Lauren emailed me with this question:did you send out save-the-date cards for your wedding? i come from a southern family and i think most of our family friends, etc, expect one. not that i mind. we are thinking of doing something super cool with one of our engagement photos. my question is... do you send them as a postcard? my mom is havin' a conniption about it because she thinks people will just throw them away if they are postcards as opposed to in an envelope that they have to open to see...
In fact, we sent out a save-the-date email. With a link to the super-rad wedding website that H-town designed. (But I'm guessing your mom won't go for that.)
I have to say, if you're gonna mail the thing, I agree that you should put it in an envelope. A postcard will get smudged or bent or lost in the mail. Or tucked inside one of those horrifying grocery-store flyers and tossed into the recycling. Think worst-case scenario here. Because a save-the-date is important. And you need to know that all your favorite people are, y'know, saving the date.
(Andrew Bush Photography via a desert fete)
oh, yes!! envelopes it is... plus, these awesome photos of envelopes are quite inspiring... maybe i should start collecting vintage stamps, although i think it's too late for that.
ReplyDeleteWe did postcards and I like them a lot. The decision making was twofold, 1. Less paper=happier earth 2. It's cheap!
ReplyDeleteJust adding my two cents...
!s the wedingwebsite that H-town designed, still available!? I would love to see it, or is it too private?
ReplyDeleteI agree, if you make the effort and design a nice invitation you should put in an envelope.
As a paper-obsessed person, I had my save the dates in two envelopes, because I found adorable, teeny tiny ones that couldn't be mailed directly and had to be tucked inside a larger one.
ReplyDeletePS - these envelopes would make me want to mail myself stuff just to have the fun of getting them in the mail. Holy wow, they are cool.
Eh, I'm going to disagree. We get LOTS of save the date postcards, and I love them, they go right on the fridge, done. People won't throw them out without reading them, that's totally silly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, caveat, we did Save The Dates, and they were a total waste. You think people expect them (we did, big time), but everyone over 30 is not sure what they are and is weirded out by them. So if you're going to do it, instead of a email (ESB is so right that this is the way to go, or just a phone call from you or your mom, and then send the invites out 2 or 3 months early for flight booking), save yourself the effing postage and headache and do a postcard.
I love postcards! I'm more apt to keep them since no one send postcards anymore. If your mom wants an envelope, just do what you were going to and stick it in a plain white envelope if you feel it will cause too much tension. However, if I got a cute photo postcard, not only would I read it, but if I loved the people it would spend about a week on my fridge.
ReplyDeleteAnd honestly? I toss wedding invites after I reply. Even fancy ones. I know. I'm a bad person, but I'm not some scrapbooker or anything, what am I going to do with your old invitation. I also throw away Christmas cards.
While your fears of what might happen to your Save the Date postcards in the mail are not entirely unfounded--things do get lost and mussed in the mail--that happens to things in envelopes too. I'm not sure why you're extra concerned about the postcards. I get your mom's issue, she wants a little more formality than a postcard conveys. Right? But other than that, if you're down with the idea of postcards, I say do it. Or, you could get cheeky and print an envelop like a post card, a la: http://creaturecomforts.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/08/guest-post-lisa-rupp.html
ReplyDeleteK
Postcards! Yes! We're doing them, and I just had so much fun designing them. Fun design opportunities, and also better for the environment, and also expresses a nice "hey-we're-not-doing-this-too-fancily" aesthetic.
ReplyDeleteI really don't see why a postcard is more likely to get lost in the mail than an envelope...?
In our case save-the-dates are pretty essential since (because of time and place, ie June, Boston), people need to start booking hotels way, way in advance.
we actually sent save-the-date postcards, and it worked well. people's postcards all made it to them and still looked good, and most of them went up onto people's fridges. we saved so much money on envelopes and stamps. the one exception: we put the postcards in envelopes when we were mailing them to guests who lived abroad. xo
ReplyDeleteWe did postcards too and lots of our guests let us know how much they loved them. I'm saw lots of them on friends' fridges.
ReplyDeletewe did postcards, too! on overnightprints.com, but we did stuff them in clear vellum envelopes... the envelopes were way cheap. from paperandmore.com. we saw lots of them on people's fridges too! some people did get confused about them and thought that was the actual invite, but i say just do what YOU want to do.
ReplyDeleteI stuffed my save the date postcards in envelopes. I like the anticipation of opening an envelope. And they were out of the Bette Davis 0.42 stamps (I know, what were they thinking?)
ReplyDeletei am so on board with the envelopes. turns out, that's what we're doing. and my friend designed some pretty rockin' envelopes to mail them in. so all is well... no more fear of the postcards being lost in the grocery store flyers...
ReplyDeletethanks, esb, for posting this one!
I sent save-the-date postcards, and everyone seemed to get them just fine. You gotta make sure you use a heavy enough cardstock, though. Postcards save money on postage, and they create less waste! (Those are some gorgeous envelopes, though!)
ReplyDeleteso as it turns out, some family friends of ours have a daughter getting married the weekend after us. they sent the save the date postcard... they asked my mom if she got it. she didn't. she mistakenly threw it away while trying to get rid of junk mail.
ReplyDeleteenvelopes win.