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Mrs. Pain au Chocolat, Wilmington, DE Age and Occupation: 29, Realtor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Realtor Engagement Date: November 21, 2009 Wedding Date: June 2011 Venue: Greenville Country Club About Me: An ENFJ with an artistic streak who loves backgammon, sailing, graphic design, and sleeping in. Travel (near or far), good wine, and tasty food makes my heart sing. I'm a compulsive list-maker who lives to plan and organize. Mr. P and I have lived together for 4 years, all the while renovating our city townhome bit by bit. We're planning a whimsical, Anthropologie-inspired garden wedding in June 2011.
About Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

We’ve already established that I love yellow. It’s a perfect color for our warm and sweet, playful summertime fete. Mr. P and I knew our invitations would be equally sweet and playful with lots of yellow for good measure.

If you compare the “look” of a wedding to a corporate identity (brand), you find many similarities. The tiny business card, containing the most information on the smallest piece of paper, is the starting point for the brand. The colors, fonts, and shapes contained within it are then applied to everything else! Continuing the analogy…the save the date is the wedding version of a business card. It’s your guests’ first impression of the wedding, hinting at the merriment and joy to come!

The mood you convey here should be carried over into the rest of the paper suite (invitation, RSVP, and more) and possibly even further into the decor itself. Which is why I had such a difficult time beginning. Design paralysis! To beat back the procrastination, I thumbnail sketched 40+ layouts before popping the simplest into Illustrator.

Begin with the basics: the date and request to save the date.*

Invitation: Save the Date Round One :  wedding diy save the dates wilmington Yellow01 yellow01

See, a date and the words “save the date.”

Invitation: Save the Date Round One :  wedding diy save the dates wilmington Yellow02 yellow02

Making it more obvious—STD in larger letters.

Invitation: Save the Date Round One :  wedding diy save the dates wilmington Yellow03 yellow03

What if the guest has more than one wedding to attend? How will they know this is Miss and Mr. PaC’s STD? Oh bother, might as well put our stinkin’ names on the thing.

Invitation: Save the Date Round One :  wedding diy save the dates wilmington Yellow04 yellow04

Add a little color. All yellow is a little boring, but I’m not really feeling this green.

Invitation: Save the Date Round One :  wedding diy save the dates wilmington Yellow05 yellow05

This is my favorite of the bunch in colors that make me crave lemonade, orange juice, and pink lemonade.

But I was satisfied with none of these. They were too modern and not whimsical enough. I stepped away from the STDs for a few days and promised Mr. P I wasn’t procrastinating again. OK, maybe I was a little bit, but I always find my eye is more objective when I take a few days to ruminate on a design.

Did you coordinate your save the dates with the feel/theme of your wedding?

*One would think this is obvious, but ah…do not be fooled, for your guests will call, email, or even phone your mother asking how they RSVP and where is the rest of the information. Your eye may begin twitching if it hasn’t already.

Tags: diy, save-the-dates, wilmington |
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16 Responses to “Invitation: Save the Date Round One”

1.
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Bee
Miss Hyena (message)  1,881 posts, Buzzing bee

That last one is my favorite too! Can’t wait to see what else you came up with!

 
2.
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Member
MrsP-to-be (message)  84 posts, Worker bee

I had a hard time too for all the same reasons. I knew what I wanted, but all the little details I wanted to incorporate into the wedding weren’t fully formed enough for me to constuct a STD! In the end, I took a leap of faith. I was thinking our wedding would be either: Eco/Rustic, Asian Fusion, or Vintage feeling. I picked a stamp that went with all of these (YES, I found a dogwood tree stamp that matched all those motifs!) and used it on the STD’s. By invite-time, a “feel” of the wedding had already emerged and I used the exact same stamp, (embossed) on wood-grain paper. So- yes, step away, keep browsing through for inspiration and it will all come togther, and if not- there won’t be 1 person who is offended by the lack of consistency- promise!

 
3.
Crown
Member
Crown (message)  534 posts, Busy bee

I’m with Hyena…the last one just screams beautiful, sunny, summer wedding!

