DIY Bride™

Photo Credit:  White Aisle

The Pleasure of Your Company Is Requested
Don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the proper way to address a female friend with a live-in lover.  There are many online resources that will tell you what the proper etiquette is when it comes to wedding stationery.  One very popular one is the Crane’s Wedding Blue Book.  And proper etiquette is of utmost importance.  Keep reading for some guidelines that even Emily Post will be impressed by.
Firstly, invitation ensembles should be mailed out six to eight weeks before your wedding. If you are having a destination wedding or many of your guests are traveling from afar, I would suggest that your invites be sent eight weeks prior.
It’s a personal decision, but most traditional invitations consist of an inner envelope and an outer envelope. Make the green, eco-chic choice of leaving out the inner envelope.  If you decide to go with the two envelopes, the outer envelope is addressed and stamped while the inner envelope only has the names of those who are invited to the wedding.  Also a guest management tool, the inner envelope allows you to be very specific as to who is invited to your nuptials. This is an awesome way to communicate to your invitees whether they are allowed to bring a guest of not.   When a guest is invited but his or her name is unknown, it is proper etiquette to only address the outer envelope to your friend “Miss Wilkerson” and address the inner envelope to your friend and her guest “Miss Wilkerson and Guest”. If the inner envelope is addressed to only “Miss Wilkerson,” this clearly means that she may not bring a guest.  It is not inappropriate to address your friends and family in informal or familial terms on the inner envelope. This adds whimsy and a personal touch.

Photo Credit:  Armato Design
Some other fine points to remember:
Do not use initials or abbreviations even with professional titles.  Spell out first and last names, street names, apartment, place, court, avenue, number and states. Do not use an ampersand (&) in place of the word and.  Mr. & Mrs. Wright is a no-no.  Titles such as Doctor should be spelled out.  Mr., Mrs. and Jr. is acceptable.  Please be sure to obtain the correct title for clergy or military guests.   Professional designations such as Esq., MD, PhD, etc. are not appropriate for wedding stationery.  Sr., Jr. or III designations only appear on the outer envelope after the man’s last name. Do not write these on the inner envelope.

Children older than 18 should receive their own invitation, even if they are still living at home with the parents.
When addressing a married couple, you should always address both members of the married couple.  For an unmarried couple living together, the etiquette is to address each party individually, with each name appearing on a separately line.   For example: “Ms. Lisa Ferrell and Mr. Kenneth Sanders.”
All house numbers are written in numeric form except for “one,” which is spelled out. Apartment, suite and zip codes are also written in numeric form.   Please only use home addressed for mailing wedding invitations.
Return addresses should be printed on the back flap of the envelope and be centered and in the same color ink that you are using for the wedding invitation. Name or names are excluded from the return address.
For a complimentary, complete guide to How to Address Wedding Stationery, send a quick email to info{at}ksherrieandcompany{dot}com and I will happily deliver it to your inbox.  Whatever I can do to make your wedding tasks easier. . .

Katasha Butler is the owner of K Sherrie+Company Planning Atelier in Indianapolis. She blogs regularly at The Wedding Workroom.

Part II
Which Type of Printing Do You Prefer?
There are many methods of printing that you can employ for your invites.  Right now, letterpress is extremely popular, but cost-prohibitive for some couples.  I must say I am intoxicated by the rich feel and texture of a letterpressed invitation.  It just invokes illusions of grandeur for the wedding celebration to come.  At any rate, the four methods of printing I will discuss here is:  engraving, thermography, lithography and letterpress.

Engraving:  The practice of cutting grooves onto a hard, flat surface that results in a printing plate (usually made of copper) used for printing images on paper, which are called engravings.  Other terms often used for engravings are copper-plate engraving and line engraving.    Engraved invitations have a raised print appearance. It is pressed through the paper so that it can be felt on the back of the paper.  Engraving is the most traditional and formal printing option.  It is the oldest printing style, as well as the most expensive.

Photo Credit:  Martha Stewart Weddings

Thermography:  Less expensive than engraving, thermography is very similar in that they both have raised lettering. They differ in that thermography produces a shinier, glossy finish and the print does not press through the back of the paper.

Lithography:  Lithography uses chemical processes to create an image.  In nerd terms, lithography uses oil and water to divide the smooth surface into hydrophobic (water-hating) regions which accept the ink and hydrophilic  (water-loving) regions which reject it and thus become the background.  This produces the type of printing you see used in most books today—flat and non-raised.  Also known as offset printing or flat print, lithography produces sharp, clean images and text more easily than letterpress printing.  It is the most widely used printing style for wedding invitations and it is less expensive than both engraving and thermography.

Photo Credit:  Weddingbee

Letterpress:  Letterpress printing is achieved by printing text with movable type, in which the raised surface of the type is inked and then pressed against a smooth substance to obtain an image in reverse.  Since most letterpress equipment can only print one color at a time, printing multiple colors can be a challenge. The inking system on letterpress equipment is also less precise than lithography or engraving.  Letterpress is an expensive, but beautiful option, as many times, each sheet of paper has to be manually fed one at a time.

Photo Credit:  Martha Stewart Weddings

Visit the archives (Link: http://www.diybride.com/2008/03/31/ten-free-fonts-thatll-rock-your-invites/) in DIY Bride to see samples of different fonts for your own DIY invitations.  The readability and scalability of fonts are an important consideration when choosing a printing method.  In the next post, I will guide you in the etiquette of addressing your invitations to your honored (or honoured?) guests.  Leave a comment and tell us what printing method you used for your stationery.

Katasha Butler is the owner of K Sherrie+Company Planning Atelier in Indianapolis. She blogs regularly at The Wedding Workroom.

Photo Credit: {corrected}  Dauphine Press

I looooove paper!  And as a wedding planner, it’s a good thing that I do because I know that paper—aka invitation suites or stationery—sets the tone for your wedding celebration.

Today, there are so many options for a bride and her paper.  You can print them at home on your computer.  You can send handwritten notes, packaged in unique boxes or containers.  Or you can go the ultra-classic, high society route of heavy-stock, cream-colored paper engraved with a rich, black text.  I personally think the stationery you choose should reflect the personality of the couple, the ambiance of the celebration and it should also fit your pocketbook.

Photo Credit:  Bella Figura

Paper suites are one of the pieces of the wedding that many brides choose to DIY.  Please know that this takes lots of time and attention to detail.  The last sentence bears repeating:  lots of time and attention to detail.  I cannot remind you enough how invitations set the tone of the whole party.  However, if you want to have embellished and intricate invitations with all the bells and whistles, but you want to restrict the cash outflow from your wedding budget, you can easily DIY your invites.  In these next series of posts, I’m going to share some invitation basics with you to get you started.  I will finish the series with some paper eye candy that will hopefully inspire your DIY ensemble.

There were some beautiful DIY invitations made by Miss Cupcake of WeddingBee.  Click HERE (Link:  http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/08/13/inside-the-cupcake-invitations/) to follow her journey through making such delightful pieces.  And if that doesn’t exhaust you. . .be sure to tune in for the next post!

Photo Credit:  Dauphine Press

Katasha Butler is the owner of K Sherrie+Company Planning Atelier in Indianapolis. She blogs regularly at The Wedding Workroom.