Do it yourself????

I'm into easy .... which is why I didn't make my own wedding invitations. Some people do, and nice for them. Not me. And until now, I've always thought homemade invites looked totally cheap. ACK.

But now .... I think they could look AWESOME!

ANYHOW....I was at Target last night and they have LETTERPRESS invites you can print out at home. I was interested.

Some of them are more pricey:

You can see it online HERE. And HERE is another of their pricier invites.


But others are TOTALLY reasonable:

You can check them out HERE.


OMG these are unbelievable!

You can see them HERE.


Budget friendly (and SUPER CUTE), but I think you'd have to pay extra postage to mail these:

You can see them HERE.


I don't think there would be extra postage for these:

You can check it out HERE.

Classic. Timeless:

They're online HERE. (If your initials are SS, I can see these as invites). ;-)

With some special fonts (NOT the standard ones on your computer, go check out DaFont or 1001), these could be awesome, custom invites!

Invites are OUT!!!!!!!

It's interesting how as the wedding planning goes, how there are portions of Erik and portions of Karen.





The invites alone are a nice combo of the both of us, but when you receive yours in the mail .... let's just say you'll know Erik was a part of it! :-)

Invites are IN!!!!!!!

I picked up the wedding invitations at the post office this morning ... and they are STUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!! My friend (and killer designer), Heather, did a kickin' job on them! In all of her free time when she's not doing photography, she runs Posh Spot Designs.

I'm so jazzed to send them out in the next week and a half. But because I am mean, I am not going to show them to you here, dear blog readers. Yup, I'm a meanie. I want them to be an awesome surprise when they come in the mail!

R3 — wedding invitations

R3 — Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.


So, how does R3 connect to wedding invitations????? And why am I writing about this now?

Well...this week, Erik and I ordered our wedding invitations. Yay! Big excitement!

One thing we decided, however, was to keep these pretty environmentally friendly. How did we do this?

1. We used double-sided invitations in place of the "traditional" invitations.

Lemme explain. We received an invitation about a month ago ... and it came with an entire sheet of paper that was not printed on, and it came in two envalopes, with a reply card, an envelope for the reply card, a reception card, the card where the couple is registered and the card giving hotel directions/accomodations. WOW!

When you get ours in the mail, you'll notice there is only ONE ENVELOPE.

I am SO excited for the invites to arrive and to mail them out! :-)

2. We nixed registry cards.

Our invitations are double-sided and include our wedding Web site. The registries are there, and besides, it's totally tacky to put those in the invites!

3. Our RSVPs are post-cards.

Some people (like my smart sister) opted to have people e-mail or call, but not all of our guests are internet savvy ... so yes, we are not hugging a tree on this one.

4. Our envelopes are 30% recycled!

Our awesome designer found envelopes made out of 30% recycled materials! :-)

...

How can others be more friendly to the environment, especially in regards to wedding invitations?

1. NO save the date cards ... instead, send them via e-mail.

Sure, Erik and I sent them out, but we sent our "save the date" with Christmas cards ... and since we send Christmas cards anyway, we didn't figure it would be any extra paper or stamps.

I get a kick out of my friends who e-mail me to tell me they're getting married on their date, could they have my address to send a save the date? HELLO! You've just TOLD me to save the date!

2. Use post-card sized RSVP cards, and do NOT use an envelope for them.

You simply have to put a stamp on them and they're ready to go!

3. Opt for double-sided printing, if possible

...

So...this is nice, but what are my rewards?

There are several rewards.

1. You're preserving the planet for future generations.

2. Printing on two sides of paper DOES save money by eliminating the need for additional pieces of paper.

3. You save money!!!! This is by not needing to purchase multiple envelopes and additional paper. It's also more economical to mail a post card than pay for a RSVP card in an envelope.

Wedding invitation wording ....

So....the lovely and talented Heather Essian is designing our wedding invitations. We've selected some things we like, but before we send Heather the information, I thought we should come up with the wording.

I suggested something such as:

Karen Lee Mikols
&
Erik Robert Bonar
request the honour of your presence
as their lives are united in Holy Marriage
1:30 p.m. — Nuptual Mass
27 September 2008
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church
Wichita, Kansas

5:00 p.m. — Recaption, dinner, dance
Petroleum Club
xxx, Suite 900
Wichita, Kansas

www.mywedding.com/erikaren/

Erik's response? "I'd prefer if it didn't say recaption ;-)"

THEN his "serious" reply:

The trail winds onward
through the hills
from here to prairie's end;
Will our journey ever last?
as long as you're
my love my friend
and thou shall not Wabash at thine reception

Which one should we use??? ;-)~