The wedding: Paper

To start, I figured it would be appropriate to begin with the save the dates, invitations, programs, etc. We made a very conscious effort to make these things simple and personal. And also cheap.

Save The Dates

My roommate, Rachel, gave me her secret for save the dates, and I am so so grateful. We used vistaprint.com to create our save the date post cards. Vistaprint always has sales going on. And when I say always, I mean always. We got 200 postcards for free. All we had to pay was shipping! While I had always really liked the idea of magnet save the dates, I did not like the price. Not only were these free but still of good quality, but sending them out was cheaper too, since we only needed to buy post card stamps. I highly recommend this to any bride who is looking for a bargain. 

Wedding Invitations

 Invitations took a little more work. I had something envisioned, but was having trouble making it a reality. At first, I really wanted square invitations, but I decided against it, since it costs more to send square envelopes. I also really wanted these to be personal, not generic. I looked for packaged invitations, but never fell in love with any. So we decided to make our own.

My baby brother is an artist. He does lovely work, but is not too keen on drawing by request. So it took some bribing. He now has my iPod touch. But he did a lovely job. I created the invitation on Word, and then my lovely hubby to be printed them out on a cream/tan colored resume paper. And then we cropped. 

We decided to RSVP through email for a couple of reasons. First, it saves paper. Second, it saves money. 

I found some lovely envelopes at an office supply store that happened to be discounted. Oh my, was there much rejoicing that day. So finally we stuffed, sealed, stamped, and sent those suckers out. 

Bridesmaid Brunch Invitations

I asked my other little brother to create an invitation that I could send out to my wedding party for our Friday morning get together. He is talented, too. 

Rehearsal Coffee Invitations

I asked the same little brother to do a rehearsal invitation, as well. These were also printed onto cream resume paper and then cropped. (Personal addresses have been blurred... it didn't actually look like that. ha)

 Programs

Personally, I find programs to be a waste of paper. Most people don't save them, so hundreds of papers get thrown out after the wedding. So, I decided to do something different. Instead of handing out programs, we made a slideshow. Everyone involved, including musicians and photographers were included. I put their full names, how we knew them, their role in the wedding, and then a couple of pictures.  The slideshow ran on a loop for thirty minutes before the wedding actually began. I never saw it while it was going, but I heard it served its purpose. 

Well, I think that just about covers everything in this category. I wish we had kept all of the prices we spent on everything so I could know exactly, but we didn't. But for all paper products of this nature, I would say that we spent less than $200. Which isn't half bad.