WR: Invitation For Day After Celebration

How about a picture of the two of you on a 4x6 or 5x7 cardstock with the details, shutterfly makes them real nice and with all the coupon codes around I'm sure you can get a great deal....

Or this is a simple invitation from wedding paper divas

We're (hopefully) printing our own postcards on A2 cards from the Paper Source. I'm still waiting to hear back from them about how thick the paper is (and if it meets the post office's guidelines). You could also get some free postcards from VistaPrint and go that route.

Vistaprint.com

100 postcards free, pay s&h - bill ends up being under $8 and postcards are cheaper to mail than envelopes.

Andrene, Judging from your taste in the other stationery items you have shown us, you will not be happy with vistaprint. I would suggest a simple postcard or flat invitation on a nice White cover stock custom designed to resemble your elegant theme. Custom digital printed items can be very affordable, while still provide a high level of quality.

Thanks ladies.

@Goskell: Oh how well you know me. I love nice stationery but I'm trying not to go overboard for the after-party. Do you have a specific line/samples you can direct me to? I love the idea of the postcard but wonder if it will be possible to also get directions included on the single card.

Could you put a link on the invite to a map with the directions? Try using a bit.ly (or similar) service and make the link unique and related to your wedding. That way, you would only need to use one line of the card to include the directions,

@Mary: My worry is that no one seems to be visiting our website so they may not go there even for the directions. Plus the guests attending from overseas may not have computer access while they are here so I want to make it as stress free as possible for them to get to the venue.

Can I point out a few things... If I recieve a paper invitation, I assume you are covering any costs. This is a get together at a pub- I'm guessing it's casual and people can just buy thier own stuff- right?

Have you considred something as simple as an E-vite? Keep it very casual! Just say we'd love to get together with all our guests one last time before you leave on your honeymoon. Casual dress, etc.

The invite will set the tone- and you don't want to be on the hook for more costs.

@Meghan: No we are paying for the food and a limited bar (beer, wine and soda). In Ireland they usually do a party the day after (a scaled down version of the wedding) so that's what we're doing here. The party isn't a honeymoon send off. We actually will be hanging around until the very last guest leaves on tuesday before we head off to our mini-moon. When FH's brother got married last June they included the day after details in the invites on an enclosure card. But as our invites cost a mint, I wanted a more cost effective solution to this.

My uncle throws a day after casual BBQ for all of his nieces and nephews. We all assume there is going to be one and he just spreads the details word of mouth at the reception. Since it is a tradition could you just print up an announcement and have one at each table at the reception or have the DJ announce it?

How many invitations are you looking for total?

Are you open to DIYing them?

Can you link up your invitations to this thread so that we have an idea of what your original invites look like?

I would put little cards on each plate/place setting (think post card size) at the reception inviting people to the day after party, that way you save on stamps- and you know everyone will get one. On the front it could be the invite, and the back could be a small map/directions/phone number of the place the after party is at. If you want to send them out-- send out a postcard, and just put the address and phone number of the Pub, people are smart now-a-days and can look it up or call the bar for directions

here is free 100 vistaprint postcards....(just pay S&H) Also, the quality of the postcards are pretty good, they also have awesome customer service.

http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/splash/splash_postcards.aspx?GP=2/4/2011+6:09:44+PM&GPS=1458248802&GNF=0

few pictures of some of their postcards. You can change the color, font, wording/size, on all of them.

And if you wanted to do something more casual and Irish Pub like here are a few more examples.

@Mary: I'm thinking that 75 invites should be enough for this. With the exception of my wedding programs, all my wedding stationery is by Vera Wang. Invite, TY card and Program (the boxed scroll) attached.

@Christina: Love the idea of doing the after party invites at the table but I'm already doing a formal menu card, favors, and place card at each setting. Not sure where I would put the additional invite. Plus if I went that route, I would have to match the rest of the stationery as it would be obvious that it is by a different vendor since everything else will be in the same design.

Your wedding is still over 200 days out. Are you planning on including this scroll with the wedding invitation? What about the website on an enclosure card when you send the wedding invitation?

Do you need everyone to RSVP ahead of time so taht you can provide the pub an accurate head count? If that's the case, I would go with a postcard invitation or an evite.

If it's not a matter of a headcount, why not have the best man pass out small business cards with the information about the get-together as a reminder at the reception?

Also, you will have to consider how many guests are from out of town vs. how many are local and will be available to participate.

Sorry for all the questions! I was on a roll! :-)

@SailingNurse: The scroll is my wedding program. i did STD magnets with enclosure cards and I can tell you that only about 5 of the 80 guests bothered to look at our wedding website that was on the magnet AND the card. We are still being bombarded with calls as they don't seem to realise you can do a personal wedding website. Even with the STD they are still asking if they are invited to the wedding. I guess the STD concept hasn't really caught on yet in Ireland. The RSVP is important because I need to give the pub a headcount for the food and beverage. The majority of our guests are flying in from overseas so most likely they will need to have the info before hand.

Adrene, those details certianly shed more light on what you're dealing with. If they aren't flocking to your website- are they comfortable with email? If not, then maybe the evite is not a good idea :-)

If you think your best chance at getting a response is with a mailed invite, I would suggest VistaPrint- they have lots of cute themed invitations.

However, mailing all those invites overseas might become costly.

I am using paperlesspost.com to send my STD's. It looks like a real invite when you click on the envelope from your email.

www.paperlesspost.com

@Sailingnurse: Email would be disasterous in our case so we have to go with the old paper standby. On the plus side, I only need to send 1 parcel to FMIL and she then hand delivers or mails them from Ireland. I get discounted postage through work so will only spend about $30 to FedEx the parcel to her.

Sorry, I cannot provide a link. I may be the only vendor here who offers custom digital printing. Another viable option would be to seek out a local print shop who has digital printing capabilities.

Custom digital products are actuallly cheaper than most other types of printing. Here's why: The pre-printed items you see in albums or online are already printed, sitting on a shelf, waiting for you to place your order. Then, they print these AGAIN, with your personalized verse, in your ink color, and charge you for both runs, both plates, both setups, and both washups! Custom digital products are all done in one single run, just for you, without all the chemicals, plates or labor. Make sense? It is also the most environmentally-friendly printing can get.