Weddingbee Blog

I’ve always been the artsy-craftsy type. As a little girl, I could usually be found off somewhere in a corner coloring and pasting to my little heart’s delight. There’s just something about creating things that I’ve always found to be personally satisfying. Whether it’s beading jewelry, crocheting doilies, embossing paper or any other of a number of crafts… I’m up for it!

Needless to say, as soon as Mr. Yorkie and I got engaged, I started my list of DIY projects. While I was never the kind of girl that dreamed of her perfect wedding and all of its littlest details, I have always known that I want our special day to be unique and a reflection of us as a couple. This wedding has become the ultimate opportunity to craft for crafting’s sake. The best part has been that no one has asked me whether there’s something more important that I should be doing!

I decided to tackle the biggest of the DIY projects first: designing the invitations. I knew that I wanted an invitation with a vintage feel that would hint at the wedding’s semi-formal tone. This is important since our ceremony will be on the beach and the reception will be outdoors, and the last thing I want is for someone to show up in a loud Hawaiian shirt.

With a little inspiration from Brooklyn Bride and Laura Hooper, and the perfect font and graphics from Veer and Dover Publications, I designed our invitations using the free trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS4.

The invitations and RSVP cards were flat printed on smooth cream-colored cardstock. The envelopes, maps and directions were printed on a laser printer. I decided to package all of the pieces in pyrite (a shimmery champagne color) pocketfolds from Envelopments, layering the invitation on their azalea cardstock and using azalea envelopes for the RSVPs. For the finishing touch, I used a sheer golden ribbon tied in an interlocking loop to hold each pocketfold closed.

Here they are, from the outside in.

For all of the printing, trimming, pasting, and tying that went into these little bundles, I must say that it was worth the work! I delivered the little “babies” to the post office a few weeks ago, where they were hand-canceled and shipped off to our guests. Whew!

What DIY project has become your labor of love?