A map is a great piece of extra info to include in your wedding invites for any friends and family coming in from out of town. If you’re already planning on DIYing your invites, you’ll be happy to know it doesn’t take an expert map maker to DIY a map insert as well! While this map wouldn’t be impressive to a pro with professional grade software, I think it looks pretty good and will be useful to your guests. … read more
When you start crafting your invitations, the wedding really starts to take shape. You now know when the event will be and what time you’ll be saying “I do.” With so many choices to make—from colors, design, and text—the invitations are among the most important and time sensitive item to check off your planning list. … read more
Wedding invitations might be the thing that finally sends you over the edge during planning. From choosing fonts and layout to picking your favorite design and color, wedding invitations are full of choices. The wording on invitations is also full of choices, as you can go traditional or trendy. … read more
Sending out an invitation for your wedding is pretty obvious, but you might be wondering what all the fuss is about when it comes to wedding invitation inserts. … read more
And can I just say, it took a bit of an adventure to get them there. Remember in part one where I was going with Vistaprint to do the inserts? That didn’t happen.
You see, Vistaprint ONLY has horizontal layouts available for their flat notecards. And no matter how huge/high-res my files were, they kept uploading slightly blurry. So I scrapped that idea and went with a really highly regarded local print shop instead.
And you know what? It was half the price and done quickly, and it was SO nice to work with an actual person, face to face.
So while the inserts were being printed, I went on another quest: belly bands or the equivalents to go around our pocketfolds. Mr. W and I both loved the look of laser-cut bands, but the price point was a bit ridiculous, so we tossed around a few other options—ribbons, lace, and even fancy paper—before settling on our final pick.
Our initial favorite—sorry bout that blurry photo.
Pulling It All Together: Chicago Skyline Wedding Invitations
Well, I finally had my first wedding-related meltdown—and to be clear, it was completely irrational, completely kept to myself, and over in a matter of minutes.
Why? Because the countdown clock ticked to under 100 days, I was deep in the middle of proofreading my invitation inserts (yup, late to the game), looking at the ridiculous to-do list that seems to be growing rather than shrinking, and also stressed at work
So I buckled down, did a jigsaw puzzle (my chosen stress relief), and got the heck over it.
And those invites I mentioned? Well, I haven’t assembled them yet, or sent them out, but we’ve got our aesthetic down. I’ve got the designs down. And I’ve even got the main invites and the pocketfolds sitting in my office at home.
Stock image of our invites—we removed the monogram up top. | Image via Wedding Paper Divas | Side note: I LOVE that Trump tower didn’t make the skyline.
All right, I am going to jump right in. Pocketfolds MIGHT be the most ambitious of craft projects, just short of a DIY wedding dress (shudder). As others who have gone before me have sagely expressed…it’s not a true craft project if feelings of frustration, annoyance, and true rage do not follow closely behind! I am in the midst of creating our invitations, and the DIY pocketfold invitations are the current craft-in-progress.
In designing Lauren Amelie, Mr. Dragon and I selected a Midnight Blue cover-stock pocketfold, also known as Stardream Lapis Lazuli. Stardream is not the most budget-friendly of paper choices, but other metallic papers were not the right blue we wanted. (We are going with a navy or darker blue in our color palette.) First, I started out by trolling the internet for pre-made pocketfold options. I found pocketfolds that offered a color similar to Lapis Luzuli, but there was always a problem: sometimes construction, sometimes the vendor did not offer coordinating envelopes, always too expensive. The cheapest pocketfolds I found, in the numbers I needed, totaled out to over $180 (metallic pocketfolds run roughly double the cost of matte)—ALWAYS. After getting a price quote from Anchor Paper (Mrs. Ballet Flat is also a fan!) of $50…my path was clear. I was going to make…my own…DIY pocketfold invitations. Oh, the horror!
After resigning myself to my fate, I got started. … read more
Ombré color schemes are quickly gaining popularity. Whether you want to dress your bridesmaids in shades of purple or add some pop to your cake with layers that vary from sky blue to navy, an ombré scheme allows you explore a full palette of colors and shades. But you don’t have to wait until your ceremony to infuse your wedding with a serious dose of color. Instead, start with the invitations. … read more
I have read that tradition and etiquette dictate that out-of-town guests, as well as the wedding party, are to be included in the rehearsal dinner. But what happens when half (or more) of your guests are traveling to the wedding? I’ve seen this handled three ways: 1. you throw a more casual dinner and truly include everyone, 2. you host a smaller dinner and then open it up to the whole guest list afterward for cocktails, or 3. you throw all that to the wind and do whatever suits the situation best. Personally, I wasn’t comfortable with option 3, and option 1 was cost prohibitive…so we decided to throw a small dinner with a casual cocktail party to follow!
After we rehearse on Friday, our families, our priest, and our friends who are participating in the wedding ceremony will attend our rehearsal dinner. Considering that we are going Full Traditional for our wedding cuisine, we wanted to do something different and a little more “us” for the rehearsal dinner.
We decided to hold it at a fun and trendy Indian bistro just down the road from our church.* Tandoor Char House is run by two young brothers and has amazing food & a great ambiance, and is always packed. We’re placing an order beforehand and will dine family style…keep the chicken tikka masala coming, bro.
Previously, on Sixpence’s Invitation Extravaganza…
We had received our invitation suite and were very pleased with the quality. We also had the main envelopes and the response envelopes pre-printed with addresses, which was totally worth the effort of entering them all into my Minted account. My handwriting is crap.
And a cute little “Deliver to” embellishment to boot.
Now, for some good old fashioned DIY! I had seen handmade envelope liners around the ol’ web and thought they were something I could tackle…and I especially liked Mrs. Treasure’s Chicago cityscape idea.
