Home Made Invites.

[Niel]

So my work has a paper processing center that will print our invites if we proved them, so im trying to make my own invitations. It turned out ok last time I did this for my sisters, but i wanted some opinions in how they look. Or wedding is try for very wes Anderson Royal tenenbaums/ Rushmore quirky preppy time wedding. Anyways (as you can see i dont have a theme) what do you think so far?

i think im going to make it more squat, probably have the RSVP a postcard, but this is just the start. Keep in mind i always seem to mess up when i use software like Gimp and whatnot, so its all Word.

 

[TooPatient]

I love the colors you're using!

One thing you might think about is if you really want to have a selection for the number of people attending. I've been reading lots of threads here and other places where people have done invitations themselves and one thing people say is that can sometimes lead to people feeling that they can bring along extra people.

 

[Niel]

Hmm strange. Good advise though. I really love the look of the numbers, but god help me if someone selects nine


I was hoping I would avoid too many people because we are trying to avoid having any children come, though I am having trouble wording that on the invite itself.


PS to all others who come by I know it should be homemade

 

[TooPatient]

Hmm strange. Good advise though. I really love the look of the numbers, but god help me if someone selects nine


I was hoping I would avoid too many people because we are trying to avoid having any children come, though I am having trouble wording that on the invite itself.


PS to all others who come by I know it should be homemade

Do you have a copy of Emily Post's wedding etiquette? I've got it next to me as I am about to print out our invites. It is wonderful! So much information and great ideas on how to handle situations.

Here is what she says:

"Never print 'No Children' or 'Adults Only' on an invitation. The way an invitation is addressed, whether on the outer or inner envelope, indicates exactly who is -- and by omission who is not -- invited to the wedding"


Leaving the numbers off and simply including a line for them to write their names might reduce the chance of people doing such things. (Of course if you read the "Worst Wedding Gift" thread you'll see that some people just never get the hint...)
The only people invited are the people you address the invitation to.

We've got a small guest list (about 20) and no kids invited so I know it can be a challenge!

 

[Niel]

I don't have that book but I've seen that sentence online before. I just am not sure exactly what it means, I guess. I don't know. So I should just say "abby and Connor instead of "the temples ", to avoid getting children?

 

[TooPatient]

I don't have that book but I've seen that sentence online before. I just am not sure exactly what it means, I guess. I don't know. So I should just say "abby and Connor instead of "the temples ", to avoid getting children?

I've been addressing to "John and Jane Doe"
You could also do something like "Mr. and Mrs. John Doe" or "Mr. John Doe and Mrs. Jane Smith"

By being specific in who you are addressing, it makes it clear who is to be included. If you invite "the Temples" that suggests that the entire family is invited.

 

[StacylikesSparkles]

For me, I stated at the bottom of the invitation that the reception was adult only. I received no flack from that and actually took the idea from a wedding invite sent to us for a wedding before ours. No one was offended and better still, not one brought their kids. We did put only the names of those invited on the outer envelope, but I wasn't trying to take a chance that others would think they could be invited or bring extra people. Also, if it were me, I would not leave an open ended number on the invite, most especially if you're trying to keep your numbers low. Can you personally select a number on the card for them and they can change it if they aren't bringing any extra people?

We had around 220 people, including the wedding party and if any extra people were to join in, we would have had to get a bigger tent, more tables and more chairs. My wedding definitely wasn't small, but once we had our list, we weren't going to add ANY extra people on.

By the way, I think the rsvp cards look adorable!

 

[StacylikesSparkles]

Also, we did our own homemade invites and rsvp cards and I loved the fact that they weren't like anyone else's AND they didn't waste a ton of paper. I had a one sheet invite and the rsvp card, that's it. I felt like the rest was way too wasteful for me (who keeps invites anyway? you read them, rsvp and then pitch the original invite). I spent about $120 on invites, envelopes and stamps. My wedding was not something I wanted to go crazy with spending on, so this was another little thing to save money.

 

[junebug17]

I love it! Looks adorable and I love the colors, and the gold border is such a nice touch- but I think I'd leave out the numbers - are you inviting anybody who would have 9 people coming from one family? Is it mostly couples who are coming? if that's the case you really don't need all those numbers, even though they look nice! As others have said, it might be an opening for people to think they can bring whoever they want.

 

[vc10um]

I printed my own invites from a kit from Michael's and on the RSVP card I printed some with "one seat has been reserved in your honor" for the singletons and then "___ seats have been reserved in your honor" on the rest and just filled in the number appropriate for each couple/family. We invited children (in fact, they made up about 20% of our attendees...DH's cousins have a lot of kids!) but if we hadn't, I would've just printed some with "one seat has been reserved" and "two seats have been reserved". We also only had outer envelopes so I addressed as appropriate to include all family members.

I do like the concept, though!

 

[nowicanseethemoon]

Niel,
I'm a graphic designer and do wedding invitations (among other things). Great colors and fun wording.

If I were designing them, I would suggest that you remove the numbers completely. That will give you a little more room to space things out a bit. I'd move Kindly and Reply up just a bit and add a blank line (or leave Attendees) for people to write their names on. I'd also use a lower case b in "by". How would you feel about incorporating the blue into the text? Maybe using the blue for the date like you used the red for the diamonds?

As for how to invite or not invite children, the general rule is that the names you put on the inner envelope are the people who are invited. So, you would say "Bob, Susan, and Mini Bob" if you're inviting children (just "Bob and Susan" if you aren't inviting children). And the outer envelope would read "The Johnson Family" whereas for no children, it would say "Mr. and Mrs. Johnson" or Mr. and Mrs. Robert Johnson."