Weddingbee Blog

Well, we pooled our collective pocket change, emptied our emergency fund and bought a new printer. In the end, Mr. Shortcake wouldn’t let me drop his old printer out of the window, or even give it a few gentle taps with a baseball bat a la Office Space, claiming that he wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons. What those reasons are, I’m not so sure of, but I think it involves framing the beast and hanging it on the office wall like a mounted deer head.

Thanks to our new Epson RX595 (which works like a dream, thankyouverymuch), our invitations are printed and ready to go. I must admit that I was shocked speechless when I pressed “print 20 copies”…and the Epson printed twenty copies - twenty copies that were the same size, colour, font, species, etc. Hallelujah!

SUPPLIES:

• white Arturo paper from White Aisle moving sale
• blossom card stock from White Aisle moving sale (from paper source)
• blush paper from cards and pockets
• gold leaf rectangolo pocket folds from cards and pockets
• cricut paper cutter
• cricut corner rounder
• double sided tape
• glue stick
• light pink ribbon from paper mart
• Speedball India black ink
• silver ink
• nibs and pen(will explain further in a calligraphy post)
• Fonts: feel script, ff_tsuj, Love Ya Like a Sister
• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
• Adobe Illustrator CS3
• wacom graphire 2 tablet and stylus

This was the ninth design that I went through, and the illustrations are completely drawn by hand (with India ink and a old-fashioned nib). My father, being a graphic designer and photographer himself, and a generous man who supports my artistic inclinations, gifted me with a tablet and stylus, feel script, as well as adobe illustrator, which came in very handy for font manipulation. Illustrator was handy, that is. I still really haven’t figured out how to use the stylus! Before we had to buy the printer, the cost was approximately $3.86 per invite (the white aisle moving sale helped a lot), after the printer…well, I just won’t think about it!

They’re based on our very 1950s feminine colour scheme (blush, gold, charcoal, mustard, cream, buttercream yellow), which reminds me a lot of a starlet’s boudoir. Kind of glam, very feminine, very cute, and very vintage. Very “hel-lo dah-ling.”

I wanted the birds and banners to evoke a kind of romantic Cinderella feeling (you know, where they’re helping make her dress), and I wanted the font to be whimsical and vintage-inspired at the same time.

So, without further ado, I’d like to present our invitations.

Sacrilege! I hate blurring out our information.

THE INSERTS

…were hand drawn with India ink and a nib. You probably can’t read it, but the little banner says “An Old-Fashioned Kind of Love” - the theme of our vintage wedding! For fonts, I used feel script, ff_tsuj, and Love Ya Like a Sister. For colours, the grey type is 66,66,66, the pink is 241, 153, 153.

I love the look of the Couture Maps, but wasn’t a fan of the price, so in less than half an hour, I whipped up my own version!

THE CALLIGRAPHY

…was based on Veer’s feel script, with my own personal touch for letters that I didn’t like as much. I blended black India ink with a metallic silver to get a custom dark silver blend that was pleasantly sparkly, but still very readable.

Because I couldn’t figure out what to call ourselves on the RSVP envelope (Mr. Firstname Lastname and Miss Firstname Different Lastname took up too much room), I just put down the rather quirky title of “the happy couple.” I figure if the post man is lost, he can just knock on doors until he finds residents with the hugest, dorky smiles ever.

So, there you have it. By the end, our invitations were not so much a labour of love so much as omgpushpushhooohooheeee kind of affair. Nevertheless, I adore them.

Did anyone else make their invitations?