After all of the worrying about creating and revising a guest list, Lu and I will have a total of 157 guests at our reception on October 16th -- only five guests over our venue's "ideal" number!

The invitation and RSVP process wasn't all that bad. According to the Bridal Association of America's Wedding Report, the average couple spends approximately $659 on invitations and reply cards -- not including reception cards, direction cards, save-the-dates, or postage. With a little planning and creativity, Lu and I were able to spend 77% less than the average couple for everything.

We used 40% off coupons from Michaels to purchase fun, orange invitation kits (that included the invitations, ribbon for decorative bows, envelopes, and response cards) for $45, and we spent $30 on a new ink cartridge for the printer. Total cost of supplies: $75.

Our invitations.

We also included a magnet that we printed through Vistaprint that directed guests to our website for more information and to RSVP. Since we have guests traveling to our wedding from all parts of the country, we thought it would be more convenient for guests to have all of our wedding information at their fingertips in one location.

Vistaprint offered us 100 free magnets and 140 return address labels for free. The return labels did double-duty for both the outside of the invitation and as the mailing label on the response card envelope. One trick: We had to order 140 "free" labels twice to have enough. If we'd ordered 280 labels at once, they would have charged us $9.99 -- definitely still a discount, but free is even better.

Total cost for magnets and labels: $30.

All of the pieces of our invitation. Ready for assembly!

Then we had to figure out what to do about addressing our envelopes. Technically, envelopes are supposed to be hand-written; but neither Lu, I, nor our local bridal party had the time, energy, or penmanship for that. And hiring a calligrapher? At $4/envelope, we quickly nixed that option!

 We considered using mailing labels, but white didn't look good on the ivory envelope and the clear labels were too shiny for our taste. Instead, we just converted our address list on our website to a spreadsheet, and used used the mail merge feature in Microsoft Word to print directly on the envelope in a pretty font.

Lu printing envelopes.

We opted not to use:

• separate reception cards. We printed the address of the reception on the invitation.
• direction cards. We're going to print directions on the back of our ceremony programs, so people don't lose or forget them.
• an inner envelope. We addressed the outer envelopes appropriate and specified how many guests we were inviting on the reply cards (i.e. "We have reserved 2 seats in your honor.")
• stamps on most of our return envelopes. Although we included response card envelopes in all of the invitations, we encouraged guests to RSVP online and only included stamps for our older, more traditional guests.

In addition to saving us the hassle of printing these items, by not including them with our invitation, we were able to save money on postage. Many wedding invitations are too heavy for just one stamp, however we weighed ours and were good to go! Total cost for postage to finish off envelopes: $50. 

Grand total for all of our invitations: $155.... $504 less than the average couple!

There were certainly a lot of people that Lu and I were not able to invite that are close to us as individuals, so sending out invitations was bittersweet. However, we definitely stand by our decision to invite those that have impacted our relationship as a couple.

And you know what? We also didn't have nearly as much drama as we expected with the RSVP process.

Apparently, there were a few "I wonder why I didn't get my invitation yet" remarks. (I only heard about these conversations second-hand, so I'm not sure how common they were.) However, the majority of people were really understanding of our big families/small budget/not starting our marriage in debt situation.


We also didn't have to chase down many people for their responses. The majority of guests took advantage of our online RSVP option, which also saved us tons of time.  Even those last-day stragglers were able to respond in a timely fashion.

There were a few guests that asked if they could add a plus one to their invitation and/or bring a teenager to the "Adult Reception." It was tight,  but we were able to accommodate everyone in the end.

Despite all of my nervousness over the last several months about the guest list, I'm really glad that things ended up the way they did. We didn't lose any friends, end up disowned by any family members, and aren't breaking the fire code of our reception venue. (Yes, all of these have happened to people and were valid concerns for us.)

We will have to squeeze in 9 people at a few tables to maintain the size of the dance floor, but this is just one more worry that's no longer lingering in the back of my mind.

