another invite.

Last week I sent out our rehearsal dinner invitations! While not completely necessary, I really wanted to send out invites for the rehearsal dinner so there was no question as to who was invited and to make sure everyone knew what the plan was for dinner. Also, since our RD will be at Mr. M's parents' house on a lake outside of town, I wanted to make sure people knew how to get there!

I found my inspiration for the invitation design a few months ago, and even put them together a few weeks ahead of when I needed to send them! I was pretty proud of myself of being so on top of these.

The invitations were made with the same ruby stardream metallic cardstock, green flourish paper, and white linen paper we've been using throughout all of our paper projects. I added a teal blue ribbon to tie in the ribbon we had our wedding invites, and used the same fonts we used on those as well. We opted to use kraft envelopes for these, simply because I love kraft paper. Mr. M printed the addresses on the envelopes using our printer, which ended up being the most frustrating step in the whole process. Let's just say our printer does not share my love of kraft paper!

Printer difficulties aside, this was the stationary project that I enjoyed the most. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that there were actually a manageable amount of invites that needed to be made! 32 RD invites versus 215 wedding invitations is a HUGE difference when DIYing (and even when not DIYing, for that matter)!

Did anyone else send out rehearsal dinner invites? Did they make life easier for your guests?

repondez s'il vous plait.

I considered writing out the whole phrase for "RSVP" on our invites, but then realized people might not know what it means. Luckily, they do know what "respond" means. We've already got 30 of our RSVP postcards in the mail, and we just sent out the invites last Monday! Let's hope they keep rolling in!

We opted for RSVP postcards for a few reasons, the main one being to save money on postage and avoid having to pay for RSVP envelopes. With so many invitations, postage was pricey! We spent $60.20 just on postcard stamps alone for our 215 invitations. If we had used regular cards with envelopes, it would have cost us an extra $34.40. That's not even including what it would cost to buy the envelopes themselves, or the additional postage it would've taken to send out invites to our guests in the first place (since the invites would weigh more overall).

Another reason we chose postcards was to save paper. Our invites surely aren't the most environmentally friendly, but we did eliminate the need for an envelope by using postcards for the RSVPs.

The last reason for using postcards can be attributed to my anal-retentiveness. All of our little inserts aligned so nicely in our pocketfolds, I didn't want an envelope ruining the perfection of it all. Lame reasoning, I know, but it's true!

Overall, I'm glad we opted for postcards. I'm also happy that we had the forethought to number them all, just in case we get a response back with not-so-neat handwriting (or no handwriting at all) in the space provided for the guest's name! Not sure if you can tell, but in really light pencil in the bottom of the flourish pattern below is the number 130! My little sister Gaby did a great job discretely numbering every.single.postcard, and I am eternally grateful to her for that. She also added a little polar bear stamp to each one, which, oddly enough, matched our color scheme with the teal blue background (and we will ignore the fact that polar bears have nothing to do with weddings). Thank you, USPS.

Out of the 30 responses we've received so far, 28 are "delightfully accepting". That means only 2 regrets so far! And the guest count begins with 63 attending...

may i present to you...

Our invitations! As all DIY invites are to the brides that spend hours slaving over them, these were truly a labor of love. I designed them, cut them out, rounded the corners, attached the ribbon, made the belly bands, cut out envelope liners, attached envelope liners, stuffed and embossed the pocketfolds, stuffed the envelopes, sealed and stamped all 215 of them with the help of Mr. M, our families, and a dear friend. The only things we outsourced were the pocketfolds and printing. A family friend even did the calligraphy on the outside for us.

Despite all the hard work that went into them, I wouldn't have done it any other way. We could never have afforded invitations like these without making them ourselves. I'm very happy with how they turned out, and from the feedback I've been getting, our guests like them too!

Did you DIY your invites? Were you happy with how they turned out?

jumping the gun.

I still haven't finished the design of our invitations, but since I am easily distracted, I couldn't help but move on to finding ideas for our rehearsal dinner invites. Imagine my excitement when I came across this lovely invitation from paper loving bride! I love the kraft paper, the simplicity of the design, and the address block on the envelope. It even has the flourish pattern that we've been carrying as a theme within all of our paper goods! Perfect!

To be honest, I'm now more excited about making our rehearsal dinner invites than I am about our actual invitations! Thanks Lisa for letting me share these!

Are you planning on sending out rehearsal dinner invitations?

making progress.

The invites are coming along.  They're not finished, but I'm happy (for the most part) with how they're turning out so far.  As a little teaser, here's the map I came up with that will be on one of the inserts.

Sadly, even the icon of the reception venue is hideous.  I tried my hardest to make it look good from the outside and even added a flag for some visual interest.  It's just not a pretty building. You win some, you lose some, I guess.  On a postive note, check out how cute the church icon is! It's even close to the real thing.

Are you designing a custom map for your wedding?

invitation inspiration.

