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Ask Slashdot: Techie Wedding Invitation Ideas?
Qa32 writes "I am getting married in a few months and being a hardcore techie I wanted to come up with some novel way of making my wedding invite that will truly have even my mom say, 'wow, that was cool.' Has anyone out there done anything similar, or have you thought of something similar you'd like to share? I already have a few: have QR codes, have some basic embedded circuit/plate with wire leads that maybe plays a song when you connect a battery, have a way to turn up a display LCD, etc."
Circuit boards with the metal bits making up the text, etc, etc, for flare. That'd be awesome.
As long as you could respond via email or even Facebook, I'd think anything was cool. I hate sending letters or making calls.
which is totally what she said
...at least you didn't propose on Slashdot.
paintball
Using an augmented reality image (requires a smartphone).
If you send your wire-laden invitation to anyone's workplace and they have mailscanning, the building will likely be evacuated, your invitation destroyed and someone will be pissed off at you for not inviting them to your wedding.
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
It's a wedding. Those are supposed to be big, formal events.
Sure, you can have a bit of fun, but you got to keep in mind that not everyone is necessarily a geek. The QR code by itself, coupled with an otherwise elegant card, will more than suffice and drive across the point that you're geeky.
If not much text and cost is not a problem you can get a pretty unique one. You can design it yourself and order it from sites like Ponoko or Shapeways.
On a fucking wedding invitation? Are you planning on having any of your parents' friends attending?
Boy does your Wife have some work to do...
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
Assuming your friends and/or relatives are also into technology, why not keep the card relatively simple, but throw in an easter egg or two? Just as an example, embed a RFID chip and have it setup to react to NFC's embedded in phones. Include a subtle hint on the card, and perhaps make a puzzle out of it.
The corner of a round room
My friends invited me with one of these. http://youtu.be/bsdCeiae7Mo
In the comments, he briefly describes the design.
Mod me down now and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
make the invite an ARG? you do run the risk of not having any guests show up though.
Though it might be slightly too expensive something like the usb business card below would be cool.
This device acts as a usb keyboard and will type text when activated (by pressing caps lock 3 times)
http://www.instructables.com/id/USB-PCB-Business-Card/
For most people, giving a card with all the details on it works.
You can keep QR codes if you want to redirect them to a website, or RSVP URLs, etc. but if they can do that, might as well send them an email.
linking to personalized images on cuteoverload ?
Not so much techy, but would appeal to the geeks is some sort of pop-out/foldable things that makes something.... Kinda like this business card. Or maybe something where you slide an insert to reveal the message.
My ideas are rubbish but maybe others will have suggestions along these lines.
I am married and I can tell you that it is almost impossible to continue with beeing geek after a marriage. When you get a wife that needs attention and maybe some kids after some time and you are becoming responsible for maintaining them, it is very little time left.
A big love for geek things will be in contradiction to marriage in one way or another. My tips is to drop the geek things already now or reconsider if you should marry at all.
Pick a good theme. Generally people pick a hobby or activity they both enjoy. Picking technology is both overly broad and can limit you. This is like a coal miner sending invitations as portraits done in coal (fixed with hairspray), or a steel mill worker sending laser cut sheet metal invite. Do you want to have a clever theme, or do you want to be reminded of your job on your wedding day?
If you're going to do a tech thing, do a parody. Send your friends and relatives invitations using IP over Avian Carriers. Or send everyone iphone/android apps that are QR readers, but always send them to the same web address to RSVP. Basically what I'm trying to say here, is that in terms of difficulty, this is very high, as is the risk of failure. One of the many reasons people tend to stick with paper wedding invitations is that weddings are already (unnecessarily) incredibly stressful to plan and custom made invitations that you can't order through your wedding planner is master level difficulty. That said, good luck!
moox. for a new generation.
A slashdotter getting married? Please.
raspberrypi.org will be shipping shortly you can embed an HD movie onto SD (I recommend blender.org to make the invite cool, just look at blender cycles).
then the end user just has to plug the device into any HDMI TV.
being a linux machine it could do numerous other things as well.
the hardware will allow it to control other devices in the same way as an aurdino, go nuts!
Take a look at these guys:
http://www.bareconductive.com/
They make conductive gloopy black paint that you can use both to paint circuit boards and to cold solder components into them. I met a couple of the people behind the company at a trade show a couple of weeks back and bought a pot (no other connection to company). It's very clever stuff and they have a load of tutorials and examples on the site.
... a mobile app with streaming video and stuff. Magmito dot com and others like them have options for WYSIWYG-building cross platform apps.
Telegrams still exist in many parts of the world.
How about you get a professional printer to print the invites with a nice font on high quality paper.
Then your mom might think you have reformed instead of wondering what the hell is wrong with you.
I just saw this on reddit this morning: http://www.reddit.com/r/Design/comments/oxggi/my_friends_laser_cut_wedding_invitations/
For the ceremony, how about naming the tables after something geeky instead of numbers, or maybe even prime numbers...
I like the qr code idea too - perhaps a personalised qr code which goes to a pre-filled acceptance form?
RSVPs guaranteed.
You could also have some things at the reception that are triggered off by sensing the NFC chip - again, entertain the younger generation without worrying the older one.
Or, you know - you could just have an absolutely straight wedding with no techno toys at all. A friend of ours got married recently and had a cartoonist to make sketches during the wedding and the reception. The resulting sketchbook was far more popular (and memorable) than the photos or the video.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Nerd friend of mine had a QR Code on the back of the invitation. The people who knew what a QR Code was, all got rick rolled. I thought it was hillarious.
trans corpus mortuum
call off the wedding
twenty years ago our wedding invitations were issued as the lables on eight inch floppy disks.
In this world of smartphones an invitation app might help laden with pictures of you and your wife, with a mapview showing the location etc. :)
I made pom poms out of old 9-track tape and used them to decorate the car.
In this world of smartphones a wedding invitation app could do the trick. Have mapview for the location and stuff :)
As someone that tried to be "a bit different" with my own wedding invitations it's perhaps worth sharing some details of the experience.
All of our invitations included a business-card with a URL on one side and a unique username and password on the other. With this the guests could access our wedding website, where the they could indicate their attendance, get directions, etc. Since we knew which guests had each username we could customise what was displayed to the particular guest and the "level" of their invitation - pre-populating the RSVP page with their names, allowing them to enter their "+1"s only if their invite happened to include them, and only showing the directions to the event they had been invited.
Unfortunately, this approach confused a surprising number of people who either didn't bother to visit the URL on the card, didn't realise that they needed to detach and turn over the business card in order to find their username/password, or just assumed that since there were no RSVP or location details included with the physical invite, that it was simply a "save-the-date" and that further details would follow later. Even some of the more "tech-savvy" people had problems, and in the end we had to do far more chasing-up than we perhaps would have done had we relied on the more traditional invitation.
With this in mind, it may be best to avoid trying to be too novel with your invites, or perhaps produce a more traditional invitation for those guests that might have more difficulty with something out of the ordinary.
Try to find an old plotter (with pens), and buy high value artisanal paper. /ABC (for yes) where AB gives you about 26*26 unique identifyer and C a quick checksum validity check.
make a model of your handwritting and "scan" it to plot the invitations.
And add a clickable "unique" short link that people can enter easely to confirm attendance.
something like
If you have more than 400 guest, make two events, you will not have the time to say hello to anybody...
There is high tech, and the internet, it is not necessarelly the same....
Paper Record Player: http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/04/15/133206/couple-sends-record-player-wedding-invitations
Hivemind harvest in progress..
