Bride-to-Be Blogger Heather: The Invite Game

Well, I’m at the three-month mark! (Ahh!)

So far, the list has been the hardest part of the wedding planning for me. I had actually been avoiding this little factor since we’ve begun, but now, the invitations are ready, and I need to figure out the final list, and get them addressed and in the mail!

If it were possible, I would invite everyone I know — but obviously, that’s not the case. I actually need to get the number down: We are well over 250. I keep hearing, though, that 15 to 20 percent of the responses will be ‘no’s, so right now I’m just hoping that it works out, and that we actually get 250. The hardest part for me when it comes to the list are the people I work with — I truly love them all, but I just can’t invite all 40 of them, especially if you count a guest for each of them. I’m sure they understand, but it really does tear me up.

I believe the invitation sets the whole tone for the wedding. We had the invitations custom-made to match our style by a local girl who has worked in the printing design world for years, and has recently started her own invitation business called Events Styled Write. The quality is right up there with Papyrus, but at an affordable price. I had no idea how many choices there were when it came to paper, colors, fonts, and everything! She was so helpful and really had me focus on the important details — instead of the ones no one will notice but will hike up the cost. And it was actually so fun to go through all of the samples, colors, shapes and sizes — you can really get something to match your personality! My splurge was the thermography (a method of printing that uses heat to form raised letters on the paper); it’s the middle-grade, if you will, in the invitation world. I also opted to save some money and go with printing the addresses from the computer instead of the traditional calligraphy, after Nadine (the designer) showed me some beautiful fonts that will convey the same look, for, again, a reasonable price. What did you decide to do for your invitations? Was there anything you splurged on?

At this point in the planning process, you wouldn’t believe how long the list of things to do still is — I still need to arrange the church music; choose the readings; design the wedding bands; meet with the florist; and finalize the details with the caterer! (And I’m sure I’m forgetting several things.) But I’m not going to let all of the details bog me down — I am still blissfully happy because I am marrying the man of my dreams!

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