Our invitations went out this past week so now that our guests have gotten a good look, I can share them with all of you! As a self-taught graphic artist, I kept thinking I should probably design our invites from scratch and utilize some of my free skills, but every time I tried to create something, I got frustrated with my own work. Inspiration just wouldn’t strike. I liked the ideas I came up with, but just not for us. Luckily, while ordering our Save the Date magnets from Vistaprint.com, I spotted a set of cards and invites with a beautiful, modern design that reminded me very much of our venue. When Rose immediately swooned over them, I knew they were the right choice - and without putting any additional stress on me for coming up with something on my own!
What I like about Vistaprint is that you can arrange the text on their designs in almost any way that strikes your fancy. I could play with fonts and layout to my heart’s content, and still make me feel like I used some of my skills. The whole set of 70 invitation cards (including envelopes), reception information cards and RSVP cards (also with envelopes) cost under $100. Pretty budget friendly if I do say so myself! How do you think they turned out?
I just love the little detail of the rings hanging from string because it reminds me of how we will be doing our ring warming ceremony.
My absolute favorite part of the whole invitation set is the RSVP card. For these, I did get a little creative (*pats self on back*) and made up a Mad Libs for guests to fill in to let us know that they can come. I seriously cannot wait to get these back in the mail!
Now when it came down to addressing them, I got a little stumped. I know that the formal way to address wedding invitations to married couples is “Mr. & Mrs. John Doe,” but I felt like this was dated and sexist. What woman really considers herself to have taken both her husband’s first and last names? It makes me feel like we are acknowledging that a wife loses part of her identity when she is “sent off” to her husband. Lame! And coming from a lesbian couple that really does not fit into any of these hetero norms, it just seemed strange to follow. I wanted our invitations to be written as formally as possible, but I just could not make myself refer to some of my closest female friends by their husband’s name. At first I tried “Mr. John Doe & Mrs. Jane Doe” but thought that this had the possibility of becoming very long and VERY messy quickly! We finally decided to write “Mr. & Mrs. Doe” for couples that shared a last name. This seemed a little less personal, but resolved the issue of playing into outdated tradition. How did you or will you address your invites?
Now we are just playing the waiting game to get our RSVP’s back. Honestly, there are a few responses I am almost dreading. My parents and sister declined my invitation to our courthouse legalities last year, and I suspect they may do the same this year. They believe that by showing support to me in any way, they are showing God that they approve of my “sinful” lifestyle. It is going to break my heart if they do not attend, especially if I find out simply on paper. After sucking it up and going to my sister’s wedding where we felt like outcasts most of the time, I hope they will realize that they should be able to put our differences of opinion to the side in order to show their love for me. But I refuse to dwell on that right now. You never know what lies in people’s hearts and I will just trust that they will make the best choice. There will be plenty of fun “attending” RSVP’s flooding our mailbox soon!
