Weddingbee Blog

Aloooooooha, Hive! This little Teacup has been a busy bee. W-Day looms a handful of weeks away, inspiring a flurry of wedding-related preparation. Yay!

In the midst of bouncing around from project to project, I’ve neglected to keep you caught up on all our W-Day progress. No more - I’ve brewed a cup of my favorite hot green tea and put myself on DIY timeout to get back to writing. Blogging counts as wedding activity, right?!

I left off last week promising a detailed tutorial of our invites, post-reveal. Let’s start at the very beginning. I hear it’s a very good place to start. Thanks, Maria.

Image via Dvdizzy / Credit: “The Sound of Music,” Dir. Robert Wise, 1965, film.

Step One: Source your invitation cards.

I chose to leave this first step to the professionals. After scouring the internet for inspiration, I ended up with 122 different designs saved to a folder on my computer and yet nothing felt quite right.

It may be because our wedding didn’t (and still doesn’t) have a specific theme, so I had to dig deep to find the perfect cards. My new favorite designer is Vera Wang after registering for her china dinnerware. Luckily enough, she also has a line of invitations through William Arthur. Even better, the line is sold through Papyrus in the mall!

Letting the invitation specialists do what they do best saved me untold levels of anxiety and stress. When there was a spelling error on the proof, it was their mistake to fix. I took advantage of a 20% off promotion and ordered them in March. One swipe of my credit card and the invitations were printed. A few weeks later I picked up the boxes, so much more lovely than I expected. Happy dance!

{ personal photos }

** WARNING! ** The next phase of my invite process is VERY time consuming. These steps are not meant to be finished in one sitting . . . impossible unless you’re only making a handful. You will need a lot of free time to make them, and it helps to ask others to join in on the paper crafting fun so you maintain a happy attitude in the process. Make little batches in an hour here and there. Otherwise, you’ll be up until 4AM on the eve of your bachelorette weekend finishing them and wishing you had heeded more of your own advice!

Step 2: Gather supplies for pocketfold envelopes.

I decided to forgo envelope liners in favor of pocketfolds. Our wedding location will be a destination for many of our guests and they can keep all the info together in an easy to carry folder. Mrs. Deviled Egg’s tutorial demonstrated how to make one from a piece of 12×12 card stock and I referred to her post many times during this process. She also advises having a few months of time to make them before you need to send them in mail. Great tip!

My supplies: Broken down into two areas . . .consumables and hardware.

• 12×12 card stock, enough for 1 sheet per invitation. I spent several weeks waiting for paper to go on sale at Michaels and also purchased in bulk from scrapbook.com during a one-day sale. The paper I used was Bazzill Basics in Tiara, which retails for 69 cents per sheet. By waiting for the sales, my cost was approximately 40 cents each. Total cost = $56.00.
• Ribbon. Instead of a belly band, I fastened a double ribbon around the outside of the pocketfold and secured it under the invitation card and pocket. Again, I used sales to defray the cost.
• Photo mounting tabs, clear. I used two per invite to affix the ribbon to the pocketfold,
• Double-sided adhesive. This holds the invitation and pocket in place, very important to use a high quality brand so your hard work doesn’t fall apart.

{ Hardware }

• Paper trimmer
• Scoring board and bone folder
• Ruler
• Adhesive tape gun
• Round corner punch

Step 3: Start cutting!

Take all those 12×12 pages and trim them down to size. The first cut should be to the width of your invitations. Ours were 7.5 inches wide, so I modified Mrs. Deviled Egg’s tutorial to work for our cards.

{ Mr. Hot Tea demonstrates proper cutting technique }

The next two cuts trim the pocket to size. This time, you want the length of the pocket to equal the width of your folder, plus one inch allowance for the tabs to affix the pocket to the folder. In our case, the length measured 8.5 inches. Then I trimmed the width down an inch so the titles of our RSVP, map, and reception cards would peek over the edge of the pocket.

{ We’re a long way from this final look }

Step 3b: Take a break. Seriously. Go for a walk, catch a catnap, or pour yourself a drink. The next step may give you carpal tunnel syndrome - ask Mr. Hot Tea.

Step 4: Get your score on.

A scoring board and bone folder will earn their keep on this step. Start with the folder, and score twice. You’ll want to use a sample invitation card for precise measurements. We scored ours at 2 inches and 7.5 inches. The center panel is where you’ll affix the card. Fold along the score lines and use the bone folder to create a crisp crease.

Next up, score the pocket at 0.5 inches on the two short sides and on one long side. Using scissors, cut off the corners where the score lines intersect. This miter will allow the pocket tabs to cleanly fold without overlap. Fold along the score lines and use the bone folder to create a crisp crease.

* quick tips * Mark your scoring board for quick reference. Also, scoring on the outside (the pretty side) will result in less cracking of the paper when you fold it.

Step 4b: Break time! Mr. Hot Tea will demonstrate. Note the scored pockets by his side. If that’s not unconditional love and support for his fiancee’s crazy DIY projects, I don’t know what is.

Step 5: Trim the ribbons.

Each ribbon measured 14.5 inches to cover the top flap and allow for overlap onto the invitation panel and the pocket panel. I chose sheer pink ribbon with a scalloped edge plus lilac satin ribbon for a pop of fun color. It also helped to attach the ribbons together pre-assembly for a smoother finish.

Step 6: Admire your pocketfold prep work!

Oh yes, all that work for those three little pieces. Next up, assembly time . . .

What part of your invitation suite will you DIY? Any tips to add to the process I’ve outlined above to prep the pocketfolds?