I’d highly recommend Custom Paperworks for anyone going after the same theme as us or planning a destination wedding (and anyone looking for one heck of a designer for other wedding stationary)!

As a designer and artist I was pretty set on doing a little bit of DIY with my invites.  But I was doing a very classic wedding, so I needed to have them professionally printed beforehand.

I went to a local boutique invitation company in Bethesda, called Creative Parties.  One of the women sat with me and went through about 10 of those huge (very heavy) binders picking out the perfect color, shape, font, etc (which you will see in Part 2).  The one thing I KNEW I wanted and had to make sure everything worked with – was the pocketfold.  This was probably my favorite part of our invites, and given all of the ’stuff’ that you send out to people, it was perfect for keeping everything in one place.

I went with something like this, although ours were vertical and not horizontal:

http://www.lcipaper.com/pockets-by-size.html

Are you using pocketfolds or double envelopes to make sure all of the pieces stay together?

I’m starting to feel a need for bridal GPS assistance however. It’s slowly starting to dawn on me how crazy the next 12 months are going to be and how much of a work out my GPS is going to get!

The bulk of wedding preparation will be done from my apartment on the University of Mount Union’s campus. My parents are a 3 hour drive into Pennsylvania and my future in-laws are 30 minutes south. I purchased my dress at the Alfred Angelo store in Boardman, Ohio. Our photographer, my good friend (and crucial planning buddy!) as well as the good bridal shows are all in Cleveland. Thankfully, lots of things can be done online! But sometimes you just have to head to the store for things, and my stores are another 30 minutes away in Canton, Ohio.

My little driving circuit is nothing compared to our nationally (and internationally) diverse guest list. I would love to get a map and put pins on every city where someone will be receiving an invitation! We’re addressing envelopes to every corner of Ohio. Friends and family will also be receiving invitations in 9 different states and one invitation is heading around the globe to Japan!

It’s kind of nice to know that we have so much of the map covered in people who care about us and wish us well in our new life together.

With how scattered my girl friends and family are, I’m going to be planning without a close support system. Thankfully, Lilac Dude and I live in the same building! Are you planning at a great distance from your best support?

Our signature color is Tiffany blue mixed with black and white. The theme is the blending of two cultures and the following image is what we got.

Tiffany blue is definitely the star of the show. However, the black and white create the right balance for such a bright color. Our stationery vendor designed the logo that you see on the middle of the card. The logo was used as the seal of our invitation. We also used the same logo in our video shown on our wedding website.

Inside our wedding invitation, you can see on one side the formal invite and on the right hand side the details of our wedding. Since we have some guests coming from out of town, we decided to add details such accommodations and driving instructions. To save some money, we had our guests RSVP with a postcard that was inserted and pre-stamped on the invitation.

Towie Bear and I had great reviews from our invitations. He likes them because he thinks the left side of the card looks like race tracks. This comment is coming from someone that is passionate about cars and motorcycles. That’s my fiancé!

What inspired you to design your own stationery? I would love to read about how you developed you own wedding invitations.

MOH tried really hard in finding a card that matched our wedding colors. This invitation is just perfect. She did a lot of research and got it all made through the Internet. The company that made these is called InvitationBox.com I thought this was quite amazing.

Image from www.bingocardscreator.com

This is one of the many things I’ve learned throughout this process. I learned how to let go and allow others to plan different aspects of the wedding. It was hard at first, but now it’s fun to know that my family is planning a bridal shower and I have no idea what they have in store for me. Yes, MOH did interview me a couple of months ago and got the details of things that I like. However, at the end, MOH and the girls will pick and chose what will unfold at the party.

I am very excited and looking forward to a gorgeous day!

