A Whole New World

Decisions, decisions! Jess makes a first attempt at finding the perfect invitation.

By Jessica Solloway

I realized that my wedding is 5 months away! What?!? I have most of the big things booked but I still need to pick out invitations. But this is not something I want to spend a fortune on. As I am quickly learning, extra costs seem to pop up in every part of wedding planning, but I have heard from a lot of friends that invitations are a great place to save. 


Anyways, let's backtrack a bit. On a whim, my mom decided to drive to NJ to visit my grandparents this past weekend. So I hopped on the train from DC to come to see everyone. And when I least expected it, we got a lot of things checked off on our wedding to do list.

First -- my mom, Arlene (grandma) and I went to a stationary store and looked at books and books of invitations to get an idea of styles and price ranges. If we found something there, we could still order it through a retailer in Cleveland that's reasonable.

WELL ... it was quite an experience. The books are gi-normous and weigh like 15 pounds each. The first one I opened was interesting ... to say the least. I know everyone has different taste, but some of these were just crazy! Huge drawings of brides and grooms on the front, ribbons, sparkles, shimmer, even a rhinestone here and there! It was like looking at Bat Mitzvah invitations, circa 1993!

I started to panic! But luckily the other books were much closer to what I was looking for. It's so funny, because every time I have to do something new for the wedding, I feel like I've entered a whole new world. Like when Ariel in The Little Mermaid gets feet and leaves the sea for land. (Ok, maybe not that drastic ...) Great, now that song is in my head.

I quickly learned that you can do an envelope, with another envelope inside. There are like 3,000 different fonts to choose from. You can create a monogram with your initials. You need to pick an envelope liner and decide on the type of type (thermography, letterpress, printing, etc.). Do you want the invitation to be "ecru" or white? Long or square? You even have to think about the stamp you want on there. Do you have the addresses printed? Do you hire a calligrapher? You can even design it yourself like Sara did, which can save money but takes lots of time and hard work. 

I ended up wandering off to the other side of the store to go look at baby gifts for my friend because I got overwhelmed with the books. Anyhoo, we did get an idea of the style we liked and now my mom is going to work some magic and see what the woman in Cleveland can do.

Other updates on the wedding front ...

1) My mom bought a dress for the wedding when she was in NJ! As I have mentioned before, when in need of an outfit or dress for an occasion, Arlene turns into the family personal shopper extraordinaire. And she helped my mom find THE dress. It's gorgeous and I am so excited for her to wear it.

2) Since my mom drove to NJ, I was able to give her my wedding dress to take back to Cleveland since that's where I am doing the fittings. (It's been hanging up at my grandparents house since we bought it.) It was the first time she saw it and it was SO cool to try it on for her and see her reaction. And it was only the 2nd time I have put it on, so it was fun for me too to step back into the dress. I love, love, love it! I was also relieved that we figured out a way to get it home. That thing is HUGE and I can't imagine lugging it through an airport. Once I left a dress that I wore to a wedding in the conveyer belt in a Chicago airport. Eeek! Luckily I remembered after about three minutes and was able to track it down. (So you can see my reservations about taking this dress anywhere with me!)

3) My mom also brought us the Save the Dates (which a graphic designer she works with created based on a funny idea Seth and I had). Now we just have to do labels and get those puppies in the mail!

4) Seth and I went through our list last night and realized we forgot his grandma (wooops!). THAT wouldn't have gone over well. And we somehow added 10 more people. Just as we were trying to cut. Oy ...

So, that's the latest. If you have any tips on finding invitations, please leave a comment!