Weddingbee Blog

Greetings from the Snapdragon Sweat Shop! Many moons ago, I stated that the only DIY coming out of my house would be invitations. Well, turns out that invitations are more than enough to thoroughly overwhelm my to-do list. I know many of you share my pain.

From the get-go, Bossyboots and I had wanted a folk art, painted style to our invitations. We loved the look of gouache, as beautifully showcased by Anna Bond over at Rifle Paper. We briefly investigated going the Rifle route, but in the end, I decided I want to paint our invitations myself for a few reasons:

1. To save money – I am a hobbyist illustrator, and after careful consideration, I really felt I could do this myself at a high level of quality for a fraction of the cost it would require to hire someone. I always advise people to hire a pro, but in this case, I really felt I could do this myself.
2. To invest a lotta love – For reasons that are hard for me to articulate, I really wanted to go through this process with Bossyboots. Art is an exceedingly cathartic thing for me, and for me, the invitations are a big part of the feel of our wedding. I really wanted them to come straight from our hearts – so to that end, doing them myself made sense.
3. I am a masochist with a side of mania – You might have seen a national PSA many years ago about people with mania problems. The PSA showed a woman who had a moment of inspiration and then spent all night painting her living room in a crazed artistic spree. They based that woman off of my life, I’m sure of it! (sigh)

After 100,000 hours of painting, many cups of tea (and Shiner, let’s be honest), and more than one moment of utter defeat, I finally sent my invitation files off to a professional printer. After all the hard work I put into creating these invites, there was no way in hell I was going to fight with my at-home Dell printer, to boot. I am a tough cookie, but that would have just been too much!

We’ll be mailing our invitations this week, and I’ll post a full run-down once they’re on their way—until then, here’s a sneak peek!

After learning firsthand how much work goes into something like this, I have to tell you… I have a brand new respect for professional invitation designers. For those niche custom painted invitation designers… I hold a respect that borders on hero worship, because this project was no joke. Whatever they charge, it’s a steal, because the only way I’d create something like this for anybody else is if I was getting paid $5,000. I had a great time with this project, but… so much work!

So, full report soon, but until then, hug your invitation designer. They’ve been working hard, and they deserve a big pat on the back!