 
4.
Miss Cinnamon Bun
Bee
Miss Cinnamon Bun (message)  1,100 posts, Bumble bee

I love the last one!
I copped out of making the STDs match everything else, because we didn’t have anything else at that point! That, and I really wanted to use a photo of us, so I just slapped some text on an engagement photo and called it done. :)

 
5.
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Bee
Miss Candy Apple (message)  1,465 posts, Bumble bee

I have a huge crush on that last one, and it totally makes me think of pink lemonade, too!

And yes, my eyeball has been twitching since I started the planning process. No big deal.

 
6.
Mrs. Meerkat
Bee
Mrs. Meerkat (message)  3,216 posts, Sugar bee

I totally love the last one! I am dying to see what you came up with!

 
7.
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Member
agilanyi (message)  7 posts, Newbee

The only thing our save the dates and invitations had in common were the colors. The feels were very different. I think it’s okay to switch up your stationary nowadays because most people won’t be like “I can’t believe her invites don’t match the save the dates!” :)

I like the last one for what it’s worth!

 
8.
shirasagi
Member
shirasagi (message)  461 posts, Helper bee

The last one is awesome. Clean design and beautiful, summery colors. I love the simplicity of it. I think that coming up with designs and themes can be so overwhelming, but in the end I think simplicity works best and classic style work best! :)

 
9.
Miss Tartlet
Bee
Miss Tartlet (message)  3,207 posts, Sugar bee

I want to gobble the last one up. So cute, and I can’t wait to see what you came up with! We tried to convey the feel of our wedding through our Save-the-Dates, too.

 
10.
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Member
miss.qwerty (message)  895 posts, Busy bee

That last one is great. Can’t wait to see what you came up with to add a shot of whimsy to your save the dates.

 
11.
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Bee
Miss Lox (message)  1,128 posts, Bumble bee

Modern and whimsical? We must be have sister weddings. :)

 
12.
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Bee
Miss Pain au Chocolat (message)  1,698 posts, Bumble bee

Glad everyone likes the last one, but our STDs ended up in a completely different direction. (Oops.) I’m a little nervous what the hive is going to think when it goes up. Eep!

 
13.
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Bee
Miss Magic (message)  628 posts, Busy bee

Dude, my eye totally is twitching and has been for a week. Everyone keeps thanking me for the “invite” and the “announcement.” I’m like, “I sent you an STD dammit…get it straight!”

Twitch, twitch.

 
14.
Miss Houndstooth11
Member
Miss Houndstooth11 (message)  19 posts, Newbee

I was stressed out with my save the dates just like you! After a little while, I thought about it. These are not my invitations!!! They don’t have to neccesarily reflect the weddingdecor or theme exactly!! thatswhat the invitations are for!! I went with a black and white damask save the date with our engagement pics (because it matched the outfits we wore in our pics). My colors arepink and orange and it’s a summer wedding. We took our pics in the fall though…so it doesn’t have to be exactly what you are doing for the wedding!

 
15.
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Bee
Miss Cotton Candy (message)  436 posts, Helper bee

I love the last one! My eyes started twitching from all the returned STD we got back because apparently some of our guest don’t know their addresses and gave us the wrong ones!

 
16.
Guest Icon
Guest
Dee Dee

I love the last one too! We did a similar one on savethedatemagic.com and just loved it - we made them into magnets and people said the colors stood out so well, our wedding was always on their minds! Congrats!

 

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Mrs. Pain au Chocolat
Mrs. Pain au Chocolat

Mrs. Pain au Chocolat, Wilmington, DE Age and Occupation: 29, Realtor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Realtor Engagement Date: November 21, 2009 Wedding Date: June 2011 Venue: Greenville Country Club About Me: An ENFJ with an artistic streak who loves backgammon, sailing, graphic design, and sleeping in. Travel (near or far), good wine, and tasty food makes my heart sing. I'm a compulsive list-maker who lives to plan and organize. Mr. P and I have lived together for 4 years, all the while renovating our city townhome bit by bit. We're planning a whimsical, Anthropologie-inspired garden wedding in June 2011.

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