Weddingbee Blog

Unlike many of you, I didn’t get creative asking my bridesmaids to be, well, my bridesmaids.

(Unlike mplnewsdallas, who had these beautiful cards custom-made!)

I asked most of my ladies in person, and one over the phone. Luckily they all said yes, despite my lack of effort. Speaking of which, if any of my bridesmaids are reading this, shoo!

Well, I decided to make it up to them with more thoughtful thank you cards. After all, I kind of knew they would all say yes, being my three best friends and my two stepsisters. I mean, they’re kind of stuck with me! But that didn’t mean that they had to do anything for me after agreeing (and, hey, some of them didn’t, but that’s a story for another day!)—so I made up for my early laziness with some homemade thank you cards.

I know I’m not much of a DIY bride—printing some thank you cards and lining an envelope or two… hundred does not put me on a level with our most talented bees!—but when I saw these adorable cards on Etsy, I couldn’t help but think, “HEY! I can do that!”

(source)

So I started by assessing my resources. I still had quarter-sheet size ivory envelopes and ivory card stock from the thank you card “project”, and black linen cardboard scraps that didn’t get used for the programs or rehearsal dinner invitations.

I started by printing up a background or “frame” in Microsoft Word. I made a two-column document and inserted two clip art images (also known as, the same image twice) that were the size of a quarter-sheet of paper on the right top and right bottom.

Because I was feeling cutesy, I also wrote in a little “Handmade with ♥ by [Spaniel]” on the left, and printed three copies on my black and white laser printer.

Then, looking at a picture of the bridesmaid’s dress, I drew a rough silhouette of the dress on black card stock and cut it by hand.

(bridesmaid dress photo source)

Then I used the “template” and traced the waistline onto a piece of ivory card stock to draw the sash in the correct size, and cut the bow/ribbon from a separate piece of ivory card stock—an extra layer for texture. Then I glued them all together onto the card and, voilà! Bridesmaid thank you card!

I love that it didn’t take too long, because I plan to pour my heart out into the content, instead.

How are you thanking your bridesmaids?