Next on my ‘to-do’ list was to figure out our Save the Date cards. Luckily I had been thinking about this for a while, but I didn’t want to jump the gun and wanted to research my options.
What’s the first thing you do when you want to find out what’s new and unique? If you’re like me, you Google “Unique Save the Date Ideas.”
I was floored with what I found. No disrespect if you did any of these, but in one scenario there was a picture of a couple that wrote on their faces. Something to the effect of ‘So and So, Save the Date, 01/02/03’ on one face and on the other ‘or we wrote on our faces for no reason’.’ I guess it is funny, but not what I was looking for. I saw some cute crafty ideas, but quickly realized that postage would be killer. I love the idea of a gorgeous picture of a couple, but I never find a picture I like of myself!
Crane will be my future last name, way less complicated than mine! I got this idea to have our names and the date printed on a piece of origami paper and we could fold it into an origami crane. I went to a local print shop and discussed the idea. It would be more expensive than I thought, but completely original, which is what I was going for. Since we are hosting a full weekend of activities I added a note card about having guests stay at the resort with us for the weekend and how to book rooms.
My First Lesson Learned
Don’t order Save the Date cards and wedding invitations for the total number of guests, but for the total number of couples and singles invited. If you invite 200 guests, it’s unlikely you’re inviting 200 single people. Thankfully my best friend, who is a wedding planner, brought this to my attention or I would have plenty of extra origami paper at my house!
Oh yes, I took on the endeavor of folding 100+ cranes. I am thankful for youtube.com because I can never follow arrows in a book for crocheting never mind origami! The other issue is that the paper was a bit thicker, so we had a few with some ripped beaks, so those didn’t make it to my dining room table, which I affectionately named ‘crane survivor island!’
I am realizing that the ‘Save the Date’ started as a way for couples to have fun and be more creative than they could be with invitations. It is also a great idea if you are having a destination wedding or a weekend wedding. Part of me also thinks it was started in the wedding industry to add another thing to a bride’s to-do list! I have to admit that the thought did cross my mind to not send everyone a save the date to hopefully prevent 100% attendance. Is that bad?! It seemed like a slippery slope though! One person gets one, another friend doesn’t. Let the questioning ensue. I digress.
I was shocked how quickly we (thank you Sharon!) folded cranes, but the harder thing for me to get done was hand writing the envelopes. I was all on board to put the envelopes through our printer, then I read that etiquette is to hand write your Save the Dates and wedding invitations. I headed to the craft store and got very excited to see calligraphy markers. I hand wrote all the envelopes one by one and was so thankful I bought extra! Phew glad that part was over…
…Or so I thought! Let the nightmare begin!
My Second Lesson Learned
Make one complete Save The Date card so you know the trials and tribulations you will encounter!
So I had planned the Save The Date cards, designed the origami paper, the insert and the envelope. I folded over 100 origami cranes, hand wrote 100 (probably 150 with all my mess ups!) envelopes, stamped and then stuffed them all.
I went to USPS to find really cute postage. Well as luck would have it, the crane made the envelope flap buckle since it wasn’t flat. I tried using a sponge to wet the glue, double sided tape, which just peeled off and finally hit a home run with glue dots!
I head to the post office and mention that I would like them ‘hand stamped’ as I had read that you could request this to keep envelopes pristine. In my case, I just didn’t want to squish the cranes. I swear I had read on a website you could just request this. What they failed to mention on said websites is that it costs extra. So lets just say after I hyperventilated a bit in the post office, I ended up having to add Lincoln stamps (21 cents) to my fancy, hand written envelopes that already had pretty heart stamps on them! Thankfully he is one of my favorite presidents!
So needless to say, after more trips to the craft store and post office than I would like to admit, they were mailed. The best part…everyone that doesn’t know origami or Casey’s last name thinks they are Loons!
