Weddingbee Blog

Our wedding invitations are almost ready for a reveal to the hive and I’m so excited. I wanted to take a bit to explain how they came to be; it all started when I sent off the invitations for our engagement party! I was thrilled that we were having the party and so relieved to have finished the invites. I’d slaved over those bad boys and put my heart and soul into making sure they looked fabulous.

Even though the pictures didn’t do them justice, they were marvelous—they really, really were. Even if nobody else thought so, I did. I finally understood the phrase “labor of love,” too. A lot of people may not have realized that I lined the envelopes; designed, printed, and cut each invite; or hand-glued each gem, but it doesn’t matter, because I did it out of love—love for all things DIY and pretty.

This was my first wedding project (other than the DIY cards for my BMs), and I must say, I learned a lot.

This project was really a good introduction into the world of DIY in all its glory and madness. While the process was tough on me in many ways, it was also very rewarding. Seeing a finished product you created from start to finish, with love and care, with the help of friends and family, is pretty cool.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. You must vow to always find a reason to send invitations. In a world of convenient emails and text messages, I don’t want to lose the beautiful and personal touch of a paper—snail mail—invitations. It’s too much fun to create and send handmade notes and cards, so I vow to never give up the practice.
2. Buy more supplies than you need. Literally, I’ve been to AC Moore about 10 times and still never had enough card stock to line our envelopes or gems to glue to each invite. Next time, I’m buying more than I need on my first trip!
3. Patience is a virtue all DIY brides must possess. At one point, I almost gave up on designing the invitations and bought store-made ones. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted and I had to be patient and realize the design wasn’t going to come together overnight.
4. Solicit help. Seriously, these invitations would not have looked nearly as good if it weren’t for the help of Mr. B, my grandmother, and mom. Mr. B cut the templates, my mom cut the invitations and lined envelopes with me, and my grandmother (the master of all paper DIY goods) helped with creating and printing the design.
5. DIY invitations are not always cheaper and/or less stressful. I actually found that I spent a lot of money going back and forth trying to get the right supplies. I never ended up using the invitations I bought in a pack—I just used the envelopes, which seemed wasteful. I also never used a bunch of rubber stamps and a few of our personalized postage stamps.

Without further ado…

Check out the personalized postage stamps from Zazzle:

This picture was taken just minutes after Mr. B proposed!

The other big lesson I learned was that DIY invitations aren’t all they are cracked up to be (at least for me). While I admire the women who take on the project and conquered it, I can’t say I’ll be one of them. I always imagined I would design our invites, but after this labor, I wasn’t so sure.

What have you learned from your experience with DIY invitations or other projects? What advice would you give first time DIY brides?

*Sorry the picture quality sucks

Up next: How to line envelopes, couture invitations and meltdowns, and my attempt at Adobe Illustrator…