Miss Woodpecker, Branford, CT Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate Student/School Psych InternFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, GlazierEngagement Date: Christmas Eve 2010Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Owenego Beach ClubAbout Me: I’m a Connecticut native planning a coastal beach wedding in our hometown. My loves in life include: food, family and the fiance. I’m a planner/organization fiend, by nature and by addiction, and am obsessed with all things wedding and design. We're trying to put personal touches on everything we can in our wedding, to really make it personal to us, our family, and friends. In the middle of wedding planning, I’m also finishing up grad school, and will be starting a brand new career within weeks of our wedding. It’s going to be an adventure!
One of my most used wedding documents is the one I have called “wedding fonts.” I’ve been doing lots of little stationery projects…
Personal image
…and realized again how much I love me some beautiful font. Of course, because I am obsessive and crazy, I decided that I couldn’t use all of them, so I picked my two favorites and am using those for our wedding stationery, with perhaps a few more supporting fonts here and there.
Mrs. Warbler, Long Beach/MalibuAge and Occupation: 24, Quality Assurance EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Handheld AdministratorEngagement Date: December 7, 2010Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: Calamigos Ranch MalibuAbout Me: I’m a Korean BBQ loving, cheesecake enthusiast bride living in the LBC! By day I write and edit for an online search engine marketing company. By night I am a volunteer food taster of all that is delicious. I am fortunate to be marrying an amazing man who loves me and my quirky ways. I love food, books, indie music, and Harry Potter. We are planning a small, intimate wedding up in the Malibu Hills with our closest family and friends. With the help of my wonderful fiance, our loved ones, and red velvet cheesecake, our wedding will be glorious!
Now that most people have received their invitations, it’s time for the reveal! Here are our handmade, Catprint printed invites. Let’s take a look at the President’s invite.
Mrs. Aardvark, Beaver Dam, WIAge and Occupation: 23, Assistant Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Business Analyst Engagement Date: May 28th, 2011Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: St. Philip Catholic Church/Arcadia Brewing Co.About Me: I am a resourceful lady who love surprises and adventure. At the same time, I value traditions, family and friends. I like to make crafty messes, sometimes, clean them up, and do pretty much anything outdoors. The Mister and I are pretty avid cyclists---we have nine bikes in our home right now...and one motorcycle! We both enjoy eating food we can't pronounce (language doesn't really matter) and going places we've never been. We currently reside in rural Wisconsin, enjoying the cheese and beer it has to offer, and getting outside whenever we can!
Hive, I know I dragged this out. I know, I teased you about the invitations inseveralposts. But the wait is over! I would like to invite you to, not only view our invites, but see just how they came to be (bee?)!
[Note, if you want to skip all the romance and get right to the main event, the invite pictures are at the bottom!]
First things first, I would like to give a big shout out to PaperSource, Staples, and Vistaprint. These were the three main vendors we used to put together our invitation suite. All of the unprinted paper came from PaperSource. I found their quality nice, their prices reasonable, and their colors fantastic. The little beige inserts came from Staples. They were fast, cheap and easy. I would not recommend them if you are a stickler for perfection, but if you are a stickler for getting it done adequately, I would say go for it! And last, but not least, I tweaked our save the date design to make our RSVP and had them printed “for free” at Vistaprint.
I used illustrator to lay out all of the text onto 8.5×11 paper in a way that it could be cut into four, with each text block making a square. I really wish I had Miss Eagle’s tutorial beforehand, but after a lot of trial and error I managed to get it pretty square. I then sent the files off to Staples to be printed and cut into fours. The fact that they cut everything was nice because it saved me some time, but not that much time in the end, because each invitation had to be trimmed square afterwards.
Mrs. Porcupine, NYC/Lancaster, PAAge and Occupation: 26, Sales Coordinator/PublishingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Assistant Manager/SalesEngagement Date: August 8, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Riverdale ManorAbout Me: I'm a born and bred New Yorker with a love/hate relationship for the city I have always called home. Although I may seem quiet from afar, I have a loud personality once you get to know me. I am a book nerd at heart, but love a night out in the city with good friends. I have a serious addiction to all things cheese, chocolate, cardigans, Mexican food, and reality TV. The future hubs and I met in college, settled in New York, and decided to go with a rustic/peacock infused wedding in Lancaster, PA, right near his hometown. Come the big day, we will be together 5 years, and we're looking forward to making it official!
