It took me a month to decide on what invitations to get. I’m the typical “buy everything ahead of time and online” to save money and I had looked at over 20 websites with over 1000 different ideas and designs… I was very overwhelmed and the more I looked the more confused I got. I wanted pocket invitations like the one below but I also wanted to add a personal touch (an actual starfish on the outside with a ribbon and a seashell label to go with the theme of my wedding).

My mom and many other people kept telling me not to think too much about the invitations because after all people will usually look at them once and put aside and in the end it is just ‘wasted paper’… but to me this is what sets forth the style of the wedding and it’s something I really wanted to put an effort on. I want my guests to actually love it and look at it many times

By pure coincidence I received an email from a little store that was re-opening near my house, Creative Essence, and they were giving a good discount on invitations and all sorts of wedding related items.
For anyone interested and in Miami, they are located at 1 Curtiss Parkway Suite #5 in Miami Springs.

I’m usually skeptical of going to stores because I feel I can always get better pricing online but I took the chance and it was the best decision I made.

Veronica, the owner, was so nice and took the time to sit with me and show me 10 books full of different styles on invitations. She was even patient after I changed my mind 3 times and kept going back to the store to change styles. She knew what I was looking for and with her we were able to create the perfect invite which would’ve been impossible online because it’s made up of a few things that we had to order from different places.

Not only did I end up buying the invitations at the store but I also bought all the wedding favors, bridesmaid presents, wedding sets, etc and the deals were great! Everything I had previously looked at online was available at the store and she matched all prices and even gave me lower prices on some items.

So all you online shoppers, go find a little local store and give it a chance…. there is nothing like that personal attention you get from certain places and a few of the invitations I had seen online looked very different in person.

A lot of my fellow brides to be have asked me if I was going to do Save the Dates. I really didn’t want any extra costs, but then I love doing anything wedding related so I decided to go ahead and make mine. Of course, I wanted to make sure it set the tone for the wedding and not be a complete hack job and look like it was nicely done. However, since I knew my invitations would be more formal in nature and I’m not exactly Ms. Formal all the time, I decided to go the fun route with our Save the Dates.

Searching around, I found that you can actually get things printed pretty cheap.  In fact FOR FREE! Yes, I know..there must be a catch. There kind of is, but it’s not too bad.  With VistaPrint, you can get a lot of items for “free” as long as you pay and art charge and the shipping fees. Both are very nominal and I managed to get 100 Save the Date postcards AND magnets for under $30 bucks!!! SAVE SAVE SAVE!

Here’s what I did…

I go my very very talented bridesmaid to help me with some graphics. I knew I wanted magnets, so first I got those designed. Here it is!

However, the ones that were “Free” are small and I thought it would be a little weird to just mail them.  Therefore, to my delight, I noticed that Vista print was also offering free postcards. Therefore, I decided to have a nicely designed postcard with a placeholder for the magnet. This was the result:

I used some double sided tape to put the magnet on in the dark blue area where the dogs are so that it could easily be removed and not destroy the postcard.  And there you go…100 Save the Dates for “free!”.

Since MOST invitations are formal…I really suggest you have fun with your Save the Dates. They aren’t a must, but if you are expecting out of town guests or just in a crafy mood…go for it!