*** If you would like to only view the eco friendly

options scroll down to the third section***

 

Week 2 – Where I Am At

Whooop – On a personal note I finally have started being organised with regards to our wedding. I am a bit of a perfectionist with major OCD, so if I have a task or something important to buy, I look at all the options, I weigh the pros and cons of each and narrow it down that way. So when it came down to something like invites which can be done SOOOOOO many different ways it literally took me about 2-3 full days to start making decisions, but once I make them I am the happiest person. You may have seen on my Irish Mountain Child Instagram Account that I had meetings with The Paper Shop and all I can say is wow!! Her stuff is amazing and best of all – all her products are made with recycled papers and eco friendly materials, heck she even does seeded paper invitations so that your invites can be planted and then bloom into beautiful flowers to remind your guests of your big day 🙂 I will post about our invitations at a later date 🙂

 

 

Wedding Invites 101

Wedding invites can come in soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (ok are you getting the picture now) oooooooooooooooooo many different ways, shapes and forms so you obviously have printed format which is most common, email versions which are becoming more popular and I know a few people whom received invites by text. So because there is a lot of information to take from this post I am going to break it into two different sections – 1 will be how to pick your invites and 2 will be how to make your invites eco-friendly 🙂

Picking Your Wedding Invites

1. Format. First you need to pick out your format of how you would like your invites sent out. Obviously the most popular and traditional way of doing so is getting your invites printed and posting them. Paperless emailing is now becoming more popular and obviously is more eco friendly option (I will get into this more in the second part of the post). For the blokes …… a text seems to do the trick amongst friends and then last but not least I know and have heard of people holding very casual weddings or surprise wedding parties and people are just invited on the phone or spoken in person. So you have to think * Who is receiving your invites, are they older and may prefer cards *Are they zero waste lovers who would appreciate a beautiful paperless card or are they your friends whom your are letting know that you are hosting a party on Friday night. You need to make these decisions and you also need to think how you feel about the subject and do what works best for you.
2. Pinterest. Start a Pinterest board all about your wedding invites, the styles you like, whether your cards will have extra bits inside and will you be sending and envelope suite (a suite is where you might have your invite along with RSVP, accommodations details, and a time line of the day), the sort of wording you would like on your invites (formal, humorous or casual), the colour schemes, the themes (Rustic, romantic, regal or simple). Guys there are literally so many different options that I could be all day writing them out so you just really need to think about what you would like and design them around that.
3. Your Budget. This should really be point 1, but anyway …… If you are having a wedding suite and especially if you have a lot of guests in attendance things can get expensive really quickly! You need to determine a budget and do your best to stick with is. Yes, fancy suite invites are beautiful, but it is only for one day (I won’t get into the waste here), one day and a lot of money spent on something that will mostly likely only end up in the bin (a recycle bin 🙂 ). So determine your budget on invites and stick with it.
4. Your Wording. Ok so you know your budget, you know your style & theme, now what do put inside the card?? You need to think about your theme here. I don’t think you have a really regal card with “You’re invited! Be there or be square!!” on your invite – unless of course you want to be ironic. If you are stuck for what to put inside, I advise a quick Gogle session to see what others have in theirs and use that as inspiration for what to say. The main points are
   • What the event is and who is hosting it.
   • Who the card is addressed to, if you don’t want plus ones this is where you must be specific!!
   • The date and time
   • The venue and location
   • Where the reception venue is
   • Dress code, if you think it is necessary.
5. RSVPs. Your RSVPs will mostly tie in with your invite, they style and theme. But some things to put on these are
   1. Any dietary requirements (keeping everyone happy and fed on the day is a big plus!!)
   2. If you already know your meal plan you could put the different options down and let your guests choose and your venue will be able to get a good gauge on food requirements.
   3. Song requests. I think this could be a fun one and it is definitely going down on our invites, as you might have so many different people from different decades it would be nice to make sure they will all be up dancing at some stage 🙂

 

Here are some samples from The Paper Shop. I love the idea of a postcard as a RSVP.

Eco Friendly Wedding Invites

Ok so now lets get to the real reason of why you might be reading this post, you want your invites, but you want them to be eco-friendl and do no damage to the world. People might want beautiful invites and think that they can’t have that if the go down the eco friendly route – WRONG!!! You can have extra beautiful invites, all the while knowing they done very little damage to the world!

1. Format. As with point one in the group above, decide on what format you would like to send your invites. Paper & post, paperless email, text or word of mouth! Obviously the last three options are completely eco-friendly and zero waste, but you may have guests attending that don’t know how to turn on a computer let alone how to open up an email attachment, so if that is the case you obviously can post them the invite or call in or call them up and tell them all about your big day …….. but you may still want a physical invitation card, I know I did, but I wanted one without the guilt.
2. Materials. If you have decided you would like a physical card, you ned to be conscious of the materials you use. You always have the option of asking your printers what sort of paper they use? Do you use earth friendly ink? Do you use ‘Recycled Paper’? Is the paper you don’t use recycled? If not can they source some recycled paper for your invites. Another (AMAZING) option is ‘Seeded Paper’, that when planted can bloom into some lovely flowers which will be there to always remind your guests of your big day. As you can imagine, this is a more expensive option, but seriously!! The ever lasting sustainable product is just 🙂
3. RSVPs. Ok so again we have different options to go from here. You can leave your email at the end of your invite and ask your guests to email you to let you know whether they can make it or to text you. A spoken RSVP isn’t a great option here, as if you loose track, it will get very confusing. Where as if you have it verified in text you will always have to to look back on. If you would like to receive your RSVP card that you send with your invite, a more eco friendly option here is to remove the envelopes, have your posted RSVP card to be in postal style. It looks fab and uses WAY less paper.
4. Suites. Minimize the amount of paper you use, this is mainly when it comes to invite suits. Obviously if you can, you want everything to fit on to one page, but if you would also like to note down your accommodation details, a time line of the day or even your menu, try to keep it on one extra page or try to to print on the back of the invites? Keeping everything on one page is also quite beneficial to your guests also.
5. Wedding Website. You can send out your invites, what ever way you like, but if you design a wedding website you can also keep all your information in one constant place where all your guests have all the information they will need any time they need to check it. So no need to waste paper on the extras like you might have in suites, like I discuss in point 4. The Knot is great website that is very easy to make it yourself and to theme it to suit you.

 

 

So they are my tips and I hope you find them helpful 🙂 They were all definitely what I went by when deciding on things. If you have any different tips, please comment them below 🙂

x

Saoirse.

 

 

 

 

Main image from A Vintage Obsession, who can do recycled paper invites on request.

Other imgages from The Paper Shop & from my Pinterest