Mail merge was the bane of my existence this weekend. I know it might seem ridiculous that a computer-savvy(ish) person from the computer generation who has worked in an office-setting for 5+ years (ew, really?) didn’t know how to use mail merge already- but- er… I didn’t?
I knew immediately this would be an annoying freaking task, mostly because many things involving Excel/Word give me a migraine. I somehow ALWAYS miss one teeny little thing in a formula or miss a measly step in a step-by-step guide, therefore screwing myself over, shouting into the computer’s ear-less face, and having to start over.
Let me start by saying we decided not to pay for a calligrapher, and decided to go with making clear labels for the envelopes for a few lame reasons. One, I could not justify the cost of paying someone to write pretty on my envelopes when that envelope is going to end up right in the trash. I wish I could justify it because I love all things pretty paper/stationery/swirly handwriting, but I come from a world where I could never see the value in it. Two, I was going to attempt some form of calligraphy, but when I sent Mr. P a cell-phone photo of my grandest attempt, he responded (and I quote), “it looks like my 6 year old cousin wrote that.” Um, thanks. Negative five points for him! And, lastly, I am the Queen of Procrastination and we are short on time here people!
Anywho, Mr. P and I headed over to my parents after work on Friday night (since our printer has a horrendous tick—literally. Read more…
Miss Eagle, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Age and Occupation: 22, Medical Sciences Graduate Student / Science Instructor Fiancee's Age and Occupation: 23, NurseEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: August 2012Venue: Historic Lougheed HouseAbout Me: I'm a science-geek graduate student who is studying craniofacial malformations and evolutionary developmental biology. I have a passion for DIY crafts, amazing red wine, and all-things-wedding. Together with my wonderful fiancée, we are planning a formal black tie wedding filled with DIY projects and vintage decor. When I'm not reading about science-y things or wedding blogs, I enjoy teaching science-y things to kids and trying to be Martha Stewart incarnate.
I shared with you all in my last blog that I designed my rehearsal dinner invitations in Adobe Illustrator and ordered them through Vistaprint. I felt comfortable using Vistaprint since we’re just having a rehearsal BBQ and the invitations don’t need to be super fancy. Plus, I had used them for my Save-The-Dates, and I was impressed with the quality of the paper, for the price.
To this printed product (plus I rounded the corners): Read more…
Mrs. Aardvark, Beaver Dam, WIAge and Occupation: 23, Assistant Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Business Analyst Engagement Date: May 28th, 2011Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: St. Philip Catholic Church/Arcadia Brewing Co.About Me: I am a resourceful lady who love surprises and adventure. At the same time, I value traditions, family and friends. I like to make crafty messes, sometimes, clean them up, and do pretty much anything outdoors. The Mister and I are pretty avid cyclists---we have nine bikes in our home right now...and one motorcycle! We both enjoy eating food we can't pronounce (language doesn't really matter) and going places we've never been. We currently reside in rural Wisconsin, enjoying the cheese and beer it has to offer, and getting outside whenever we can!
Miss Boa Constrictor, Isabela, Puerto RicoAge and Occupation: 22, Undergraduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Soon-to-be Civil EngineerEngagement Date: May 19, 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: El Faro Convention CenterAbout Me: I’m a Caribbean gal, born and bred on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, finishing her last year as an undergrad. I describe myself as a “closet nerd” as I secretly enjoy reading research papers, playing video games, and geeking out on Lord of the Rings movie marathons. I will marry my college sweetheart, a soon-to-be civil engineer, who loves Legos and old-school Puerto Rican cooking. This is sure to be a fast-paced year with our wedding, honeymoon, college graduation, new jobs, and a cross-country move all within less than 30 days of each other!
Having my Lil Sis/MOH home for the holidays was a real blessing for wedding planning, especially in the invitations and “paper stuff” departments. Just hours after she landed in Puerto Rico (at 2:00 AM), she pulled me into her room to show me the work she had done on the wedding invitations.
From the inspiration pictures I had sent her, she came up with these two variations for general shape/concept.
