Invitations Part III - The Text

Mr. Olive and I spent a lot of time deciding exactly how to word our invites and corresponding stationary. I was leaning toward something a little more whimsical...

As autumn leaves
turn their brilliant hue
two lovers will join and say I do

Mr. Olive, on the other hand, wanted it a lot more traditional...

Mr. & Mrs. Olive
request the honor of your
presence at the marriage of

Since my parents, Mr. Olives mom, Mr. Olives dad, and we ourselves are all paying for parts of the wedding we also had a challenge on choosing the wording. In addition, Mr. Olives parents are both remarried. In order to include everyone in the invitation it would have had to look something like this:

Mr. and Mrs. Brides Parents
Mr. Grooms Stepdad and Mrs. Grooms Mom
and

Mr. Grooms Dad and Mrs. Grooms Stepmom

request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their children

Miss Bride Olive

and

Mr. Groom Olive

Wow! That's a mouthful! I don't think that would have fit on our invitation! So, in the end we went with something simple:

Together with their parents

Miss Olive

and

Mr. Olive

Invite you to share in the celebration

of their marriage

on Saturday, the eleventh day of October

two thousand and eight

at eleven o'clock in the morning

Auberge du Soleil

Napa, California

Luncheon Reception

immediately following the ceremony

We also wrote our own text for the RSVP postcards and info cards:

RSVP Postcard

The favor of your reply is

requested by August 1st

_________________

name(s)

___ Accepts with Pleasure

___ Declines with Regret

We are arranging for safe transport to and from the

ceremony and reception, are you interested?

____ YES ____ NO

Information Card

Side A

A block of rooms has been reserved at:

Hotel

Address

Website

Telephone

Group Code:

For more information visit our

wedding website at:

http://www.oliveweddingwebsite.com/

Side B

Airports

San Francisco Airport (SFO)
15 Miles to Hotel

Oakland Airport (OAK)

20 Miles to Hotel

San Jose Airport (SJC)

45 miles to Hotel

Local Transportation

A coach bus is available to transport guests between the hotel in San Francisco and the ceremony and reception at Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley (60 miles). If you are inters ted in this transportation option please indicate your preference on your RSVP Card.

The winner is...

The finalists from Invitesite.com :

Orla

Angelica

The winner is... ANGELICA!

I choose Angelica over Orla for a couple of reasons. Back in Dec. Mr. Olive and I choose Angelica but then when it came time to order the invites I started having second thoughts. It felt funny to be sending out invites with fall leaves in June... so I started looking at other options.I stumbled upon Orla and I loved the rustic feel and thought it was a great option. Invitesite allows you to order one free sample so I ordered Angelica (back in Dec) and my SIL-to-be ordered a sample of Orla for me in March. When the sample of Orla came in the mail it was not what I had imagined. First, the paper was much more orange than brown. Secondly, the assembly and the opening of the invitation was more complicated than Orla. SIL-to-be opened the invite when it arrived but after she took it out of the envelope she couldn't figure out how to get it back together again. Finally, Mr. Olive liked Angelica more so we stuck with our first choice of Angelica and I am glad we did!

What makes these invites eco-friendly?

1. All paper (invite, envelopes, RSVP, info card, thank you cards) made entirely from tree free paper and 100% post consumer recycled paper.
   
2. Purchased from small, California based store.
   
3. RSVP postcard saves paper (and money) from the standard RSVP set of an envelope/reply card.
   
4. One double-sided insert with basic information and our wedding website. We did not include extras such as a map, reception card, etc. since all of that information is on our website.
   

The Budget

The ordering process with Invitesite was simple and it came in the mail quickly. This is what I ordered:

• 50 Angelica Invitations - $2.25 each = $112.50
• 125 Matching Husk & Burgundy Thank You's - $0.85 each = $105.25
• 130 Sheets of Husk Cardstock - $0.30 each = $39.00

Subtotal = $257.75

Tax = $0.00 (shipped from CA to NY)

Shipping = $14.00

TOTAL = $271.75

Here is the assembled invite!

The Entire Package

RSVP Postcard
*We tested a postcard by sending it from California to our home in NY. It arrived in less than a week!

Information Card

Me Addressing Invites

The invitation hunt!

Choosing our wedding invitations was a really difficult task. I wanted something that was eco-friendly, simple and affordable. For me eco-friendly meant an invitation that was made of recycled or tree-free paper, used soy ink and was produced by a small business (or some combination of the three).

Here are some beautiful, earth friendly invites:

Sylvan by Bella Figura

Invitation + Envelope = $570 for 50
Reply Postcard = $330 for 50

Total: $900 ($18 each)

"Bella Figura is a passionate artisan letterpress shop based in Central New York. We print the old-fashioned way, using antique cast-iron letterpresses, the best paper, time, patience, perfection, and a whole lot of love. Because we want to make the world a better place, we're a wind-powered, carbon neutral print shop, and we donate 1% of sales to environmental causes. We print only on 100% cotton (tree-free) paper that's made exclusively for us in a historic European paper mill."

Alcazar by Earthly Affairs

Invite w/envelope: $2.48

Response Card w/envelope: $1.78

$213 for 50 ($4.26 each)

Click here to read more about Earthly Affairs environmental commitment.

Botanical Paperworks

Monogram Seed Wedding Invitations: $4.65 each each
Monogram Reply Cards: $1.45 each
Total: $305 for 50 ($6.10 each)

"The base fiber is cotton or 100% post-consumer waste. And the paper is made with pure North American wildflower seeds by skilled papermakers paid a living wage in Winnipeg, Manitoba."

I found many beautiful eco-friendly invitations and I found a lot of affordable invitations but it was more difficult to find both eco-friendly and affordable invites.