Just hack one of those talking greeting / birthday cards. Yank the electronics and put them in your own card. I know there are cards that let you record exactly what you want on them, but they're a bit more expensive than the others. You could even personalize each voice invitation to match the person being invited.
It's different enough to be geeky and novel, but not so far-left-geeky that it'll have everyone wondering if they need to show up to your wedding in cosplay garb.
Cut the dorky gadgetry, would be my advice.
If I need a computer built, then electronic skills are required.
If I need a good and memorable wedding held, good event-organisation skills are required.
Both are two entirely different things - keep that in mind.
Here's a suggestion from the top of my head:
1) Print your invitation and thank-you cards with a professional printer (online printing service) and have a professional avantgarde designer to the layout and print production. Take the best quality paper + UV laquer + maybe even embossing and/or special colors. It will be a tad more expensive - two printruns of 250 items each come at roughly 200$ just for the cards, add photography and layout + print-production and you'll come out at about 600$ total - *BUT* you *will* leave a lasting impession with everybody invited. ... Ask the media-designer to make invitation and thank-you cards that people will like to keep and frame. Give him a chance to go creative as he whishes. he'll be cheaper and will put in some extra effort just for the fun of it.
2) More is less. Don't go into a huge debt over the wedding. And think if a lavishly dress and an expensive 'will never wear it again' tuxedo really is a must. Personally, I were to hold a wedding, I'd go for 'unusual, not to expesive, selected but very good (take your time finding the specials)' over 'generic but more expensive'.
For instance: I didn't cook until about 4 years ago and today I only know about 3 dishes, but I know them very well and given that I don't pinch when buying the ingredients, each of these dished taste very delicious if I put my mind to it and take my time. I couldn't afford a wedding organizer, but I'd make a point of cooking these dishes myself for my own wedding and add their part to a memorable experience. Sure, the ingredients would come 300€ or so and I'd probably have to borrow some cooking gear, but it would be a very special thing for all the guests - that I would be sure of.
3) Another example: Stainless Steel makes for very good wedding rings (geek factor aside). There are tons of quality steel rings out there nowadays, and they cost a fraction of the platinum/gold ones. Use the money you save on a top-notch honeymoon trip - you'll both have much more from it.
Oh, and congratulations and all the best wishes!
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
A tip: unless your fiance is a geek also, she may take a VERY dim view on geeky stuff involving HER wedding.. I hope you understand that the bride is the "commanding officer" of a wedding.. SHE is the driving force, and in essence, all the groom needs to do is show up in appropriate dress. Of course, this is a generalization, but women often dream about "their day" namely their wedding day, and take a really dim view to ANYBODY messing with it, even when its her
fiance...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
I know lots of people want their wedding to be a special event and go through quite some cost/effort to put on a big show. Then again, it is supposed to be the worst day of your married life... :-)
I have a cousin who is quite gifted - did some seriously cool science/tech stuff even in high school, was invited to participate in some extra tuition/activities at a nearby university's elect. engineering dept. while still in school, etc. Wouldn't be surprised if his IQ turns out close to 200 (no joking).
I recently got a wedding invite from him. A single page of high-quality paper, simple triple fold to fit in the envelope, black ink inside and some color for their names on the outside - classic-looking cursive writing font. Simple message in english and french (his wife is French). The only thing that hinted at technology was that RSVPs could be phoned to a mobile number, or be sent to a throwaway Gmail account.
All I'm saying is: don't try too hard. If you're a real techie, people will know it anyway.
On the other hand, you could always include some of these snippets on your invitation:
Just leave Natalie and her grits out of it.
My wife found these lego candies that are actually stackable like real legos. She loves legos like any geek and realized that they'd be great as little favors to put on the tables. Not only did they have a little geekiness in an otherwise normal wedding, but they kept the guests' kids entertained.
give rfid enabled cards to all invitees, and then put some arduino based stuff in every table so that when they approach a voice welcomes them "welcome $name, please take a seat, the 16-dishes meal is about to be served in minutes".... would'n it be awesome?
Take a look at the different hackable badges for various conventions.
Move sig!
hack their computers and give them a popup invitation.. lolz
If you do it right, you only get one of them. If you consider it important enough to invite friends and family, send a nicely printed card with the following information: (1) Who you're marrying, when and where; (2) When and where the reception is to be held; (3) A means for people to respond; (4) Something to the effect that you hope they will be able to attend. Do this unless you are planning to be married in Klingon garb at a convention.
Why? Because the invitation is actually not about you. It's about the person you're inviting. It's intended to communicate to them that you'd be tickled to death to see them on the biggest day of your life, and then to make it as easy as possible for them to get there. You're asking them for the honor of their presence even if you don't use that wording.
Hire a promising art or design student to design it for you, send it via SnailMail to peoples' home addresses, and then give thanks that in these casual times it does not have to be engraved from a copper plate and addressed by hand.
"Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
If you're getting married and want your friends and family to come I don't think its asking too much to use a phone, get a pen out or even get proper invitations created that you send by snailmail. Doing it online is all very well but just like email xmas cards , it really sends out a kind of "meh , whatever" message - that you couldn't really be bothered to make much effort and 1 minute in front of a PC is all your F & F are worth.
My cousin and her wife both work in tourism, so they fashioned their invites as plane tickets.
This confused a large number of people. My mom for example threw the invitation straight in the bin, thinking it was some mass mailing.
Be careful.
How about having a day off from your geekiness in order to concentrate on your future wife?
All the fancy stuff will be ignored by anyone over X years old (and lead to things like "I haven't had an invite, just this thing in an envelope", people getting lost, etc.). All the geeks will play with it for precisely two and a half seconds and then do what they would have done anyway (i.e. Facebook or SMS their RSVP or whatever).
It's like CV's - you *can* send them to me on a micro-SD card embedded into a credit-card sized business card if you really want to. I'll put them on my "erase and reuse" pile. Or you could have just sent me a piece of paper with all the necessary details on (and maybe make a website with all the details on too but in my experience people either bring the paper with them or forget the website and don't have the paper on them to find out and end up phoning you anyway).
Wanna be a geek? Stick a lego toy on each table, or have a friend start burning CD's / DVD's of the ceremony as soon as possible and give them out to people as they leave as a memento, or make sure ALL your wedding photos are uploaded the next day (including the "professional" ones) so others can see it.
Think what your 86-year-old granny's cousin will do with the invite. If it's anything other than read it and reply, you're doing it wrong. Save the fancy tech for your friends parties where you don't expect dozens of random people you don't know to turn up.
I'm surprised he hasn't thought also about having the priest/vicar/whoever do it via skype on an iPad or something equally lame.
Old-fashioned. Use *no tech*. Write all the invites by hand, put them into hand-written and tongue-licked envelopes, bring them to the post office. You'll be astounded at the response.
Optionally, throw in a code-cracking contest ( also hand-written ) that is not TOO hard to crack.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
If you're doing anything circuit-based, you could incorporate picture of you and your fiancé into the etching:
flickr set of a portrait project I did using etched circuits
As soon as the word spreads around that a computer geek has married into the family, you will start getting calls from all sorts of distant relatives of your wife:
"I didn't change anything, but my computer stopped working . . . "
You might as well meet them all now, face to face, before you have to deal with them on the phone.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
First of all, dude, forget about your mom for a second. If the bride-to-be figures out your wedding choices are to please your mom, there will be problems!
Secondly, invitations that you open and they play music were cool 25 years ago. QR codes would be a lot of fun for your 1 buddy that would "get it" (of course the QR code would have to actually be something). And, well, I will just go ahead and stop you with the lcd's.
The only cool invitation hardware wise that I have seen is the embedded manual paper record player.
