Jen - regarding sending invites

Jen - Our wedding is toward the end of September, and we did already send out our invitations ... making it nearly three months before the wedding, while most places say invites should go 6-8 weeks before the wedding. One of the main reasons we sent them early was to avoid the recent postage hike that took place July 1 and to avoid the stamp issue, since the new love stamp was not expected to be ready in time. I had originally planed on sending out the invites just after July 4, so I just pushed it up one week. Another reason I mailed the invites on the early side was because I will be doing a lot of traveling toward the end of July and into August (work related), so I wanted this done .. and the responses have already been pouring in. My gut feeling was that most people are going to know they 'wouldn`t miss it for the world' and will get the responses back quickly. Hopefully there will only be a few who need to push it to the max before making a decision. Our response date is five weeks before the wedding date. I preferred having the extra time, since most places recommend setting the response date to four weeks prior. One thing to consider, if you have an A and B list, you might want to get your invites out now, so you can send B invites out as you get declines. By doing that, you allow for more time between when the B invite is going out and the response date. We originally intended to have an A and B list, but soon realized it wouldn`t work out too well since many As and Bs were co-workers, so we extended as far as we could. If we end up getting more declines than anticipated, which at this point doesn`t seem likely, then we`ll extend invitations with a simple explanation of some sort.

A question for Kel

Where in the invitation did you put the direction card to the reception hall? I have not seen this addressed in anything I read regarding the invitations.

Don`t know if it was 'right,' but...

The order I placed things was (from bottom to top): Invitation Tissue paper Church map card John Anthony`s map card Reception card Response Envelope Response Card We received a 'tip' booklet with our invitations, and it said the proper order for everything, but didn`t say a word about map cards. To me, where I placed them seemed most logical, but I don`t know if technically it was the 'proper' place for them. The first things I did was fold the response cards and reception cards, and place stamps on the response envelopes. Then I worked each invitation at a time. Most importantly, I didn`t have to worry about forgetting to stamp the response envelopes, since I had made sure to have them done before I stuffed. Just don`t do too many at a time, you don`t want to stamp more than you`ll need. I have a silly question .. how many Inner envelopes do we accidently lick in the process of stuffing the invitations?? Or am I the only goofball?? I think I did it about 4 times. :)

Thanks

I haven't gotten to the licking part yet. I am hoping to have the addressing done either tonight or tomorrow night. I am still missing some info for a couple of invites (waiting for fiance to get a co-workers husband's name and an address for one of his cousins). It has been a very slow process doing it at home on the computer since you can only do one at a time. Good thing I only have about 50 to do!!! I will let you know about the licking thing on the inner envelopes. I hope I don't mess those up because I printed those out too.

Kel - did you remember to # the response cards? :) *NM*

Wendy

Just a tip ... if you do happen to lick the inner envelope by mistake, you will notice it right away! Then, just carefully try to blot it dry a bit, and set it to the side until it completely dries. If you stuff it and set it in the outer envelope before it dries completely, you will warp the paper of the outer envelope. (The things you learn the hard way!)

Kathi-I chose not to # the response cards & so far, so good! *NM*

Kel---Thanks again!!! *NM*