Those are totally fantastic.

We had to tinker with the wording a little. Because with divorced parents on my side and a deceased mother on his side, putting the parents' names above "Proudly Presents" was not going to work elegantly. So we changed those to "The Family of the Bride" and "The Family of the Groom."

And we're going with "Steph" and "Tim" (rather than our full names, including middle), because the invitations are so markedly informal.

The only other change was the bottom, where we really felt it needed to say "Drinks, dinner, and merriment to follow" (rather than just dinner and merriment), because, well, drinks will be heavily featured.

Those are really nice, Tep!

If you were having a super formal wedding, I would say separate card. As it, unless you really hate the idea, and if it saves you money (for booze or the honeymoon, woo!) then directions on the back. I mean, I usually hang invites on the fridge and if I got an invite with directions on the back, I'd think nothing of it, other than "Cool, that's how I get there."

Lots of people save their invites as part of a wedding scrapbook type thing, so you won't see the back.

An option for the envelopes, which is fortuitous, is silver for an extra $4 total. Since "our colors" are blush and bashful blue and silver, this is awesome.

It's sort of silly to be sending out invitations with the time of the ceremony on them, because about 25% of the guest list is showing up 2-3 hours early to help with last-minute stuff, and a full 80% is being asked to show up 90 minutes early for photos. So the invitations with the time of the ceremony on them are actually for the benefit of 10 people or so. Oh well.

Ok, triggery advice-asking here... my best friend's mother in law died suddenly and very unexpectedly (she was literally run over by a semi truck while on a cross-county motorcycle ride with her husband and a large group of friends) yesterday. Spent most of the night with my friend crying and drinking and talking and will probably be doing that again tonight. I feel like I have helping her covered wrt emotional support and assistance with child care.

I wish there were something I could to to help him...he's at a hospital in Arkansas, an area that none of them know (cross county ride, that's just where it happened) while his dad is in surgery. Don't know yet how long they'll be stuck at that hospital before his dad is stable enough to head back to CA for funeral. In the meantime, i know this guy. He won't be eating anything that isn't set in front of him and he'll almost certainly be sleeping in his dad's hospital room and getting zero rest. I can send flowers but...geez, flowers. Allergens. Not usefull. I wish I could send burritos. I guess I could try to internet-scout the area and txt him suggestions of places in walking distance for getting out and a decent meal?

erin,

I think Internet scout is good. you might need to give him suggestions of places open 8-6 and anything open after hours (in case he may need it). Does he need something fedex'd to him right away (or 2-3 day delivery)?

There are checklists on the Internet for people who have to deal with sudden deaths and/or major medical crises. This might help him remain focused and give him something to do (which is my personality).

In the short term, he may need to deal with his father medical insurer, especially where he needs to go when he is back in CA. If his mother will be buried, I suppose funeral directors in CA can handle those details. If she won't be (cremated instead), you might just cremate in AR and then have a ceremony in CA.

You might also see if there are hotels near the hospital. I know he will be sleeping near his father, but he might want the option of being in a hotel room as well.

I'm sorry about your friend's MiL, Erin. Maybe something from Edible Arrangements? Amyth, I and a couple of others sent one of those to our landlady after she'd been in a car accident. She and her husband said everything was very fresh and delicious. (Of course, they were thanking us for a nice gesture, and probably wouldn't have said it was mediocre. Anyway--fruit, delivered.) [link]

Calli has the right idea, I'm sure there are delivery places around there who could deliver.

Oh, erin, how awful. I'm glad you can do what you can.

Can you send him burritos? Under the circumstances I'm sure a local place would be happy to let you pay over the phone by credit card even they don't usually. They might even arrange for a delivery even if they don't usually.

Heh. In the pre-inernet dark ages when I was in college my Mom made arrangements with the florist in town to bring me food along with flowers. They were tickled to do it and it wasn't even a crisis.