“To make them I followed the directions from the blog “Road to the aisle” http://roadtotheaisle.blogspot.com/ but used my own dimensions. I used red tacky tape from Michael’s and Joann’s.  My ribbon also came from there.  The pocketfolds were made of Aspire Petallics Copper Ore (from LCIpaper.com).  The backing was made of Gold Leaf Bronze (from CApaper.com but they no longer sell it) and the invitation was made of Stardream Pearl.  For a more white look, choose Stardream Quartz.  The stamp was part of a set made by Inkadinkado called “Fall Season Clear Stamps” and I got it from Michael’s.  The embossing powder was copper and came from Michael’s. To teach myself how to emboss I just looked up how-to videos on youtube.  The fonts used were Scriptina (for the names) and Bordini for the rest of the wording both fonts I downloaded for free on dafonts.com .  Bordini doesn’t have any punctuation marks, so I just used a simialar font for that.  The monogram I designed myself in adobe photoshop then had made into a rubberstamp at www.rubberstamps.net.” — Bridesmaid “L”

(I lost the brown bow that tied around the outside, but I'm sure you can imagine it!)

And I found the following template. I fell in love with this card. I even used the wording that she has on the sample. It’s so cute!

Since I am not knowledgeable with printers, I had someone print the wording on the cards. It was super cheap, but well made as you can see on the picture.

Mindy has a vast selection of stationery for weddings, anniversaries and baby showers. She even sells paper cups that can be used for other occasions other than weddings. I am very much pleased with the product and look forward to using it again in the future.

Please excuse the black splotches where I got rid of identifying information.

Has anyone else designed their own invites? If so, I would love to see them.

… a congratulatory note from President and Mrs. Obama!

You may remember from one of my prior posts, that we invited the Honorable and Mrs. Obama to our wedding.  Kind of a silly thing to do, yes, but we couldn’t help ourselves.  Well, it seems our specialty stamps were not used in vain!  This may be hard for you to believe, but it’s not every day we get mail from the President, so you can imagine our surprise and excitement when Periwinkle Dude held up an envelope from our stack of junk mail and asked why the White House was listed as the return address.  After a run-of-the-mill weekend Presidential mail was the last thing I was expecting, and I’m pretty sure I actually squealed with delight.

One more goody item for our scrapbook!  :)

Have any of you invited the President or a celebrity-type to your wedding for kicks?  If so, did you receive a response?  I wasn’t sure we would, but am sure happy we did!

NOTE:  This post is severely delayed; as we received the note back in October but silly me apparently forgot to share the news until now!  We sent the invitation in April, so although I’m sure response time varies, ours was approximately 6 months.

So, we’re in the process of writing out our envelopes for our save the date cards, and I’m wondering — how many of you follow the intense etiquette rules for wedding invitation addresses?  Just browsing online, I’ve seen a myriad of rules and regulations, many of which I have NOT been following. Here are some examples of the things I’m seeing:

• Write out names in full, including middle names. Omit a middle name if necessary, rather than using an initial.
• It’s appropriate to use the British spelling for “honour” and “favour”, unless you prefer to use the American spelling of these words.
• Spell out all words, including the hour, the date and the year. Spell out all words in the address, including Street, Road and Avenue. The two exceptions to this rule in an address are Saint (St.) and Mount (Mt.)
• Use Roman numerals in names, rather than “the third” or “3rd.”
• For ceremonies taking place in a house of worship, use “request the honour of your presence.” Ceremonies taking place in a non-religious setting should say, “request the pleasure of your company.”

For the most part, I think that all this etiquette is bogus.  Our friends and family will be happy to get our invitation, no matter how I spell “honor” — right?!

While something this detailed requires mad video editing skills and creativity, and a borderline or professional videographer bride or groom (or major bucks to pay someone to do it), I did find some great websites that help you create it on your own. Sites like Slideroll, One True Media and My Photo Album offer free services to create video. Here are some other cute ones for your viewing pleasure.

So…the question is, would you do it?

Palm Invitation from paper-source.com

and…

Palm Invitation from Blush Paperie

I really wanted to have a palm tree or leaf as the center motif, given the giant palm trees that will provide the backdrop for our ceremony. I was thinking to have invitations custom-made, but find myself suddenly in a crunch for time (and dwindling budget). I just want to pick and be done with it and get the joyous rush of checking it off my list.

Samples of each are on their way to my house! Hopefully one will scream at me, “Pick me! Pick me!” when I open up the envelope.

