Invitations… Just Call Me Martha!

After lack of sleep, a week-long headache, and a destroyed living room floor (yes, again), the invitations have been sent out! All those terrible comments you see above… I have to say, I think it was worth it once I had the finished product, but it didn’t seem that way when I first started them!
You may remember hearing me say I was doing pocketfold invites. I felt it necessary for my invitations to be “different” (in case you haven’t noticed… this is a common theme in my wedding). Since I have never received or known anyone to receive pocketfold invites, I thought this would be my one-of-a-kind strategy. Well, in almost a year, I think pocketfolds have taken over the world. While I have still not received one, I have many friends who have, and I am officially seeing them all over magazines, in books, and of course on the www!


To make a long story short, I put my foot down on the pocketfolds and started searching for something more unique. I knew it may entail a little “arts and crafts,” but you can ask my fiancé any ole day, and he will tell you I think I am the arts and crafts queen! You will never see this lady get her hands dirty for anything UNLESS it includes cardstock, glue, tape, glitter, confetti, paint… you name it, and I will attempt to craft it. And believe me, my hands aren’t the only thing getting dirty; the floor and whatever garment of clothing I have on usually jump in the mix as well. Glue covered hands, paint on my pants, and glitter stuck in every crevice on the hard wood floors… nothing stops me from crafting! I have crafted for just about everything including parties, showers, birthday gifts, and most recently, my wedding. If I see something that I want, I am convinced I can make it better than what’s available for purchase, and believe me, I always try!
Do I always succeed? Well, that is questionable. I succeed in staying up late, getting frustrated, huffing, puffing, pouting, and sometimes even throwing the current craft across the room. Not to mention the looks I get from my fiancé and the same comments I hear over and over: “I told you to just buy it….” “No the tissue paper is not too crinkled.” "Yes, it's centered." “Please stop freaking out… everything looks fine!” “Don’t get mad at me because they didn’t turn out the way you hoped…” “Why do your torture yourself like this… please GO BUY IT!”
So WHY do I do it? WHY do I torture myself and my fiancé? WHY do I not just buy it? Why in Heaven’s name do I think I’m Martha Stewart? Because once the letters are centered, the cuts are straight down the middle, the glue is dry, and everything is picture-perfect, I get so very proud of myself. No, I don’t think I am blessed with artsy ability (I actually don’t think I’m very good at all), but I do think I subconsciously have a passion for arts and crafts, and by goodness I try REALLY HARD! What takes me weeks could probably take an art or graphics expert one night, but I hang in there so I can smile at how pretty I made something look when it’s all over!
Here I have posted my recent “work of art” so I can smile now at the beauties and in later years look back remembering how hard I worked on them and how flawlessly they capture the theme of our wedding ! Here’s a breakdown of how they were made:

- My friend, old co-worker, and very talented graphic designer (who, by the way, just got her dream job designing wedding invitations at a well known stationary place in Memphis) should be credited with the look of these invites – she designed them perfectly to match the Southern-Vintage theme! I honestly don’t think anyone could have come up with anything better!

- Yes, I made the lace envelopes. And YES, I am beyond proud of how beautiful they turned out. After I found the idea on the Martha Stewart Weddings website, the pocketfold idea flew out the window, hit the road, and turned into roadkill – I was so over it! I bought ivory doilies online (it took some serious searching for the perfect size and color), bought several packs of glue sticks, and got to work! I folded my little hiney off for weeks!

- I bought the gold “matting” at cardsandpockets.com. I glued them to each invitation just to give it a little something extra. Plus, the wedding colors are pink, gold, and champagne, and gold was missing, so I had to spark it up a bit!

- I also bought the pink envelopes from cardsandpockets.com. Tres gets ALL the credit for printing the envelopes. He created a spreadsheet that made the printing process quick and easy. Not to mention, he figured out how to print the return address on the back.
***I have to mention this… maybe I waited until the last minute to do these invites, but I had every intention of doing the calligraphy myself for the envelopes. I had figured out a way to address every single one of these out by hand and still make it look like professional calligraphy, but after folding nearly 200 doilies and gluing nearly 200 gold mats to invites, I let that idea join the pocketfold one as roadkill. I wasn’t even going to ATTEMPT to do it. And if you think printing addresses opposed to writing them on wedding invites is tacky, too bad. I’m living in 2010, and Ben Franklin will not be receiving one of my wedding invites any time soon! Same goes for the "RSVP to email" and "Adults Reception Only" printed on the RSVP card. A) I prefer email and would rather use modern technology to keep up with names opposed to trying to keep up with 200 RSVP cards and B) I don't agree with children being at weddings. Period. So, for these little tweeks, please don't call us tacky... call us modern!

- Finally, we did the ever-famous “stuffing” of the envelopes, which by the way, turned into a disaster and resulted into my head spinning around like Linda Blair in The Exorcist because I had folded the doilies too tight, so none of the invites fit into them!!!! I think Tres thought he was going to have to call a priest for an exorcism because I really almost lost it. I was so tired, it was so late, and the stinkin’ envelopes were too small! Luckily, I own a paper cutter, so instead of letting the demon in me come out, I turned into an angel and got to cutting. One more step I had to throw in there, but whatever!

I have to throw in this post what a big help Tres was during this project! He never helps me with my crafts, but he got down on his hands and knees and got crafty with me this time… all in the name of our wedding! Thank you, wonderful fiancé… I love you so much!