I graduated college with a BA in Art focusing on graphic design & always knew I would create my own wedding invitations. One thing I wish I could have found more information on while I was designing was how the heck I was going to mail acrylic invitations to everyone & how much it was going to cost.
Typography has always been fun for me so I created everything in Illustrator and tested a zillion different fonts.
After having everything designed, I ordered samples of every color paper my printing vendor offered & an acrylic invite example. This really comes in handy when trying to finalize the colors & I definitely recommend doing so before sending files to print.
Once the colors were decided & the order came in, it took my hubby & I hours to put each invitation together. (Literally from 1pm to 11pm)
Wedding Invitation Suite
* 5×7 acrylic wedding invitation with a
* 5×7 laser cut pocket placed behind it that held the
* RSVP card,
* Guest accommodations card &
* Stamped RSVP card envelope with printed address.
* These were then placed in a vellum envelope & wrapped in a
* Laser cut belly band & placed in the
* Outer envelope that also had each address printed & had
* Gold stickers to seal.
* Don’t forget to order white gloves to put your invite together to avoid fingerprints on the acrylic! *
Wedding Invitation Suite Postage
Now, figuring out how to mail these was A PROCESS. (Seriously, ask my saint of a maid of honor who I complained to LOL.) The internet had such a discrepancy in prices so I took one, fully put together invitation to the post office to be weighed. The woman said they had to be hand sorted because they could not bend (extra cost) & because of the weight would cost $4.07 each to mail. I was beside myself & had to even ask how you stamp something that costs that much.
The woman could not have been ruder when she told me I would have to buy $1 stamps, 5¢ stamps & 1¢ stamps. (Mind you, can you imagine how ugly all of these stamps would be & she wanted me to put 7 STAMPS ON EACH INVITATION.) I asked if she could simply weigh it & place a sticker stating how much the postage was & she replied, “absolutely not.”
I then tried UPS and they could do exactly what I asked. They weighed one & placed a sticker stating the postage which was also almost $2 cheaper than the post office. I’m so happy I tried there!
All in all, acrylic invitations are gorgeous & a pain in the bum as well. With all of our pieces, a stamp for the RSVP card envelope & postage to send the entire invitation, each invitation was around $15 each. I was super happy with them after the postage chaos & felt they really set the tone for our wedding! It was also hilarious to receive pics like this from your friends 😉
Email alissa@proseccoandpalms.com if you would like your wedding invitations designed. 🙂