In case you are curious as to how I found these invitations, I did a Google image search for “palm wedding invitation”. I love google image search! So much faster than combing site after site to see if they had the theme I was looking for.

Do I rebel against that inner child and go DIY, do I spend hours searching the internet for something already made or do I go to a professional and have them create something for me.  Each has their pros and cons.

Creative DIY:  Pros: Super money saver  Cons: takes reasonable creativity and considerable time

This beautiful DIY invitation from Formal-Invitations.com seems simple enough, is very cost conscious but could definitely take some serious time to both print on your own and layer.

I Can Take It On Alone: Pros: Can be a money saver, someone else does the work   Cons: Can still take considerable time for just the search aspect

I love this invitation suite from Buddy+Bean.  The only choices to make here are font and artwork color. I wouldn’t have to do any work (except for addressing) and they are a really good cost. (Side note - I have been searching for over a month for invitations online and it took me that long to find this one, that’s where the time comes in)

I Need Help: Pros: You have a pro working with you every step of the way, someone else does the work , typically custom desgined  Cons: Can be a bit pricy

This invitations suite from Eberle Invitations is beautiful! The attention to detail is fantastic and they are designed personally for your big day.  They do cost a bit more than those above, but every bride has her trade off.

The following is an example of a menu card that I got at a meeting with the Association of Bridal Consultants, Washington State branch. The color of the card complements the platter and it looks lovely folded in the napkin. This menu card in particular had information on both sides. One side was the program and the opposite side was the menu.

Menu Card

Card inside the napkin fold

One the other hand, I am worried about cost. I think a menu card solely depends on the type of reception that the couple is having. In addition, I think about our guests a lot while making the decisions about what we will do for the reception. I just feel that the menu cards are unnecessary and believe me I’m a fan of greeting cards, formal invitation cards, etc. Anything on paper, I just love.

However, I believe this is an area that I am trying to be watchful on our budget. Do you think the menu cards depend on the style of your wedding? In other words, do you feel that the menu cards are only used at formal weddings with unlimited budgets? If you don’t feel that this is the case, do you have any DIY ideas that may encourage me to change my mind?

Is her work not fantastic? You can ask her to design something for you and she will ship them to you wherever you are. I contacted Jessica and she was great to talk to and very nice. I’m going to be using her for our save the dates and our invitations. I will definitely post pictures when those are available!

Our Save the Date card project has been a labor of love and a long journey. Oh my! I did so much research that my head was just spinning by thinking about it.

The images on this post were taken by my Matron of Honor (MOH). I really wanted our wedding style to come across on the Save the Date cards. We put a lot of thought into each detail and are proud with the finished product.

To make these cards a reality I had to find the right photographer; select a hair and make up artist; find the best location for our photo shoot; determine the date, time and attire for the shoot; purchase the materials for the cards…and finally assemble them.

I had my MOH and a friend help me with the assembly. For the production assembly, I decided to use my office, since we had the privacy and space needed for the project. I was inspired by a designer of custom invitations and greeting cards, known as Keg Design. I used her idea with a “splash” of our own style and personality.

During my research I discovered the art of rubber stamping. I decided to use it as part of our first formal wedding announcement. I purchased all of my stamps and ink at Impress in Tukwila. I found the magnets at Michael’s; and the Tiffany blue paper with the white envelopes were purchased at Paper Zone in Tukwila.

My friend measured the stationery in order to ensure a perfect alignment between each stamp. She was taking measurements for about 15 minutes. MOH and I were so impressed with her strategy. You can definitely tell that she is a pro at creating and producing greeting cards.

MOH did a fantastic job of creating the labels and sticking them into the envelopes. Now, what did I do while everyone was working tirelessly on this project? I stamped the back of each envelope with the word “announcing…” I absolutely LOVE this stamp. It just sets the stage to whatever you want to announce to your friends and family. I also worked on a second task which was cutting all of the magnets that go on the back of each card. The purpose of the magnet is to have our guests place the card in their refrigerator at home or hang it in any place that can attract the magnet to the surface.

