My First DIY Attempt, I’m Still Alive.
August 18th, 2008 @ 4:11 pm by Miss Martini
Since our wedding was only 7 months away, we considered not sending out Save the Dates. But my high-strung personality was scared of attempting to DIY the invites, programs and place cards without first trying something a little easier first, JUST in case I freak out and have to be taken away in a straight jacket.
My 21 year old cousin, who is one of my bridesmaids, attends Rhode Island School of Design and is amazingly talented. I asked her if she would be able to create a few characters for us to use on save the dates, place cards, and other little things throughout the wedding. It was a huge favor but she was very excited to help out with something she was good at. A couple of weeks later, she sent me this:
I was ecstatic. How adorable is this? She also knew that I am Photoshop illiterate so she made it incredibly easy for me with mulitple layers so that I could change around the colors any way I wanted.
Unfortunately I am just THAT dumb when it comes to Photoshop and I still couldn’t figure out how to make changes the way I wanted them - so when I expressed my frustration to one of my BMs, she immediately came over and helped me out. Well, I wish I can say that she “helped me out” but in actuality she pretty much did the whole thing for me. I just eagerly watched over her shoulder in fascination while she made a template so I could easily print it on 4X6 glossy photo paper.
Then Mr. Martini and I headed over to B&H and bought our first big for-the-wedding purchase. A Canon Pixma all in one printer/scanner/copier.
Then I headed over to Paper Presentation in NYC (this place is like paper heaven, no joke) and bought dark purple textured paper for the border, and green card stock for an inner border. Of course I always have to try out two designs and torture myself with trying to decide on one, but these are what I came up with:
In the end I chose the one on the right, since it had a cleaner look. I bought a roll of magnet tape, attached the magnet to the back of the STD, tied ribbon around the entire thing, and then rejoiced at the fact that I actually completed something.
Our STDs are very simple, but I was still happy with the results. I didn’t want anything elaborate, and it also has a slight “scrapbooking” feel to it, which I wanted because scrapbooking will play another part in our wedding (more on that later!)
The cost:
1 box of 4 x 6 photo paper (100 sheets): $18.00
18 sheets of textured paper in Royal Plum from Paper Presentation: $16.00 (about 89 cents a sheet)
2 packs of Tropical Green flat cards: $17.50
1 roll of magnet tape: $7.99
1 roll of ribbon: $11.50
My wonderful cousin’s adorable drawing: PRICELESS
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22 Responses to “My First DIY Attempt, I’m Still Alive.”
I love them! 
Very cute. I love it! (And i totally feel you on the scariness of DIY… but so far you seem pretty awesome at it)
They’re great! I love purple too and you have totally given me the nerve to attack some Save-the-Dates as well. I designed this God-awful invite for my daughter’s birthday, I say ‘awful’ because it required (altogether, once I got it the way I wanted it) 14 pieces of paper attached by one of those fold-flat paper twirling do-hickeys you get from, I dunno, ANYWHERE, point is I damn near had a nervous break down and ended up just making like seven invites and sending out ZERO and even buying 25 special envelopes for them from EBay…It was a rough, LONG summer over here on the West Coast, it must’ve been smoke-inhalation from all the fires, at least that’s what I’m blaming.
Good luck!!!
Adorable! Is it safe to assume these are your wedding colors? If so, love them!!
GO RISD! Your STD’s turned out great!
@Jozzelle: LOL despite the fact that your invites didnt turn out so well, your story cracked me up! what a shame though… what did you end up doing in the end?
@Miss Pomegranate: yes those are my wedding colors! for a while i considered green dresses for the bridesmaids (with purple bouquets) and they were all terrified, because with green it can either be awesome, or hideous because there are so many shades of green and its difficult to get it right. my matron of honor suggested going with dark purple dresses with green highlights and everyone really liked that idea, so we’ve since switched the colors around.
Wow, those are so cute!
this is so stinking cute! and those are also my wedding colors! =) i thikn i shall be reading your posts quite thoroughly from now on. =)
@Miss Pinot Noir: unfortunately we didnt send them out just yet, but i will very soon as soon as i can get my lazy arse off weddingbee and get cracking on writing down the addresses on the envelopes! we’re actually not going to be sending it out to everyone, just travelers and family and some closer friends. most of our guests are local and we’ve verbally already told them the date of the wedding.
I totally bought the exact same printer for wedding related projects! I have high hopes for its quality since I plan on doing ALL our paper products on there (invitations probably being the most crucial). Has it lived up to your expectations?
@MegK: i haven’t tried used it much yet, except for the STD and i did try printing a normal photo just to test it out. so far, i’m happy with it. i like the fact that it’s a scanner/copier as well, since we will have to do some scanning later on in the wedding process. have you used it for any printing yet? i do hope you like it! it got pretty good reviews and it was recommended by the salesperson, even more than the more expensive one we were going to get, so i trusted his judgement.
TOO CUTE! I love them! You did a fabo job on your first DIY project - Props to you
great job! they look great!
Those are the cutest little people….ever!!
I love the illustration! So adorable and personal. And the end product looks great.
Wow, those are my exact colors! Awesome! Looks good
Miss Martini, New Jersey
Age and Occupation: 30, Telecom by day, Superhero by night
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Investments & Finance by day, Hip hop dancer by night
Engagement Date: May 24, 2008
Wedding Date: March, 2009
Blogging Since: August 18, 2008
Venue: The Venetian
About Me: Things that make me happy: Haribo Happy Cola gummies, TV shows on DVD, buying books although I never read them, 80’s rock ballads, ramen, and of course Mr. Martini! He is the calm, logical and number crunching finance guy. I can’t even multiply double digit numbers in my head and I am so indecisive that trying to choose between light green or slightly lighter green paper stresses me out (Wedding planning is going to be soooo much fun). We both find great joy in nabbing great seats at the movie theater for a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, and we are both absolutely crazy about snowboarding. And he loves to cook, I love to eat!
They look great! I love the illustration.