Off They GO!

That's right, I finally got my invitations off in the mail! I designed it all in Illustrator and had them letterpressed at Mercurio Brothers. When I received my initial RSVP cards, I was unhappy with the way they printed and the addresses on the RSVP envelopes were incorrect, but Mercurio Brothers quickly fixed the problem, reprinted the envelopes and reprinted the cards with a different design that I created all for no extra charge!

Since the colors of our wedding are solely black and white, I opted to keep the invitations simple, but incorporate our monogram into the pieces. I included a simple map with our website address for guests to access full directions and other details.

Last weekend, one of my bridesmaids was kind enough to spend her Friday night helping me to stuff the envelopes, secure the belly bands and make sure that everything was organized. I had originally ordered my postage from Picture It, but accidentally ordered the wrong amount ($0.42 instead of $0.59). Since they don't create postage faster then 8-10 days, I decided to order stamps with Zazzle. I ordered them on Monday and they were at my doorstep by Wednesday afternoon. Nice turnaround! The stamps we ordered from Picture It weren't a complete loss, though, as we'll be able to use them for thank you notes and another card we will be sending to some of our guests (more on that later).

Ok, I'll stop explaining now and show you the pics!

The assembled invitation with belly band.

Reception Card.

Map with our website for further details.

RSVP Card.

The whole invitation suite!

My sister-in-law's mother was kind enough to do ALL of our calligraphy (both inner and outer envelopes) for us for no charge at all. I am really happy with how it turned out! We got her a beautiful Waterford clock to thank her, but I still don't think it's enough for the 175 invitations or so that she calligraphied.

All packed up and ready to go!

I am def no Miss Cupcake (her invitations are incredible), but I'm very happy with how our invitations turned out, considering our wedding has been the only time that I've tried to create invitations.

Did you all opt to DIY for your invites or hire someone else?