Wedding Invitations....

Thursday, July 24, 2008....

I finally got around to picking out the wedding invitations.....I should back up. Several months ago, I started my search with my friend who is a web designer (important fact) for the perfect invitation. Typically, I get the ol' "deer-in-the-headlight" look when I shop too long for certain items...ah, heck, it's most any shopping. However, I tend to get this look quickly with paint, fabric and wedding invitations. I didn't quite see what my friend would see when browsing the catalogs and looking through all the samples I sent away for. She focused on texture, font and ink color. The best you could get from me was nice, doable or not-on-your-life. When my head started spinning, I stopped my hunt and put it at the bottom of my to-do list for the wedding.

Having registered on The Knot, I received dozens of emails and catalogs on every possible item that a bride and groom need for their special day. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the favors, but that's just me (plus I had them at first wedding and they weren't as important as I was told they would be), nor am I a fan of the printed napkin. I know, I know, everyone has these, but think about it. Do you really want your name smeared across someone's face that just ate sushi??? I have yet to save or notice the beautiful personalization of the napkins that I've used at other weddings. I'm usually trying to just find one because there never seems to be enough.

Okay, I digressed enough....back to original topic...wedding invites. Tuesday is the day that I realized I needed to order some (I later discovered in the invitation books that I should have ordered them 4 months prior to the wedding - oops!) I was prepared for my trip. I found the one I wanted in a catalog and was going to order that one. It was very fluffy and pretty, heck, it was Laura Ashley; how could it not be fluffy! It was the type of invite that would make people look twice to ensure that I sent it. I really did think it pretty, but forgot to bring it to the store. The sales lady was nice, she helped me find a similar one based upon my description (floral cardstock that is overlayed with vellum paper which had the wedding details printed in black ink, traditional font and at the top of the invite a bow). We both looked through about a dozen books and I was so surprised that I ended up with the following:

• olive cardstock
• mocha ink
• some fancy font, but more modern
• emblem for top of invite and for envelopes of 2 leaves

I was surprised at how very close it was to my original choice - NOT. Although, as I was driving home, all I could think was "olive cardstock, mocha ink", huh......

Well, if I'm throwing wind to abandoning the traditional monogrammed paper napkin, why not toss wind to the normal color for the wedding invite. Who knows, maybe I'll be a trendsetter.

j