If you are good with photoshop perhaps you want to design your wedding invitation (but print it professionally of course) and really make it special. You can also make a website, and a reservation system. For example, I had included a personal code with each invitation, that when entered in the wedding website it logged on the individual and allowed him/her to just select the number of people and accept. No, you cannot have just a QR code there, people won't be able to use it.
Finally, be careful of the mom thing.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Don't worry about it, your wife will (thankfully) veto this (stupid) idea.
Put many signs to redirect those who are looking for toilets into a small cabinet where they would be Rickrolled, with at least a Rick poster and a player starting to play the pop song as soon as they open the door.
Also set up a camera and display the results on your large HD screen once you have a bunch of funny reactions.
http://www.frank-zhao.com/cache/usbbusinesscard_details.php ?
Do something simple and elegant.
Invitations: high quality stock, embossed printing. Perhaps small decorations that reflect your fiancés taste with your input on color (if she likes birds, you can pick from pastel blue, yellow, cream, ..., maybe even black if she doesn't mind). Your mother will really think "that's cool".
If you HAVE TO show that it's your wedding, too (it's not, BTW, except technically), do something in the gift baskets, like custom printed USB sticks, with "Mr. and Mrs. (unless she's doing something sane with her last name) " and load them with photographs from the wedding and/or reception.
I'm assuming you're a guy marrying a girl... so what does your fiance want to do for invites?
Yeah, do that.
You can spend a lot of time coming up with the most clever idea out there, but if your bride-to-be doesn't like it, you're fucked (and not in the good way). By all means suggest something geeky, but if she balks, back down and accept that you're not the star of this particular show.
You've pretty much guaranteed it won't happen...
Hey Moron,
Seek advice from your wife-to-be! It's really her day and if you screw it up, you'll have to live with it for the rest of your life, or until her lawyers take half of everything you own.
So do you need to make a physical invitation for a Second Life wedding?
I kid. I kid...
Send out an iPad as your invitation. There's an app for that!
Grow up, you're getting married.
You can't go wrong by wearing a whole body wookie costume! Nothing else needed!
If you're the one sending out the invitations then snailmail is fine sure, it does add a quaint touch if that's what you care about. But to expect everyone to snailmail back their responses when there are far more sensible options available is just bizarre when we have much more efficient communications methods available.
If I was the one doing the inviting I'd have no problem putting effort in - you can still do that even online. One guy here said that he made a site for people to reply on and specify their food preferences. It would take a lot more than just a minute to design and build if you actually put some effort into the aesthetics, though obviously it would waste a whole lot less time than making physical cards. It makes responding really simple and instantaneous for the invitees, which people no doubt would appreciate.
which is totally what she said
"You are invited to my wedding if you can find the coordinates of the church" :)
Its also a selection process
Mike Tarantino and Karen Sandler made and sent a paper record and player, with a song they'd recorded.
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/04/15/133206/Couple-Sends-Record-Player-Wedding-Invitations
Accept that a wedding is for her and about her. Ask her what she wants and give it to her.
"Don't worry about it, your wife will (thankfully) veto this (stupid) idea."
"Hey Moron, Seek advice from your wife-to-be!"
etc
The submitter's name was Qa2. Nothing in the post says if its a man or a woman (even their email address only gives the initial of their given name).
You could say, sure, but this is /. 90% chance its a guy. But then there's the other aspect of those comments - they also assume that his fiancée is not a geek.
Would that really be so strange?
-B
i'm doing my wedding in 5 months and using these guys www.indianweddingcard.com. There are some scrolls that you can use that dont look so indian and they're cheap.
in terms of techiness, i'm having everyone sending their rsvp through email rather than through a regular postal service, and everyone seems to really love that. For those that dont use email I'v put down my fiances phone nmber and mine as well. It gives the invitation process a more intimate touch. for example, at the bottom of the invite i've put
email xxx@xxx.com with your rsvp
or call
xxx at ###-###-####
xxx at ###-###-####
i've also created a google site linked to picasa, had an email address linked to picasa to allow my guests to email their images to the site and share their picctures with one another in one spot rather than have pictures spread across facebook.you'll need another email address to forward to the picasaemail address to make this work
having them email invitations also allows you to create a spreadsheet of all their emails and then blast out an email to everyone if any of the plans change or for whatever reason
"It would take a lot more than just a minute to design and build if you actually put some effort into the aesthetics, though obviously it would waste a whole lot less time than making physical cards."
Well thats debatable. I could get some physical cards made from the shop in my high street in about an hour.
"It makes responding really simple and instantaneous for the invitees"
Perhaps you don't have elderly relatives but some of mine don't even own a computer, much less know how to navigate around a web site. People such as yourself really need to stop assuming that everyone is online.
How about getting some small flash drives (should be able to get 256mb for under $5 each) and recording a video of you and your fiance inviting someone to the wedding, along with a calendar event that can be imported into outlook, a link to where you are registered at and maybe some photos if you two did the whole "engagement photo thing".
Translate your invitation into ASCII, then transcode it into base 4. Interpret the base4 as DNA bases, and have the message synthesised into a DNA oligo. Splice the oligo into the flu virus, inhale, and sneeze your invitation on your future parents in law. Track the spread of your invitation through your family, friends, and the population at large.
Korma: Good
Send the invitations on floppy disk, no one in the "current" world would know what to do with it.
-NN
For mine, I did each invitation as a mounted photograph. Each photograph had the name of the people being invited photoshopped in. It was done in a way to make it reasonably easy to produce lots of invites but with each looking very individual to that person. Many people commented and apprieciated having a personal invitation rather then a pre-printed card with their name added in biro.
Geeky (photoshop, digital print) but not in a way that confuses the non-techie.
Hope that helps,
Bob.
Hey, here's an idea: Kill yourself you goony-ass motherfucker. Go back to the Penny Arcade forums this website is for IT pros, not limp-wristed ham heads like you. Dirtbags like your dumb ass are what give good tech workers a bad name. You're trying to be different but you're exactly like every asshole who thinks he's way smarter than everyone else and has to show it off constantly. You make me sick.
sudo apt-get install wife?
Survey monkey is perfect.
A friend of a friend recently used it for her wedding. She included the question :
'Does anyone have a size 10 wedding dress that I can borrow'
spend the money you save on more/better champagne for your guests.
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
That'd certainly give them something to remember!
DO IT!
There are tons of places that sell custom Flash Drives. Why not but custom business card style flash drives - which has a photo of the bride and groom, and the words "Save the date". The recipient inserts the drive, which has the remaining details for the wedding - including links to your Facebook Event Page, etc... Congrats!
-- Before the wedding --
Lenticular printing: allows a small number of frames of animation or different images. 4x4 inches can be had for ~$1.20 per sticker, custom, quantity 50 minimum order. Can also be used with two alternating images to achieve 3D using parallax differences in eye location. Basically, it's a plastic lens bonded to an image layer with an adhesive backing on the image.
Include a neon novelty lapel button with a little pink bride or blue groom (or groom and groom or bride and bride, if that's your thing) for them to weare; reduces strain on your ushers, LEDs are everywhere, but I'm talking actual real neon lights on about 2 inch diameter black background buttons. Such things typically go for ~$6 a piece (12 if they are friends and you include both figures); also qty 100.
USB business card flash drive; I'd recommend it being glued to the invitation, but you could also just have it printed with a picture of the two of you together and a "You're invited! Plug me in!" caption, or something like that.
Use an LED logo projector keychain; repurpose it to put up a URL instead.
8-bit wedding invitations (Achievement unlocked!)
Not tech-geeky, but look up "cootie catcher invitation".