Happy Friday!  My plan for the weekend is to have a little crafting party with my lovely bridesmaid Dana.  She is also getting married this fall, and we both need to figure out what we're doing for our invitations!  We figured doing it together would be a little more fun (especially if wine is involved), and would force us to sit down and actually design them!  Procrastination has been our specialty when it comes to our invites.  

Here is a sneak peek at our invite inspiration!

Dana's color scheme is gray and ivory, with sage green accents.  She is leaning towards more modern invites, possibly using some sort of circle elements in the design.  I am loving this invitation from A Windy City Wedding (her sister designed them, isn't she sweet?).

For my own invites, I'd like to start with asimple design similar to this one from Papyrus, and add in some of the flourish elements from our save-the-dates for a little extra flair.

(source)

Should be a fun weekend!  I don't know about you, but I love having another bride to do wedding project with!  Do you feel the same?

saving the date part 5: adding it all up.

Finally, the last post on our save-the-dates! You've seen how we made the envelopes and the save-the-date cards. I told you I'd write about the cost breakdown and lessons learned, so here it is. First up, let's see how much they cost us, shall we?

$35.00 - 200 sheets of text weight paper in Lake from PaperSource
$11.50 - large flourish stamp from PaperSource
$7.95 - small flourish stamp from PaperSource
$15.00 - envelope template kit from PaperSource
$5.50 - Colorbox stamp pad in Eggplant from PaperSource
$1.50 - Clear embossing powder (on clearance at JoAnn's)
$3.00 - Double stick adhesive ( 2 rolls - using 50% off coupon at JoAnn's)
$3.00 - Two packs of metal brads (using 50% off coupon at JoAnn's)
$3.59 - 1/16" circle punch (on sale)
$5.00 - Corner rounder (using 50% off coupon at JoAnn's)
$14.40 - 90 sheets of linen textured cardstock (12 x 12) from JoAnn's (6 for $0.96)
$38.16 - Printing costs for 90 full color 12 x 12 sheets*
$143.60

*Note: The printing company we used had quoted us $.40 per color sheet when I sent them our design. Later we found out that they had quoted us wrong (it should cost more like $.99 per sheet) but they still honored the original quote. We got lucky!

We'll also be using the large and small flourish stamps and the envelope template kit for other projects. I still added them into the cost of the save-the-dates, but they'll be freebies for our invites and other paper goods.

Final price per invite: for 150 save-the-dates, it works out to about $0.96 per save-the-date (not including postage). Not too bad!

Now, onto the lessons learned.

1. Even though making envelopes with PaperSource paper rather than buying PaperSource envelopes is cheaper, I'm not sure it would be worth it for everyone. It is a pain cutting out 150 envelopes. I spread out the work over a week or so, cutting about 20-30 envelopes everyday. Cutting anymore than 30 per day is just torture, don't do it!

2. Sign up for emails from craft stores like JoAnn's and Michaels. You will get coupons pretty much every week for 40-50% off one item. Use these to buy your supplies. You'll save a ton of money!

3. This is an important one. JoAnn's has great sales on 12x12 paper. You can get 6 sheets for $0.96, while one sheet usually costs $0.50. Ask your printing company if they can print on 12x12 paper before you buy it. If they can't print on it, you'll have to find another printer or cut the paper down to 8.5x11. We found out that none of the common printers in our area (FedEx Kinko's, OfficeMax, etc.) knew how to print on 12x12 paper. We ended up using a place in the UP to print all of our save-the-dates to avoid cutting the paper down.

4. It's quickest to make the envelopes and save-the-date cards one step at a time, preferably with help. Get someone (your fiance!) to cut out all of the printed cards (or envelopes) while you stamp them. Put the embossing powder on each stamped surface immediately, but you do not have to heat up the embossing powder right away if you don't want to. It would probably be best to have three people for this process. One to cut, one to stamp, one to emboss. You can round all of the corners and insert the bosses on the save-the-date cards at the end.

5. Embossing allows you to use pigment ink without waiting for it to dry. This is one of the primary reasons we've been embossing all of our paper goods (aside from the fact that it looks good!). The only type of ink I've found in our wedding colors are ColorBox pigment inkpads. The problem with this ink is that it takes forever to dry unless you emboss it. Once you emboss it, it's dry in about 30 seconds.

6. These save-the-dates take time. Make sure you have time to spare before taking on a project like this one! We were working on these for about a month (not everyday of course). Now we know how much time our invites will probably take, so we can plan accordingly.

Hope this helps some of you that are planning to make your own save-the-dates or invites! Happy crafting :)

saving the date part 4: the cards.

Now that you've made your embossed envelopes, it's time for the more important part... the cards that will actually tell your guests which date to save.

