Aggravation Station — or, How I’ve Moved Into a Whole New Phase of Nightmare Fodder

So we’re almost at 100 days – a huge landmark, no? – and solidly planted in the midst of what I like to call Invitation Aggravation.

Like this, only less fun, and more competitive/Image via VintageToys.com

I’m not even clear why I’ve started having legit invitation. They’re not overly complicated. We didn’t design them ourselves or print them out ourselves. I did some things to adorn them and make them look more handcrafted and “special”, but nothing really out there. This should be simple as pie – wrap ‘em up, stuff ‘em in, seal ‘em up, send ‘em up.

Yet I’m in total paralyzed panic mode.

Maybe it’s because we’re sending our first batch out in approximately 3 weeks, and I haven’t addressed one envelope. I’m doing this by hand, mind you. I even bought some fancy calligraphy pens and practiced my big-girl handwriting. But I did that, like, three months ago. And frankly I’m worried that I’ll have lost my touch on the style of “M” I settled on (there are lots of M’s on these suckers if you’re going for traditional addressing style, which we are). Yet I can’t motivate myself. It seems like I have so little time, and when I get home at 8 or 9 I just want to lay on the couch and hope for an early bedtime. Boo, laziness.

Maybe it’s because I ran into a snag with our belly band idea, in which the ribbon belly band stays just fine around the invite without slipping down, but is too loose to really contain the RSVP card, so when you pick the packet up by the invite rather than the belly band, the RSVP card falls right out. Not the end of the world, and LF tells me it’s no big thang, but for Miss Perfectionist Pants, THIS JUST WILL NOT DO.

Image via some e cards

Or maybe it’s because it’s the first real Big Thing I Can Mess Up. Until now, it’s been all shopping and dreaming. We’ve written some checks. I’ve had a couple of successful DIYs. But the invitations? I mean, I can do some serious damage here.

My nightmares are, in this order:

1. Forgetting to put postage on the RSVP card. This is pretty self-explanatory. I’m scared that in the burgeoning onslaught of Things to Do, I’ll find victory with the belly band and stuff everything in there and write prettily and seal them and… ACK! Either I’ll realize at that moment what I’ve done, or send them off that way. Super lame.
2. Not putting enough postage on the envelopes. I absolutely plan to bring a copy of the invite all wrapped and packed to the post office and have them weigh it in front of me and tell me how many stamps we need. But then I’m all, “But what if that clerk gives me one number, and then the clerk who processes them comes up with a different one – I’VE HEARD IT HAPPEN – and they don’t send our invites?” I heard of one couple who accidentally shortchanged their envelope by a couple cents, and the post office delivered them, but asked each recipient to pony up the remainder before handing it over. They made light of it by putting a stamp in that denomination at each place setting at the reception, but still – OMGsters.
3. The RSVP postcards will be destroyed in the mail. There will be a thunderstorm flood situation, or a misanthropic mailman, or a dog attack, and the RSVP postcards will be rendered useless. All of them, from 50 different homes. At once. This is an unrealistic worry at best, but still. I collect worries like I collect nail polish.

The advice I’ve gotten: Mail one to yourself, and relax. I like this advice. Still, I’m not quite sure what this “relax” is that you speak of. Is it a new type of ice cream sundae? Because I’ll take two.

Were the invitations as nerve wracking an experience for you as they are for us right now? Is most of my panic simply due to the fact that I won’t get off my bum and just do this thing? Do you have any awesome advice for getting through this period of the planning process unscathed… well, with those around you unscathed, at least?