We got our invite proof back! Thank God it's in email form, with all the people that we needed to email it to; all the parents wanted to see it, and many others.
You can't really tell on the invite, but it's white cardstock, with navy thermography. We ordered the invitation (5 5/8"x7 1/2"), the reply card and addressed envelope, lined inner envelopes, and addressed outer envelopes. The invitation originally had a bow on it, but they allow for complete customization, so we nixed that (and saved money). The liner is L-514 China Blue (though the color matches the navy pretty spot on).
We looked through tons of books, including Carlson Craft, Crane & Co., Checkerboard, and William Arthur (including all the off shoots, like Vera Wang, Rita Renning, Chloe B, etc); we were most impressed with William Arthur overall, because of the amount of customization that they allow for. The place had an entire seperate book with borders, motifs, emblems, fonts, ink colors, and envelope liners, and any product of theirs can be customized any way you want. I also felt that they had the nicest product; if you can't afford Crane, check out William Arthur. That was one of my complaints about Carlson Craft- I felt their paper was too thin and not of good quality. We spent about the same if we had gone with Carlson.
You'll notice the reception info is on the invitation; they suggested that as a way to save money
(reception cards originated way back when church ceremonies were the appropriate thing to do. You would invite guests to the ceremony, or guests to both; if you invited them to both, you included the reception card. Nowadays, since it's considered rude to invite to just the ceremony, you don't really need them). They suggested since we are doing a direction card, to just include the address of both the church and the hall on that card; since everyone is being invited to both, it works really well. Plus, we were able to nix the addresses on the actual invite since they will both be on that directions card.
The invites were ordered from Apropos in Greenville. They were absolutely wonderful to deal with; they bent over backwards to not only match to our budget, but also came up with ways to save money and called us to remind us that the William Arthur was having a sale and we qualified for it. They usually work off of appointments, but were even great to work with when my mom had a random unexpected day off and we showed up unannounced to order them
If you would like to know pricing, email me and I will be glad to get the full details for you!
The first picture is of the inner envelope liner, and the second is the actual invitation. I edited out last names, and as much of the "PROOF" stamp as possible! In order to see the actual invite and wording better, click on the picture itself.
