Groxie

Now that we’ve finally sent out the invitations, I feel confident enough to address some of the early engagement to—dos that we’ve figured out. Our guest list is very small and mostly computer literate, so these solutions work well for us. Keeping the guest list small will make the whole day more intimate and memorable, and we’re saving lots of money too!

Save—the—date

These are optional, but we decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to inform our out—of—town guests as early as possible. John mocked up a really neat little invite using Photoshop, and we e-mailed it to our guest list.

Website

A wedding website can be an invaluable tool for you and your guests. I’m lucky to have a finace who could whip up a very beautiful site. If neither of you have that kind of know—how (or time) you can create a wedding website for free at The Knot, and they have all kinds of neat features built in.

Our website is clean and simple. There’s information on lodging, directions to the ceremony and reception, a brief explanation of the goings—on that weekend, and a copy of the invitation. We’ve also got a space for people to contact us to RSVP or if they have any questions. We don’t want our guests to bring gifts, but we did register for those die—hard traditionalists. The website is an appropriate place for guests to find registry information, since it is a big faux pas to include that in the invitations. (More on registering below…)

Even after the wedding, the website will continue to be useful. We will post pictures for family members to download, and we might even be able to use the site to inform friends and family of our impending move.

Invitations

These go hand in hand with the website, in fact, the website really functions as an extension of the invitations. We decided early on to print paper invitations, but to save money and trees, we ditched the traditional invite package.

Instead of including:

• Invitation plus mailing envelope
• RSVP card plus self-addressed stamped envelope
• Area maps
• Tissue paper or some other fairly useless filler

We sent one piece of cardstock and relied on the website to do the rest.

John had the inspired idea to print out an invitation on cardstock and fold it up into an envelope. John played around in InDesign to get the text on an angle so that it wouldn’t be completely covered in creases. We printed a fairly standard invite on the cardstock and directed people to our website for more information. Voila! By making serious use of the website we saved ourselves hundreds of dollars.

We went with a cardstock that had high recycled content and pulp from a sustainably managed forest. It doesn’t sound terribly romantic, but it was the best we could do for the money. For those of you with a bigger budget than ours, there are some nice non-tree paper options. Some even contain flower seeds, but I’ve always wondered if it’s really a good idea to encourage guests to plant non-native flowers all over your community.

Registering for Gifts

This is a hard one. Here’s our stand:

A few family members asked about a gift registry. We would prefer you forgo gifts. If you want to contribute, bring a bottle of wine or your favorite dish to share. If you can’t stand all this non-tradition, we’ll try not to be spoil-sports. We set up a registry for those so inclined.

We registered with Amazon.com. I know they’re not the best greenies, but I did what I could to soften the blow. We didn’t register for anything from Target or other stores we wouldn’t normally purchase from. We registered as much as we could from Greenfeet because I love them. We didn’t register for stuff we already have just so we can replace it with nicer, newer stuff.

One reader, Chris, suggested we check out VivaTerra. They have many beautiful, eco-friendly things there, but it’s a bit pricey for my blood. Of course, there’s also always the option of asking your guests to make a donation to the charity of your choice.

That covers the post-engagement basics. I’ll cover the reception and ceremony later. We just got pictures of our finished rings from Touchwood Rings! They are absolutely beautiful!