Wedding Blog

Before I say, “I Do,” I am going to show you one last DIY project: our escort cards.

I had to wait until I knew who was coming and what each guest wanted to eat before I could start this project. Green is for the guests eating beef, and pink is for the guests eating fish. I printed out both the names on the front, and the inside directs guests where to sit:

I went with opposite colors on the insides, so the pinks and greens didn’t match, meaning if you ordered beef, the outside is green and the inside is pink, and vice versa.

I then embossed the front with a heart stamp. I got inspired to emboss them at a PaperSource event that  showed me how easy it was to do (and provided me with some tips). I went to Jo-Ann’s and bought all the tools for less than half the price. Here’s the stamp and stamping pads I used (minus the heat gun and embossing powder):

The cards themselves are Soft White from PaperSource. I thought I had bought the eco-paper ones, but alas, I bought one soft white and one eco-white, and of course, I didn’t realize this until I had finished about 75% of them on the soft white. Be careful, they have at least FIVE different white/off-white escort cards, so make sure you get the color you want.

Since the stamp was so big, I had to cover up two rows of hearts while stamping:

Before I stamped the paper, I removed the tape for a clean stamp:

And then immediately after stamping I threw down embossing powder, making sure it covered up the stamped area:

Once it was covered, I removed the excess embossing powder. Usually I gave the card a good flick from behind to make sure all excess was gone, and then I applied the heat gun tool.

You can tell from the picture above that the pink part is raised (aka embossed). You can also tell that I usually didn’t stamp perfectly uniformly (see the lower right hand heart), which gave each card character and a bit of individuality. Some of the names were longer and I stamped over part of the name, which again added character.

I have to admit: this project took forever. I had to print the names individually, then I printed the inside for each card, and the embossing just takes time (I did all of one color first, and then went back and did the other color). I think it took at least 3 or 4 nights of working on them while mindlessly watching TV.

So, what do you think? That’s the last DIY project I have time to share with you. But don’t worry, I have programs, menus, a welcome letter, a map, and my favorite project to date (involving chocolate and carbonfund.org). Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until I come back from our honeymoon.

Are you creatively marking your guests’ meal choices?  How are you doing so?