Invitation help?

[BrightSpot]

Well, I think it's time to order my invitations &, like every other major wedding planning step, I thought I'd run some options by my wedding-planning gurus on Pricescope! You guys have been so sweet & helpful with opinions on dresses, accessories (and most importantly, jewelry!) & I'd love to get your thoughts on invitations.

A bit of background: My FI & I are getting married on the beach in Jamaica on April 29th. We've already sent out save-the-dates (below--yes, they were actually flip-flops)

Our save-the-dates

The envelope for our save-the-dates

and want to follow up with more formal invitations w/ RSVP cards. We set up a fairly detailed website with all of our wedding details & sent the address out on the save-the-date so we won't actually be delivering any new information on our invitations.

So, we're looking for invitations which are fairly fun & casual as wedding invitations go, look beachy & set the tone of the wedding. (and are reasonably priced as we're paying for our wedding ourselves!) It might be nice if the formal invitations coordinated a bit with the save-the-dates too.

Do you guys like any of the invitations below? Any preferences/thoughts/ideas?

Also, I'm wondering if it's ok etiquette-wise to put the basic info on the wedding invite (our names, time, date & location of wedding, etc.), then ask them to visit our wedding website for more details?

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

Here are some of the invites I'm considering:

#1

In Paradise
#2

By the Beach

#3

Paradise Found

#4

Make Way for Waves

#5

Seaside
#6

Sand and Sea

#7

0IA-A594W

In the above invitation, we'd use the palm tree graphic below, not the leaf one:

What do you guys think? Thanks in advance for your ideas!

 

[Caribou]

I love your save the dates flip flops, can people actually wear those??? So cute.

My favorite invite is #5, but I also like # 2 & #4...I''m more of a simple gal.

 

[SoonIHope]

I like 4 and 7 best! They still look "invitation"-y, but are fun and cute and not fussy at all!

 

[curlygirl]

I like 2 and 5. I personally love 6 also but it might be too "formal" for the beachy, fun wedding. They''re all really cute and as I''ve told you previously, you have the most creative save the dates I have ever seen! Love them!!!

 

[ky6]

I remember those flip flops! I loved those. They were so creative. As for your invites, I personally like the more simple looking ones like 4 and 5. Your save the dates had the whole beach scene and were a little more complex, so I think for the follow up the invitation should be a little more simple.

 

[lovelylulu]

i love #5

 

[jcrow]

although i love them, #6 & #7 are too formal to follow up the informal flip flop save the dates.

 

[flopkins]

I like #2, #4, and #5. so cute!!!

 

[pebbles]

#2 is my favorite. If you were to have a more formal wedding, then I would say #6.

Just a warning -- the two bigger square invitations -- #1 and #4, require more postage than the rectangular ones. The rectangular ones require 2 stamps and the bigger square ones require more - I don''t remember how much more, but one of my friends sent out those big ones and she was flabbergasted when she got to the post office and they told her she needed another stamp on them.

 

[Kaleigh]

I love #2, and also #4. I think the last ones may be too formal as others have already mentioned.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

What a great selection!
two, four, five and seven are my favorites.

 

[BrightSpot]

Thanks so much for your thoughts, ladies (and for the compliements on our save-the-date flip flops

)
Caribou, yes, I suppose you could wear the flip-flops--they are actual shoes we bought at the dollar store, then glued on our graphic, but we only sent one shoe to each guest! (A few of them called or emailed us to ask where the other shoe was! Ha!)

Ok, I think I''ve narrowed the field to numbers 2, 4 & 5. You guys are right--these invites are less formal than #6 & 7 & more appropriate to the tone of our wedding, but they are still relatively simple in design & look like wedding invitations. (The more I look at them, I really think #1 & 3 are too busy) I ordered samples of our top picks & hope to be able to finalize the decision soon.

Pebbles, thanks for the heads up about the postage on the square invitations. I really do like the square look, but I''ll have to figure out if it''s worth the extra postage. (On the plus side, I just found a website that discounts invite #4 by 42%, which could help offset the extra postage costs.)

Thanks again for your help!

 

[eks6426]

I like number 4 of the ones you listed....


On another note, my girlfriend got married in Key West a couple of years ago and she did an invitation that was a message in a bottle. The actual invitation was printed scroll style then tied with a ribbon and inserted into a small plastic bottle. The bottle also had tiny seashells, some sparkles & some sort of ribbon. They put the address labels directly on the bottles and mailed them. The postage wasn''t that bad...pretty similar to the square invites. They were truly different.

