The Envelope Please… Blog

Recently, several brides have asked for damask or fleur di lis invitations. They really add an elegant touch. I started collecting samples from my resources and found wonderful ones from San Lori and Cross My Heart. I love them in black and white although other colors are available. This pattern is becoming very popular in home decor as well. The brides can make this their own by popping the black and white damask with bright green, canary yellow, poppy red or other vivid colors. The wedding invitation companies are responding but not as quickly as the need exists. I have found several pocket invitations from Carlson Craft that my brides love and can do for a relatively low cost. More and more invitations with damask or hints of damask are popping up for all your wedding events.

Rehearsal Dinner Invitations are a nice touch. They are not necessary especially with a small group but it is a nice way to invite your guests to a pre-wedding event and many people use it to confirm the time of the rehearsal and the location.Images of churches, dinner plates and champagne glasses are common. Rehearsal Dinners are sometimes casual. Anything goes these days and I have done many invitations that were for picnics or pizza parties. This is fun especially if you want to have a totally different feeling from the actual wedding reception which may be more formal.

In the last year, I have been encouraging brides to use the addressing systems from the manufacturers. Yes, there are those traditionalists who insist on hand calligraphy. This may be very costly and labor intensive and the result may not be as good as you would like. When a Bride decides to do machine calligraphy from the manufacturer. She selects the font and color for the envelopes which match her invitations. When her invitations arrive they are ready to assemble and put in the mail. The manufacturers offer templates or they will accept an excel worksheet which most couples are using anyway. I have used the systems from Carlson Craft, Checkerboard, Encore and Elite and have been pleased with the results. The only negative is that the invitations do not go into production until the bride submits the list. They have even addressed this situation and you can have them hold some envelopes for the addresses that you need to add at the end. I generally offer the service to the bride at my cost…afterall they are doing all the work. I can adivse them through the process and they can accomplish a big task in a very effcient, cost effective manner.

Ivory and White invitations which used to be the standard are taking a back seat to color. 7 or 8 years ago it would have been very unusual to get an invitation with color but now it is the norm. Five years ago weddings were newest with a touch of pink…then a couple years later red was really hot. The trend right now seems to be anything teamed with brown especially pink and a lime green or apple green.
Brown looks great with greens, pinks and shades of blue. Don’t be afraid of color. As I tell Brides, no one is going to match your invitation to the swatch of material you are carrrying around from the bridesmaid’s dresses but they may remember the color. Have fun…Even if you do a white invitation-you can print it in a color which can tie things together nicely as well.

More and more brides are doing Save the Date Cards. Generally they are sent out 8 months before the wedding or even longer if it is a destination wedding and travel arrangements needed. Couples also like to use them if their wedding falls around a Summer holiday or Christmas to ensure that people have advanced warning.
Save the date cards can be fun and can be a nice way to set the tone for your wedding. I think they should be on a smaller card because they are generally posted on refrigerators or bulletin boards as a reminder till the invitation arrives. This is why magnets are popular. Save the Date cards do not need to be sent to everyone on the list. Once a save the date card is sent however, an invitation must follow. You cannot change your guest list at this point although you can add people. Save the date cards are fun but not critical. It may be considered an unneeded expense. Generally if you send the wedding invitations out 2 months in advance which is standard. The hotels will hold blocks of rooms till a certain date which you can include on an accomodation card in the wedding invitation. The following are some of my favorite save the date cards which will help set the tone for a beautiful day!

Many invitations these days come with only one envelope. Some customers are dissappointed because they like the traditional custom of two envelopes. Your stationer can work with most companies to get an inner envelope. I am told that back in the “Old Days” of horse and buggy… by the time the invitation got to the recipient the envelope was so dirty that they began putting them in two envelopes…makes sense!

You would address one envelope by putting all the information on the front ….like Mr. Mike Miller and Guest or Mr. and Mrs. Scott Caird and Family where if you were using two envelopes the Guest and Family would be printed on the inner envelope

I have been encouraging the brides I work with to use the easy addressing systems or calligraphy programs offered by the manufacturer.They give you a template or you can just use an excel work sheet. When you receive your invitations they are already addressed and ready to go. They are also printed in the same font as the invitation so it looks very classy. I generally offer this to the brides I work with for the cost that the manufacturer charges me …which is about a dollar an envelope. It is something I can offer the bride to help cut costs especially if she was considering having them done by a calligrapher at 2 -3 dollars an envelope. My site is theinvitationconnection.com