Weddingbee Blog

Our Save the Dates are done!! I am beyond thrilled with how they turned out.

They are so totally us. Mr. Whale plays the guitar, and I play the piano. I also love to wear bright colored tights, leg-warmers, and bright shoes (lucky for me, my dude grew up in the 80′s, so he thinks these things are totally hot. I know, I snagged a pretty awesome guy.).

The best thing about our Save the Dates is that they look awesome! The second best thing? We made them ourselves!! My mind was blown when I heard that some people spend hundreds of dollars on these things. You totally don’t have to! And now that they’re done, I’ve definitely got some tips.

Tip Number One: Either have a professional photographer or talk a very patient friend into helping you. I have to give a BIG thanks to my mom for being our awesome and incredibly patient photographer. We probably took about 150 photos until we could get this one. Crazy, right?? What did the ones we didn’t choose look like?

Here’s pretty awkward angle:

The guitar is dominating the picture in this one. I’m barely in it at all:

These are actually two of the better pictures that we took. I deleted most of the awful ones right off the bat (I wish now I had saved them so you could see how weird things were at first.).

But this brings me to tip number Two: Be Patient!.

It actually took us two separate “photo shoots” to get the picture we wanted. I changed tights, changed shoes, changed leg-warmers. It took us forever to figure out where to put my feet. (I’m actually ridiculously uncomfortable in most of these photos. I didn’t have anywhere to put my feet so I had to make it “look” like they were resting on the piano, when in actuality I’m holding them in the air.) Then there was a storm, so suddenly we had no light. Then we had light, but it was reflecting off of the guitar, so we had to make sure the guitar was tilted just right. Oh, and in the first forty pictures or so, I forgot to wear my ring! If you ever want to truly appreciate your wedding photographer, try to take some artistic photos on your own. You’ll realize that your photographer is worth every penny.

So once we finally got the photo we wanted, how did we make the save the dates happen? As much as I hate to admit it, I used Microsoft Word (shame on me for not using some open-source software).

First, paste your picture into Word and resize it to the size you want. According to the USPS website, the maximum size postcard that can be mailed with 32 cent postage instead of 45 cents is 4.25″x6″. Once your picture is the right size, you’re ready to add text. In Word, you can add WordArt by clicking the ‘Insert’ tab and selecting ‘WordArt’:

Depending on how much Word fights with you, your WordArt may not want to sit on top of your picture. That’s because it’s got some weird formatting. You want your WordArt to be “In Line with Text.” To do this, right click on your WordArt, hover over “Wrap Text” and then select “In Line with Text.”

Now, you should be able to move your WordArt wherever you want. Once you’ve typed in your words, and you have the font and color you want, you can actually rotate the WordArt by clicking the green circle above the WordArt.

Play around with it a bunch. (Remember the “Be Patient” tip?) And when it’s finally exactly how you want it, you may or may not be done. I have the option of printing to pdf in my version of Word. If you have this option, DO IT! That way you’re never in danger of accidentally moving something. Once it’s a pdf, you can’t move stuff. Now you’re free to print it however you want. I had mine printed and cut at the UPS Store. My mom works there, so I have no idea how much it costs. But it’s got to be cheaper than ordering your Save the Dates online.