Here is an image of how our table looked like while working on the project.

MOH and I scheduled a second day to finish the project. I went to Kinko’s beforehand to have them cut the photo strips. At MOH’s house we glued the photos into the stationery. Towie Bear and his brother glued the magnets into the back of the stationery and then put each one inside the white envelope. MOH and I started gluing the photos, while the guys created a template for us to make sure that we perfectly aligned the image between the “P” and the “Save the Date” stamps. That was so nice of them!

And here is the finished product. We went to the post office and got the wedding themed stamps. I didn’t know there were so many images available to pick from. This was truly a whirlwind experience for me, but I learned so much and had fun with the people that I care about. I love our cards!

My wedding invitation

While I was waiting for everything to be printed, I made sure I had the final supplies to complete the invites so when I did get them back I could get to work right away. I still needed:

- Permanent adhesive roller
- Refills
- Faux sealing wax
- Wax seal
- Postage stamps

I decided to assemble them bit-by-bit so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed trying to complete them all at once.

The first thing I did was stamp all of the invite cards. I knew this would take the most amount of time and I had to do this before I adhered it to the pocket envelope. I found using a clear stamp much more user friendly than a traditional stamp. You can see exactly where the stamp will lie, and as you press down you can see the ink transferring to the paper so you know that you will be left with an evenly distributed stamp.

Damask stamp & red backing

Next, I adhered the red shimmer backing (for the main part of the invite) to the pocket envelope. I got a little adhesive happy and rolled some on all sides, all corners, and once in the center. I then did the same thing for the invite card and put this over the red shimmer backing.

Once this was done, all I had to do was fill the bottom portion of the pocket envelope. First to go in was the return RSVP envelope, then the RSVP card, and lastly the Directions/Accommodations card.

Pocket inserts

My last step was to create the seal to keep the envelope closed. I went to Michael’s and in the bridal section they have sealing wax and seals. They didn’t have much to choose from – only monograms or a selection of 3 images: hearts, a rose and a fleur de lys. Because I will be hyphenating my last name, I didn’t feel that a single monogram letter was appropriate so I went with the hearts.

I also had 2 choices for my sealing wax: actual wax sticks or these clever little faux wax sticks that you can put in your glue gun. I liked the idea of the faux wax sticks because I had read that they hold up better in the mail, but they were very small (half the size of a regular glue stick), very expensive and didn’t come in the colour I was looking for.

To me they looked just like regular glue sticks so I wandered over to the section with the glue guns and found a pack with red sticks – I was determined to make this option work!

The process of applying the seal using a regular glue gun stick worked perfectly! You apply the same amount of glue as you would wax and then press the stamp into the glue. The only thing you have to do differently is use some form of lubricant on the stamp so that it doesn’t get stuck to the glue. I used cooking spray.

Supplies for the 'wax' seal

The finished product (before seal)

I had all the mailing and return labels printed so once I was done all I had to do was pop them in their envelopes and mail away! It was a great feeling putting the invites in the mail. I can’t wait to go home everyday to check the mail for the RSVPs!

I hesitate to post this iPhone picture of them, because it really does no justice to the fabulous work my graphic designer friend did to make them completely unique and fitting of Dahlia Dude and me. But here they are:

Personal Photo

The idea is that the inside is a movie poster (to go with our movie theater wedding) but it closes up to be an Oscar envelope, complete with wax seal (faux wax purchased on www.letterseals.com). It’s pretty cool when it all comes together.

Personal Photo

These are going in the mail on Saturday, in a chocolate brown envelope with mailing labels. My printer is broken so it’s taking me some time to get it all printed.

This was one of my favorite projects. Absolute favorites! I love how they turned out! And, we are printed and set for the online RSVP. Thanks again for all your help on deciding what to do.

I’ll explain, myself and Paradise Dude recently bought a house, so have spent the past several weeks getting ready, moving in and now painting. But we have managed to fit in some wedding things.

