A little note about STD's.
If you are planning on going the ever-popular postcard route the way we did, opt for a 4x6 card size or less and avoid the 5x7. We failed to think that through before ordering from OverNightPrints.com and ran into a little problem...
4x6 in. (or less) = $.28 per card.
5x7 in. = $.44 per card.
Might not seem like that big of a deal at first, but then multiple that number times 200+ and you've got yourself a big fat extra expense for no good reason.
In an effort to see the silver lining, I think this was meant to be a little lesson before the big invite mail out. Our original idea was pretty kick-ass: Since October, we've been collecting old paper towel tubes from family and friends. The plan was, we would make our own mini silkscreen 10x16 in. poster prints and use the paper towel tubes as mailers. To reinforce the tubes, we were working with our designer friends on making a tag board overlay that would look like birchtree bark, complete with the return and mailing addresses having a "carved out" effect. To seal 'em, we were going to buy some tube ends from Uline at bulk, and then create a sticker to look like the inside rings of a tree when you saw it, and have that sticker cover each end. Once completed, it would look like a little branch and fit really nicely with the whole outdoorsy-whimsical feel we were trying to go for.
Apparently no creative effort comes with some sort of aftershock. After some estimated calculations on the USPS web site, it appears our idea would really run us up on shipping costs. We could try UPS, but it's still gonna be up there. Not sure this is going to pan out how we hoped and it looks like we're going to have to figure something else out.
To all our friends and family, regulars at work and perfect strangers who have been helping us collect paper towels tubes: Thank you so much for thinking of us and sorry we won't be able to use them. I promise we will do our best to find a creative use for some of them and recycle the rest.
Back to the drawing board.
Just stumbled across your blog and want to say a huge thank you! Planning an October wedding for Nebraska in 2011, and it is SO NICE to hear someone else aghast at how much a "normal" wedding costs. I'm loving the list of blogs you've included too. The Offbeat Bride has been my best friend.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog! My fiance and I are planning on doing video Save the Dates and emailing them out (as well as putting the video on our website). So that's a free option for a lot of couples, too!
ReplyDelete@My Discworld - I'm a month late on the response, but not any less thankful :) Glad you like the blog and sorry to be a flakefest on the response. Offbeat is the shit, and if you feel overwhelmed and want to stab your eyes out with a Save-the-Date, I highly recommend IndieBride's Kvetch thread. It's one of those nice places to bitch about weddings without hurting feelings and I've been following it a lot lately ;)
ReplyDelete@Alexia - The video idea is awesome! Great recommendation and if you're cool sharing the link, I'd like to check out how it went so I can recommend it to other. Thanks for sharing!