Invitiations Update

With less than three months and counting, invitaions are probably my most pressing wedding project.  If there's any project I'm afraid of procrastinating on, this has to be it...  It's the most critical of everything I have yet to do!  Afterall, without invitations, there will be no wedding guests!  Without guests, what's the point??  A wedding is a public declaration of love and committment- this is especially true for us.  Our life together is already established, so the wedding isn't really going to change anything.  It's primarily a day for us to stand before our loved ones and friends, say our vows, and then have a party.

From a creative standpoint, I'm not worried about the invitations.  There is a lot of potential for error, of course, since it's going to be a DIY project...  But there aren't going to be all that many invitations to put together, and besides, I thrive on creative challenges!  My life is pretty lacking in creative outlets (certainly there is no creativity required at work), so I'm having fun with the wedding planning and invitation design.  I certainly don't see it as chore.

The part that IS a chore (a major chore!)  is the guest list.  The wedding will be small, in part because neither of us is a social butterfly and in part for financial reasons...  But I don't want it to be too small.  Because once again, if it's super small, then what's the point?  So how to decide who makes the list if it's "small but not too small"?  Does that mean that co-workers are out?  I think it does, because it's not nice to invite a few people but not others.  I'm not especially close to anyone, but there are definitely people I'd like to get to know better and can see becoming friends with over time...  but then who knows if that will happen, so it's a little bit strange inviting people based upon hoped for friendship!  Same for old friends ("former friends?")....  There are people who I absolutely loved when I was younger and would like to invite, but we're not close anymore.  It might be weird inviting them.  Oh boy, what a chore this whole list thing is.  Maybe super small isn't such a bad idea afterall?  I just don't know!  Eloping sounds good right about now.  Justice of the peace, anyone?  What a pain in the boot.

Creatively for the wedding invites I'm thinking about stamping/ embossing.  This isn't something I've done before, but I like the idea because flat text is so....  well, flat!  Letterpress is out, so this  would be another means to a similar end result.  A quick search on embossing yielded this how-to: http://crafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_emboss  I haven't read it in any detail and it may not be the best set of instructions out there, but it's a basic overview and may provide a good jumping off point.  I like the idea of making my own stamp(s).  I've played around with the inexpensive little drawing tablet I bought for my computer (just for the invitations, I might add!) and it wasn't the best purchase.  Maybe it's because it is a basic model or maybe it's because I don't have the greatest software for it...  but I'm not crazy about it!  It isn't super user-friendly, the output is lame...  I guess I should give it time, but after a few trials with it it seems to me that I may have wasted my money on an impulse buy!  Using a handmade stamp makes a lot more sense.  Ahh well...  live and learn!