I have had a beyond busy week, and I apologize for slacking on my blogging. Since my last post on Monday, I have:

-- survived a sleepover with my cheerleading team: 17 high school freshmen and sophomores who were wide awake until 3 a.m.
-- finished the final draft of my prospectus and am two committee members away from scheduling my defense
-- finalized my schedule (and funding) for the political science conference next week
-- set up a cake tasting with our new baker. Yes, new baker.... Long story, to be discussed in a later post.
-- went to the doctor for my allergy shots and a yearly check up
-- took Maggie to the vet for vaccinations
-- hung out with Lu's parents, usually eating way too much food
-- completed two projects for one of my side jobs  (editing)
-- started a project for my research assistantship (data coding and analysis)
-- emailed all of our vendors to let them know that Lu and I would be in town next weekend for the last time before the wedding to schedule any last-minute appointments
-- planned an overnight trip to Canada to celebrate Lu's birthday
--  celebrated Lu's father's birthday
-- coached my first game (super-nostalgic!)
-- drove back and forth across town selling items from my home and Lu's, so that he'll be able to move out of his place next week and start moving things into mine
-- re-organized my closet and dresser drawers to accommodate Lu's stuff
-- picked the wines for our wedding
-- spent some quality time with one of my bridesmaids and hostesses... even if I did have a mini-meltdown in the grocery store because I was stressed out about all-of-the-above on the list. I love these girls -- nothing like a group hug in Meijer to remind you of what real friendship is all about!

.... And I wasn't the only one with a busy week. Lu was extra-stressed with planning a conference for transfer students in the engineering department. With the conference starting next week and his boss out of town this week,  Lu was doing everything from meeting with program advisors, to stuffing folders, to arranging the schedule, to picking up students from the airport after midnight.

WHAT A WEEK!!! UGH!!!!!

Despite all of this, one thing that Lu and I did not have to worry about was wedding RSVPs. We sent out invitations a few weeks ago, and we've been getting back RSVPs fairly consistently since then. (I owe you guys a post on that!)

Normally, the RSVP process can be tedious: keeping track of who has RSVPed, who still needs to RSVP, handling guests who RSVP for more people than were invited, and worrying about RSVPs getting lost in the mail.

However, in addition to giving us our lovely website, Wedding Tracker also has a really great RSVP management system.  Our internet-savvy guests can RSVP directly through our website. All they need to do is to input their last name and zipcode, scroll to their specific invitation, and fill out details on how many people in their party are coming.

This is also great on our end because Wedding Tracker allows us to save:

1) Time: Although we did put response cards in each envelope, the majority of guests are filling out their information on our automatically-updated website. Guests are also able to access details about the wedding ceremony, reception, bridal showers, registry, travel, and accommodations through our site.

2) Money: Lu and I saved over $50 on stamps. Although we obviously had to put stamps on the invitations going out, we only put stamps on the response card envelopes of people who either do not have easy internet access or who we thought would prefer to send in a more formal RSVP. We ended up putting return stamps on less than 20% of our invitations.

3) Sanity: Wedding Tracker helps us manage our guest list, as well as keep track of invites mailed, RSVPs received, gifts received, and thank you notes sent.

4) The Environment: Our invitations were really simple -- outer envelope, invitation, response card, response card envelope, and magnet.  While this sounds like a lot, most wedding invitations include a ton more paper. Everything from inner envelopes, to reception cards, to directions from the ceremony to the reception, to registry cards can make a typical wedding invitation tip the scales at the post office. 

Wedding Tracker has become our quick-reference, 24/7 wedding coordinator. Instead of answering emails and calls from guests or dealing with people who've lost various parts of their invitation, we just refer everyone to our website. That way, Lu and I can focus on checking off the million other things on our to-do list.

While we don't have to send out invitations for months, Lu and I need to have a good idea of how many people we "expect" to come to the wedding because the coordinator at the venue, caterer, baker, photographer, and florist all need estimates.