Fold. Stuff. Stick.
It's only right to follow up the invitation mailing post with the invitation making post! The last Sunday in July I was able to round up a few of my girlfriends and my mom to help finish the wedding invitations. Let's just say, I owe them BIG TIME for all their help! So girls, any painting, cleaning, landscaping, or other home improvement projects....or if you need some of your own invitations made...give me a call!
We started off the day easy. Lindsey and I made the pockets for the pocketfolds, while Bethany adhered the stamps to the RSVP cards. Then, we all took turns punching out leaves with this puncher:
It looks small and innocent, but don't let it fool you. Those leaves were a b*tch to punch out! I think it's because we were using heavyweight cardstock instead of normal text weight paper. After about 20 punches your thumb would hurt like mad and you'd have a permanent indention from the puncher's thumb pad. Whose brilliant idea was this, anyway? 
So after our thumbs were throughly blistered, Lindsey and I began adhering the invites to the pocketfolds. Then my mom joined the party, so I handed that job over to her and Lindsey and I began creating the belly bands for the outside of the invites, to which we were attaching our monogram. Don't we look like we're enjoying ourselves?
Lindsey is so like..."Take the picture already!" 
Meanwhile, back in the dining room Julie is writing and writing and writing. Yep, I recruited her for her penmanship. I had aspirations of learning calligraphy and writing out my own envelopes, but I never got time to even crack open my Complete Idiot's Guide to Calligraphy. So, that went back to Borders and Julie was my replacement. I mean, look how hard she's working!
That long list of addresses looks intimidating, doesn't it? But with this as the final product, now do you see why I chose her?
I told Julie she should consider learning calligraphy and write invitation envelopes on the side. I really think she could rake in some extra dough!
So we finally had our assembly line going. Lindsey and I making the belly bands, Bethany and my mom putting the belly bands around the invites, Bethany taking the envelopes from Julie and adhering the stamps, and Bethany stuffing the invites in the envelopes while my mom sealed them. 
We worked really hard and I think poor Julie never wanted to see another ivory envelope again. What I put my poor friends through! But all ended well. The only slight snafu was that my aunt didn't print enough directions cards for the envelopes, so we had around 25 invitations that we couldn't finish, but I solved that quite easily by completing the rest of them the very next weekend. Ahh....success! This was a big accomplishment. And it is really cool seeing my idea come to life. I hope everyone likes them!
Eeek! A little more than I was planning on, but I did get the invitations I wanted and I did save a bit of money by brainstorming with my aunt and making them myself. But, really?! That would be...
But if there was a map and directions included in the invitation, would that be overkill?