Planning For Our Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah

We recently had the pleasure and the honor of watching our daughter become a Bat Mitzvah. From start to finish, the entire experience began over a year ago. Our themes changed a couple of times; Candyland, Music, to Candy. In order to come up with the perfect venue, we scoped the market for various vendors and it truly became a process. The brainstorming was constant. Would we contract with an outside location to host the luncheon reception (where all of the food and beverage would be handled by one place)? Or would we host our after party right at the temple (making it easier for our guests, and allowing us the freedom of contracting with private catering services)? Having gone to many events over the years, and having also planned our own wedding, you might say that we had a jump start on the steps that were necessary for proper planning. All along the way, we made modifications to our original course of action. Hiring people who had contracted with family members before us was a huge help. First, we had already seen the product or service provided. And second, I believe that it is important for a vendor to live up to their expectations, even more so, when it comes from a referral.

Bat Mitzvah Invitation

The one planning stage that we truly had the most fun was our invitations. Having worked around the design, printing, and paper business for many years, I felt that this project was right up my alley. We started by testing out various looks of paper combinations and layers, and continued with how colors would coordinate with some of the decorative colors used in room design and linens for our tables. Our invitations seemed to be a work in progress, with all family members adding their input, from paper stock and color choices, to design, to font usage. We ended up creating a three layer invitation that consisted of Stardream cover stock in Ruby as the bottom layer, a beautiful Chiyogami floral pattern text weight sheet as the middle layer, and another Stardream cover stock, Crystal, used as the top layer to the invitation. The finished piece measured 5 ½” x 8 ½”, and was made to fit into an A9 size envelope. There was no inner envelope needed for this piece, since the three layers were heavy enough to begin with.

In addition to the invitation, we also made a two layer respond card, using the Ruby stock as a bottom layer once again, and the Crystal stock as the top layer.

Our Bat Mitzvah Invitation Card Materials

• Printed Invitation Layer: Stardream Crystal 105lb card stock
• Middle Layer: Mauve Stars Chiyogami paper
• Backing Card: Stardream Ruby 105lb card stock
• Brad: Silver Moroccan Open Flower Brad
• Envelope: Stardream Crystal A9 Envelope

DIY Tools

• Craftivity 1/16″ Round Hole Punch
• Elmer’s Disappearing Purple School Glue Stick
• Awl
• Glue Roller

Choosing Fonts

When considering font usage, I was particularly careful as to the combination of fonts used. Typically, I would never recommend using more than two fonts together on the same piece. However, in this particular case, we chose to use three for the invitation. For the top part of the invitation, we used a font called Bonheur Royale, which is a very elegant and somewhat contemporary script font. We spelled out our daughter’s name in large type. After all, she was the headline to this event. We then used a simpler looking font, called Calligraphy, with still a little flair, for the body of the invite. In the middle of the invitation, we added our daughter’s Hebrew name under her English name. After we all agreed to the look of the invitation, I had the piece printed using thermography (raised printing). With the respond card piece, we spelled out Megan’s name vertically, and created an acrostic for the wording. An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. We had a lot of fun coming up with the messages for each letter. The top layer was also printed with thermography in order to keep uniformity for the entire ensemble. As an added note, when we applied the top layer to the card, we decided that the invitation took on more appeal by slanting the top layer, the same way a mezuzah is placed on the doorposts of one’s house.

How To Assemble the Invitations

1. To accommodate the 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ backing layer, cut Chiyogami middle layer to 4 7/8″ x 8″ and Stardream top layer to 3 7/8″ x 6 3/4″
2. Print the Stardream top layer invitation
3. Punch hole through invitation layers with hole punch tool



4. Use enough adhesive to secure the layers, but not too much so that the cards and papers ripple and curl



5. Position layers



6. Use roller tool to smooth adhesive



7. Insert brad and post



Printing the Envelopes

After completing the assembly of the invitation and the respond cards, the next task at hand was the addressing of the envelopes. The mailing envelope to the invitation was also Stardream stock in Crystal. This stock has a metallic finish to it. For this reason, my first thought was that it was probably more suited for laser printing, if I was going to be addressing them by computer technology. I then made an attempt at printing Stardream envelopes on an inkjet (Canon MP600 model), of which I was hesitant at first. My thought was that the surface of the paper would not be appropriate for inkjet technology. I was completely wrong about that. Not only was I able to print on this specific printer (remember that all printers DO NOT PRINT ALIKE), but I was able to achieve almost an exact ink match to the thermography that was printed by use of an offset press. The ink from my printer dried immediately. This was a great feeling.

We had our guest list created in an Excel spreadsheet, and completed our envelope printing using Mail Merge, a Microsoft software feature. Having done this type of envelope imprinting for so many people before, this part of the project presented no issues for us. The envelopes went seamlessly. Once we were done, we assembled the entire ensemble, adding tissue on top of the invitation before placing the respond set on top of that.

Post Office Considerations

We picked out a decorative stamp to be used on the mailing envelope as well as the respond envelopes, and sealed up our invitation for mailing. As I always have suggested to people, before just picking a stamp, make sure that you bring a single completed piece to the post office so that they can weigh the piece and tell you exactly how much the postage should be. The last thing you would want is for all of your invitations to come back due to insufficient postage. You can also request that the post office hand cancel the envelopes, as opposed to them running through the automation of the post office equipment, where you are sometimes inviting marring to your finished piece.

All in all we had a lot of fun putting this invitation together. It was a project that, together, we may have spent up to 7 – 9 hours of labor. But, it was a labor of love. I would not have changed it for the world.



Barry Levine