When initial calligrapher recommendations were out of our budget, I took to the internet and found Nicole of The Left Handed Calligrapher. She's very nice and super personable, and does an amazing job. As it turns out, Nicole has been featured in SMP and D Weddings, but when I booked her I hadn't heard of her work yet.
Mr. Oyster-the-artist was excited about this. When we went and picked up the finished envelopes, he said, "They're like little pieces of art!" Very cute.
So, check them out! The "font" we chose was Copperplate. I actually liked Spencerian better, but I really wanted the envelopes to be "mailable." I took pictures of this particular set so that I could show them off without revealing where a family or friend lives. Do you know this person?
I think I underestimated the formality of these invitations. Now, with the letterpress and everything, they look very formal. I even had a brief freak-out and called my mother, worried that we had outclassed ourselves with the invitation! My mother said, no, we hadn't, and also pointed out helpfully that it's too late to worry about that now. Thanks, mom!
In between ordering the invitations and sending them, I built our wedding website. Later, I decided that I didn't want it hanging around for all the Internet to see, so I password protected it, creating custom logins for each guest. But with no website card, how would I tell them about it?
We came up with a label system. I bought clear computer labels, and formatted them with each invite's custom username and password. I initially planned to put these on the back of the invitations, so they'd be subtle, but my mom (there she goes again) pointed out that most people won't automatically turn the invitation over, and by the time they get to the computer and see "check your invitation for username/password" they might not have it with them, etc., etc....
So we put it on the outer flap of the inside envelope. When people open the inner envelope, the label will disappear from view and the invitation will still stand on its own. Very clever! (While we are happy with this solution, please tell me I'm not alone in saying that computer labels are a giant pain in the ass.)
Mr. Oyster decided that he wanted to perfectly line up the labels on the envelopes, and came up with a complicated measuring system. I would have just stuck them on there, but I didn't say that, instead thanking Mr. Oyster for making the invitations such a high priority.
This mysterious measuring system involved Post-its.
When he realized I was taking his picture and possibly going to show it to you all, he dissolved into what is perhaps the cutest fit of giggles I've seen in a grown man:
And then he got to work.
Okay, check it out:
It's a dark grey, which matches the back of our outer envelopes (and the invite text). We stuffed, sealed and stamped them, and were ready to go! Does anyone else love those USPS wedding stamps? They just happened to match our envelopes perfectly.
The whole time we were putting these together, we kept lamenting that we didn't have Nicole make us our own envelope set that we could keep. But sure enough, hidden in the bottom of the stack of envelopes, was a nice surprise.
Nicole very sweetly made us our own commemorative invitation envelopes, beautifully addressed to us, and we put an invite in it and decided to put it in our little "wedding keepsake" box. We even put a stamp on it. This way, our kids can look at it one day and say, "Ha, ha, Mom & Dad! It was only $0.61 to mail a 5x7 envelope? Ours cost $20 each!"
