Invitations

We had found a cute invitation we liked at an online retailer.  Now, they're gone. That might explain why I never received the sample I ordered. Bummer. So it's back to perusing wedding invitations.  Buying online can be scary. How do you know what you are going to get? What will the paper quality be like?  Will they really match the mood of your celebration?  Or your colors? So many concerns and things to consider! 

There's always the option of designing your own. Which could be fun- but after the time and energy involved- maybe it would make sense to just buy or compromise.  For example- I like pocket invitations- where the invitation is on one side and then the informational cards are in an folder pocket- making everything easy to keep together for guests.There aren't that many pocket options out there so I'm considering purchasing the invitation and then making the pockets and insert cards myself in order to save about $1000. 

I've also found it may be tricky to find the colors we are hoping to use- yellow, white, aqua, turquoise, and green.  So I've been debating using a solid color such as gray or some variation of for the invitation itself and then make the pocket cards and pocket color more interesting.

To digress, it's hard to know what kind of quality you're going to receive when ordering online.  Here are some helpful things I found while online yesterday.

Dawn's allows you to order 3 samples for free.  It's really more of a request so that people don't get too greedy I think.  Which is also good because it forces you to ask yourself- which ones am I most interested in?  (I requested 3)

Get Married also allows free samples and there is no cap on the number to request. (I requested 4 samples)  Hopefully I will receive the samples I requested- I'm a bit skeptical since this is the same site that I requested a sample from before and never received.


Ann's Bridal Bargain's also does free invitation samples.(There was only 1 I was interested in).

Wedding Paper Diva's charges $1 per sample.  Not every style is available to sample.  I have 25 saved to my favorites list and will enlist my fiances help to narrow down the selections. This is the website I am most impressed with for number and variety of invitations.

Exclusively Weddings allows 5 samples to be ordered at no charge. I chose four.

I also stumbled upon Hello Lucky a very cool invitation line- they're based out of San Fransisco and London and you can see how this reflects their designs.  Samples are $5 and the package prices are a bit more than other websites- but they will work with you to really personalize your invitations.

Minted is also a great new site I stumbled upon. They have trendy modern designs and a lot of color options. Samples are $25- whoa. However, the $25 is credited towards a future order. Phew- at least that's something!  Also- I'm a member at UPromise- so a portion of online orders is credited back towards future education expenses- so why not line your future kids pockets for college a little bit?  4% of your purchase goes back to your UPromise  college fund.  I saved 6 favorites on this webpage- but again- will consult with the fiance before anythings ordered! They also have super cute return address labels.

Fine Stationary samples are $2. There are over a 1000 invitations to choose from Fine Stationary also has the UPromise benefit of getting 8% back!

Every dollar spent on samples is one less dollar for other things.