Wedding Blog

These went out a few weeks ago, the responses are pouring in, and I’ve been a bad Bee for not posting this sooner.

Our invites!

I worked with an amazing Etsy designer, Karen of mtkdesigns, to design our invitation suite, programs, and menus. If you are thinking of DIYing your invites, but need help with the graphics, this is THE WAY TO GO! We went back and forth until things were exactly to our liking and then she emailed us the file as a .jpeg and .pdf! Easy! I printed these out 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 paper.

Karen included light grey cut lines. Chop, chop chop! Then they were ready for the next step.

I ordered linen paper from Blue Dot Paper Shop (a great little company, a lot cheaper than Paper Source!) in navy blue and white. I had them cut the navy paper in half, as that would serve as the backing for the invitation. Our design allowed for a border of just over 1/4” on each side. I used a Duck brand double sided tape roller on all 4 sides, then put a strip down the middle for good measure.

We didn’t put any guidelines on the navy backing paper. We just eyeballed it as closely as we could and stuck them down. A few were a little off. But it was nothing that a little chop, chop, chop with the paper cutter couldn’t handle!

The RSVP card was just a single sheet of cardstock. They were a little flimsy, but I figured this was the part that would be mailed back to us, not kept by our guests, so I didn’t mind saving a bit of money on this step!

The linen paper gave me the texture I wanted without the cost of letterpress or the added time of embossing (although I love both…sigh).

For single guests to know they could feel free to invite a “+1”, I found this natural wrapping paper on sale at IKEA for 99 cents! A bargain belly band, I tell ya! We used the pink and white sheets of the paper and folded and ripped them to size, rather than cut them with scissors.

The inspiration for addressing the envelopes came from none other than the fabulous Weddingbee.com! You may remember a DIY guest post about faux calligraphy - and I am living proof that this not only works, but it is SUPER EASY! I typed up the addresses using Bradley Hand font and used a fine-point silver paint marker to trace over the printed grey lines. For 60 invites, I went through 4 pens.

I really feel that our invites evoke the wedding vibe we’re going for – “Preppy Casual”.

Oh, and we finally settled on this quote by Brian Andreas… it is very fitting for us.

Did you DIY your invites with the help of a graphic designer?