First Step For Stationery
November 15th, 2006 @ 10:23 am by Mrs. Plumeria
As a graphic designer who works primarily in print, I (plus Mr. Plumeria, my entire family and all of my friends, for that matter) pretty much assumed from the start that all of our wedding stationery would be DIY. The unusual twist here is that for me, DIY stationery actually will probably be more expensive than getting it the conventional way, because I will designing it on my own and then getting it printed and finished at a local professional press. Thus, our second big splurge, besides photography, is stationery: invitations, programs, and for us, part of the favors. Reflecting back on our budget decisions, I realize that we allotted the most ¢¢â€š¬…”wiggle room¢¢â€š¬? for what means most to me as an artist ¢¢â€š¬” photos and printed materials.
Beginning when Mr. Plumeria and I first got engaged, I started to make countless different designs for our invitations. I had designed wedding invitations for friends before, and the process was never too difficult then, but somehow, when the bride was myself, I could not make up my mind! Finally, through the months of designing invites, then getting new ideas and switching them, I noticed a few things that seemed consistent in the layouts that I thought could work, and pinpointed what really mattered to me:
1) I wanted an elegant, sophisticated design overall.
2) I did not want a design that was too edgy and modern.
3) I wanted to reflect myself as an artist.
I finally came up with the below design. I love tulips ¢¢â€š¬” if I could have been Miss Tulip, I would be! ¢¢â€š¬” so I drew a double tulip illustration in pen and ink, then scanned it in and used it as the highlight of the design. As you can see, my wedding colors are a pale aqua/teal and gold, with some warm coffee-brown and cream accents (the tulips and dots will be printed in metallic gold).
I think, so far, this is the design I’ll be refining for our actual invitations. Add the metallic ink accents and embossing in the final piece, and pretty much every whim of my heart (when it comes to invites) will be fulfilled. The hand-drawn element satisfies my inner artist, while the colors and layout give me the simple elegance that I want my entire wedding to have.
What were/are your invitation ¢¢â€š¬…”requirements?¢¢â€š¬?
Related Posts
17 Responses to “First Step For Stationery”
i love it!
I love the design! I’ve never seen an invite on it’s side (so to speak) - will there be enough room for all the words that usually go on an invite? (trying to think if I could do mine this way…)
Very nice! My friend who is a graphic designer also designed her own invites which looked amazing.
I actually chose a plain white invitation with little mauve colored petals sprinkled on it. I liked it because it was elegant, classic, but not ostentatious… which is the mood I’m shooting for for my wedding. Heh
I love your invites!
My requirements for the invitations were that I had to design them, the invitations had to reflect me and my fiance, and that I didn’t want them to look similar to other invitations I’ve recieved in the past.
Very pretty!
Invites were actually toward the bottom of my wedding hierarchy, so they just had to be inexpensive, print-your-own, and use a font that had a retro-feel.
I love the design! My requirements were somewhat vague. I wanted to do something somewhat inexpensive, but unlike most of the inexpensive routes that people usually take. I wanted an embossed image also. We ended up with square ivory invitations on a red wrap, although w/ triangular flaps as opposed to the popular petal wrap. We embossed an image of a tree on the invites, and used the same image as a watermark on the RSVPs and direction cards. I loved our invitations and we got a lot of compliments.
love the design. everyone is going to LOVE it!
as a fellow GDer, i also wanted to design my own. i poured my heart into it and it was a wonderful experience.
I love that design. It’s gorgeous. You’re quite talented. 
For me, I wanted our invites to reflect us as well as be something completely different than anything I’ve received in the past. I also wanted our wedding colors in it. The only way to do this was to DIY. I’m pretty sure I have the final design down, but I haven’t started making them, yet. As of right now I’ve bought 5 different colors of cardstosk, 4 diffrent kinds of ribbon, a printed vellum, a customized embosser, and downloaded countless fonts to my comp in search of the right one. 
they’re gorgeous! you’re very talented!
I love everything about it, especially the hand drawn tulips!
those are gorgeous! i wish i had some semblance of drawing skills.
all i know is i want my invites to be fresh and fun cuz that’s the vibe i’m going for. i keep saying that our wedding will be THE party event of the year. so far the design that i found is a great reflection of my korean heritage AND also the bf’s love of the asian culture. perfect.
Thanks all! I’m so excited! k — the image here is actually just the top card of a stack, so this page will have only the essentials (names and date). The other cards will be staggered in size and they’ll all be collated and put together with gold thread. The whole thing will be put into a translucent vellum open-end Policy #10 envelope with a matching label for the front… Ahhh!! Can you tell I’m excited about this?!
that is AWESOME. you’re so talented! usually when someone says they have tulips on their invitations it turns out to be this gaudy bright thing, but your is SO CHIC! norcal rules.
Soo beautiful! 
Wow!
I’m on the same boat as you are. My fiancÆ’© and I are both artists and designers so we are of course creating our own invitations and other wedding stationary. I’m telling our families (who love a good bargain) that we’ll be saving a lot of money by doing it ourselves. But the truth is, we’re going to be spending more than they’d like on our invitations. And why not? It’s what we want and it represents us and what we do pretty well!
I do, of course, have the same problem of not coming up with THE design. It’s like looking for THE gown. I think yours is beautiful!
I’m in the Bay Area too, I’d love to know what printers you recommend.
Could anybody recommend some thermographer printers in the Bay area that would print invites? I am designing my own and will probably have them printed in or close to San Francisco since I will be there 2nd week of December for a trip. I live in Mexico so I am unfamiliar with the area for something so specialized. Thanks, I appreciate it..
Mrs. Plumeria, San Francisco
Age and Occupation in 06: 22, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, High School Teacher
Engagement Date: December 30, 2005
Wedding Date: May 12, 2007
Venue: Hotel Ballroom
About Me: I love all things artsy and unique, and it has become a passion of mine to incorporate these attributes into my wedding (and become DIY royalty in the process). Other than dreaming up projects for the wedding, my latest hobbies include working on my computer, playing with my cute pet bunny, or shopping at Target/Barnes and Noble with my fiance.
Fantastic design! Can’t wait to see it finished. I had similar requirements (reflection of my personality, something interesting visually and “fresh/up to date” design-wise) but I also wanted it to convey the spirit or our upcoming nuptials–give a guest a sense of what was to come.