FI and I are not fancy/formal people in general. We appreciate and enjoy a nice meal at a nice restaurant and a glass of good wine from time to time, but we also spend a lot of time at hole-in-the- wall restaurants and drink a lot of $3 wine. For many reasons, but largely convenience- we are having our wedding at a nice hotel and resort. Weddings at this venue come standard with butler-passed hors d'ouerves, 4 course meals, and wine and champagne service. I don't like the look of tuxes and my FI doesn't want to bother his groomsmen with the issue, so the men are wearing their own grey suits and (I think) the bridesmaids will being wearing mismatched dresses from the same designer. Our ceremony will be outside on a golf course.
Because our venue and catering is so expensive and because it's not the most important thing to me, we initially left the invitation budget really low. We thought that we would just have people RSVP on our website as everyone on our list (outside 2 Grandmas that will be dealt with individually) are very comfortable using the internet.
Now I am learning that invitations are to convey the formality of the event and I am at a quandary about what to do. On the one hand FMIL wants to hire a calligrapher that she knows personally. I am okay with this because she will pay for it off-budget and because my handwriting is terrible. One the other hand, we do want to use the online RSVP system because I think it will be easier to keep track of guest and I personally as a guest prefer not having to remember to send a card back. Can we use calligraphy and an online RSVP system? If our invitations are not super formal- but a simple image file in a contemporary design that a friend designs that we print out on card stock, will it confuse guest when the butlers come by with hors d'ouerves and the 4 courses come out?
Does anyone have any experience with this?