--At the wedding--
Wine glass ID badge lanyards (except they hold wine glasses instead of ID badges).
Disposable cameras for the wedding. Cheap for $3.49 each with custom paper sleeves (including photos of you, or whatever). You should probably include regular invitations with these, or only pass them out at the wedding.
Custom superhero action figures for the wedding cake.
Google "star wars ice cube tray"; trust me, you'll be happy you did. They also work for chocolate (think "carbonite"...).
--After the wedding--
How about an after the wedding gift, instead? There are plenty of places that will let you take some number of wedding photos of your choice, and turn them into outline drawings and bind them up into coloring book form; send them with a small box of crayons.
-- Terry
The domain for the wedding website was purchased before the ring.
I bought the "my name and her name".com domain 6 months ago and will be buying the ring next month
What? I didn't want some other couple taking the domain
Well you could get pre-made cards, but if you're going to the effort of making cards, why aren't you also customising them? The last invitation I received was hand made. The only reply option was a phone number, so I just texted the groom and he said that he'd pass on the response.
Well, all my relatives have email, even my 80 year old grandpa. My great aunts and uncles on the other side too. Anyone that I'd be inviting to a wedding has internet access. If there were anyone who didn't, of course snailmail invitations would be made. That's no reason to use the lowest common denominator for everyone.
which is totally what she said
So what's wrong with options?
I agree that sending out cards is certainly appropriate and proper, as is including rsvp cards. HOWEVER: Also including a URL, email address, or social media method of response is certainly appropriate. That allows your guests the maximum number of response paths, and lets them choose which one they are most comfortable with using. It shows thoughtfulness for your guests, and puts the onus for the extra labor on yourself, thus showing that your guests are worth the effort.
Also, to the original question writer, if you are the guy, remember that if you want to do something special and cool for the invitations:
A) Respect your fiance's wishes. If she doesn't like the idea, DROP IT.
B) If she does like the idea, OWN IT. Ensure that you take complete responsibility for compiling the guest list, gathering the snail mail addresses, packaging and sending the invitations, and collecting and collating the responses. Don't shut her out, of course, but take the lead in getting your cool idea done. Trust me, she has more than enough to do to get ready for the wedding, taking one of the most tedious and boring jobs off her plate will be greatly appreciated.
If you are the girl, well then I guess the same general rules apply, but be aware that you will be making lots more work for yourself, unless your man is majorly into handling some other aspect of the wedding, or you guys are taking a more egalitarian approach to the wedding than most western folks do.
Regardless, Congratulations and I wish you both all the best in your future life together. Also, always remember; True Love isn't something we are "in" as though it were a trap to fall into. True Love is a conscious choice we make every day to set our partner's needs ahead of our wants. As long as both partners do that every day, a solid marriage follows. Good luck you two!
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
Imagine a traditional-type, embossed script gilt-edged invitation on heavy card, but created using an HP DesignJet?
This sig left unintentionally blank.
Paper record player.
http://kellianderson.com/blog/2011/04/a-paper-record-player/
Something you design yourselves (as a couple) would be very cool, if one of you paints, you could collaborate on a painting - if the wedding is sensibly small you could even hand-paint each invitation, if one of you has the skills to do a pop-up folded paper design, that could be cool too - and both of you could collaborate on what it will look like.
If you're both maniacal pyromaniacs, you might add conductive ink and a fairly strong battery to the card design to start a small fire upon opening, how to fit that into the theme of everlasting love is up to you.
What a cool idea... but someone already beat me to the punch :(
http://greenweddingshoes.com/a-modern-glam-wedding-inspired-by-tron/
Needs more light-strips.
Before trying anything, two questions:
First, is your soon-to-be-significant-other going to agree and feel comfortable with your idea? Remember that the wedding isn't about yourself, it's about you and your partner. If your wife is also geeky, fine. Go nuts. If not, I don't think your partner will feel comfortable with your idea, and I don't think the wedding will go well without both of you being comfortable.
Second, is your wedding guests be comfortable with your geeky invitation? When I got married, we had a fairly wide range of demographic ranging from 3 year olds to 80 year olds. There were people like my grandma who doesn't even own a cellphone, let alone a PC. My mom still doesn't know how to load new MP3s on her MP3 player, so I have to do that for her every couple of months. Anything with a URL or a QR code would be completely useless to people like them.
Well, what I did was printed out a bunch of invitation cards with the usual stuff, and added a URL with a hand-crafted webpage with a separate domain name specifically for the wedding. Maybe not so geeky, but I used my geek skills to impress my wife and the other non-tech-savvy people.
Weddings are irrational.
1. Congrats.
2. Start off on the right foot - ask your soon-to-be-spouse what they want. Don't screw this up.
2a. Think about your parents and your partner's parents. Not saying that you should weakly submit to everything they desire - but if you do it right this is family for a long time. And there is a difference between the family you're born with and the family you choose.
3. Invitations are a key part of the whole day. People often keep one as a remembrance (both guests and, more importantly, participants). Tech can date really quickly, but you could well be looking at the invitation along with your wedding photo album on your tenth or 15th anniversary.
I've deliberately tried to not assume too much so far. From your submission I'm not sure if you're male or female, and I also know that what worked for me and my wife might be totally foreign from what the two of you want. See point #1. If both of you want this, that's a good start.
A thought - the invitations have a very strong emotional meaning for many people, and making them non-traditional might not go over too well. What about indulging your geek side with something to hand out at the reception? People often have a disposable camera laid out at every table so their friends can take pictures. Maybe you can have your techie "thing" be a giveaway at the reception.
Parting thought. I don't know you, and this might be an ideal thing for both you and your partner. Be sure it is. If both of you are really excited by it, then there are a number of ideas on this thread and you should have fun. (Unless one of the parents says "over my dead body". See point #2a. Sometimes picking a battle just isn't worth it.)
Enjoy your day, and the rest of your lives together. Sincerely.
How about having an invitation done up in e-ink like that magazine ad? A coin cell and voila!
Or do what I did for a geek friend's wedding card - instead of calling it a wedding, call it your 0th anniversary.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
darnit, that 'one' was supposed to be 'on'.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Emboss the card with a QR code. Leave it with no ink on the outside but inside is the printed code with a logo http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-code/ Use metallic conducting ink and a real tiny Arduino or maybe just a simple circuit, using the conducting ink and make part of the inside of the invitation a speaker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1F5Gg4bG3o playing the wedding march with words. http://www.oracleband.net/Articles/wedding-march.htm
It all starts at 0
I had all sorts of ideas for my wedding. All of them shot down but for one- bought a gutted pink imac case, put plexi in where the CRT was. Cut a slot in the top middle of the plexi, and attached a printed OS X screenshot to it. That was the gift card box.
I wasn't permitted to DJ or do lighting or do video. Not even robotically or phone-controlled. It might have different if I was paying for it...
We had videogame music picked for the cocktail hour. If they even played it, I don't think it was loud enough for anyone to hear.
The videographer didn't give us the raw unedited files after...
The photographer didn't give us the raw files after...
We paid for "uplighting" when I have a closet full of pro lighting gear.
Sigh.
Hope you get to have some fun with yours at least!
Twenty years ago I sent mine with Address, date and hour in binary. Who really matter, knows how to decode.
I hate going to weddings and getting lost trying to find the exact address. I would love for people to write down the lat/long of the occasion. You can even make it more high tech by entering the lat/long in qrcode to google earth.
You should rather leave things to your spouse and her family, unless of course you *are* the bride, in which case, go ahead sweetheart, do whatever you want.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
AOL CDs
In my humble opinion is to replace "tech" and "geek" in your idea of a wedding with "love" and "heart". That's what I believe a wedding should be about.