I had designated a very small portion of our budget to invitations and stationary because I wanted to spend more money on day-of elements like the food and flowers. Solution - DIY! Neither I nor Mr. Olive are very creative or artsy so we needed to stick to something simple.

Then I discovered Invitesite! This California based company uses tree-free papers and 100% post consumer papers. They have a large selection of save-the-dates, invitations, programs and thank you cards. The best part about Invitesite is that you can print and assemble your own invitations and save a bunch of money (or you can pay them to do it for you)!

We narrowed down the choices to two options:

Orla

50 - 99 invitation sets: $3 each
Add $0.50 for RSVP set

- OR -

Angelica

50 - 99 invitation sets: $2.25 each

Add $0.50 for RSVP set

Tomorrow I will reveal which invitation we choose!

Did you use eco-friendly products in any of your wedding stationary?

A Mexican Wedding

I am back from a week long vacation in Los Barriles at the southern tip of Baha in Mexico. Mr. Olive and I were there to celebrate his younger brothers weddding! This is the first wedding we have been to since our engagement. It was so interesteing to attend a wedding now that I am planning my own. I've never been so interested in the order of the processional, the table display or the napkin colors!

During the trip I've been thinking about lots of wedding details that I need to post about: invitations, upcoming wedding shower, and wedding bands!

For now I will leave you with some wonderful pictures of a beautiful Mexican wedding.

Mr. Olive, Groom (Mr. Olive's brother), Groomsman,

and Fern the ring bearer


The bride and her father

Exchanging of the Rings

Wedding Lasso - A Mexican Tradition

Me & Mr. Olive enjoying the reception.

Men in... Skirts?!

The summer before we were engaged he asked me what I thought of him wearing a kilt. Wow! I did not see this coming. While I never really had a clear vision of what our wedding would look like it definitely did not involve kilts! I always imagined he would wear something like this:

Brooks Brothers Khaki Linen Suit

Brooks Brothers Golden Fleece Two-Button Pinstripe Suit

He continued to bring it up and I started to realize that he was serious about wanting to wear a kilt. At first I was completely against the idea. I thought it would look completely out of place at our wedding venue (Napa Valley), too dressy for a daytime wedding and I wanted reds and oranges and his family kilt is navy and dark green. He told me how much it meant to him and how he viewed it as a way of honoring his grandmother (who passed away several years ago). I realized that it is Mr. Olive's wedding too and he wouldn't dare tell me what to wear. So, I relented and got on board with the kilt with one condition - he would bring pants to change into for some of the formal shots. He agreed and started the search for a kilt maker! This is what Mr. Olive and his four brothers will look like on our wedding day.

Wedding Kilt

Mr. Olive will wear the Prince Charlie Jacket and his brothers will wear the less formal Argyle Jackets.

Prince Charlie Jacket

Argyle Jacket

Since our original conversation I've come to accept the kilt for what it is. I told Mr. Olive that he doesn't need to bring along pants anymore. After all, all the celebrities are doing it!

Sean Connery

Vin Diesel

What did your fiance choose to wear for the wedding? Is anyone else marrying a kilt lover?

A Wedding Planning Weekend

Mr. Olive and I recently had the chance to go to California for three days of wedding planning fun! We flew Virgin America for the first time and we had a great experience. The individual, interactive TV's were a great way to stay entertained during the 5 hour flight! If you have to fly I would highly recommend this airline!

Virgin America

Since we got engaged in November we have talked with vendors on the phone and over email, signed contracts, and sent deposits. It was fun to pick out the details but a little nerveracking to do everything sight unseen. This was our only chance to get to CA between the engagement and the wedding so we had to pack a lot in!

Here were the items on our agenda:

- Meet with Florist

- Meet with Officiant

- Meet with Music Coordinator

- Meet with Site Coordinator

- Visit Rehearsal Dinner Venue

- Visit Group Hotel

- Locate Cake Vendor

In addition to all of our meetings we also managed to find my wedding band, do a wine tasting and see a movie!

We are happy to report that all of our vendors were wonderful! Everything is beginning to come together! I have to say that planning a long-distance wedding has actually made some decisions a lot easier. We never had to spend weekends running around looking at venues, doing tastings or meeting with florists. Everything was done over email and phone. I guess I can say this because we've met the vendors and they were all great! We sure did luck out!

Has anybody else needed to pack all of your planning into a single trip? How did it work out?

Mr. Olive at our Wedding Site

Ceremony Site

The Ring

Mr. Olive and I occasionally talked about what my engagement ring might look like. We went to look at engagement rings together a couple of times during the first year we were dating but I never told Mr. Olive about any specific design that I wanted. My only requirement was not too big! I don't wear a lot of jewelery and I wasn't comfortable with the idea of having a large or flashy ring.

Mr. Olive had always told me that he preferred the solitaire Tiffany Setting so naturally this is what I expected my ring would look like. I loved the simplicity of this setting so I was happy with Mr. Olive's choice.

The Tiffany Setting

It was important to me to avoid blood diamonds and Mr. Olive was lucky enough to have a family stone that he could use for my ring. His sister had a pair of diamond stud earrings that she had inherited from their grandmother. She offered to let Mr. Olive use one of the stones for my ring. He took this stone to a jeweler in his home town and designed the setting all by himself! The final product was a very unique and beautiful ring. It is made of 14k white gold with three stones in a prong setting. The band is also very unique in the fact that the outer prongs of the outside diamonds create a second band on top of the first resulting in a band that looks like it has a smaller band on top of the larger band. I tried to find a good professional picture of a similar band but it is so unusual that I couldn't find anything like it! Without further ado, my ring:

Mr. Olive had the other ring turned into a pendant for his sister as a thank you for giving him the earrings. What a sweetheart!