More STD Information

I got the official phone call from mom - she got her Save the Date for the wedding! (She also got my Christmas card today, which made it a double exciting mail day.) Now that I know most people should have gotten the STD by now, I can post the design I/we ended up choosing, and offer a little commentary on the first mass mailing experience of the wedding.

Without further adieu...(Source: WeddingPaperDivas.com)

The color is called "sand" so despite the fact that it looks like a pink-ish color on the computer screen, it's more beige/khaki colored in real life. That fits in well with our general pink/brown/ivory/cream color scheme. It ended up not being any of the choices we thought we had it narrowed down to, but that was my fault. We had decided on a save the date with small flowers and a picture. I thought our headaches were over because we'd (I'd) finally made the decision - wrong. Choosing a suitable photograph of the two of us to use on the STD was an even bigger debacle. Let's just say NavyGuy and I are each less than photogenic (I tend to blink, he tends to look like someone's torturing him), and the problems seems to be compounded when we get in the same photograph.

So instead of trying to stage a new photo that would meet my stringent criteria, I freaked out, re-looked at every STD available online, and choose a completely different one that would eliminate the photo headache. Finally, we had one chosen and were ready to address, stuff, and stamp.

In the end, I'm quite happy with our choice. It's simple, feels like spring, and gets the point across. It also leaves me ample room to get creative with the invitations and other paper aspects of the wedding. A few suggestions for future brides when it comes to STDs:

1. Create a complete guest list with all of the guests' addresses early. We are still struggling to get in touch with people whose address we need. Facebook proved useful at searching down a few people, as did the yahoo service "people search," but not everybody can be located that way. As soon as you start putting names down on your list, get their address - call, email, contact a personal detective, whatever. It was (and still is) frustrating to have the STDs in your hot little hands, and to not be able to send them out because you don't have an address for your friend from down the hall sophomore year.

2. Take a sheet of lined paper, and use it as a template to keep your handwriting straight on the front address (yes, kids, we're handwriting all the addresses, because we're not auditioning for My Big Redneck Wedding). Slide the paper inside the envelope so you can see the lines through the front of the envelope, and use them as guides. If the lines aren't dark enough to be seen through the envelope, trace over them with a dark marker to make them show up better.

3. Put your groom to work. Mine managed to insert the STDs into the envelopes, put the return address label on, and attach the stamp without making too many mistakes. It's mindless, and he did it while watching two episodes of The West Wing. If yours isn't as willing to help as mine was, try making it into a competition; bet him he can't get all of the envelopes stamped before you finish addressing the envelopes.

Anyone else have ideas to share about Save the Dates?