Wedding Blog
For me as a graphic designer, the aesthetics of our big day have become the biggest creative problem I’ve tackled yet, and it’s probably been one of the most frustrating design processes I’ve been through. Why? Because I keep changing my mind!
You may remember a long while ago, when I happily posted about nailing down a design for invitations and other stationery. Little did I know that that was far from the truth: the motif I shared back then was number seven out of eleven concepts that I didn’t end up using. I finally made my decision and had the invitations printed at a local East Bay press in the last two weeks… and I must unashamedly say that I’m proud of how they turned out! 
And here they are, designed from the heart:
The outside envelope is a clear vellum Policy #10 envelope, from envelopemall. A custom “To:” label is stuck on strategically to hide personal information (which, on all these pics, has been blurred). All inks were custom picked: a light teal blue and a subtly metallic gold-green.
Once the outer envelope has been opened, our guests will see this: a vellum inner envelopment in lieu of the more traditional lining or inner envelope.
And finally, within that: our invitations! It’s a set of four staggered-size cards, sewn together with a simple stitch of gold thread.
Each card works as a tab, with its title printed on the far right edge.
Each one is printed in the custom ink colors on sturdy cardstock with a pronounced, textile-like tooth.
Your typical “invitation” page, with all of the general information…
And then a map complete with direction of street traffic…
… and one final page with a micro-perfed tear-off RSVP card. One little detail here that I added because I had extra room on the label sheet for the address and “To:” labels: a calendar label with one of our engagement pics, so guests can stick it in there and remember. Or not… I just thought it was a cute idea, and the cost was absorbed by the rest of the print job.
The nitty-gritty: how much did this cost me? Not a lot, but not a little, either. Each invitation’s print cost rounded out to about $3.50 total — the cost of a nice greeting card or so. Of course, this isn’t inputting the would-be cost of hours and hours (and hours and more hours) of design time and post-printing tasks. I know the design-your-own route isn’t for everyone, as it takes a good bit of computer and print production savvy to deliver print-ready mechanicals to a commercial press — but for the bride who’s artsy and ambitious, or has a friend who is, it’s the way to go for super-personalized invites with quality you can control directly. I wouldn’t have done it any other way!
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absolutely gorgeous!! i can’t believe you made all of those!!
sooooo pretty!!! I can completely relate to the design difficulty… I’m on about the 20th redesign myself!
Those are the most unique invitations I’ve seen - I love them! Huzzah and kudos!
Those are amazing. Beautiful. I love the design, the colors, the execution…wow!
I did the basic design of the information page of our invitation (the actual “invitation” part), but it was still put together by a professional, and in the end it cost more than yours.
Make sure you put those in your portfolio.
Stunning. Totally stunning. It’s a far cry from the print-your-own at staples that’s for sure 
I love the way the motif shows through the envelope and then the inner envelopment’s design is shadowed by the invitation’s, I can’t imagine how many hours of bleary cross-eyed work that took!
I’m speechless - those are so beautiful! They’re more special than others I’ve seen at double the price! Congratulations, you’ve got some serious talent!
wow…that is gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgeous!
absolutely GORGEOUS! as a bride (and a guest) who really appreciates a beautiful invitation…this is above and beyond! congrats!!!
Love ‘em! I feel like I’m creative enough to do my own…but I dont’ have any actual skills to put it together! 
Off to design school I go!! NICE JOB!!!
Ooooh, they’re so pretty I just want to gobble them! You shame all of us lazy brides! Congrats!
Those are completely amazing! I wish I had the creativity to come up with something like that. I love the little calendar marker!
Wow- those are amazing! They make mine look so lame!!
your invitations are BEAUTIFUL!!
i wish i had graphic design skills to make my own invitations and get them printed~
WOW it’s soo beautiful! I knew you would come up with something amazing. I can’t wait to get mine in the mail!
GORGEOUS. You did a fantastic job.
miss plumeria, your invites are STUNNING. seriously, you should make more variations and sell them. they look so professional and beautiful…i bet many brides would pay top dollars for them!
As a fellow graphic designer I can absolutely understand obsessing over things! I feel like this is my biggest design project EVER! I’m not terribly worried about my invites…. One of the biggest challenges for me is working with a very limited budget - I have about $2 for every card!