So maybe you like to code... How about some minimalism? Why not leave the bloat out of your weddding. Forget about thematics, and just don't include the nightmare library so you don't actually have to worry about which way you are going to fold your napkins.
So you like electronics... Maybe you could make your own version of a blinkenlights wall or print some miscellaneous objects with your 3d printer so you can give each guest an object and then match dance partners togheter by calling your phone's random function to match objects? But whatever project you chose, just don't let it take too much time and focus out of the important stuff: having fun spending some time with your lover.
So maybe you like to design UIs and open source and freedom... Why not leave the glitters and the cornflower blue obssessions out of your weddding... Just find a pleasant palette to work from and don't go nuts about it. Forcing bride maid's to dye their italian leather shoes and guests to wear very specific and/or particularly hard to find garments is about anything but freedom. Let your guests decide what to wear, what gift to bring, in short let them be themselves, let them bring their own little color to the canvas of your event.
So maybe you like the environnement and the planet... Know that most orchids people use in their weddings are imported. Why not keep your carbon credits for an actual wedding trip instead of spending them on flowers. Spend an afternoon in the big blue room with your soon-to-be wife and gather some wild flowers together. If you do things simply, you will not need to worry about not having time to do this.
Just my 2 cents. Maybe you won't get instant success from following this guide, but at the end of the day you might very well end up saying "this was the best day of my life" without having to force a wry smile on your face... :)
You want non-techies to go all "That's so cool..." over your cheesed up "techie" wedding.
[awkward silence]
That's just sad.
I send everything online.
But I craft very nice pictures, or picture albums and personalize the message to each of the most important people to me.
If what matters is the care that you put to make it personal, online can do perfectly.
If you are a woman you can do whatever you want.
If you are a man then you do what the woman wants.
These above rules apply for Heterosexual marriages.
Same sex marriages it gets more complicated and you probably will need to compromise (gasp!!).
However in no point in your article does it say what your soon to be better half wants. If you are a woman who is marrying a mad, that is fine, if not you have made a serious mistake on Slashdot (Unless you and your partner really want this (beware of sarcasm from your partner, or just trying to get you to shut up)).
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Western Union Telegram
Just take your and her parents, two witnesses, pick a nice spot, get married, have dinner and go home.
Put the thousands of $$$s you saved towards a mortgage. Spending it on a wedding is like setting money on fire.
And we are social creatures.
But I guess having to explain this to a nerd kind of makes my point anyway.
If you're getting married and want your friends and family to come I don't think its asking too much to use a phone, get a pen out or even get proper invitations created that you send by snailmail. Doing it online is all very well but just like email xmas cards , it really sends out a kind of "meh , whatever" message - that you couldn't really be bothered to make much effort and 1 minute in front of a PC is all your F & F are worth.
I didn't want anyone at my wedding who would judge me by the expense/effort/medium of the invite. I wanted them to witness the ceremony in person, not sit at home in awe of the engraved printing, vellum stock and hand-calligraphy address.
Of course, none of this matters anyway, you just let the girl do it, she's spent her whole life preparing for this anyway.
I am not a crackpot.
We did have traditional handmade (by us) cards (the cardboard kind) and set up a protected (more or less) website following the design of the cards with extra information and feedback options.
Many of the older folks never visited it, but it helped tremendously with questions like where to park, how to get to the church and restaurant, suggestions for presents, exchanging pictures and much more.
Making your invite all about being geeky sends the message "my obsession with gadgets is more important than my spouse-to-be". There's a time and a place for everything. Here, you should be celebrating the union to two people who love each other. Anything that doesn't directly support that goal is off topic and most likely to leave a bad taste in the mouths of most of your guests.
Write the invitation on the Moon with a high powered particle beam.
A dose of supervillainy is the perfect start to any marriage.
So the premise should be to keep things simple.
A geek should know this: the higher the complexity of a task the higher the probability of something going wrong.
You'll have plenty of chances to use your geekness to good effect in years to come, and there is a very well oiled weeding industry out there that will get things done in a way that nobody regrets, and with a bit of luck, everybody remembers fondly.
Your wedding is not the time to be doing alpha versions of anything...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Send out (physical and/or digital) invites in a traditional format, (i.e. Ivory parchment with gold inlay border, etc..), but only print a large QR Code and underneath it a long alphanumeric key.
Have the QR Code direct them to a custom website URL which is a blank white page with a text field in the center asking for a key.
When they enter and submit the key, if valid, the page dissolves into the actual wedding invitation with necessary details.
You could even customize the individual keys to identify the recipient and customize the displayed invitation and also use the same ID to RSVP.
Make something to do with space.
James May recently released a balloon that almost made is into space. How about painting the words on the chute and let the gf watch and wait 'till the balloon bursts and the chute comes up?
Or, write a Nazca message to be seen from space. Arrange a way to let the gf watch and experience. You probably need a bulldozer and huge amounts of time. The results should be good and pretty much permanent until long after the relationship will end.
And btw, congrats!!
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
No true techie knows any women, let alone goes on dates and gets married.
My wife and I couldn't find any invitations we liked .. so we designed our own (working together, on a lot of company time/resources) and laid the whole thing out in Illustrator so the invite, RSVP, table number cards, etc. would fit on 8.5x14 paper. Worked with the printer to see what he needed, and did the color separations and saved them as individual postscript files .. looked at a Pantone book to get the right colors.
The printer was a local union shop right across the street and was able to do thermography (raised lettering basically). We also custom printed (work, color laser) all the envelopes.
We both work in IT, so when our guests asked where we got the invites and we told them how they came to be, they were sufficiently impressed.
They also didn't weird out grandma. Total cost was $260 including envelopes for ~130 of them, btw.
You mis-spelled 'Tacky'. You're welcome.
Now this one just cracked me up. Less impressive, much more geeky:
Comprehensive solutions via a competition of ideas like no other.
If you have any close friends or family members who can't attend, I'd recommend working out a way to broadcast the wedding over the Internet so they can see it.
Assuming you are digitally recording it anyway, this may not be too difficult, and they don't have to wait for a DVD or image file of it later. They can still get a sense of being there.
Perhaps doing something similar for any reception as well.
I'd test the equipment and setups at their end prior to the big day to make sure they didn't have any little browser issues or sw or connectivity issues interfering, so there wouldn't be unpleasant surprises if they couldn't get through.
-- Sam
White, flat USB drives with your initials inside a heart printed on the side.
The USB drive carries a dreadfully effective self-executing malware program that will transform an individual's computer into a monument to your eternal love. So, you know, they save the date and everything.
Make sure "Invitation to follow" is streaming across the bottom of the screen in red-and-black tickertape.
you could use a high power Laser to sign your names on the cards or boards you are useing. QR code to a Direct video of you two doing a Robot dance to some Futurama Techno music.
1) Include some XKCD style cartooning. What would Randall draw?
2) Make the envelope self opening: you cut a notch in the envelope on one end (like just below the postage stamp), exposing the inside invitation with a label "Pull here". On that end of the invitation, you also chamfer the corners BSG style. On the other end of the envelope, you cut a notch in the inside invitation, and above that notch, you draw a thumbprint on the envelope with the label "Press here". So, when you pull one end while pressing the other end, the invitation C-sections itself out of the envelope.
I know someone who made up a bunch of clear plastic or acrylic name "cards" for the guests, to set at their tables, using like a laser-etching machine or something. The clear name cards were inserted into a small base that had an LED, so that you could turn on the base, and the guest's name sort of glowed. You could also potentially etch some sort of artwork or decorative border.