You will need:

-cardstock or cover weight paper (I used 12x12 linen textured cardstock from JoAnn's in white and a moss green color)
-paper cutter
-corner rounding paper punch
-paper punch (I used a 1/16" punch)
-small metal brads
-large stamp (I used the Large Flourish stamp from Paper-Source)
-stamp ink (I used a Colorbox stamp pad from Paper-Source)
-artwork design

Instructions:

1. Design your artwork. Don't forget your crop marks and the small dot on the front page to tell you where to place your brad. I actually made the brad mark white, not black, and it was much more discreet. So much so that it wouldn't show up in the picture.
I designed our save-the-date artwork in Adobe Illustrator. I sized the cards so they would fit in the A2 envelopes we used, and made sure to maximize the number of invites per page by fitting 6 on each 12x12 sheet. This helped me save on printing costs.
Caution: Before you buy 12x12 cardstock, make sure whoever you are getting your prints from is capable of printing on 12x12 paper. Not all printers can print on paper this large!
2. Get your prints made. We used a small print shop located in the UP (called CJ Graphics if anyone is interested). It was hard to do this from a distance, but they were great to work with and called me several times asking for Pantone numbers in order to make sure the colors were what I wanted. 3. Start cutting! We found you have to make less cuts if you cut around the perimeter first, then cut between the cards. (Do as I say, not as I do! The picture below shows me cutting the perimeter last, which takes more cuts and more time!)
4. Stamp and emboss your pages, just like you did on the envelopes. 5. Assemble your pieces (we had three pages) and make sure they line up properly. Trim edges if needed. 6. Round all corners while your cards are stacked. This ensures that all of your pages will match up nicely. If you have more than three pages, you might have to split them up, as it was difficult for us to even put three in the rounder at once.7. Use your paper punch to punch a hole through all sheets in order to put your brad in.8. Insert brad and separate prongs to fasten.9. Your save-the-date cards are complete!
10. Insert your save-the-date cards into your embossed envelope and seal it shut (use your tape roller again if your envelopes are homemade). 11. Add postage and send your lovely save-the-date cards to your guests.

My last post in this series will be a budget breakdown and lessons learned, so stay tuned!

saving the date part 3: the envelopes.

There were several requests for a tutorial on how I created my save the date cards. Since there are quite a few steps, I'll break up the instructions into two posts. First up, the envelopes!

What you'll need:
- Self-healing cutting mat*

- X-acto knife*

- Bone folder*

- Tape roller*

- 8 1/2" x 11" text weight paper* (I used Paper-Source text weight (80 lb) paper in the color Lake)

- A2 envelope template (I used the Paper-Source template)

- Rubber stamps (I used the Paper-Source Small and Large Flourish stamps)

- Inkpad with embossing-compatible ink (I used a Colorbox inkpad in Eggplant from Paper-Source)

- Embossing powder (I used clear embossing powder from JoAnn's)

- Embossing heat tool, or iron (I used an iron)

- Return address stamp (I used a customizable stamp from Office Depot)

* You can omit these items if using ready-made envelopes

Instructions for making envelopes* (obviously, omit if using ready-made envelopes):
1. Line up point of template in top left corner, and highest point of the side of the template with the top edge of the paper.
2. If using an A2 template on 8 1/2" x 11" paper, the template will be slightly too big. This is okay as long as it's the lowest point on the side edge of the template that overlaps. This part will be hidden once your envelope is assembled.

3. Carefully use your X-Acto knife to cut around the template. If you want to do this the right way, you can trace the template and then cut on your lines. Since I'm lazy, I skipped this step. I treated my template as more of a disposable item because it saved me so much time when cutting 150 envelopes to skip this step. My template had a lot of extra cuts on it by the end of all those envelopes.

4. When all edges are cut, use a bone folder to score the folds of the envelope. This makes it much easier to get a straight fold.
5. When all 4 edges are scored, carefully fold along the score lines. Run your bone folder along the edge to make nice crisp creases.
6. Your envelope is complete! Now onto the beautification process.

Instructions for stamping and embossing envelopes

7. Place your envelope on top of a scrap of paper if you are going to make your design run off the edge like I did.

8. Load your stamp with ink.

9. Align your stamp on the envelope and press it down firmly (don't rock it back and forth or you'll get a double image.

10. Your envelope is stamped! Remove it from the scrap paper, being careful not to smudge the wet ink.
11. While the ink is still wet, pour embossing powder over the design and tap the edges of the envelope to completely cover the design with a light coat of powder.

12. When your design is covered, unfold your envelope along the edges near the design.

13. Heat embossing powder using an embossing heat tool or an iron. I find the iron works just fine, and saves me $20 and some extra space in my crafting area that would be used for the embossing tool.

14. When entire design is melted, removed from heat.

15. The front of your envelope is complete!

16. When design has cooled, flip envelope over and stamp on the return address. To do this, I found it easiest to center the envelope between two lines on my cutting mat, like so.

The line coming to the center of the envelope is what I used to align my stamp.

Press your stamp down and you've got your return address. Hopefully the post office won't actually need to use it!

17. Load your small stamp with ink.

18. Center on envelope and press down, again without rocking.
19. Emboss as you did on the front while the ink is still wet.

20. Line the edges of the bottom flap of the envelope with tape or glue.

21. Fold bottom flap in on top of side flaps to tape the bottom together.

22. Your envelopes are finished! Take a break to admire your work! Then address them however you like (I printed them out using my personal printer).

Next up in the series, the save-the-date card tutorial.