You did a spectacular job! I’m intrigued by the inner-envelope - did they print the blue and then create the envelope or is it white ink? Did you work with an offset or letterpress printer?
Gorgeous work, Miss Plumeria! I absolutely adore the whimsical nature of the invites - the design makes me want to keep opening and see what delights lie within! Add me to the list of brides who would buy these!
hey miss plumeria - (& any other graphic designer brides)
would it be possible for you to share some DIY tips for us non-graphic-talented brides-to-be who are interested in making their own invites?
ie) i think i can possibly handle making my own labels…and i love yours~ did you just design it on your computer and then got it printed?
wow so pretty and unique!! i love it! i can’t wait to see it in person! i think 3.50 is not bad considering thta you would probably have to pay a lot more if you ordered it from somewhere! so cute.
Oh. My. Gosh.
Jaw on floor… I just hope your guests appreciate them us as much as brides!! hehe =)
wow! i loooooooooooove your design! ^_^
In the words of Randy Jackson, “YO!” those definately have the wow factor! I love the design and the calender sticker is such a cute idea! I am having my invitations made and they will be pretty fantastic for what people around here are used to but they are still not up to that level and I think I am paying about $4.00/invite. Well done! Your guests will be so excited for the wedding after getting those in the mail!
regarding Comment #21 by kp:
YES..please help the creatively-retarded brides like me! I want the cherry blossom motif on my invititations. Something simple like yours would be perfect. I love it!
Absolutely gorgeous, I love the layering idea!!!! I will need to start looking into design sometime in the near future for mine and being a fellow graphic designer I can completely understand the obsessing over everything, thats why I intend to start early, so I maybe I will have my mind made up by the time the invites are supposed to be sent. Congratulations on getting such well done invatations finished!!!
Fabulous! Your guests will love them.
do you offer services for other brides?!!!! those are beautiful!
one word… wow!
Miss Lily, those are absolutely glorious!! Just breath-taking. Congrats! You did a great job!
They’re beautiful! Now I feel ashamed about posting mine up here
Your talent is amazing!!! And I love the envelope shape you chose. It all comes together so nicely!
Those are gorgeous! I wish I had graphic desiging skills. Your invites and Mrs. BOPs are my favorites.
Really beautiful.
these are sooo beautiful and FUNCTIONAL and like nothing else I’ve seen! hands down the best ones out there, imho. Nice work!
now I’m rethinking everything! ditto on #21 - can we get more deets? how did you stitch them? how did you perforate? what did the press do? could you please do like a broad strokes step-by-step, oh-enlightened-invite-goddess-bee?
They are AMAZING!!! I know what you mean about finalizing a design. I still haven’t really finally finalized my design. I doubt I will have it down until just before I give it to the printers.
GORGEOUS!~ =D
Those are preeeeeetty! I love the color combos!
doesn’t it feel AWESOME to have these babies done?! nice work. congrats!!
like whoa. i’ve had half done comps sitting on my hard drive for about 2 months now, and my layout is almost exactly the same. tabbed, three pages instead of four, perforated RSVP card. i can’t post them until my guests get them, though, so you’ll be MONTSh ahead of me ;).
wow..they’re gorgeous!!!!
So beautiful Vir!!!!!!! You are one creative little plumeria! I love them! Can I have your autograph? -)
Thanks all. I will def. share more details and tips if you guys would like! Anything specific that you’d like to know? (Note taken for q’s in #19, #21 and #37; Dani, kp and e. I’ll address those in a follow-up post.) I do do some freelance design work aside from my regular job, and I’m open to doing custom wedding projects for those interested, but it all depends on my schedule.
I used Solstice Press in Oakland, whom I have used previously for other unrelated design jobs for local clients. (www.solsticepress.com) I would highly recommend them for the print-savvy bride who knows her design stuff, has access to design programs such as the Adobe Suite, and knows how to set up files correctly for print, as they are a commercial press and not a design studio. They have capabilities beyond offset but I believe they outsource for anything that needs to have a plate made (letterpress, embossing, etc.).
sooo beautiful…. i’m drooling!
