Weddingbee Blog

Our Save-the-Dates are finally designed, printed, cut, stuffed, stamped, and out the door into our lovely guests’ hands! These babies were a looong time comin’. Way back in September, we made the first decision, which was to use plantable paper. Then I thought I’d found inspiration in a calendar type save the date. When Mr. Guinea Pig and I couldn’t agree on what font to use for that, we scrapped the whole thing (that was a frustrating experience to say the least!). Finally we both came up with the same idea independently and were thrilled when the other was just as enthusiastic about it. Since we weren’t going to include a photo of ourselves, we would put cartoon versions of us on the card!

(The cartoon we had Etsy seller CopperOrchid do for us)

I put an Alchemy request out on Etsy for an inexpensive cartoon portrait in a really simple style, and I got a bunch of bids, but Merrilee at CopperOrchid’s really stood out and we are so glad we chose her - I highly recommend her! She let us do unlimited changes, was so patient with our nitpicky requests, and even got on GChat with me so we could send the file back and forth with comments/changes in real time! Once we had the cartoon sorted, it was just a question of getting all the important details included in the space around it (names, date, city, and our website). Then I organized four of them into an 8.5 x 11 space and printed them on the plantable paper we ordered from Botanical Paperworks. Up next was cutting 30 pages of these into 120 Save the Dates!

(The setup for cutting out all the Save the Dates)

Because the plantable paper had deckled edges, I made sure to leave a 1/4 inch border all the way around my design so I would have room to cut the edges straight. The final dimensions of each card were 4 in x 5.25 in, and as you can see I had plenty of scraps from the sides that I’ll plant in our garden!

(First cut the edges clean, then cut the cards out - and yes, I Photoshopped out personal info)

In the design I printed, I included faint gray lines as cutting guides to help me cut the cards out exactly right. Unfortunately they didn’t go completely to the edges (I think due to margin settings?) so it was easiest for me to line things up if I did each half separately, which meant I had to make 9 cuts per piece of paper! It took me about 2 hours to cut all the paper into cards.

(All done! Cards stacked up with the leftover paper scraps)

Whew! Now that all the cards were cut out, it was time to get them in our A2-size Lemon Drop envelopes (which we ordered from Paper Presentation). I had ordered these envelopes a while before we made our Save the Dates and slowly but surely addressed them the week before with a blue Sharpie pen, so by the time the STDs were printed, all the envelopes were ready to go!

(The stack of envelopes, stuffed with our plantable Save the Dates)

The choice of stamp was easy for us, as Mr. Guinea Pig and I both liked the current love stamp: the King and Queen of Hearts. And in a little detail that no one but me (and now you) will notice, I used the King stamps for Mr. GP’s guests, and the Queen stamps for mine.

(The stamps went nicely with our envelopes!)

Although because the two stamps were designed to be both separate and together, I had to include at least one envelope with the pair. Luckily I had a bunch of envelopes to send to Canada, and while most of them got two Queens (all the Canadian folks are my family), I at least got to put the King + Queen pair on the envelope for my Grandmother.

(I wish everyone could have had both stamps together)

Once they were all stamped and ready to go, I dropped them off at the Post Office! Although I will want to hand cancel our invitations, I saw no need to go through the ordeal for our Save the Dates… I’m sure our guests will get over it.

We started hearing from people the moment they got their cards in the mail (which was the next day for local folks!) - everyone seemed to think the plantable paper was a cool idea (and the general consensus is the cartoon looks more like me, than Mr. Guinea Pig… oh well, it’s not like I’m marrying a different redhead)! We included a short note on the back of the cards that read:

“Plant this seeded paper with soil and water, and enjoy the flowers that bloom!”

I’m hoping that people get the idea that they should hang onto the cards until they get our invites in March-ish, which will be the perfect time to plant the paper!

I’m so glad these went out with about 6 months to go. They were definitely a labor of love to design in all their many renditions, but pretty quick to print/cut/mail! I’m so impressed with some of the more elaborate Save-the-Dates out there (Miss Cola!) that I almost wish I had thought more carefully about extra touches to add. I could have rounded the corners, or mounted it on cardstock… luckily, I refuse to let myself think of what ifs (except when writing blog posts, apparently) and am perfectly happy with how our STDs turned out!

What’s your favorite idea for Save the Dates? Have you ever planted plantable paper?