Things that are nice about that:
*everyone can appreciate "Oh, pretty"
*Not terribly expensive or time consuming
*People can take them home as keepsakes.
*Doesn't put any requirement on the guest (e.g. knowing how to scan a QR Code with their phone, etc)
*Not "too geeky"
I'm a newlywed geek, so I'll comment on this one.
There are conventions around invitations that cue the guests to how formal the wedding is. You need to research and make sure whatever you do is within those conventions. Look at Emily Post for information on the conventions, then look at Etsy for some creative ideas.
Your guests need to know how much they will spend on clothes and gifts, and how much time they will be taking out for this occasion. I've seen a lot recently on different websites that show some fun, creative ways for the couple to be original; however, if you want your guests to be comfortable, you need to stick to a certain level of "sameness." I think where you can play around is with font and to some extent wording - just make sure not to get too cutesy with indicating the time and location.
If you have older people coming to your wedding, they are probably not going to understand what the hell a QR code is, or get any kind of gadgetry you send out. Heck, my father in law just learned how to use his DVD player. You really have to find a way to add your personal twist within the confines of the traditions.
Also, it is a formal event, no matter how small the wedding. It is not a birthday party. Whatever you do needs to have a level of taste that is appropriate for a wedding, no matter how "fun" you plan to make your day.
Do not assume people will look at any other communication you send out other than the invitation. I sent out tons of information and personally told people very clearly what was expected, and yet still I had my musicians go to the wrong location for the rehearsal dinner and no one lined up for the procession at the right time. People save the invitation and use it to know where to go and when, and if you don't do that well, you may have a super cute invitation but your guests may not come to the wedding at the right time.
If everyone you know knows you are a techie, then go the other way. Find someone that knows how to do calligraphy and have them hand write all of you invitations on parchment made using ancient techniques. Then have them delivered by carrier pigeon (OK, maybe not pigeons but the US mail is only one step up). You will surprise everyone...
Just have a nice wedding. Really. Have you seen how lame the super weddings look a few years later? I'll bet Avatar isn't nearly as popular in 25 years when you're looking at the scrapbooks with the grown up kids. :)
Rent a tux or a nice suit and just this time, be normal.
There's no app for that? In your face Steve Jobs!
Havoc Video
1 - buy a Fuji W3 which is a 3D camera
2 - download the free Stereo Photo Maker http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/ to edit the pictures
3 - Make a 3D Viewmaster at http://www.image3d.com/stereo/
note there are ways of using an existing camera, or even a Nintendo 3DS to take 3D pictures, but the W3 is the simplest, and it could be used at the actual wedding.
put MORe effort into the Marriage, LESS into the wedding. People who married when i did, but concentrated on the wedding are all already divorced. Those of us with less ostentatious weddings, who really did concentrate on th marriage, are still married.
Then say "yes dear".
Make a postcard invitation that is nothing but a QR code. That code will be a URL for a website with an invitation video. After you set up the website and video, send out the postcards. When the 10% of the people with the awareness to scan the code reach your website, they'll find "You are cordially invited to: This video has been removed for copyright violations." Turns out Wagner is still copyrighted in Elbonia.
After one month without a single response, your fiancee will send out traditional invitations and say, "I told you so." You will respond, "I'm sorry. You were right," and you will have learned the first secret of marital bliss.
I thought these were the coolest invites I've ever seen... http://kellianderson.com/blog/2011/04/a-paper-record-player/
It's sorta sad to see how a few generations really changed weddings. Although it's not really fair to generalize, historically, weddings were not at all about the bride or groom, in most cultures, it used to be about the parents and the extended family. The families are celebrating (or at least memorializing), you joining with another family and passing in another stage of your live, not necessarily celebrating your love for each other (although of course hoping for your happiness).
The notion of romantic love with a soulmate is really more of a recent addition to this mix, as is the notion that the party is somehow for the bride (or groom, I've seen that too). I doubt the enduring little girl "fantasy" wedding is really too much about some sort of unusual narcissitic behavior than it just a pretend-grown-up play activity (like I want to be an astronaut when I grow up, or even I want go grow up and get married like _fill_in_the_blank_role_model_ and move out of the house someday)... However, if a child somehow find her or himself in a situation that was related to some childhood pretend-grown-up play activity that was enjoyable, I'm sure many folks would find it amost irresitable to revert a bit to being a child even if they weren't the narcissistic type.
As for me, my wife and I would have probably just done the courthouse thing if it we didn't care at all about our parents feelings or our culture. As it happened, we sucked it up and threw a big wedding to let our parents enjoy inviting people and paying back all the wedding invitations they got from their friends over the year. I really wasn't about us at all, but it was still an important day about us remembering and honoring our culture and our parents.
Our invitations were milled on my CNC with a 4mm ball-end mill, into 2mm thick aluminum, and individually wrapped in copper foil. People told us the invitations were too beautiful to open -- and since we used thin copper foil and thin aluminum, they only cost about $0.75 each to mail. I wrote the invite in Inkscape with the hersheytext plugin, using one of the one-stroke fonts (which are optimized for engraving) and used the gcode extension of inkscape to convert this to the gcode that EMC2 on the mill reads. It took some work tramming the mill to get it flat, since engraving this shallowly means you need the bed and the spindle dead perpendicular and the bed moving dead flat, so I put a big thick hunk of aluminum on the bed and milled in a recess into which each invitation plate fit, with the bottom milled dead flat, to hold it level. I added a vacuum hold-down by milling/drilling some holes in the bed under the invitation plates, that went to a lawn sprinkler solenoid that attached to the vacuum pump (the compressor pump from a refrigerator.) The solenoid was controlled by EMC2 with one of the digital output codes.
The upshot was that I'd put a piece of metal in, hit 'play', and walk off. It would cut in fifteen minutes, and move the spindle off to one side and turn it off, and I'd wander in and swap out another piece of metal. It took about a week of running, but only maybe an hour of my time because I was just swapping out finished pieces.
The trickiest and most dangerous part was cutting the aluminum plates to size. I bought a 4x8foot sheet of aluminum, and lacking anything that could cut that safely, I ended up using an old trashed carbide blade on my tablesaw. It was the loudest sound I think I've ever heard, but it was pretty accurate. Wear every bit of protective gear that you have if you try this.
Unfortunately I was in a horrible hurry to get everything done so I haven't gotten any good pictures uploaded, but here is a picture of what text enscribed in powder-coated aluminum looks like. We used an italic font and I didn't cut as deeply for the invitations (and it was bare aluminum) so I think they looked a lot nicer.
Oh and I got my mom to handwrite all the addresses because she's excellent at calligraphy.
Now, it's likely you don't *have* a cnc but there are scads of places who will do this sort of work for you and since it's two-dimensional and fast it comes out being pretty cheap if you farm it out to a local machine shop. But there is a lot of pleasure in doing it yourself.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Make it a puzzle!
Over a period of weeks send letters/small packages to each person with subtle clues that there will be a wedding with these certain people at this certain time and this certain place. Use everything from drawings that use obscure in-jokes and metaphors, to little refrigerator magnets on small pieces of steel that spell out a hint as to how to re-arrange them to get the real message, to little circuit boards where you have to toggle in the right binary (which was hinted at in a previous letter) to get the message to be sent out via a single led and morse code. If you are good at web development, turn the whole thing into some kind of "I love bees" confection.
Okay, no -- seriously.
There are at least three times in life where you really do need to adult up and act the way society expects you to:
1) Marriage -- Just send out normal pretty invitations, everyone already knows how those work. This isn't about how clever you are and to a lot of people marriage still is a religious service.