Wow…she’s so talented.
oh yeah… when you said each invitation print run cost $3.50, does this include material cost? if so, i am even more wow-ed!
where’d you buy the paper and who did the gold threading? was this cost also included?
thanks!
Hi Miss Peach! The $3.50 includes the materials, minus the outer envelopes which were 100 for $30.
At most professional presses, you can specify a certain brand and weight of paper (I guess I have an advantage here, because as a designer I have access to many different swatchbooks, etc. used at work) and they order it for you in large sheets appropriate for the project and the press they’re using, and then proceed to print your project.
Gold threading was DIY all the way. I put small dots where the holes would go in the printed design so they were printed on each card. I poked them through (had the help of our awesome wedding party) and sewed a length of gold embroidery thread from Joann’s ($7/spool) through about 4 times before knotting.
I’ll repost this and more info in my next post.
those are gorgeous!! i would looove to do my own invites but i wouldn’t know where to start. =( again, those are absolutely gorgeous!
hi, i love your invites!
would you be willing to customize the same design for another bridge? please let me know….
Yes, definitely give us the info on what paper you used–these are wonderful! I’m a graduating design student, and I am so excited/so stressed about doing my invitations. I’ve been thinking about screenprinting, but with the time and inks, I might just have them printed professionally. $3.50 a pop is not bad at all in the print world, especially for such beautiful inks and papers! I can’t wait to read more about your process!
simply OUTSTANDING…girlie, quit your day job! YOU FOUND YOUR CALLING!
Mr. Plumeria is so cute!
WOW. the prices make it even more amazing. haha. cuz often times i’ll see super nice designs but they cost an arm and a leg. i will def recommend you to my friends!! ^_^ yay for beautiful invites + decent cost! you are mucho talented.
Thanks Miss Peach again! I should say though, that the price I paid of course didn’t count any design costs (because I don’t have to compensate myself for that, hehehe). I think with the amount of time I spent on these it would at least double the price if I inputted the hours of design time to the cost.. so that’s definitely something to consider. I know what you mean about expensive invites though — but usually it’s because of either design time or some sort of special finishing ie. letterpress. But, if you have got design skills and can bring it to a printer you save a lottt of money!
gorgeous…great ideas and execution
oh.my.goodness. can we say talented? you rock! your invitations are sooooo pretty. i’m late in commenting but i’m designing our invites now (w/ the help of a graphic designer) and needed some inspiration. i LOVE the gold thread!! did you just poke the holes w/ a needle? was that tricky (assuming the paper was thick and heavy)?
Hi tofu!! Comments get sent to my email so no matter when they’re written, I usually get to see them unless there’s a technical glitch. Anyway, thanks for your compliments! I used this little tool from a scrapbooking store, a mini “poking device” if you will (if you watch ‘Friends’ you will understand why I am giggling to myself right now). I forget exactly what it’s called but it looks like a wooden handle, about the circumference of a pencil, with a metal skewer on the end; the whole thing is about 6 in. long. It wasn’t too tricky because I incorporated tiny dots where the holes would be into my design, and those printed along with the rest of the images and text… and then all I had to do was poke a hole through the dots… no measuring or anything! If you can’t find the poking device then a pushpin works fine too. Hope to help!!
thanks, miss plumeria!! one more question: how do you make the thread ends nice & pretty? tuck them away and hide them?
[...] row: Cricket Press, Weddingbee, Grapevine Weddings Middle row: Little Tree Press, Ceci New York, Weddingbee Bottom row: the Knot, Rebecca Thuss, Kenzie [...]
Hi Mrs. Plumeria! Your invitations look so amazing! How creative! I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of paper you used and the color. I’m currently working on my invitations and any help would be greatly appreciated! You can email me at amy_chang at hotmail dot com. Thanks so much!
Amy you have mail!
Hi Mrs. Plumeria,
Could you email me too about how you made the ends of the thread pretty or tucking them? And how many invites were you able to sew with one spool? My email is alohabeams at gmail dot com. Your invites are beautiful! Thank you!
Mrs. Plumeria, can you email me as well about the threading? my email is hkang1 at gmail dot com. Amazing work! really!
I would love to work with you to design my invitations. I already have ideas and colors in mind. Please email me when you get a chance. Thanks so much!
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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.
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