Assembly Required

Last night I was planning to post about our weekend full of wedding related fun, but after returning from Pinehurst, we wanted to bust out our wedding invitations so that we can be finished with them before we start packing this week. Four hours later, I had developed a mild case of carpal tunnel, pretty serious lower back pain, and a headache like you wouldn't believe. Needless to say, I wasn't about to start typing up a storm. Who knew wedding invitation assembly and addressing was so hard on the body!

Now I must admit that last night we were in the stretch. We started assembling and addressing last weekend and after 6 hours had completed 70 invites. That left us 80 to complete. I know you're gasping, but of course we picked the most complex, but adorable, invitations out there. We were told by the bridal consultant that they came unassembled and had many parts, but they were so pretty and different that I couldn't resist. Now I'm not talking about taking some cards and stuffing envelopes...we had to use these things called glue dots to put every piece of card stock onto a pink background and then onto the black "pocket". The pocket is the main part of the invitation, presenting the wedding announcement in the center (after being assembled) and holding the response card, response envelope, reception card, and events card in the side pocket. Then on the front there is a tab (assembly required, of course) that basically served no purpose, but is very pretty and has our names.

So back to the glue dots....I have a love/hate relationship with them. They are definitely easier to use than glue (which obviously requires drying time) or a glue stick (which isn't all that sturdy), but man were they a pain to work with. They are like the rubbery glue stuff that holds products together in a Bath and Body Works basket, if you know what I mean. They are so sticky and so hard to transfer from their backing to the card stock that I wanted to pull out some Elmer's and give up on them. Multiple times they got stuck to the wrong part of the card or got mangled on my fingers while I was trying to move things around. By the end of the night, I knew Alson was wishing we went with the simplest one out there.

Despite the effort required and physical ailments I have sustained as a result of invitation assembly, I am still really happy that we picked the one we did. Here is the manufacturer's shot of the invites:




In the end, we survived the glue dots, the invitations are all done and ready to be mailed, and we can finally take a short break from wedding related "stuff".