Weddingbee Blog

Hive, I must tell you, the first two DIY projects I talked about weren’t actually my first. You’re never supposed to lie about your first, but…I was ashamed. I was proud of what I did at the time, but then…well…

You look on Weddingbee and someone points out how something you just spent hours on was probably a terribly unimaginative, wholly unimportant, overwhelmingly uncreative waste of time and money. They weren’t talking about you specifically, they were talking about your type of project. You hang your head in shame and vow never to speak of your first.

An amazing amount of creativity finds its way to the surface, and you are overwhelmingly uncreative no more. Your unimportance suddenly is less whole and your imagination is far less terrible. The clouds part and you put out good work.

I did the thank you wreath and the save-the-date bunting in mid June and felt really proud of them. But as more time passed, I became less ashamed of my project from early June. I’ve decided to own up and show you my real first. So what if it’s a terribly unimaginative, wholly unimportant, overwhelmingly uncreative waste of time and money? I worked hard on it and got my desired results.

So just what am I talking about, hive? I’m talking about inviting our wedding party to join us in our wedding party. Even with our large number, we had already asked pretty much everyone except the officiants before we were engaged. So it wasn’t a surprise to them what we wanted.

Still, I wanted something more formal. Something they could look back on. Something to seal the deal. And as much as all those beautiful handmade wedding-party invites I’ve seen around Weddingbee tugged at my heartstrings, I knew there was no way Mr. Kettle and I were about to hand-make 30+ invitations.

So I turned to my best friend for making stuff on my PC: Microsoft Word. I know, I know—why not upgrade to Publisher? Why not use any of the many programs that come standard on a PC just for that purpose? I’m a rebel and I like what I like.

I got on Microsoft Word and began searching for templates. After going through a number of templates, I found one that looked like it was close-ish to the right colors. At that time we were going for blue, not purple.

Also, I hadn’t yet decided I was set so firmly against hearts in my not-Valentine’s-themed wedding. Plus, I know I’m a sucker for straight lines and stripes. So I picked a template and went about trying to make it personal for each person.

This basically involved changing the words to say “Bridesmaid” or “Bridal Attendant” or “Officiant.” There wasn’t a whole lot to do. We printed them off on this really cute and special fancy paper, and I began folding. I left space on each one for Mr. Kettle and me to write a personalized message on it. We split it up according to who’s family/friend was being included in the wedding.

Personal photo: Oh yeah, four-fold Microsoft template. Don’t worry, I wasn’t under any delusions of creativity with this one.

Personal photo: I did like the wording, even if I didn’t come up with it myself. I did come up with that blue text box on the inside. That counts for something, right?

Personal photo: These wedding bells turned out to be something that showed up in other places throughout the wedding. Two of everything is an unofficial theme.

We got the envelopes and stuffed them. This will be the only thing for the wedding I would dare hand-address. My handwriting is pretty terrible, so I wouldn’t do it for more than 50 things. And all our wedding events have at least 100 people attending.

Personal photo: Almost forgot to show the front cover. I messed around with the color, but not much else.

Personal photo: These envelopes are surprisingly amazing. And super affordable.

Personal photo: I really liked this paper. The weight wasn’t too heavy, and the color was fabulous. It’s part of the reason I keep flip-flopping between pure white and creamy ivory for our wedding color.

Personal photo: Sorry I had to cover up most of this. But I did want you to at least get a glimpse of my handwriting.

Not my most creative DIY, but our friends and family really enjoyed getting these in the mail. Seeing as how we’d asked most of them to participate before we even were engaged, this made it official for them, I think.

How did you invite your WP? Was your invitation waaaay better than mine?