I had TOOOOO much fun with these envelopes for a 1960s party - and how kind of the post office to have Janis Joplin stamps available!
This is for a long term client who hires me every year to work on her husband's birthday party. She always has such creative ideas and lets me cut loose, I appreciate that more than I can say! Lettering is done with Sakura flourescent Gelly Roll pens.
It's National Etiquette Week! I thought I'd celebrate by "addressing" the subject of inner envelopes. ("Addressing," it's a pun! I slay me.)
Once upon a time I, a genteel person of the highest standing, would be sending you, also a genteel person of the highest standing, an invitation for an elegant soiree at stately Zorn manor. The invitation would be put in the inner envelope which bore your name and that would go into an envelope with your name and address. My footman would bring the invitation via carriage to your stately manor. In the process, the outer envelope would invariably get some schmutz on it. When your butler received the invite, he would remove the schmutzy outer envelope because a genteel person of the highest standing doesn't do schmutz. The invite in the inner envelope would then be presented to you, I'm sure, on a silver tray.
The inner envelope is a great way to be very specific about exactly who is invited to a wedding. Case in point - Mr. and Mrs. Michael Brady. If you want JUST Mike & Carol to come, the inner envelope would read "Mr. and Mrs. Brady" if you're very formal, or "Mike and Carol" if you're a little less formal.
Should you decide you do want the whole family, the outer still says Mr. and Mrs. Michael Brady but the inner envelope would then read:
(very formal)
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Brady
The Misses Marcia, Janet and Cynthia Brady
The Masters Gregory, Peter and Robert Brady
(less formal)
Mike & Carol
Marcia, Jan and Cindy
Greg, Peter and Bobby
Now, if you don't have inner envelopes, don't worry! I probably have 3 or 4 jobs a year that come with inner envelopes (I'm on the Left Coast. Dude, we're way informal.) However, there are some places that say you should NOT put "and guest" or "and family" on the envelope. I sent out some queries and thanks to Mindy Lockard, The Gracious Girl herself, I have word from on-high, Peter Hopkins, Crane and Company's historian.
His answer: This is the type of situation that suggests some flexibility. After all, etiquette exists to make people comfortable in situations where conduct is not necessarily intuitive. And we live in a much more complex world where hard and fast rules can themselves create uncomfortable situations.
With that as a preface, if a couple wants to demonstrate their commitment to the environment by using only a single envelope, a little deviation from the hard and fast is called for.
It is entirely appropriate for the couple to address the envelope:
Mr. Peter Hopkins and guest
or
Mr. Peter Hopkins
and guest (that's an indent)
Hopefully I've made things a bit clearer when using - or not - inner envelopes. If you have other questions, I'm an email away!
Abracadabra! I'm here to teach you the magic of hand canceling your envelopes or figuring out what the exact postage is for your unusual invites!
Last year there was a bit of a kerfuffle (yes, said it and I meant it, kerfuffle that even involved a TV news story) over hand canceling, but thanks to a seminar coordinated by Kami Aguilar of Wed Portland, I've the scoop!
Wherever in the U.S. you may be, you need to find out who your local Mailing Standards Specialist is. Right now, in Portland, OR that lovely person is Lori. You can call her at 503-294-2217 or email her at [email protected]. You'll make an appointment with her at the main post office at NW Hoyt & NW Broadway. You'll bring your complete invitation suite (or whatever you're mailing.) She'll weigh it, check it against the templates, look for bumpies or anything else that may be an issue. She'll then tell you what your postage will be per piece. No more trying to figure out if something is "machineable" or "non-machineable," or if it's regulation size, or is it a "flat" or a "package"? So many questions, Lori is the fairy godmother will make sure your mail doesn't turn into a pumpkin.
We're very fortunate in The City of Roses to have a beautiful postmark to adorn our special mail, like the postmark on this envelope*. Lori's also the go-to person for that. Hand cancelling your envelopes, beside being pretty & special, also means you won't get the computerized bar code across the bottom of your envelope. You've spent time & money on mailing beautiful envelopes , go the extra mile!
*This envelope is from a dear friend's wedding so I've hung on to it for sentimental as well as practical reasons. Everybody say hi to Amy, that's her and her charming husband Jeff on the stamp!
No. Nope. No Way. Non. Nein. Niet.
There are some rules of etiquette with which I'm fine playing fast & loose. Don't want "Mr." "Mrs." "Ms." on the envelope address? OK. While the standard with an unmarried hetero couple is to list the woman first, if the guy in the relationship is a dear friend & she's just an acquaintance, absolutely list him first.
Etiquette is all about making your guests feel comfortable and special. The invitation recipient is so special to you that you want them to share in one of the most important days in your life. Being hit up for money does not make people feel comfortable and special, they feel like they're only being invited for the gift. There are some stores <aaaaaaMacyschoo> that will give you business card inserts to include in your invitation. Bzzzzz, wrong answer, thank you for playing. You just turned your guest into a cash cow.
There are other ways to handle getting the word out. "Back in the day," the info got out because everyone knew to ask the family or members of the wedding party where the couple was registered or what the couple wanted for gifts. Still a valid method.
Hello, 21st century and wedding websites! An AWESOME invention. A clearing house for all your info - Aunt Betty on the East Coast hasn't met your fiance? The wedding website has pictures and "our story." Aunt Betty's never been here and needs info on hotels in Portland, Orygun? There's a place for that too. And nestled amongst your fabulous website pages full of photos and witty stories is one called "Registry." BAM! There's your info for all the world to see. If in the cold, cruel light of day it turns out you don't need more wine glasses but cash would be more appreciated, set up a "Honeymoon Fund."
