Wedding Blog
Invitations. Sweet, sweet invitations. I know there are a lot of invitation and paper lovers out there, and I am no exception. As DIY brides, we labor over these little pieces of our heart. Agonizing over multiple shades of navy blue. Choosing textured paper over smooth. Lining up everything just so until we’re cross eyed. And eventually, we end up with our suite of goodies.
The design of our invitation and RSVP card was so painless it almost didn’t seem real. The fact that something wedding-related could go this smoothly wowed me! I owe it all to the incredible Karen of mtkdesigns. I found her on Etsy and she has been an absolute dream to work with. From our logo and invitations, to our upcoming programs and menus, I can honestly say hiring her was one of our best decisions to date.
For those of you who want to DIY your paper goods, but need an expert for the design, hiring a graphic designer is the way to go.
Karen just emailed me proof after proof until we got it exactly right, then I took the files and printed out everything myself. I saved sooo much money doing it this way.
I can’t wait to reveal all of our invitation details to you, but for now, I wanted to share little snippets of the (almost) finalized product.
I promise to go into the details soon - we want to put them in the mail this week!
Did you DIY your invitation with help on the design from a pro? Who did you hire?
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Oh I love that first picture. That is how I feel about our invitations. But I have gotten a few compliments so I guess it was worth all of the hard work. Can’t wait to see yours!
Ugh! *Eagerly* Home with a cold, and my head’s all mushy. 
Oh! Karen is my best friend’s little sister. I’m so happy you gave her a shout out. She’s really amazing (and so is her sister!).
I imagined it up and bribed my graphic designer co-worker into making it a reality. I loved being able to sit beside him going, “no, move that there”, “that purple’s too dark”, “make that font bigger”. (I’m such a bossy-boss.)
We did the same thing, I am totally design inept, so I found a designer on etsy who is creating our save the dates and is uploading them to vistaprint for us. Hopefully tonight! :rubs hands together in glee:
Here’s her info.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6413976
HAHAHAHA I love Someecards! and I can’t wait to see you invites 
I designed my own, made them, and my FMIL and I put them together. We have gotten really good compliments on them, but the most important thing is that my fiance and I are satisfied with them.
May I ask where you got them printed? I also found a designer to help with our graphic design, but sadly, things didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Luckily, she gave me something I was able to work with on my own, and I think between her initial work and my “I swear I’ll figure this program out if it’s the last thing I do!” mentality, I’m almost there. Now I just need to decide where to get them printed…
I’m glad to hear about your good experience! I’ve been eyeing up some invites on etsy and I hope to go the same route when we’re ready. Can’t wait for to see the final results
Ah, what a great idea because a) online=convenient b) unique and customized, customized, customized! (did you select from one of her invitation lines and then edit or was it from scratch)? c) a SMART money saver!
I know they’re going to look great and look forward to seeing them, Quichey!
@hwong14: I printed them at work - shh! We have quite a few kick-ass printers, so the quality was better than a Kinko’s or similar place.
@Miss Perfume: Completely designed from scratch! I just noticed that she named my invitation suite the “Preppy” & is offering it to others to use as well, just changing the name. Cool!
@Miss Quiche: That is fantastic that you inspired the new offering! (You’re a designer yourself, right? So I’m not surprised!) Seriously, can’t wait to see them! Unrelated: how come your hair always looks perfect? (I need to go to bed, clearly.)
Ok I totally cheated and looked at them on her website. Love them!!!
Looking forward to seeing the finished product! We’re designing our own invites, although sometimes I wish we had help from a pro! It can be tricky.
I designed our STDs with GIMP. They only took about an hour even though I am a total perfectionist, but I expect invites to take longer and lots of indecision since I care a lot more about those… I sort of based (stole) my ideas off other invites/STDs I’d seen online, but it was fun and easy to do it myself and know that they are totally unique. Not that anyone who receives them will know that.
I’ve always been a bit sad that I may spend hours agonizing over my invites and most people won’t have noticed…but at least we can share with each other and feel better! Can’t wait to see yours!
[...] on our awesome color copier at work (with approval, bien sur!), then the girls and I went to town assembling them. The invitations and RSVP cards were arranged to fit one of each per 8 ½ x 11 sheet of [...]
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Mrs. Quiche, Chicago/Montego Bay
Age and Occupation: 28, Interior Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 42, Telecom Guru
Engagement Date: July 2, 2008
Wedding Date: May, 2009
Venue: Coyaba Resort, Montego Bay
About Me: I love Chicago and can’t imagine living anywhere else (Well, except Paris. Or anywhere in France, for that matter!). I’m a full-time worker, part-time student, soon-to-be-step-mom, indie music lovin’, architecture and design fanatic, macaroni and cheese addict, vegetarian, Francophile, Ohio State football obsessed, wedding planning girl. Mr. Quiche and I are “Partners-in-Crime” and cannot wait to celebrate our marriage surrounded by our family and closest friends. I plan on DIYing my little heart out (or as much as a suitcase to Jamaica will hold).
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