Planning not all rainbows and unicorns. There are some really hard decisions to make and I like Jess, who to invite became a massive political debate in our house. Today our DIY Bride Jess tackles invitations and goes through the mine field of the guest list.
I am officially behind schedule!
According to Lady Marry (wedding app) I have 135 days until I become Mrs Hughes and I have completed 27 of the 62 wedding tasks. (Give me 5 minutes whilst I get the hyperventilating under control….)
The invitee list has been the conundrum this month, along with getting the invites completed and sent. 
Who to invite and who not to invite?
No matter what people tell you about how it’s your day and you should invite who you want, you still feel like you ‘should’ invite the extended family and friends that you hardly ever see. Our wedding ceremony is small and we are very limited on numbers. However, it has been the evening celebrations which has provided the conundrum. It started with:
‘You can’t invite one without inviting the others’
‘She invited you to her wedding, you should invite her to yours’
‘They will get upset if you don’t invite them too’
Before we knew it our invitee list for the evening was over 80 people! We wouldn’t be able to fit everyone into the marquee! We would be relying on the ‘they won’t come anyway’ invitees to bring the numbers down!
It was whilst making the invites that I came to my senses. Why was I doing this? Our wedding was always meant to be small and intimate. It will be different from the other weddings we have attended and that suits us just fine. A big wedding party is great, but it was not what we envisaged for our special day. Crossing people off the list feels brutal. It wasn’t because we didn’t want them to come, we just had to draw the line further back.
Ok, so the invites…..
I went to CwtchFest2016 in April (amazing day) and met a lovely lady who makes laser engraved wooden invites. Wooden invites – how cool is that! So I took her details home to think it through. In the end it was the same as my decision to make my own wedding dress. I’m the DIY Bride, of course I would make my own invites! 
I had a half formed idea of how I wanted the invites to look and with the help of google decided on little booklets (8 x 12cms). Using a pretty watercolour of a blossom tree for the background, each page contained different details of the day: names, invite, agenda, menu, location etc. Each page was printed & trimmed, covers made from pink and blue card and everything sewn together (I will literally turn to my sewing machine for everything). Final step was to add a paper binding and some ribbon. 
Now that they are all completed, I am really happy with how the invites turned out. They just took a LOT longer that I thought they would. Task 28 of 62 – check.
My advice to anyone trying to put together their invitee list:
Set a limit of places that:
- Fits in with your style of wedding
- Fits in with what is practical for the venue
- Stick to it!
Until next time ….. Au revoir J