2) Death of someone close (Mum, Dad, Spouse, etc.) -- You really are expected to say a few kind words, help carry the coffin and talk to visitors. It doesn't really matter what you'd rather be doing or how wonderfully Atheistic/Aspergers you are, buck up and row, you don't get many chances to do this right.
3) Naming kids -- This really shouldn't be a time to show how clever or cool you are (especially if you are plain white with no real ethnic background), give them nice, neutral, hard to Google names that won't emotionally damage them or make people think you are a DB or illiterate.
-- And yes, please do get off my lawn :-)
-- I browse at +5 with stripped sigs
Stop trying to be a hipster. Send the invites by snail mail and email.
How about a Propellerclock http://youtu.be/l4F8UbM-1t4 /message fan http://youtu.be/XPFI0iCWGvI type invitation. Make a long PCB and space LEDs on it. There is an optical encoder with a handle is on the other end. The PCB has microcontroller on it that will flash the LEDs as the PCB is spun on the handle. Program it to display your invitation. I believe these can be purchased preprogrammed.
Really, if you're going for hacker, the invitation shouldn't just do something. Recipients should be able to do something with the invitation. Check out the Defcon Ninja Party invitations:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/defcon-ninja-badge/
Weddings mean different things to different people. For the invitation, I'd suggest giving a nod to the geek world, but not let it take over unless everybody you're inviting would get it (Aunt Gertie, Uncle Joe, etc..) Otherwise, some of your invitees might feel out of place before they even show up. You could show off your tech side with a little more abandon at the reception, and I don't think it would be quite so alarming. (Techie centerpieces or take-aways for the guests.)
I'd suggest something like trenslating the invitation or some other meaningful text (maybe the words to "your song") into binary and use that pattern as a border for an otherwise standard invitation. You could design it out of solid boxes for zeros and boxes with dots for the ones. It would probably work well with some sort of arts & crafts era font. Shrink it to where it's legible, but not garish. Your geek friends and relations would think it was cool, and, if they noticed it, your technologically challenged freinds and relations would be reminded of why you're the geek they can stand to be around, since you understand balancing social norms with personal expression and flair.
And, when things get stressful between now and the big day, just remember: the success of the wedding pales by comparison to the success of the marriage.
I would consider who you're trying to impress. If you're a techie trying to impress non-techies, then do something like the QR code with a neat link or text and embed a nice little picture inside. If you're trying to impress other geeks, I would recommend going decidedly non-techie. Perhaps take the classiness factor above and beyond the norm.
Doing it online is all very well but just like email xmas cards , it really sends out a kind of "meh , whatever" message - that you couldn't really be bothered to make much effort and 1 minute in front of a PC is all your F & F are worth.
Depends on your group of people / friends / family. In my particular group, giving a real card is a sign that you're an outsider who hasn't been around us long enough to know that we all hate the damn things. When you do the effort the buy a real card and mail it, you're not just doing the effort to show your friends what they are worth: you're also now requiring them to spend their valuable time sending you a thank you note via a similar medium. That's pretty evil, and it sends the message you don't value their time.
Right, most people don't feel that way. My point is that, as always, be aware of your audience.
You still have time to get out. Don't throw away the rest of your life.
No sooner do I get over one, then you put a better one right next to me. Bastards.
how about a piece of paper with writing on it describing when and where the event will take place?
Create a FB community for your wedding and invite everybody on that.
...Free Beer (as in beer)
I drank what? -- Socrates
Seems the comments in this topic are all over the place. Only a small portion that I read are about interesting ideas, and a large chunk are 'OMG, you can't be geeky, your wife will hate it, and you have to lose all your geekiness after marriage'.
Just... wow. Sounds like a large number of people have either hooked up with, or been biased from being hooked up with someone completely wrong for them.
I don't know how much this will get read, since I have to post anonymous at work, but here's my take:
1. I liked all kinds of nerdy stuff before I got married. After I got married... my tastes and hobbies didn't change even slightly (aside from maybe incorporating some of my wife's hobbies to create some frankenhobbies of the two).
2. My wife is not nerdy or geeky. However, she knew I was who I was when we met, fell in love with me, and hasn't tried to 'change' me. I have no clue what kind of women have this fixation of 'fixing' men they go out with, or if that's just an old wive's tale, but I hope I never meet any of them.
3. It's not like we need to be staring at eachother 24/7 here. If I'm doing something she's not interested in (say, geocaching or creating my webcomic), she will do something that she enjoys in the meantime (say, watching romantic comedy movies, or just reading or going out clothes shopping with her girl friends, etc).
On to the topic at hand. For our wedding, I wanted to throw in SOME pseudo-nerdiness, but generally didn't go all out on it. I did however put GPS coordinates to both the church and the reception hall on the invitations. I'm not sure how many people noticed it, but it amused me nonetheless. I also managed to find a geocache ON my wedding day, early in the morning before I had to get dressed in the tux. Pics of the wedding are attached to the geocache log online. Generally, the nerdiness was kept low-key, but that's how I wanted it. If I wanted to be more nerdy, we could have worked it in.
That said... assuming your soon-to-be-wife loves you, and fell in love with you, she won't WANT you to stop being a techie. And as others have said, this day is for YOU and HER, NOT for your guests, as much as they may believe it. They're getting a free dinner out of it, they can suck it up. Or not show up, either one is fine. Do your techie things for the wedding if you want. If you can find plates patterned to look like circuit boards, go for it. The QR code that others have mentioned, awesome. Coordinates (I'd still suggest this... it was low key and fun), put it in.
BIG SUGGESTION: The greatest idea I came up with for my wedding, that I suggest to EVERYONE getting married (unfortunately, everyone I suggested it to either forgot or didn't bother), is to get a voice recorder, drop it into your inner breast pocket turned on RIGHT from the start of the day (I started mine when we were starting to line up to walk down the aisle... wish I would have had it on in the morning too). Every hour or so, I stopped and started the recording again, just to break it up into more manageable files.
The day WILL fly by ridiculously quickly, and after the fact there will be much of it that you don't remember because everything happens so fast. My wife and I listened to the recording about a year later and relived a lot of the memories we had forgotten. Random, funny conversations driving from place to place, during the picture-taking, my best man's speech, our wedding vows, and all of the amusing little things that happened through the day (such as my wife saying "where the HELL did dad go?!?" right before walking down the aisle, since he stepped away to see to someone just arriving). We got to relive ALL of it. Seriously... best idea ever. You will NOT regret doing this. As an added bonus, you can use the part where you're both saying your vows, and make a slideshow of the day to that and send it to relatives. They eat that kinda stuff up.
So again... massive suggestion on the voice recorder. If you have a photographer or videographer, they can only get so much. The recorder gets everything, at least the audio portion... but that's enough for us to bring back memories of being there at that time.
Probably too expensive to do for a wedding invitation...but here's how I used my creative geeky-ness to propose (it's a "propeller clock display" that I designed and built) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU5V3NkOQ3c
(Insert joke about Slashdotters and girls here. I'm lazy today.)
Once I saw an awesome invitation that was an 8-bit video game. The groom was a programmer and made a short game with a few levels and sent disks out to each guest. The characters in the story were the bride and groom. After you finished the game all of the wedding details are displayed on the screen. For the older guests, maybe including a card that also says the information would be a good idea.
Come up with a cool design and get it printed using a 3D printer in white plastic. Could be very high tech and classy. No idea on the cost.
Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
Pick your favorite, and get a sixer of that for preceremony. For everybody else, get cases of some nasty overhopped microbrew.
Have a link include to interpret the binary for those non-techies, and for those who get it, have a grand old time.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Traditional will speak more to your maturity than trying to overly-complicate the invitation. Any crap you put into the invitation process is a barrier to people actually getting the information they need to attend. QRCodes? You're going to make grandma feel alienated by your invitation and the damn event is supposed to bring people together.
