Miss Scone, Napa/Kansas CityAge and Occupation: 31, RecruiterFiancee's Age and Occupation: 33, Motorcycle MechanicEngagement Date: April 15, 2010Wedding Date: July 2012Venue: Boulevard BreweryAbout Me: I am a West Coast girl that fell for a Midwestern girl. I can’t get enough of baking, projecting, family and our fluffy dog child Darby. I bake by smell, haven’t used a timer in years and years. Having a major project on the horizon and a busy schedule keep me sane. I love beer even though I live in Napa (but I like wine too, just not as much as beer). We are planning a family friendly convivial affair in Kansas City and can’t wait to share the adventures.
I tried my hardest and was only able to create one STD via Vistaprint that I was OK sending out to friends and family. A graphic designer I am not…
I kept it simple and typed everything directly into Vistaprint’s program. (In the end I probably complicated things more than necessary, but such is life.)
Miss Scone, Napa/Kansas CityAge and Occupation: 31, RecruiterFiancee's Age and Occupation: 33, Motorcycle MechanicEngagement Date: April 15, 2010Wedding Date: July 2012Venue: Boulevard BreweryAbout Me: I am a West Coast girl that fell for a Midwestern girl. I can’t get enough of baking, projecting, family and our fluffy dog child Darby. I bake by smell, haven’t used a timer in years and years. Having a major project on the horizon and a busy schedule keep me sane. I love beer even though I live in Napa (but I like wine too, just not as much as beer). We are planning a family friendly convivial affair in Kansas City and can’t wait to share the adventures.
We have been talking about our July 2012 wedding for, oh, about 21 months now, and somehow our parents still wanted to confirm the date we are getting hitched. So we figured we might should send out STDs. (Does anyone else feel like they are in 10th grade health class when discussing STDs?) Which brings us to the whole “What do we want it to look like?” question. Initially we had hoped to use our engagement pictures for the STD, but when our July 2011 planning trip was pushed to October 2011, thanks to the working/living changes, we had to come up with an alternate plan.
For a quick peek into how we make many decisions, it goes something like this:
I obsessively research and find things that I like and that I think Sweetie Scone might like.
After collecting several dozen options I share them with Sweetie Scone.
We pare the list down to 3–5 choices.
Then we try to make something that doesn’t look like a kindergartner made it.
The best one wins.
Here is the pared down list of STD options for your enjoyment:
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!
In the end, our save the dates weren’t bad at all. Sure, I wanted to be able to DIY every little thing myself, but in the end I decided that semi-designing them and saving most of my creative juices was just as good.
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!
Our save the dates marked the beginning of my on-the-edge-of-Bridezilla-ness.
But once they arrived in the mail, I couldn’t have been happier.
Personal photo
Back when we first got engaged and I found out about The Wedding Chicks (they have fabulous free templates over there), I instantly fell in love with these save the dates:
Miss Coyote, Westchester, NYAge and Occupation: 26, Administrative AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Computer ProgrammerEngagement Date: August 2010Wedding Date: June 2012Venue: Franklin PlazaAbout Me: I am an overly-caffeinated, sports-obsessed history nerd who loves a good book and hates bananas. Originally from a small town in Upstate NY, I made the move to Westchester County and never looked back! My loves include NBC Thursdays, red wine, fleece pajamas, and my amazing fiancé. Together we are planning a formal evening affair for 175 guests with a mix of new and old traditions and plenty of personal touches.
Miss Coyote, Westchester, NYAge and Occupation: 26, Administrative AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Computer ProgrammerEngagement Date: August 2010Wedding Date: June 2012Venue: Franklin PlazaAbout Me: I am an overly-caffeinated, sports-obsessed history nerd who loves a good book and hates bananas. Originally from a small town in Upstate NY, I made the move to Westchester County and never looked back! My loves include NBC Thursdays, red wine, fleece pajamas, and my amazing fiancé. Together we are planning a formal evening affair for 175 guests with a mix of new and old traditions and plenty of personal touches.
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.
Ever since my Vistaprint STD post, I have been getting lots of messages from hive members asking me how I used Adobe Illustrator to design my invitations. Learning how to use Adobe Illustrator was NOT easy, mostly because I taught myself. I learned how to use it for work to make figures for academic publications, but the same skill-set works for wedding stationery design.
Now, first things first: Adobe Illustrator is expensive. It comes in a package called “Creative Suite 5″ (or CS5 for short). It includes things like Photoshop and InDesign as well. Right now, it is listed on the Adobe website for $1299 USD. Yikes. I purchased my CS5 Design Standard for around $200 at the University I attend, with an education discount. If you’re in the market to purchase CS5, try to use this discount. It literally saves you hundreds of dollars. But: the website does offer a free 30 day trial. So: if you can teach yourself how to use Illustrator and design your invitations in under 30 days - you can avoid purchasing it.
