... You've Sealed, Stamped and Sent Two Hundred Invites!

I am sitting in my living room watching Regis and Kelly and anxiously awaiting the arrival of two very exciting things: 1) my brand new fridge and 2) new wedding invitation RSVPs. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than getting rid of the antiquated fridge that came with our house (worn out label on the door reads EATON'S) than reading all the little complimentary notes people write on their RSVP cards.

Of all my wedding plans, I have unexpectedly put the most effort and time into my wedding invitations.  Not so much on the design (as I left that in the hands of the very talented folks at Digital Propaganda) but into the delivery. I am only now starting to see the semblance of a finger print returning on my thumbs after a week (yes, that's how long it took me to put out 200) of stuffing, stamping and label licking.  My living room had turned into a somewhat of production line at Hallmark a belt for assembling, one for stuffing reception, ceremony & RSVP cards, one for stamping RSVP envelopes, the other for labeling and the final move Outside stamp lick, seal and mail! 

My PR career has prepared me well for such things as years of stuffing Press Kits trains you to do this kind of work in your sleep. However, this same training has caused me to care -- perhaps too much -- about the detail. I am a control freak, I profess. I have no one to blame for how much I do myself because I trust few people to do things for me. This double-edged quality means that I was floor supervisor, and Joe line-worker all at the same time.  Do I have help around me? Sure, if I asked, but God forbid someone stuff the wrong card, or label the wrong envelope. Heads would roll. 

My Koumbara Peggy Z - is the exception. She's a total A-type too and for that reason, she was allowed to work a shift on the assembly line, but even she showed moments of fear. Peg, if you're reading, I'm sorry.

When we were designing the invites, I started to feel like I was a lone defender of the ideology that invitations should be traditional and monochromatic, specifically creamy white or some shade thereof. Like the bridal shower game, I'm not sure where the craze for the multi-chromatic invitations came from for a wedding. Plainer the better is my philosophy and so that's what I did, tying in my Old Hollywood theme as much as possible. I even threw in an ancient Greek prose to give props to my heritage.  The designer got it, and so did Jamie my BFF's husband & owner of Digital Propaganda, whose incredible eye for detail and design spared me from picking the wrong shade of cream!

Then there was the case of the weight of the envelopes vs. the cost of the stamps.  

LISTEN CAREFULLY: When purchasing stamps for your invitations DO NOT rely only on the Canada Post website. GO IN AND HAVE THEM WEIGHED as both the weight & the size of your envelope will determine the Canada Post requirements. Jamie repeated this to me, over and over as he had witnessed many clients require reprints because they didn't properly stamp their cards. So, like a good girl, I took my first completed envelope to the Canada Post office. And just as he predicted, my 47 gram envelope would require a 50+ gram $1.18 stamp simply because of the size.

This for me caused a problem.  The extra mailing cost aside, I was left with the choice of picking between one cheesy 2010 Olympic $1.18 stamp over another cheesy $1.18 Olympic Stamp.  Had I still been working for Tourism Toronto, I probably wouldn't be admitting this but as much as I like the Olympics, there was no bloody way I was going to tarnish my gorgeous high-quality stock envelopes with some Mickey Mouse-like image.  I pleaded with the kind lady behind the counter to find another solution. All she could offer was the option to create personalized stamps (my friend Emina did this and I thought it was pretty cool), but my timing was way off. I needed them right away.  She told me to head to the Canada Post office in the local Loblaws as it might have more options, so I did. 

Nada. Olympics seem to have a monopoly on this stamp denomination, a notion that offends my freedom of choice.The very helpful duo behind this particular Canada Post counter however offered up some more creative solutions using a combination of 54-cent stamps. That's when I saw them Old Canadian Hollywood stars Ms. Norma Shearer and Mr. Raymond Burr - immortalized in a very cool poster-style 52-cent stamp, waiting for me to rescue them from behind the glass. And just like that, my problem was solved. I picked up 150 Canadian Heritage Stamp Booklets which carried these two characters as well as Maria Dressler and Chief Dan George (love that guy).  To make it more cost effective, I honoured the Dressler and George stamps by applying them on envelopes of those who understood Canadian Heritage (like the entire Weston side) and adorned the remainder with lovely Norma and Handsome Raymond (+10 cent & 4 cent lick stamp on each).  They looked awesome, I was proud. I was also pretty parched.

So my invites went out, a week later than then when I received them (it may have taken a normal person 2 days max) but precisely 6-weeks before my wedding date.

My RSVP's have started coming back and to date I have 60 people coming to my wedding.  Wait, could be more - mailman just came and the delivery folks are at my door. 

Anyone need a "vintage" fridge?

Next week: The dress. Nuff said. 

Sousie Tsotskos, A Greek Divas Bridal Brigade
		About the author:
		Toronto public relations expert Sousie Tsotskos will walk down the aisle on June 6th, 2009. After years of showcasing Toronto's finest to media from around the world for Tourism Toronto, she uses industry secrets to plan her own wedding, taking us on an intoxicating and zany tour. From unusual dress-fittings, unwelcomed run-ins, hen parties and a minor identity crisis - find out how this Toronto mover-and-shaker learned to plan her BIG, LEAN, STYLISH GREEK WEDDING on a dime. This is one of the most highly addictive columns on WOMAN.ca.
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