Sending Out Invites: "This is Real Moment"

One of the most important aspects of a wedding is the invite.  Whether it is a small gathering for a courthouse ceremony or an extended list for a backyard blowout shindig, it is important to invite loved ones to your event (note: an elopement is slightly different, but its still important that the key people show up). 

Whether you send it via the Internet or snail mail, there is a lot of work and planning that goes into the invite. For months we have been making plans, jotting down ideas in a spiral notebook and talking over the finer points with our parents. 

It was no wonder that I had a slight moment of panic when it finally came to mailing the handcrafted invites.

My partner and I finalized the look of the invites a few months ago, but needed to wait on a few key details before printing and assembling them. Our goal was to get them out by the end of January for our April wedding.  However, the new year meant people were looking at their calendars, asking for time off from employers and looking to make solid plans for our wedding.  We started getting information requests the first week of January and knew we needed to push forward the standard six to eight weeks before invite deadline to more like mid-January.

For about twelve days, we worked on finalizing the details, doing a mock up, changing this or adding that and building out our website so it had additional information.  While the invite may be a bit over the top, the two of us felt we had invitations that were a reflection of us and that we had fun designing.

After all of the invites had been created, stuffed into envelopes, sealed and addressed, I headed down to the local post office for the final step - mailing the invite. 

It was while I was applying the stamps to the mountain of envelopes at one of the counters that the gravity of the situation hit me. 

Sending out the invites was kicking off our wedding. This was the kick-start to our big day. This was the first impression of us as a couple, of our non-traditional event (breakfast wedding) and opening the door for others to accept or decline. This was the first time that people outside the intimate circle was going to see our vision.

But it was also more than that.  It was a "this just got real" moment for me. I was no longer planning or dreaming of what could be.  The items we had scribbled into our spiral was coming to fruition.  It was happening.  It would no longer just be me and my partner.  This was the first step into announcing the birth of our family unit.  This was us announcing to the world the beginning of our married life.

"Are these ready to go?" The girl helping me behind the counter asked as I stood staring at the stack of stamped kraft brown envelopes, each with a different family or friend's address. After a moment, I told her they were in fact ready and watched as she loaded each one into the plastic bins.   I knew it was time to let go of what was "ours" and invite others to share our new unit.

While it was a huge "check" off our wedding to-do list, it also felt like the kick start to our marriage. 

Couple of Lessons We Learned:

• People start making vacation plans right after New Years. Even if you don't have anything finalized, consider having your Save the Dates ready to go after Christmas. Get on people's calendars and radars.
• Consider sending an email to those living outside the state ahead to give them a heads up if you can't get the invite out right away
• Take your invite mock to the post office to make sure it will be easy to send or trouble shoot any issues before assembling them all.  May save you some $$ on postage.