*Design 1 / *Design 2
I was instantly smitten with Design 1, so on her handy dandy laptop Lil Sis/MOH starting designing away the rest of the invite. She added the wording I had decided on, tweaked the colors a bit, and searched for hours for the perfect fonts.
The next morning when I woke up she showed me the product of her hard work.
Miss Eagle, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Age and Occupation: 22, Medical Sciences Graduate Student / Science Instructor Fiancee's Age and Occupation: 23, NurseEngagement Date: April 2011Wedding Date: August 2012Venue: Historic Lougheed HouseAbout Me: I'm a science-geek graduate student who is studying craniofacial malformations and evolutionary developmental biology. I have a passion for DIY crafts, amazing red wine, and all-things-wedding. Together with my wonderful fiancée, we are planning a formal black tie wedding filled with DIY projects and vintage decor. When I'm not reading about science-y things or wedding blogs, I enjoy teaching science-y things to kids and trying to be Martha Stewart incarnate.
I left off my Illustrator tutorial with showing you all how to make a background and edit vector shapes that you can find online. I know that this is all “heavy” learning—but I promise, if you stick to it, it becomes easier and you eventually get the hang of it.
Now, starting up where we left off… we had just finished the background, and placed the squiggly background image on top of it.
Mrs. Snapdragon, Chicago/DallasAge and Occupation: 32,Associate ProducerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Lighting DesignerBlogging Since: November 14, 2008Engagement Date: January 1, 2011Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Marie GabrielleAbout Me: Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I'm a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. I run a slow marathon, but my feet are learning to move faster. Mornings aren't my thing, but I can night owl with the best of them. Don't tempt me with your Cherry Cokes---I'm trying to quit. Tomorrow. Or never.
All right, now that Bossyboots’ and my wedding invitations are in our guests’ hot little hands, it’s time do some revealing around here!
Creating these invitations was a heckuvalotta work, but I’m happy with them. Of course, there are endless ways I see that I could have designed them in different ways, but at a certain point, you have to step back and send those dang files to the printer!
Let’s get to it… you may recognize a few elements that have evolved out of my original wedding invitation design. I’ve learned how to use Illustrator since 2009, and I have to say designing in Adobe is much easier than MacGyvering in Word!
The entire suite was bundled in a belly band… this is what our guests saw when they pulled the invitation out of the envelope:
Miss Boa Constrictor, Isabela, Puerto RicoAge and Occupation: 22, Undergraduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Soon-to-be Civil EngineerEngagement Date: May 19, 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: El Faro Convention CenterAbout Me: I’m a Caribbean gal, born and bred on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, finishing her last year as an undergrad. I describe myself as a “closet nerd” as I secretly enjoy reading research papers, playing video games, and geeking out on Lord of the Rings movie marathons. I will marry my college sweetheart, a soon-to-be civil engineer, who loves Legos and old-school Puerto Rican cooking. This is sure to be a fast-paced year with our wedding, honeymoon, college graduation, new jobs, and a cross-country move all within less than 30 days of each other!
Mrs. Warbler, Long Beach/MalibuAge and Occupation: 24, Quality Assurance EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Handheld AdministratorEngagement Date: December 7, 2010Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: Calamigos Ranch MalibuAbout Me: I’m a Korean BBQ loving, cheesecake enthusiast bride living in the LBC! By day I write and edit for an online search engine marketing company. By night I am a volunteer food taster of all that is delicious. I am fortunate to be marrying an amazing man who loves me and my quirky ways. I love food, books, indie music, and Harry Potter. We are planning a small, intimate wedding up in the Malibu Hills with our closest family and friends. With the help of my wonderful fiance, our loved ones, and red velvet cheesecake, our wedding will be glorious!
Guess what, Hive? Our lovely invites are done and mailed out! After months of designing, redesigning, agonizing over wording and dumb spelling errors we are done! Celebratory dance break! We sent these babies out last week and have already gotten a couple of RSVPs back. Read more…
Miss Boa Constrictor, Isabela, Puerto RicoAge and Occupation: 22, Undergraduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Soon-to-be Civil EngineerEngagement Date: May 19, 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: El Faro Convention CenterAbout Me: I’m a Caribbean gal, born and bred on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, finishing her last year as an undergrad. I describe myself as a “closet nerd” as I secretly enjoy reading research papers, playing video games, and geeking out on Lord of the Rings movie marathons. I will marry my college sweetheart, a soon-to-be civil engineer, who loves Legos and old-school Puerto Rican cooking. This is sure to be a fast-paced year with our wedding, honeymoon, college graduation, new jobs, and a cross-country move all within less than 30 days of each other!
