Weddingbee Blog

There have been so many great DIY projects by the Bees, that we thought we’d highlight some from our archives that you may have missed!

These are Mrs. Tomato’s DIY invitations, originally posted on May 2, 2007.

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Here is my labor of love (heh) for the past six weeks… the wedding invitation!

Edwardian Script and Felix Titling font (I’m all about combining style and practicality). “True Blue” stamp (I wanted something whimsical) in the upper right hand corner.

Gold “Love” wax seal to convey elegance.

Vellum envelope tied with a pale yellow ribbon. Pale yellow and peachish-pink are the wedding colors, which are supposed to convey warmth and the sunset (after all, our venue, Auberge du Soleil, means “Inn of the Sun”). I’m a perfectionist so I must have tied and retied those things for I don’t know how long… I wanted the bows and ends to be near equal length. By the way, that ribbon was going to cost me $156 at Ribbonerie in SF!!! (Don’t worry, I bought much less and ended up spending around $30). Whew.

Vellum cover with gold leaf motif. The gold here ties in with the gold wax seal… both are supposed to convey elegance. The gold leaves are supposed to give the upscale country feel of Auberge/Napa Valley (where the wedding is to be held).

“The Strongest and Sweetest songs yet remain to be Sung.” -Whitman. (quote on upper right hand corner)

Whitman is perhaps my favorite poet. Mr. Tomato often jokes that I’d probably run off with him if he were still alive. I engraved this quote on Mr. Tomato’s silver necklace when we first started dating… it symbolizes that the strongest and sweetest part of our relationship is yet to come (which has continued to prove true!).

I hand drew the two flower branches. They symbolize two souls joining at one (see where they touch at the bottom?). OKAY JUST KIDDING–I just made that up (this is why I was an English major). I drew the branches because I wanted something to go with the gold leaf motif, and got the idea from the flower branches Mr. Tomato buys every so often to stick in his vase at home. Each card was painstakingly colored in: peachish-pink flowers to go with the wedding colors, and gold leaves to go with the vellum. Was it worth it? I have no idea. You tell me.

Pale yellow (again, wedding color) RSVP card enclosed in a vellum envelope.

“We hope you can share this day with us.”

Inside, the guest finds an RSVP code. Mr. Tomato spent two weeks coding an online reservation system on our wedding website, and it’s great! We’ll be saving money on postage. Guests can also find more wedding info (address, dress code, etc) on our website.

Inside the invitation. Simple and sweet, just the way I like it - I wanted to create something easy for people to read.

Mr. Tomato thought it’d be awesome if I signed the back of each invitation with my name. So I did.

I was able to mail it all with a 39 cent stamp. The reason being, I used a traditional RSVP-sized card for the invitation, and a place card as the RSVP card. I felt the small size would contribute to the intimate theme of the wedding, and it was a lot cheaper too! The only downside is you’re not able to fit as much writing (which is why most of the information is on the wedding website Mr. Tomato and I created from scratch).

I wanted to answer a few questions that came up regarding where my materials came from and how much they cost. Here’s the breakdown:

I purchased the outer envelope, medium vellum envelope and vellum from envelopemall:

Classic Crest 4-3/8 x 5-3/4″, (A2) Envelope 100 Pack, Classic Cream
Price: $11.50

Translucent Clear 3-5/8″ x 5-1/8″ (4Bar) Envelope 100 Pack
Price: $10.50

Translucent Pattern Sheets 8-1/2 x 11″, (30 lb) 100 Pack, Gold Vine on Clear
Price: $18.95

* Shipping costs are reasonable, but it’s dependent on order quantity

I purchased the notecards (also known as “Announcement cards”) at Aaron Brothers art/framing store, but they are actually cheaper at dickblick:

Strathmore Blank Cards and Envelopes
Box of 10, Ivory/Ivory Deckle (deckle means the “torn” edge)

Price at Aaron Brothers: $3.99/box
Price at dickblick.com: $2.48/box

I purchased the small yellow RSVP cards and glassine envelopes at Paper Source:

Butter Placecard, 50 Pack
Folded size- 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″

Price: $7.00/pack

Glassine Envelopes, 50 Pack
Folded size- 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ (not available online)

Price: $6.00/pack

Total Paper Cost: ~$120 (this includes the extra I bought in case of printing blunders)

I bought the glue gun sealing wax and brass seal at Nostalgic Impressions. Their “wedding kit” for $22.95 includes 5 wax sticks (in the color of your choice) and your pick of 18 different brass seals. I saved a few dollars this way.

As I mentioned before, the ribbon I purchased at The Ribbonerie was about $30. I probably could have gone to Michael’s or Joann’s, but the ribbons here are just so special!Total Accessories Cost: ~$55

For 55 invitations, I ended up spending around $175. Factor in the stamps, and the total cost was around $200. Not the most frugal route, but because I’ve designed wedding invitations for friends before, I wanted to do my own (plus they were expecting nothing less from me!). It was the one area in our wedding I really wanted to personalize.

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SIX WEEKENDS TO MAKE INVITATIONS… WAS IT WORTH IT?

I kinda knew what I was getting myself into. After all, I made wedding invitations for my friends before so I knew the cost of labor was going to be tremendous. But this was one way for me to personalize our wedding. Our wedding is going to be small, and I wanted the intimacy to come through with handmade cards. Still, from every experience I learn something new…

THINGS I LEARNED

-If you are making invitations just to save money, think again. There are so many economical options out there nowadays–including Costco.

-Never feed a hand torn edge into a printer. It will print crooked, again and again.

-However, if you insist on having the “torn edge look” (as I did) then try hand feeding. The chances of crooked printing diminishes greatly.

-For the most painless route, select plain card stock as your paper. The home printer doesn’t grip slippery shimmey paper well.

-Kinko’s won’t print anything smaller than 8.5 x 11.

-Never think you are done until you are actually done. We thought we’d be done in two weeks. Look where that got us.

Good luck!