When I first started looking at invitations, I thought I wanted something colorful, simple, and easy. No way was I going to spend all that time to design my own, because I don’t kid myself that people are ever going to keep them. I’m also a little scared of my crafty ideas, and I had visions of myself covered in paper scraps, glue, and ribbon while screaming at the printer and begging Mr. Tiramisu to let me order invites from somewhere else at the last minute. And all the while I’d just be turning out something that looked more second grade arts and crafts time than customized elegant invite.
So having given up on doing it myself, I turned to the internet. One of the first options that I really loved came from Wedding Paper Divas. Here is my favorite design:
I ordered samples from the website along with a custom color card. Wedding Paper Divas will change the color on any invite design for you for a small fee. You can choose from any of the colors on the card, or even provide one of your own.
Does anyone else love color names as much as me? I was loving the Indigo Dream and the Gibraltar. The original Sky Martini wasn’t so bad either. But something about the flat printing on these invites just didn’t do it for me. I was a little bit underwhelmed, even though the designs were beautiful. I wasn’t going to let myself consider letterpress, but its cheaper cousin, thermography, seemed to be the answer!
Enter My Gatsby. This is a great website with lots of different options. I liked quite a few:
Blossom
Hydrangea
Or how about the Reagan
Only with real dried and pressed hydrangea blossoms?
I ordered samples from here too, and I did love the look of thermography. Their samples of paper are all thick and textured- beautiful, and the price is really reasonable. In fact, I was all set to go with the blossom invite. I really only held off on ordering because Mr. Tiramisu and I hadn’t finalized our ceremony time yet. Also, I just wasn’t in love with the invites. I was hoping something more fabulous would come along….
Anyone else glad they didn’t make a quick decision in the beginning?
I was the exact same way. At first I was wishing that I could send eVites! Then, I realized that I had become addicted to finding THE perfect graphic to sceen onto simple invites, THEN darn Wedding Bees introduced me to Gocco, and let’s just say that plain or simple are no longer words in my vocabulary. I fully expect my future husband to come home one of these days to find me halucinateing from gold spray paint fumes and covered in glitter.
…and something more fabulous will always come along no matter what you do!
Actually, I wish I hadn’t driven myself so crazy with invitations and letterpress and all that other goodness. If anything, I should have just ordered the pink & green invites from Wedding Paper Divas that I loved in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, we thought our invitation design was darling, but invitations were probably one thing we should have just saved the money and hassle on. It’s so easy to get swept away by all the loveliness out there though…
If I would have made a quick decision about my invitations, I would have spent close to $400 instead of the $150 I spent making them myself. I’m glad I thought about it over the course of a few months before I dove in. All those that you posted are beautiful though. The inspiration for my invite was actually the hydrangea invite!
I just want to say I also love color names. Cerulean, chartreuse, puce… bring it on!
I looked for invitations online for months..having neither the craftiness or desire to deal with local vendors. I came across the blossom invitation on Mygatsby and loved it. Made up a few online samples in different colours/fonts…looked at other sights again..totally decided to go with the Blossom invitation, only to find out that they don’t ship to Canada! I was so frustrated I sent them a nasty email.
The very next day I came across my dream invitations which were actually a much better fit for our wedding than the Gatsby ones: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7259364
Bridgette has been great to work with too, so I’m actually really glad that everything worked out the way it did and that I didn’t rush into settling for something else.
I love the colors in Blossom! So cheery!
I was convinced that if I looked long enough, eventually I would find the invitation in my head. After who knows how many catalogs and websites, I just broke down and did it myself. I’m sure bringing in a professional would have produced a…more professional result, but that’s not where I wanted to be throwing the money.
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Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/Maine
Age and Occupation: 26, Eye Doctor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad student
Engagement Date: May 15, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 4, 2008
Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tent
About Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
Invitations, grrrr. I have stacks of sample invitations. Plus stacks and stacks of cardstock and cardstock-and-ink samples. I have a small stack of them in my bag right now. We had a lovely invitation chosen, in a sort of a pocketfold, and I ordered more and different pocketfold samples. FI promptly fell in love with a different pocketfold. Mom required different colors. More samples. The samples got gradually more ornate. We finally chose one we liked. A lot. I carried it around for a few weeks and began to have doubts. We pulled out all the samples again and again. We really need to order sometime next week. We are in the middle of rethinking all the fonts. I just want it to be over.