Weddingbee Blog

With a lot of pressure riding on the invitations, it was time to pull the threads of inspiration and get down to decision making!

According to David Tutera:

Invitations should set a tone of excitement for your entire affair! The outside of the envelope, the stamps, the layout of the invitation, and the font—all the details count. When you’re creating invitations, imagine what it will be like for your guests to be receiving them. A great invitation grabs the attention of your guests and guarantees the impression that yours is a wedding not to be missed.

Thanks, David. No pressure added. None at all. Especially for a bride who obsesses over paper and fonts.

So I got to work. It would have to evoke the laid-back-ness of BBQ—not black tie. And I knew that I would likely go the Etsy route. (I love the idea of supporting independent designers.) I was thinking about designing them myself, but I have been holding out on splurging on Photoshop.

With words swirling in my head about the essence that I wanted to evoke (sweet, fun, laid-back, charming, true love, vintage, simplistic romance…), I found these pretty pieces of paper:

Etsy designer Two for Joy Paper

Etsy designer New, Borrowed, and Blue plays off MadLibs in this adorable invite.

I just love the fonts and wording (we are “super excited” to be getting married, too!) in this invite from Etsy designer Swoon Creative.

But one stood out in particular. Given our history of Mr. Sweet Cream riding me on his handlebars everywhere after my bike got stolen in eighth grade, my heart melted when my eyes fell upon this:

Etsy designer Razzle Dazzle’s sweet bicycle silhouette certainly encompasses sweet, fun, laid-back, charming, true love, vintage…don’t you think?

Sigh. It was perfect. Except I wanted it to speak to our feelings for each other. Besides my love of paper and fonts, I love words.

Although I certainly love the word “hitched,” when speaking about tying the knot, I preferred “married” for our invite. It just felt a little more formal. As much as a wedding that involved pulled pork could.

And I just loved the words on this cake topper: “This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love.”

I also wanted to tiptoe around the formality of my father and mother “cordially requesting” guests’ presence. Although I certainly think that it is lovely, it just didn’t fit with the feel of our wedding.

So I worked with Razz, going back and forth via email and snail mail. Finally…ta-da!!

Image via Razzle Dazzle

Gorgeous, no?

But wait! Something was missing…

With that tree inspiration lingering in my mind, I begged Razz to incorporate a tree with our initials for the reception card. I really think that it adds that deep-down tug at the heartstrings that I was pining for.

So this adorable tree with our initials was swapped out with the duo on a bike for our reception card, and now I am completely in love with our invites.

But they’re not finished quite yet. I’m still thinking about a way to incorporate a simply beautiful Bob Marley quote about love—as well as a DIY wedding map. I may add a bit of fabric here and perhaps some baker’s twine there…but more on that later. I can’t wait to share my full invitation suite with the hive!!

I seriously suggest jotting down the words that you want to evoke for your day to help with the planning process. What made you choose yours?

Do you have a favorite phrase that had to make it into the invite? Was your invite formal or not so much? Were you brave enough to DIY the whole thing?