If you want to go technology in your wedding aesthetic, go with capacitor napkin rings. Go with stuff people can just look at and appreciate on some level. Don't make understanding it a requirement for participation.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Hi there! We're a tech startup and we're working on an AWESOME product that would be right up your alley. We're launching very soon, and would love to have a real-world user or two before then. Please contact us at susanne@appycouple.com!
Susanne
http://pics.blameitonthevoices.com/102011/men_venn_diagram.jpg
Send a Makerbot instructions file to build the bride and groom as figures for a table decoration, similar to the "cake topper" type. Use a 3D modelling software that will allow you to do a display they can view online, and video a build of the actual Makerbot created cake topper of the Bride and Groom for the invitation itself.
One thing that we used and have seen a lot is a save-the-date card before the invitation. This can be a lot more informal. You just need to have the date set, no other details. The best format is a magnet with a picture of the couple and the date. Years later I have seen ours still on the fridge of many of our guests. If your wedding is going to be a traditional family and family-friends affair then sorry, I don't think it's a good place to go crazy with tech. But if that's not the case then go crazy. We were mostly traditional but threw in some subtle geeky details to the reception by hanging 1000 paper cranes and doing our first dance to "1000 Words" from Final Fantasy X-2.
"if you are the guy"??????
Dude, this is slashdot. The odds on the poster NOT being the guy are incredibly small. Then, again, this is slashdot. The odds on any reader here actually getting married are incredibly small.
Do everything traditionally, except write the location of the ceremony in WGS 84 co-ordinates.
In this day and age, marriage (as defined by law) is an out-dated institution. What other legal contract do you know that can be uni-laterally broken, and after doing so, you are forced to give up 1/2 of what you own, plus subject to payments the rest of your life?
I'd recommend a simple, non-legal "promise" ceremony. No marriage.
10 print "Yes, dear. You're right, dear"
20 goto 10
But seriously, I think the number of marriages is proportional to how techie the invites get. From my wholly unscientific anecdotal data amongst acquaintances:
First marriage: Paper invites.
Second marriage: Evite.
Third marriage: Facebook event invite.
Fourth marriage: Facebook status update.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
QR code with the invite in binary... maybe even include a punchcard.
The best answer to this question is just do whatever your future wife wants done.
Create the invitation and publish it as a Gopher link in text and image format.
Depends on your group of people / friends / family. In my particular group, giving a real card is a sign that you're an outsider who hasn't been around us long enough to know that we all hate the damn things.
Wow. Did an invitation card routinely bully you and steal your lunch money in your childhood?
Yeah. There are vastly more convenient ways to do things nowadays. But your tweet won't go into a keepsake box and be treasured by your widow in 30 years.
When you do the effort the buy a real card and mail it, you're not just doing the effort to show your friends what they are worth: you're also now requiring them to spend their valuable time sending you a thank you note via a similar medium.
Is that your perception? Maybe based on your particular circle, but in my circumstances, I don't especially demand or even expect any particular reciprocity, and I make a point of emphasizing the lack of obligation. Send a hand-written thank-you note, and I'll appreciate it. Send a tweet, and I won't get it. (Cuz I don't do twitter). Send an email, and I'll appreciate it. Pick up the phone and call for 45 seconds, and I'll appreciate it. Hell, blow it off, and I really won't get bent out of shape.
But, whatever, YMMV. I'm just saying that it's not supposed to be an Illuminati conspiracy of spiraling mutual obligation. It's just people who like and respect each other liking and respecting each other,.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Get
Married
Period
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
Next, you'll be asking for a robot design to "take care" of your wife for you on the wedding night. Take a day off from geekdom.
Send them a card.
Email them a cipher.
Those that can figure it out get to go.
1) You will only get people who are awesome
2) You will only get people who actually really care
3) You will probably save a bundle!
4) If none are returned, elope somewhere tropical and have fun!
Created a CD ROM as our invitation that contained a video (link below), link to the online registration website and directions. This was in 2003
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJXfqj95Mrw
When they open the card, a miniature home-built laser etches the time/date of your wedding into their eyes so that they will forever see and remember the day that you were to be married.
Presumably the aesthetics committee (which is often the exact same membership as the finance committee) agrees with this geeky thing.
Thank you Sir! I am the "guy" and the girl basically said.. do whatever and "I'll approve it" :)
Write your own iPhone app that acts as a calendar of events, links to the bridal registry, provides a map to the wedding and reception, allows users to digitally RSVP, share photos of the event, etc. A lot of work? Sure. But you wanted to go geek. This is how!
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
prerecorded voice modules, like http://www.electronics123.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2983/.f?sc=8&category=2 they are cheap and you can fit them into small paper/cardboard boxes from hobby shops. The guests can reuse them and record a reply or other message. BTW as for Geekness and marriage, I have been married for 34 years to the same woman, Anna didn't like me spending time on computers until I pointed out that she spent a lot of time knitting and watching TV, so we COMPROMISED, enjoyed time together at non-geek events, and also had time doing stuff that each wanted to do. Also, Don't use calling card size CD-roms, lots of current computers can't use them.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Don't be tacky and just send out invites like any normal person on this earth.
And before you b*tch and moan at me, I work in the I.T. sector, and build and fix PCs for a living, and play computer games. So I am, by definition, a geek/nerd.
I honestly believe that for something as life changing as getting married, you can afford to pony up some money and put some REAL effort into making invitations and mailing them out to your potential guests. That way you can also save one for yourself to look at later and not have fear of your "hard work" being wiped away.
And it's not going to be THAT many invitations. I mean, how many people can the basement even HOLD?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
I got married less than a year ago, and I guarantee you do NOT want to spend your time wiring up the electronics, or putting in the expense, for 100 hardware invitations. Just do paper invitations (feel free to design them yourself and have them printed wherever, including your home printer on cardstock), and put the effort into your website. Make sure your site is password protected with an easy-to-remember phrase (be lenient on capitalization, spaces, etc, and don't forget to put the password on your invitations), and well designed for navigability that your computer-afraid aunt can figure out easily. Make sure it has the date, location, hotels, registry, etc that guests actually need to know.
Feel free to put whatever QR codes or crazy stuff you want on your paper invites, but don't bother with the hardware. Really.
I did this for my wedding, everyone loved it.
I must warn you though, it's not easy and you will be bloody sick of it by the time you've made 80 of them.
See the finished result here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgJbxDYSZX8
And how to make it here: http://extremecards.blogspot.com/2009/11/rubber-band-pop-up-cube.html
When you do the effort the buy a real card and mail it, you're not just doing the effort to show your friends what they are worth: you're also now requiring them to spend their valuable time sending you a thank you note via a similar medium.
Who sends a thank you card for a card?
I'm a greeting-card-hater myself, but nobody does this.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
My wife and I were recently married, and both being of the computer programming variety we wanted something a little geeky for our invites. We decided on QR codes, which were shortened URLs to Google Maps of the wedding locations. We had one QR code for the ceremony, and one for the reception. Obviously we also printed the addresses for those less technically inclined. The QR codes were printed on a smaller, separate piece of card rather than the invite itself and included in the envelope.
After sending them out, the number of people who came back asking what the barcode things were for actually surprised us (one even thought it was a Magic Eye picture which magically revealed the map). Looking back, we should've included a little mobile phone icon next to the QR codes so guests had some idea as to what to do with them. Either way they served as a good talking point.
I guess my take away point here is your guests may not be as geeky/technical as you think they are, so don't over do it!