The most important thing to understand about Illustrator is that it is a vector-based design program. Read more…
Miss Opossum, TallahasseeAge and Occupation: 23, Aspiring Interior Architect
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Soon to be Firefighter
Engagement Date: October 30, 2011Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: The Retreat at Bradley's PondAbout Me: I am a recent design graduate and aspiring interior architect that is a compulsive list maker, a Christmas light fanatic, and an avid nap-taker. This freckle-faced Southern girl loves being on the back of a horse, hanging out at the gym, and watching SVU with her rugby-playing fiance. It is a dream come true to finally be planning a wedding (in five months) to my high school sweetheart (of seven years). While preparing to tie the knot we're also balancing Fire College, grad school applications, jobs, and precious time with our supportive family and friends. We're moving fast...but are excited about enjoying every moment of this time in our lives!
Which means people are actually invited to our wedding. That makes it seem pretty darn real, if you ask me! The process of collecting all the addresses was intensive, but I’m glad it’s finished. Now all I have to do is work on getting the invitations printed out!
I bought some fantastic paper on sale at Michaels. (It was half off!) It’s a nice ivory color with a little bit of texture and sparkle to it. The best part about it is that it makes the print job from my cheapo, crappy printer look very professional. I’m pretty darn pleased with how the invitation suite has turned out! I can’t wait to post it for everyone to see!!
For now I’ll just share my photos of the save the dates (since they’ve finally been mailed out!!!). Please don’t be offended by my cell-phone photos (or our blurred-out names). Normally I would be a good blogger and only share photos from my nice camera, but my camera lens recently broke so it’s out of commission for a little while.
The front of the “postcard style” save the date…
Personal photo
And again the front and the back (modeled after vintage postcards). I think the herb stamps were a pretty cute little addition, too.
Miss Mink, Charlottesville, VirginiaAge and Occupation: 34, College AdministratorFiance's Age and Occupation: 40, Craft Beer ConsultantEngagement Date: November 26, 2010Wedding Date: June 2012Venue: Pippin Hill Farm & VineyardsAbout Me: I left a pre-war brownstone in Boston six years ago to live in a funky, Southern city where Thomas Jefferson, Dave Matthews, and urban chicken keepers enjoy equal social standing. I still love my Patriots and Red Sox, but have fallen in love with Virginia. I work in education and specialize in integrating technology into my work to improve the student experience. I’m a diehard blogger, animal lover, jamband follower, and DIYer. I paint to relax and have transferred by energy from home projects to wedding projects in recent months. When Mr. Mink and I started talking about marriage, we knew our wedding would be outdoors, that my golden retriever would be part of the day, and that the music would be fantastic. We’ve taken a few risks during our planning process and we’ve been enjoying the process immensely!
Just before Thanksgiving, I mailed our save the date envelopes to the woman who was going to address them. I had just come off of a string of business trips and my busy season at work had started. My original intention was to learn calligraphy myself, but there didn’t seem to be enough time in the day for practicing, let alone actually writing out all the addresses of our guests. This was a project I had to outsource. Luckily, I had put the addresses of our friends and family into a spreadsheet last year when we sent out Christmas cards. I merged the addresses into the correct format, printed the document out, and our package was ready to go.
I edited my address list a little bit / Photo by Miss Mink
I found our calligrapher, Jasmine Lee, through Weddingbee. Mrs. Peach has a friend who worked with her a while back and was very happy. The comments on Mrs. Peach’s blog post were all positive, too. We loved that she was able to use a modern style on our Save the Dates. Our design doesn’t really call for a super traditional font.
Miss Opossum, TallahasseeAge and Occupation: 23, Aspiring Interior Architect
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Soon to be Firefighter
Engagement Date: October 30, 2011Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: The Retreat at Bradley's PondAbout Me: I am a recent design graduate and aspiring interior architect that is a compulsive list maker, a Christmas light fanatic, and an avid nap-taker. This freckle-faced Southern girl loves being on the back of a horse, hanging out at the gym, and watching SVU with her rugby-playing fiance. It is a dream come true to finally be planning a wedding (in five months) to my high school sweetheart (of seven years). While preparing to tie the knot we're also balancing Fire College, grad school applications, jobs, and precious time with our supportive family and friends. We're moving fast...but are excited about enjoying every moment of this time in our lives!
Now we just have to hope that Mr. Opossum’s nephew makes his appearance on or before his due date so that his brother and sister-in-law can come to the wedding (with the adorable new bundle of joy in tow, of course)!
So I’ve got the dress, the day, and the location set. I’m waiting to hear back from a photographer that I love. The next big projects are the flowers and catering.
