Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

According to tradition, the family of the groom hosts a dinner the night before the wedding.  There is usually a rehearsal for the wedding the day before the actual ceremony so the dinner is called the "rehearsal dinner."  We had quite a large group for the dinner.  The wedding party and immediate family members added up to 25 and there were also quite a few extended family members who traveled  long distances to join in the wedding celebrations so we ended up with 62 people at our dinner!

I designed the invitations using the Silhouette Studio software and cut the backers with the Silhouette SD machine.  One of the things that I like about this software is the ability to set up the file to print and/or cut various parts of the design.  The screen shot above shows the two pieces of the invitation - only the bold red lines will cut.  The white area with the details was printed on my regular printer directly from the Silhouette Studio program.  I needed to use the Silhouette for this project because the font the bride and groom chose is an Open Type font. (You could do something similar with a Cricut if you were using a font that is comparable to one of the Cricut Cartridges).

It was lucky that both the bride and groom have names that have no letters with center cuts that would drop out.  The only modification I had to make was to add a connecting piece to the ampersand symbol.

This screen shot shows how I edited the ampersand by creating a connection to the center cutout.  This is the same procedure you would use to create a stencil.  The letters are cut with "bridges" to hold in the centers of  letters like "o" and "a."

My original plan was to have the letters cut from the 5 x 7 cardstock and to leave them open so light would shine through.  I was using some heavy Stampin' Up cardstock and I did have a bit of trouble with the cuts - they would look fine from the front but sometimes the paper would peel a bit on the back.  You can see a few of these "fuzzy letters" in the pile of leftovers above.

I decided to add a strip of metallic gold card stock behind the letters so they would have a nice glow.  This cardstock is from Creative Memories and was a favorite of mine but it is no longer available.  I don't have much left so I just placed a one inch strip across the top and then I cut an additional piece of white cardstock at 5 x 7 inches and adhered it to the back to conceal the small strip.  This also gave additional weight to the card.

I planned the top layer to cut at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches so I could print four on a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.  The words were printed in a dark blue to coordinate with the wedding colors.  I cut the sheets into four after printing with my Zutter DreamKuts machine - this was easier and faster than trying to use a trimmer for all of the cuts.

Once I had cut and printed all of the components, I could assemble the invitations.  Fortunately, I needed to make only about 34 invitations since many were for families with several members invited.

I did go through quite a lot of adhesive!

The 5 x 7 size requires an envelope called an "A7" envelope.  This can be found at Staples or other office supply stores but they are sold in packs of ten and would be less expensive to buy in bulk from an online source.  I chose the 5 x 7 because A2 seemed too small and the half sheet (5 1/2 x 8 1/2) seemed too much like a business mailer.  The Silhouette cut two 5 x 7 cards with the letter cutouts from each sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.

One final detail - when you send special invitations or cards it is nice to choose postage stamps that fit the occasion.  There are always "love" stamps available and the designs change from year to year.  I used these stamps and I was very happy that the color and design were quite compatible with the invitations.

If you live in or near San Francisco, I highly recommend the restaurant "Perbacco" where we held the dinner.  The food was incredibly delicious and the staff very helpful.  The chef even created some special dishes by request to honor the family history on both sides.

I had a good drive home Tuesday and today I will finally be able to get back to my craftroom to work on some new projects.  Dad is doing great and the old apartment is almost cleared out.  It certainly has been a busy few weeks!

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