After working with my Lil Boa on a couple of drafts for the invites, I started hunting down the paper I would use for them.
Cue Cards & Pockets—I loved their large selection of colors and immediately ordered a couple of free samples to get to see the colors up close.
*Personal Pic
I ordered six samples in white, light purple, and dark purple in both the shimmer and matte types of paper. My actual selections were: matte (Snow White, Grape, and Purple) and shimmer (Crystal, Amethyst, and Violette). I would like to pick one white shade, one light purple shade, and one deep purple shade.
Matte shades are on the left and shimmer on the right.
Miss Boa Constrictor, Isabela, Puerto RicoAge and Occupation: 22, Undergraduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Soon-to-be Civil EngineerEngagement Date: May 19, 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: El Faro Convention CenterAbout Me: I’m a Caribbean gal, born and bred on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, finishing her last year as an undergrad. I describe myself as a “closet nerd” as I secretly enjoy reading research papers, playing video games, and geeking out on Lord of the Rings movie marathons. I will marry my college sweetheart, a soon-to-be civil engineer, who loves Legos and old-school Puerto Rican cooking. This is sure to be a fast-paced year with our wedding, honeymoon, college graduation, new jobs, and a cross-country move all within less than 30 days of each other!
I’m lucky enough to have the very talented Lil Boa for a sister, since she happens to be studying advertising and has to take graphic design classes as part of her degree. This wonderful human being graciously offered to do our wedding invitations and all other paper-related stuff. We worked on the invites long distance, me being in Puerto Rico and her all the way in NYC, but by using Skype’s share screen we managed to rock it out. Our first step in invitation creation was finding a starting point—pictures of invites I liked—so she could have an idea of what to do. I sent her these:
Mrs. Aardvark, Beaver Dam, WIAge and Occupation: 23, Assistant Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Business Analyst Engagement Date: May 28th, 2011Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: St. Philip Catholic Church/Arcadia Brewing Co.About Me: I am a resourceful lady who love surprises and adventure. At the same time, I value traditions, family and friends. I like to make crafty messes, sometimes, clean them up, and do pretty much anything outdoors. The Mister and I are pretty avid cyclists---we have nine bikes in our home right now...and one motorcycle! We both enjoy eating food we can't pronounce (language doesn't really matter) and going places we've never been. We currently reside in rural Wisconsin, enjoying the cheese and beer it has to offer, and getting outside whenever we can!
It seems to me that I have been lacking in posts about wedding crafts. This seems a bit odd. There sure are a ton of crafts on my to-do list. I have a house full of craft supplies. I even have a checklist (sadly unchecked) of crafts to get cracking on. One would think that I would be a wedding craft blogging machine with DIY tutorials coming out of my ears!
However, for the last couple of months these things have been neglected due to one craft—the mother of all wedding crafts—that has totally monopolized my craft-brain-bandwidth, rendering me incapable of thinking about any craft that was not this craft.
Ladies, I am talking about The Invitation! Mr. Aardvark (seriously, he was SUPER helpful) and I started back in August by looking online at paper and finally ordering some from Paper Source. Since then it has been slow and not-so-steady progress, but we are finally, really, actually done. All we have to do is drop them in the mail. (Hopefully before the rates go up on the 22nd.)
We have cut, corner-punched, glued, and folded. We have suffered paper cuts, burns and blisters. We have had mess-ups and re-dos and re-re-dos. But today, I can tell you, it was worth it. Read more…
Mrs. Snapdragon, Chicago/DallasAge and Occupation: 32,Associate ProducerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Lighting DesignerBlogging Since: November 14, 2008Engagement Date: January 1, 2011Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Marie GabrielleAbout Me: Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I'm a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. I run a slow marathon, but my feet are learning to move faster. Mornings aren't my thing, but I can night owl with the best of them. Don't tempt me with your Cherry Cokes---I'm trying to quit. Tomorrow. Or never.
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:
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.
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.
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!
Unique Wedding Favors