Passive aggressive? Probably, but worlds better than being outright rude. How to get out the website info? If you have information cards with directions, transportation & hotel info, list your website there. If you don't have information cards you can put in a card that says "Please visit our website for our story!"
Regarding the day of the wedding - there are lots of cash-gift-cultural-customs and those are perfectly fine and absolutely cool. At the wedding, make sure you have a basket/box/recepticle for cards because many people will bring cards with cash gifts inside. In some cultures, that's even the standard. Then there are things like the "Dollar a Dance" where people pay the bride & groom money to dance with them. It's all good!
I got married right before my husband & I were moving out of state, friends gave us cash and we were super grateful but we were thrilled with the presentation - they made it look like a Publisher's Clearinghouse-type sweepstakes.
A word about my sweet graphic. It comes from the 1960s Etiquette Record Label from right here in the Pacific Northwest. So darling!
It's a new year and it seems an annual event that it's time for new postage rates in the U.S.
The new rates take effect on January 27th, just in time for mailing invitations.
Good news for wedding invitations - the new stamps are CUTE!
Here's the new 2-ounce or "invitation" stamp. I see (sooooo many possibilities, the mind wobbles ;-)
The price increase is from 65 to 66-cents.
Here's the 1-ounce stamp, what a fabulous stamp for your RSVPs!
These are "forever" stamps - first class postage goes up from 45 to 46-cents.
If your RSVPs will be postcards, there's new stamps there too! Postcards go from 32 to 33-cents and will look like this:
If you're mailing your invitations soon, please remember your RSVP postage should be valid for the pricing structure AFTER January 27th.
I've had a few conversations this week about the timing of addressing and mailing invitations and that's inspired this blog post!! Etiquette says they should be mailed 6 to 8 weeks before an event. You're fine on the 6 weeks side of the scale if you've done any of the following:
If you haven't done any of the above (not that there's anything wrong with that ;-), you're better off at the 8 weeks side of things.
"Great!" you exclaim! "I'll get them out even sooner than 8 weeks!!" "Nope," says Goldilocks (that's me) , "you need to time it just right." If you mail them too early, you could run into all sorts of circumstances:
6 to 8 weeks, my friend, it's the best way to go.
(A million thanks to Paul Rich Studio for the photo of my envelope! The script is dip pen Flourished Formal Script done with a sparkly white ink and a vintage Spencerian #1 nib)
I am so excited to be part of the Abernethy Center's Chapel Dream Wedding Giveaway!
Abernethy Center has 2 beautiful gardens and a lovely ballroom - and now they're building a chapel on their beautiful grounds. To celebrate, they're giving away a dream wedding and I'm so happy to be contributing envelope addressing for invitations provided by The Wedding Cottage, and then table markers & place cards for the day of the wedding, which will be coordinated by Champagne Weddings & Events.
To find out how you can enter, go here!
No, not a postage stamp that says "love" - this is about my love of postage stamps. U.S.P.S. really has it goin' on right now, especially since they've increased the number of "forever stamps!" Let's take a look at a few now!
A wedding cake really does, in a very subtle & elegant way, shout "wedding." This is a lovely stamp for mailing the invitation, conveniently the post office also has the Wedding Roses stamp for RSVPs. The two look so pretty together!
For the more adventurous, there's the Garden of Love stamps and I adore these! Yup, I've made this big, I want you to see the detail! It's like a puzzle from "Highlights" magazine - "How many hearts do you see?" I'm going to suggest bucking the etiquette rule that says "only one stamp per envelope" and say if you need more than 44cents, double up on these lovelies!
Just a few pieces of advice - don't assume the amount of postage you'll need to mail your invitations, check and double check how much postage is needed. Don't forget that the postage is determined by more than the weight, if you have square envelopes or french flap envelopes (oooh, I sense another blog post in the making!) you'll need to add extra postage.
If you need a large number of the same type of stamps, order directly from www.shop.usps.com The nominal shipping amount will be far less expensive than you spending time and gas running around town. You have better, more bride-y things to do!
Now I'm going to look at postage on-line for a little while longer, really, just a little ;-)
One of my brides this year had great imagination, especially when it came time to letter her envelopes.
She chose an invitation suite that also included save-the-dates so her theme was consistent throughout. Everything was very crisp & modern.
Since all of the lettering on the invitations was upper case, we decided to do all lower case for the envelope addressing, in brown to match the save-the-date ink.
(She ordered her things through The Wedding Cottage, so the samples here are addressed to Petrel, the owner of The Wedding Cottage. The samples will be in the mail today and will take up permanent residency with Petrel.)
We saved the big wow for the invitations - purple, all lowercase script. It was very fun to do, but hard to remember to keep everything lower case!
Suppose you own a bridal boutique... let's say in Beaverton, Oregon. You're getting married! What invitations are you going to pick when you have a zillion to choose from?
Here's what Petrel, owner of The Wedding Cottage in Beaverton chose!
I wish you could touch this - they're letterpress invitations. There is nothing like the tactile experience of letterpress - the heft of the paper, the lovely, deep impressions... man, I'm such a paper geek.
I was VERY honored when Petrel asked me to address her invitations. I HAD to do brush lettering to be evocative to go with that cool, scripty "love."
Best wishes to Petrel and Jacob for a long, happy future!
P.S. What do you do when you own a bridal boutique, you're getting married and can't choose from all of the fantastic wedding professionals in Portland? Have a destination wedding in California! Smart choice!
P.P.S. The two taupe-y colors - on the envelope and on the invitation - are a much closer match in real life, again I plead ignorance in the strange and foreign ways of Photoshop.
"I put words on things!"
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