From myweddingflowerideas.co.uk

We set up our gift list, which was exciting, I think I enjoyed having the scanner more than anything. At first we struggled with what to get whilst trying not to get into an argument over bed linen, but we soon got the hang of it and found things that we both liked. And I didn’t go too crazy with the scanner, although Paradise Dude was convinced that I would wander into the clothing section and find some chocolate to put on the list!

Also an important date has past in the time since I last posted, our RSVP due date! Every day I would ask my mum if any RSVP’s had come in the post, they trickled in slowly, and then when it was one day before the due date, suddenly had about 5 or 6 in one go. I don’t know what other experiences brides-to-be have had with RSVP’s but it seems that everyone waits until the last moment to send them back to you. Maybe it’s just the bride brain of where everything has to be perfectly organised months in advance and any correspondence that is wedding related must be dealt with straight away!

From mariaandphilswedding.co.uk

I’ve also found that this has imposed on my everyday life too, where emails must be replied to within seconds of them being received and for a friends recent wedding (this weekend). I posted of their RSVP as soon as I received the invite.

Our best man recently made me laugh about this, exclaiming that everything would be carried out with military precision, he thought he was joking when he said this!

The only aspect of the wedding that I don’t have sorted yet, however much stress it causes me, is the bridesmaids dresses. You’ll remember me being excited about getting it sorted but unfortunately its been postponed and possibly postponed again due to one of my bridesmaids being unwell and in hospital. So although I feel like panicking at the prospect of having no bridesmaids dresses, I’m keeping a calm head as now is not the time to turn into bridezilla.

Once I have our new house in order, I’ll post up all my recent wedding plans and share with you photos of my invitations and reception details that I am starting to collect.

From sfu.ca

I learned that a DH is not a designated hitter, that FI is not short for Finland, MOH isn’t a relative of Homer Simpson’s “DOH” and so forth. But for a little while there I was confused, especially when coming across a forum category about: “STDs, Invitations and Websites”. What? I mean sure, I suppose nervous brides might need to talk about these kinds of things… I just didn’t expect…OH! I get it. Save The Dates. I had to laugh at my own stupidity on that one.

So, I think I have finally decided what to do about my STDs.  (chuckle chuckle)

Of course, I made this decision after buying $100 worth of DIY materials from Michael’s last weekend. I played with the stamps, ribbons, paper, and fonts but it was all coming out too much kindergarten and not enough Martha Stewart. So, I went back to the drawing board.

Snapdragon Sweetheart and I weren’t even sure if we should do a STD at all, we have just family coming, after all.  And it isn’t really part of his wedding culture to even do a STD. But, I decided I wanted a little something to get folks excited about our Florida wedding and found this fun option on Zazzle.com: Vintage Postcards!

From bridalwave.tv

To make a long story short, Freesia Dude and I discussed the issue and concluded that the most important thing was to share our wedding with those whom we loved. This may  sound like a simple conclusion, but all too often, we have both seen our friends choose friends to be a part of their bridal party, and then not even a year later, be completely out of touch with those people.

We wanted the members of our bridal party to be people we would talk to in 20 years. This may or may not sound realistic, but it is very important to us that we choose the right people – we want to look at our wedding photos and not regret that we haven’t kept in touch with our Best Man or Maid of Honor.

At this point, we have decided not to have a bridal party… although nothing is set in stone, mainly because I am having a few doubts about our decision. But those doubts are tiny in comparison to how we feel about not having one.

So what do you think? Is not having a bridal party a major deal?  Have any of you decided to not have a bridal party? I would love to hear everyone’s input.

I’ve had a specific look envisioned for my invites for quite some time, but I kept going back and forth about the steps I would take to get to the final product.

My design includes a black pocket envelope, 1 main invite card, 1 rsvp card and 1 directions/accommodations card. In addition I found a gorgeous damask stamp set that I wanted to incorporate using red ink.

From inkadinkado.com

I figured that I had 2 choices: go all the way DIY or have an invitation company create the entire thing. With the first option I could picture myself spending many late nights trying to cut all the elements perfectly and driving myself crazy, but with the second option I would lose the DIY element all together.

