Paper Preoccupation

Photo credit: Yaronius Maximus*

Never a moment to rest.

As soon as I settled on a stamp (ok, I ordered a few--just in case--but I will use those even if not for the wedding) I had to tackle the next issue: paper. What good is a stamp without something on which to stamp it? Enter paper.

So I searched and searched and searched. In fact, I am still searching. So far, I have found one paper resource that I will likely use. It is reasonably cheap, has gotten good reviews, has been mentioned on other sites as reliable, and provides you with a Paper 101 lesson right on the website. It also describes all the envelope sizes and what size insert you should have with each envelope. Very straightforward and easy to understand.  Now I finally know about the weight of the paper I want to use for my invitations (I'm going for somewhere between 80lb-100lb cover paper). 

We are thinking about using the brown kraft paper for the invitation envelope and response card envelope, and traditional white paper (with a stamp!) for the invites and response card:

The organic, environmentally supportive (100% recycled, 20% post consumer) kraft material fits the down-to-earth, outdoor setting of our public park venue, too. The nice thing about the kraft paper is that you can easily and cheaply embellish it with brown bags you have at home. It also goes with whatever ink color you choose, including black (=cheapest!). We might cut shapes, letters, borders, etc., out of the brown bags with punches and affix them on the invites for continuity between the invites and envelopes. They also sell kraft paper to match the envelopes but that was too much brown for me, but if brown is your color...that is one sweet deal.

I'm also toying with the notion of using clear envelopes, though Jake is not too keen on that idea.

True, we would need an extra sheet of paper in there to "cover" up the information inside the envelope, but if we used a pretty patterned or design paper, it would have a really cool effect, and we could use that sheet to address the envelope. Given that Jake is often the practical half of this partnership when it comes to craft logistics, though, he does have a point. I'll have to think about it more.

If you don't have a paper cutter, don't have the time to chop a bunch of paper up, or if the stress of cutting straight edges gives you heart palpitations, these flat cards may be just the thing for you! They come with matching envelopes, of course, and this "curious iridescent" series looks super nice; simple but elegant with a touch of flare. Yet another option. Did I mention all of these are oh-so reasonably priced? A pack of 50 pre-cut large (A-9 size), 89lb cover (nice, heavy cardstock) flat cards in various "curious iridescent" delicate colors costs only $12.75. Matching style & sized envelopes in 50 packs are $25.12. Given that I will likely not need more than 50 for our 100 person guest list, this is good news!

If you are using red envelopes for any part of your invites you are in serious luck, as they are on clearance right now at paper-papers.  You could mix and match red envelopes with a different color paper for the invites or save the dates, and use red ink for the stamp as a coordinated set. Or...you could forget about buying for the wedding and just buy the envelopes for other craft projects because they are so cheap, high quality and the coolest shade of red ever...

It is such a great feeling to finally encounter one part of the wedding planning and realize it is completely do-able, both in terms of our budget and being able to control the creative/design process. Makes me feel like I can actually manage to get it done with little added gray hair--yay!

 
* P.S. These texture boxes [in header] are all downloadable by the photographer. He photographed various textures and scanned them. If you download them, you can use any of them as backgrounds for your wedding or other projects, with his permission! This is an awesome and creative option for those of you who want the look of special paper but can't afford to buy them. You can use one of his many samples (look elsewhere on his flickr site for more) or scan your own. Triple thanks to this artist for sharing!! (: