My peanut butter and jelly stamps ordered from Zazzle. I wanted to add a fun little touch and I think these nailed it. These stamps almost didnt make an appearance though.

When we first started talking with Kristin at Twin Ravens Press, she sent us some samples. Being proactive, I took a sample that would be very similar to ours to the post office to be weighed so I could go ahead and order our stamps while we were waiting for our invites. The man behind the counter said .61 -- standard wedding invite postage for anyone who needs/wants to know. Well, fast forward to this past Wednesday and I'm freaking out. The envelopes we received were not the size we were quoted -- they were square. Turns out square envelopes usually take .64 stamps. So the whole morning I was stressing and came up with 2 plans: 1) use misc/additional postage with our pb&j stamps to make up the difference or 2) just use USPS' .64 stamps. So, imagine my relief when I had the same guy behind the counter weigh OUR invitation and tell me that it's still .61. So I got out of line and stamped all of the invitations. In the back of my head though I still had a fear that .61 wouldnt be enough and that A) all of our invites would come back as undeliverable or B) our guests would have a little postcard attached that says that they owe the remaining postage. Dont laugh. It's happened before. Justin received a card one time and the sender didnt use the correct postage. So attached to his card was an envelope for the remaining balance. How embarrassing would that have been with our wedding invitations? Oh I dont even want to think about it. To end this story, I was very pleased to hear Thursday morning that invites had started landing in our guests' mailboxes.