I held off on invitation production for months in hopes that I could find an option in between…and luckily it paid off because I found the perfect solution!

my damask inspiration

On a random visit to Main Street Unionville I discovered a little paper shop called Noteworthy Paper & Design. They have a gorgeous assortment of loose papers, cards, stationary supplies and most importantly – wedding invitations.
After talking to the owner, we came up with the perfect plan for my wedding invites:

They would print and cut all the elements and I would be left to assemble and stamp them – this would allow me to still have some DIY involvement while the finicky stuff would be left to someone else.

All I had to provide for them was my wording layout and insert dimensions. From there they will set it up for printing and simply charge me a flat cutting fee and a printing fee per page.

Including cutting cost, printing cost, black pocket envelope with 3 inserts, mailing envelope and rsvp envelope, my invites are going to cost me only $2.80 each.

Invitation inserts: my proof

Above is the proof I was given of my main invite card, rsvp card and directions/accomodations card. Printing is starting this week and everything should be ready 2 weeks from now. Once I get them back I will post Pt. 2: The Assembly, where I will put together a sample that will include a stamp test. I can’t wait!

It all started months ago when we first figured out our colors of blue and brown. We then found this wrapping paper at the Container Store:

Loving the damask pattern, Crystal taught me how to cut them out. I am not the most skilled person when it comes to scissors, but I managed to tackle the task.

The cutouts were then glued to brown portfolios that would hold all of our invitation goodies. We used something very similar to the one below, but ours were horizontal.

Then more cutting… we cut the opening of the folio to go along the same pattern of the damask pattern so it looked like one piece. Just imagine gluing the damask pattern to the flap and then cutting all the folio parts around it to make it look like the damask pattern is the flap sealing the folio.  A little hard to explain, but hopefully you got the idea.

The inside contents were also all designed by hand (again.. Kudos to my personal designer friend). The main invitation glued to the center looked like this.

The other details were placed in the folio pocket.

We then decided to seal the folio with a ribbon. So we punched holes in each of the folios, but realized that none of us knew how to tie a pretty bow. Therefore, we decided just to tie it in a knot, but knew that it wouldn’t look as pretty.  What to do? What to do? We had ordered the square printouts of our logo below for our programs.

Since we some how got double the order, we decided to cut each logo out and use them to put the ribbon through. Yes… a lot of cutting was involved in the making of these little suckers!  We punched holes at the top of the cutouts, put the ribbon through, tied a knot and voila our sealed invites.

We also lined our own envelopes which involved more cutting and more gluing…but the boring details behind that don’t have to be shared.

And there you have it…the play-by-play on how we made our invitations.  Now on to our wedding programs!

My Parisian shower invitation

As mentioned before, when my mom gets excited about something she isn’t the best at keeping it a secret – and this shower is no exception. She asked for some help to come up with a Parisian invite so we visited Michaels to see what we could come up with. On our shopping trip we were able to find all the components to create a very cute yet simple and cost effective shower invitation.

You’ll need:

- envelopes (we chose purple to match the lavender colour of the shower)
- card stock
- rubber stamp to match your theme (we found an Eiffel Tower)
- ink pad
- paper trimmer

tools you'll need

Putting it all together couldn’t have been easier! I made a quick template with all of the shower details on the computer using Microsoft Word and left enough space on one side to apply the Eiffel Tower stamp.

While I watched tv, I cut and stamped all the invites. To finish it off and add a bit of extra colour, I shaded in the banner on the stamped image with a purple pencil crayon.

It was very simple to make but I think the stamping gives it a original and hand-made feel to it that people will notice and appreciate.

I need some quick help.  I love this design from Martha Stewart:

I’m planning to use this design as a basis for a few paper projects: Menus, place cards, and other wedding stationary.  If you like it too, you can download from Martha’s site.

Now – this is what I need help with.  I am hoping to find a paper punch that could punch out my place cards in the above (white) shape.  Has anyone come across a punch like this?  I would hope to glue this shape on top of a black linen tent to give some more texture.  Or, is there some sort of punch machine where I can make this custom shape?

Thanks for any help!