I don''t remember where she got them...it was off the internet but here''s a link with something similar. I think hers were cheaper. Just an idea.

http://www.bottlemeamessage.com/

 

[caligal]

#2 Brightspot! And I don''t think there is anything wrong with sending them to a website- unless you have a large number of elderly folks you are sending the invite to

 

[lovelylulu]

i read the numbering wrong -- my favorite is #4! good luck deciding

 

[BrightSpot]

Thanks, ladies. (And thanks, caligal for your thoughts on the website.) I think I''m going to go ahead & list the site on our invitations. It really contains all the information people should need & the only people receiving invites who are not computer savvy are our grandmothers & our moms already have that covered!

IslandDreams, those messages in a bottle are adorable! Actually, we considered doing something like this as a save-the-date before we decided on the flip-flops. My only concerns with these would be that they''d be very time consuming to get together & it''d be hard to coordinate RSVP cards. But they are cute...and would be a nice way to top the flip-flops. Food for thought...

 

[icekid]

Date: 1/10/2006 4:26:40 PM
Author: kaleigh
I love #2, and also #4. I think the last ones may be too formal as others have already mentioned.

my thoughts exactly

I love 2 and 4!

 

[HOUMedGal]

My fave is #5, followed by #1!

 

[eks6426]

Brightspot...for what it''s worth the company who did my friend''s message in a bottle invites did all the stuffing and even the labeling and mailing. My friend used a website for everyone to reply to and also included a phone number so there were no formal RVSP cards. Definitely a more modern approach that wouldn''t work if you have a lot of older folks.

If you are interested in the MIB let me know and I will find out the vendor my friend used.

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Oh gosh, I think I like the ones that no one else likes! I like #3.

It IS busy, but so pretty. It's like you're right there at the beach! Ok, now I'm sounding cheesy.

I second the idea of putting your wedding website in your invitations. I plan on doing that with mine because we have all the hotel information, directions, and other important stuff on our site.

 

[BrightSpot]

Thanks, guys, for making me feel better about listing our website in our invites. It just seems silly to have to duplicate the information in paper format to me, especially when we went to so much work to put up the site.

Oh, IslandDreams, you''re really tempting me with the messages in a bottle.

Those sure would be fun & memorable. Hmm. I suppose we could just tell people to respond on our website, which has an RSVP feature (or call us!). I''ll have to run that idea by the FI...

If it''s not too much trouble, I''d love to find out the vendor your friend used for that. I don''t think I''d be willing to pay $3 per bottle for this, but maybe if it were a bit cheaper....

 

[Dodger Gurl]

I just ADORE #3!!!!

 

[eks6426]

Brightspot...I emailed my friend for her information on the MIB. I should have it early next week.

How many invites do you need? For my wedding last year I just had a call RSVP and it worked fine. We wound up having to call a few people but most actually did RSVP with a phone call. We had a little under 100 people. I would have used the website approach but our relatives were not internet savvy.

 

[researcher]

I vote for the message in a bottle! Had I had a casual beach wedding (instead of formal) I would have taken this approach

 

[researcher]

If you decide to go with one of the other invitation styles (I like #'s 5 and 7), you can always do something like I did and make folders to hold everything. I also used a seahorse seal on the outside of the envelope.

 

[researcher]

Oops! Sorry for the giant pic. Here it is again (only MUCH smaller)....

 

[ivanadiamond]

I totally loved your Save the dates, so cute and creative~~~ I like #5 and #6!

 

[rms]

since you narrowed the field to 2, 4, or 5, my favorite would be #4, followed by #2 if you decide against the extra postage for #4. The MIB idea is very cool though!

 

[AndyRosse]

I''m a bit late, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE #5

 

[BrightSpot]

Thanks so much for your thoughts & ideas, ladies. I''m sorry it''s taken me so long to update this thread.

Thanks for all the info on the message-in-a-bottle invites, IslandDreams. I really liked the idea, but FI thought they were too similar to our STD''s. (wacky item in the mail)

So, I ordered samples of all of the invitations in question & wound up deciding on....(drumroll, please

)....#4! They should arrive in a week or 2. Then I''ll have to get busy addressing the envelopes...

Researcher, I adore the seahorse seal you used. I''d love to know where you found it. Did you use candle wax or sealing wax? Did it take forever to do? Maybe FI could seal the envelopes while I address them!