Bossy Wedding: The Invitations

Sometimes the best ideas we have start out as jokes (see: Eiffel Tower Nespresso pod holder) before we decide they're too good to laugh away. We wanted to send out Save-the-Dates via email so that we could take our time collecting real addresses and give everyone a taste of the party we were planning (although at that point we knew NONE of the actual details other than the date). We played around with video ideas, and then, with only a bit of guidance from me, CM made THIS!




Sigh. He's amazing.

When it came to the actual paper invitations, we looked at quite a few (expensive) options online, before I finally had the bright idea to ask my parents for their help. (I like to say I was not so much a DIY bride as a HYDDI (Have Your Dad Do It) bride). Collaborating with them on the design, the paper, and every decision was incredible, and the product we ended up with was better and more personal than anything we had found. Plus, a friend of theirs printed them in her basement (yeah, I was skeptical at first, too) for a ridiculously low rate.


The Invitation:

That's Vienna's skyline on the bottom, in case you're wondering.

We also printed little coordinating cards with our wedding website, and return address labels (which I imagined we'd be able to use for a long time—wah waah).

I had this idea to use vintage Vienna postcards for RSVP cards, and I had SUCH fun hunting them down on eBay. Then we used a rolling alphabet stamp to print on the back (and by "we" I mean "my dad," who has a much steadier hand than I do).

I really liked the idea of using vintage stamps on the envelopes, and I spent one rainy afternoon poring through stamps at a little shop in Manhattan, but I didn't end up finding a ton that I loved, so we mostly used USPS Love stamps, which this year are the King and Queen of Hearts. I did use some of the vintage ones for the invitations going to Europe, though. Fun fact: we discovered it costs about the same to send mail to Germany from the USA as it does to send it from Austria. Who knew?

Metropolitan Opera stamps! (Nerd alert.)


I was lucky enough to be able to go home to Oregon and visit my folks in March, so we went to the paper store to choose envelopes and paper, went to the printer together, and then formed an assembly line at the dining room table stuffing, addressing, stamping, and sealing.

 

That's my dad in the "No Kangaroos in Austria" t-shirt.


We were so pleased with how everything turned out. Also, it didn't hurt that the total we spent on invitations (including stamps, paper, envelopes, pens, rolling alphabet stamp and ink, printing, and the vintage postcards) was $300. I highly recommend a HYDDI wedding.

(All photos in this post by me, which is why they're all blurry. You can click them to see them bigger.)