And I’m almost finished with the invitations (that I designed myself). I think they look pretty darn good (but I’m probably biased). Ha. I am going to share a piece of the invite…because I don’t want any guests to see them before they get them in the mail. I made save the dates to go with them. Those will be printed and sent out ASAP. I was completely against the idea of save the dates at first, but my aunt said it was better to let people know since the wedding is going to be so soon!
Miss Turkey, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 29, Brand ManagementFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, ConsultantEngagement Date: February 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: The Rittenhouse HotelAbout Me: I'm a marketer who loves a good glass of wine, anything pumpkin-flavored, every crime drama on TV and, of course, Mr. Turkey. It's funny to say out loud, but we're former coworkers turned betrothed---now planning a wedding in the city of Brotherly Love. For three years, we've been eating our way through Philadelphia, playing tourist at home, and cheering for every sports team in the 215. Although we've hit some unplanned snags along the way, we're determined to have a rocking party this spring with our loud, fun families and friends.
Miss Turkey, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 29, Brand ManagementFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, ConsultantEngagement Date: February 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: The Rittenhouse HotelAbout Me: I'm a marketer who loves a good glass of wine, anything pumpkin-flavored, every crime drama on TV and, of course, Mr. Turkey. It's funny to say out loud, but we're former coworkers turned betrothed---now planning a wedding in the city of Brotherly Love. For three years, we've been eating our way through Philadelphia, playing tourist at home, and cheering for every sports team in the 215. Although we've hit some unplanned snags along the way, we're determined to have a rocking party this spring with our loud, fun families and friends.
So the paper-store route did not work out, and I was headed down the custom path. I started Googling away for “custom invitations Philly” and found that, in the area, there seemed to be a lot of options…all with great reputations. I looked at all their samples, blogs, client commentary, etc. However, I kept going back to the website of one—Two Paperdolls.
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.
As I said in my last post, I wasn’t about to pay over $300 for 50 letterpress STDs—as much as my paper-loving self was dying to.
I used the magical Adobe Illustrator CS5 to design a basic floral and lace STD, using free vector graphics found online. GASP—we didn’t use any e-photos! There is a huge trend goin’ on right now that STDs must contain a very cute engagement-shoot photo. We aren’t taking our engagement photos until much, much closer to the wedding—so we were a bit SOL on that one. We liked the basic non-photo design better anyhow! My favourite part is the back (ha!):
Miss Turkey, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 29, Brand ManagementFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, ConsultantEngagement Date: February 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: The Rittenhouse HotelAbout Me: I'm a marketer who loves a good glass of wine, anything pumpkin-flavored, every crime drama on TV and, of course, Mr. Turkey. It's funny to say out loud, but we're former coworkers turned betrothed---now planning a wedding in the city of Brotherly Love. For three years, we've been eating our way through Philadelphia, playing tourist at home, and cheering for every sports team in the 215. Although we've hit some unplanned snags along the way, we're determined to have a rocking party this spring with our loud, fun families and friends.
When I last left you, I was armed with my doodles and heading off to visit some vendors who might be able to help me with our paper products. As fun as it might have been, I did not think that I had either the talent or tools (no Cricut or Gocco for this girl) or time to conquer them on my own!
I started with a trip to the new Paper Source store in Center City on my walk home (dangerous…dangerous, I tell you).
When I walked in, there was only 1 employee in the store. She was helping a customer with thank you notes, so I perused the invitation books and waited. As I was waiting, a number of other customers came in, so I maintained my spot but tried to catch the employee’s eye so that I would be helped next. About 10–15 minutes had passed at this point. No other employees had surfaced. and although it was getting a little frustrating, I was still hanging in there. There were a lot of pretty things to look at, after all.
Miss Turkey, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 29, Brand ManagementFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, ConsultantEngagement Date: February 2011Wedding Date: May 2012Venue: The Rittenhouse HotelAbout Me: I'm a marketer who loves a good glass of wine, anything pumpkin-flavored, every crime drama on TV and, of course, Mr. Turkey. It's funny to say out loud, but we're former coworkers turned betrothed---now planning a wedding in the city of Brotherly Love. For three years, we've been eating our way through Philadelphia, playing tourist at home, and cheering for every sports team in the 215. Although we've hit some unplanned snags along the way, we're determined to have a rocking party this spring with our loud, fun families and friends.
Time to get to what was/is probably my favorite part of the wedding-planning process—paper products!!
I love paper. I have a ridiculous collection of stationery (including way too many thank you notes), and if you put me anywhere near a Paper Source or Papyrus, I’m guaranteed to walk away a little lighter in the wallet.
Last Christmas I think I sent over 100 holiday cards. (Imagine the bill at Papyrus.)
So clearly the wedding would be no exception. Before choosing anyone to help with the execution, we had to get our design ideas clear.
We decided to have our wedding brand of “modern elegance” define our paper choices.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
