Weddingbee Blog

These puppies were a labor of love. While I was somewhat familiar with the Adobe Creative Suite due to tinkering with Photoshop for the past few years, I had never felt completely comfortable with Illustrator. However, I knew that working with the Pantone color code I had swindled out of Paper Source would be easier in this product. I created our monogram, Save the Date front, Save the Date back, and the Address Labels in Illustrator. I’ve since learned that In Design will help with my designer woes when I take up DIY again in creating our invitations.

Our Save the Date collection, including all pieces involved in the making.

I had meant to share with you the entire creation process - including the cutting, trimming, corner rounding, and hole punching of the actual cards themselves. However, my memory card begged to differ. As much as I love new technology - it doesn’t pan out for me on occasion and this was one of those times.

Each printed sheet of Cover Stock from Paper Source contained three cards, so we had to cut, trim, and corner round each card.

I meticulously shot pictures of each step of the process and then continued to make way on the daunting task with my mom. However, when I returned to shoot the next stage, I turned on my camera and I received the following error message, “Memory Card Error.” I raced to upload the photos to my laptop and all I was able to accomplish was a spinning hourglass. ARG!!

The Moss Ribbon from Paper Source used for the Ribbon Pull. To make a good forked cut, fold the ribbon in half and make an angled cut - this way you have a symmetrical fork.

I re-shot the process and went back to my crafting. I double-checked my camera and sure enough, it turned on fine and the photos were all there. We completed the cards, ribbon pulls, stuffed and sealed the envelopes. I moved on to creating the wraparound address labels. Once a mock-up was complete, we went to shoot that process.

The Moss Ribbon and Open End Envelopes we used - all from Paper Source.

$#&%@!! @*^$#%$!! This was basically my response when I returned to shoot the labels and saw that “Memory Card Error” again. I gave up. I decided to just shoot the collection as I had it currently (with no un-cut card sheets) and leave the imagination up to you. If anyone has any questions on how to create the cards, cut and trim them, or round the corners - I’d be glad to answer them.

Pulling a finished Save the Date out of the envelope.

With that said, I’m rather pleased with how they turned out. I think they look rather professional and definitely have the look I was attempting to capture. The only thing I would have done differently was to use an easier font to read in case of elderly eyes. Although, I do love the Copasetic font we used as it reminds me of the one used at the winery.

The front of a completed Save the Date card.

I downloaded any complicated graphics from www.istockphoto.com including the flourish from the front of the Save the Date card and the damask pattern from the Address Label. I created the striped pattern for the back of the Save the Date card in Illustrator as well as our monogram.

The back of a finished Save the Date card.

We had them printed at Kinko’s and had a surprisingly fantastic experience with the service there. I think it was due to the fact that an old high school classmate of mine was working there and made sure that the cards were absolutely PERFECT before we walked out the door. Ryan knew his printing stuff, was extremely helpful and was absolutely hilarious. If it weren’t for Ryan, I think I would have been ready to shoot myself after spending 2.5 hours at the copy shop. THANK YOU RYAN!!

Ryan from Kinko’s holding one of my Save the Date proofs hostage.

Coming soon, in the second installment, I finally got my camera to take pictures of the handmade address label printing, trimming, creasing and stickering process. Finally, in the third installment, I will go over the costs involved with undertaking the design and DIY of our Save the Dates. Stay tuned!