Wedding Blog

I designed my STDs to look like handwritten vintage postcards using the trial version of Adobe InDesign.

After downloading and installing InDesign on my MacBook, I started by creating a new 6″ x 4″ document.

The program automatically converts inches into picas (that’s the “p” you see in the box there).

Now you should have this:

I used the line tool (sixth button from the top on the left toolbar) to draw a line down the center of the postcard. See that box at the top of the screen that says 1 pt? That’s the thickness of the line. Currently, the line is 1 point thick. If you want a thicker or thinner line, just increase or decrease the number in that box.

Next, I went online in search of some sweet vintage-looking fonts on 1001 Free Fonts.

My first find was Calamity Jane. I installed it and started working on the ‘Save the Date’ logo for the top of the card:

The little “T” button on the left allows you to create text boxes. The logo for the top of the card is made of three separate text boxes because it’s easier to position the text exactly how you want it in relation to each other if each word is in its own box.

But then I ran into a problem. Calamity Jane in all caps is nearly unreadable, and I wanted to have the flexibility to use all caps for the text at the top of the card.

Instead, I ended up choosing Nickelodeon, another font from 1001 Free Fonts, for the card text.

Next, I found a nice handwriting font for the message. I used Popsies.

I made another small text box where the stamp will go. I’m not even sure why I did this, because I’ll probably be the only one who will see them! Oh well. I think they’re cute!

It’s just another text box, except I used this handy tool:

The stroke button on the right side of the screen. It allows me to change the width and style of the text box outline. Mine is a 1 pica Thick-Thin outline.

I was pretty much done, but I thought the top of the card looked a little plain, so I went hunting for a vintage-y flourish to put at the top underneath the logo. I downloaded Dividers and Dividers II dings from House of Lime. They work just like fonts. I drew a text box and picked out a ding I liked.

Ta-da! The completed backside of the STD.

I’ll show you the fronts soon!