Sweet Invitation Suite, Dude!

Last night I had my first real wedding breakdown. I won't go into all the details but basically, even though our venue is absolutely beautiful, I would never, ever recommend it in a million years to even my worst enemy. After a particularly frustrating phone call with them, I did what anyone would do. I got off the couch, went into my walk-in closet, turned the light off, curled up into a little ball, and cried hysterically. That's rational, right? I don't think my fiance thought so though. He came in and tried to convince me to go lay in the bed, which only sent me into further hysterics while somehow still managing to choke out "I - just - want - to - cry - all by myselffffff!!!!" between sobs. He did not laugh at me, bless his heart. He awkwardly patted my shoulder and left me to cry it out. After 10 minutes of that and 2 minutes recovery time, I got up, cleaned the mascara off my face, and went back to the wedding project I had been working on prior to the call. So, in order to cheer me up some after that incident, I've decided to now post about our Invitation Suite, which is one of my absolute FAVORITE details about our wedding.

After we (actually, mostly he!) came up with the Itialian Film Festival theme, things started to fall into place. I really wanted to incorporate the theme into our invites, but found that any pre-made invites having anything to do with movies looked childish - more like a movie night than a wedding invite.

Thanks, but no thanks.

At least it's not super bright?

Closer, but still not quite right.

Eventually, I turned to Etsy (yep again - it's a bit of a wedding rabbit hole) where I found a vendor who had a mock-up of movie theater invites and was willing to work with me - I got total control over font, colors, wording, paper, and envelopes. What I did NOT have total control over, hwoever, was the amount of other work she had. Unfortunately, my invites were a week late in getting sent out to me (and mine isn't the only review that says that), but I'm pretty willing to let that slide because I'm so pleased with the work. I really feel like this strikes a balance between playful and elegant, and they match not only our theme, but also our color scheme (champagne, gold, burgundy) perfectly. So, without further delay, I present to you our Antique Movie Theater Invitation Suite (with personal info scratched out just in case any weirdos are creeping!).




Front of invite.

Back of invite.

RSVP. I love the gold leaf printing, and the decline wording!

Inner envelopes - Paid a lot extra for these, but I coudln't resist!

Return address labels for the outer envelopes.

Custom return address stamp we had made (from yet another Etsy vendor) that was used on the inner RSVP return envelopes.

We also got to pick out special stamps for the occasion. I know that nobody else probably even noticed the stamp, but I didn't want a regular flag one, so we chose the Love stamp, which, according to the U.S. Postal Service Website are dedicated to "the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center". Pretty cool! Unfortunately for my out-of-country friends, they got stamps that look like Amish Pennsylvania. I'm not sure if that's what it actually is, but when I saw the stamps, it reminded me of a trip I took there in 2004, so now they will forever be Amish stamps to me.

My future Mother-In-Law was kind enough to address all of the outer envelopes for me - she has far nicer writing than my hybrid print/cursive scribble. After all of the envelopes were addressed I started putting together each one. I wish I could say that there were no problems with this but unfortunately, I mislabeled no less than 70 envelopes before I realized that I had placed the return address in the wrong place. I, uh... I blame wedding brain. That's a real ailment, look it up. Clinton later told some co-workers that he has seen me mad, but never quite THAT mad. I dropped probably 100 F-bombs in a 10 minute rant, then collected myself and went to buy new RSVP envelopes. I managed to control my temper enough to NOT rip up all the others (impressive) and save them for when we send out Thank You cards. Crisis averted. So with the invites all put together (correctly, this time), I sent Clinton on his merry little way to the post office with a box full of love to send to all our nearest and dearest.

It was only a couple of days before we started getting RSVPs back. I got my first batch only two days after sending them out! At our apartment complex, the mailboxes are in the front up by the leasing office, and our building is way in the back, so we always stop at the front on the way home from work so I can get out and check the mail. The day we got our first RSVPs back (two of them!) I came running back to the car waving them around and smiling ear to ear - it made everything feel so real!! We have been getting them pretty consistently every day since then, at least one per day, and I'm loving it. No matter how crappy my day was, ripping those envelopes open when I get home never fails to put a smile on my face.



Our first two RSVPs!


So that's that! Whew, who knew I could type so much about paper! I'm still happy with them and the way they turned out, and I've had nothing but positive feedback thus far, so yay!