Weddingbee Blog

I had no idea what a Gocco was until about two months ago. To this day, I have no real idea how it works. I realize there is some sort of color transfer, involving bulbs and screens and some magic, and somehow words and designs appear. Given my adoration of stationery, I’m pretty sure if I had some inclination as to how this worked, I’d enjoy this magical machine and be out a couple hundred bucks… so it’s probably best I remain in the dark.

Not one single person lives in the town that Mr. Pencils and I are getting married, and about half live more than 200 miles away. In the interest of our guests, and because I think they’re fun, we decided to send out save-the-dates.

Mr. Pencils and I had received a magnet save-the-date from a coworker of his back in 2007 so I tucked that little idea in my back pocket until our engagement. Of course, since 2007, these have become incredibly popular and two of the three weddings I attended this year included magnet save-the-dates. Undeterred by their popularity (and potential overuse by brides—who cares?), I hit up my friends for their suggestions and settled on a company that was pretty inexpensive, had tons of options, and incredibly easy software to create our STDs.

Magnetstreet.com is pretty wicked awesome. I was able to painlessly create several options for Mr. Pencils and I to choose from using the website. He humored me and looked at every single one I created (many more than the five I am showing you!). I kept my name visible so you can see the fonts.

We eventually settled on one—a style I hadn’t created a mock-up for:

all above images created or found at MagnetStreet’s website

I thought it’d be smooth sailing from that choice on, but Mr. Pencils and I couldn’t agree on a photo to feature. We hadn’t taken our engagement photos yet, but couldn’t wait for those to send the STDs, so we had to choose from our current photo repertoire. We dabbled with every photo you see in the ones I made above, but Mr. Pencils either thought he looked too white like a ghost, or I didn’t want to use one of us with sunglasses.

And then I selected a photo that FBIL’s girlfriend took of us this summer, taking a break during the seventh inning stretch of a minor league baseball game:

It was perfect—neither of us look awful, I’m rockin’ my classic “smile” and it reflects our fun-loving natures. Three long hours after we began, we ordered 125 of these little babies for $1.14 each. Less than two weeks later and some minor changes made via our Magnetstreet artist (their customer service is AMAZING!), and they were in our hands!

We included a backing card that had our wedding website for guests, where I have listed our room block information and other travel info for guests!

All images above by me!

I loved this outsourced project and I highly recommend the company to other brides!

How long did it take you to decide on a save-the-date (if you’re doing one!)? Do you and your fiance ever have trouble agreeing on a “couple” photo to spotlight?