Weddingbee Blog

This past weekend, I sprang in to action and started crafting the invitations for FMIL & FFIL’s family picnic/casual reception. You saw my Post-It note already. Once I got home, I assembled my supplies…

And I turned that Post-It note in to a rough, rough, rough mock-up.

(The floral paper is green on its back-side.)

The key thing about this design is that it fits in the small (5.75″ x 4.5″) envelopes I had leftover from my Save-The-Date cardstock. Short of ordering them online, I really don’t have a good supply store for envelopes. The issue is that the RSVP postcard itself is nearly the size of the envelope, and can’t be cut much smaller due to post office regulations. So there really was no way to package it attractively inside the folded enclosure. But oh well, this is a casual event, right?

Do you ever find yourself unable to sleep because you’re so conflicted about a choice you made? That was me after I made the mock-up. It just seemed so… half-assed. (And granted, it was half-assed. I mean, it was pencil-drawn and everything.) But the design itself was just irking me. I tossed and turned, thinking of things I could do to improve it.

It hit me, at about 3 AM, that I just really didn’t like this design. And here’s why: It was too much like the invitations I made for my first wedding. Seriously: Pretty floral paper, with solid paper on top, corners rounded with a pretty punch, and fastened together with double-sided tape. And similarities aside: there had been so many things about those that I hadn’t liked in the first place. I knew I could do better, even then. And I’ve seen SO MUCH paper-product-pr0n since that time, and bookmarked tons of it. Stuff like these.

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Yet, when it came down to it, I still had crafted this invitation I didn’t even like. I kept telling myself to ease up - this is a semi-casual/neighborhood gathering. The rural version of a ’block-party’. But you know what? Simple + casual does NOT have to equal mediocre. This is my and Mr. MJ’s wedding, and dammit, we’re going to have an invitation to be proud of, even if it costs me more of my money and most of my sanity.

Wait until you see what I came up with!

Have you had second thoughts about your DIY projects?