Weddingbee 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!