Greetings! and welcome to my invitation post.
Even before I had any interest in graphic design, I always wanted to make my own wedding invitations. This probably comes from my love of scrapbooking and papercrafts (nerd alert!). Some brides will continue to day-dream about their wedding dress or their bridal jewelry. Me, on the other hand, I still day dream about our invitations. As you will read, I put way too much thought into every detail, and by end of this post you will be questioning my sanity. So without further adieu, I invite you to come along on the adventure that is invitations.
Wedding invitations was a much longer process than I had anticipated. There are A LOT of good things about DIY projects, but the one bad thing (at least in my case) is there are no limitations. The decisions are endless. For instance, I could write a whole post just about picking out envelopes. And then you also have the challenge of doing what you want for least amount of money. Doing your own invitations can save you hundreds of dollars. Invitations similar to mine on Etsy would have cost me over $1350, I probably spent closer to $350. You just have to have enough time, will power, and the right resources to do it.
One of my stipulations with DIY wedding things is that I didn't want them to look too DIY. Making something yourself to save money is no excuse for your product to look cheap or tacky. You gotta do your research and do it right. Aim towards looking professional and sophisticated - not just inexpensive.
Your invitation says a lot. And I don't just mean when and where you're getting married. Be aware that the recipients of your invite will come to certain conclusions based on your invite alone. Especially for guests that don't know you well, that invitation is the only thing they have to go off of. Things your invite could communicate "non-verbally" could be: traditional or non-traditional, casual or formal. If you don't keep these things in mind your guest could show up to a back-yard wedding in ball gown. You want the mood of your invitation to match everything written on it, and reflect what they can expect at your event.
Design:
Coming up with the design for the invitations was difficult. I knew I wanted them to have that "vintage vibe," but I didn't have clear image in my head. I also didn't want to copy-cat someone else's design. As an artist, I have a conscience about those things. I did A LOT (a lot, a lot) of browsing online to find inspiration. Most of the designs that had the iconography I liked looked too hipster or rustic - and I was aiming for something more cutsie (which will be a real word someday). After collecting a lot of source material, I felt I could create something that was cutsie, vintagey, and truly unique.
I had a lot going on this design. Since I was also making my own everything (table numbers, escort cards, programs, menus, etc) - this invitation design would determine the colors, fonts, and imagery I would use in the rest of my creatives. This cohesiveness helps to keep your designs looking professional and put-together. I was essentially branding my wedding and through creating these invites I put together my brand guidelines for the event.
These guidelines or motifs helped me to create much quicker. After I made the main card, I had couple things figured out and the process got much easier. Colors: Teal, light teal, orange, light orange (peach), gray, and black. Fonts: I used 'Swingdancer' as my decorative/accent font. I used American Typewriter for any flat text. Make sure to have important information (times, locations, numbers) in a font that is easy to read, so there can be no confusion. Imagery: My designs included a retro pattern border, vintage caricatures similar to those on mid-century advertisements, and speech bubbles.
Wording:
Wording takes a lot of research. There are a lot of options out there. Since I consider myself to be traditional and follow etiquette, I wanted to make sure the wording was appropriate and polite. There are a lot of reasons why you word your invitation a certain way (here is a good place to start, this one too). Finding wording that is unique and fun is great, just make sure it is polite. I did my best to jazz up traditional wording. The speech bubbles were a big help in adding that fun. Being traditional doesn't mean you have to be boring!
Additional Cards:
I also included a reception/information card, RSVP card, and an accommodations card. The reception card was double sided, and included a map of the events.
All of the cards were secured by this adorable belly-band. Which I now realize sounds like something pregnant women attach to their jeans. Anywho, the orange band is made from a heavyweight card-stock and double sided tape. The C's were printed out on white card-stock, punched out with a decorative puncher, and adhered with double sided tape.
I wanted my main card to stand out. So instead of printing the teal border around the edge, I mounted the main card onto teal card-stock. This gave it just enough distinction and made it sturdier.
Envelopes:
I purchased all of my envelopes and card-stock from a paper-craft store in Brunswick, Ohio. For anyone who is getting married in NEO, I highly recommend getting all your paper goods at Hollo's. This store is one of the main reasons I saved a lot of money and time when creating invitations.
Reason's why this store is awesome:
1. They charge you by weight for your card stock at an extremely affordable rate.
2. They sell all of their remnants and trims. (I used these to make my belly-bands)
3. They have an entire warehouse of envelopes.
Envelopes were the first thing I needed to purchase. I needed to finalize the design before I sent it to the printers, and I couldn't finalize them until I knew what sizes our envelopes were. One of the reasons Hollo's is so affordable is because they buy out inventory from other stores that may be closing or discontinuing certain styles/colors. That being said, some of their envelopes they restock consistently and some of them may be the last box on earth. So it was important that I purchased sooner than later.
My biggest limitation was finding two envelopes that fit together (as an inner/outer pair), in the colors I wanted. I had my heart set on these vellum envelopes for my inner envelopes, and I had trouble finding a mate for them that wasn't boring. I originally wanted bright colored envelopes, but couldn't find any that match my colors perfectly.
After a lot of searching and deliberation we finally decided on these color-speckled envelopes. They had just the right amount of fun, and complimented the invitation design without being too matchy-matchy. I know a lot of people have done away with the inner envelopes, but I love them. I think they add a touch of wedding novelty that isn't tacky. Plus, they scream traditional, which by now you should understand is what I am going for.
Addressing:
For the inner envelope, I bought adhesive/decorative labels and hand-wrote the names on them. I attempted to print on them with their not-so-handy-dandy included template... but after I messed up several sheets, I decided it wasn't worth it. I love the way you can see the band through the vellum envelope and how the label appears to be attached to it.
For the outer envelopes, I was in love with the idea of doing a custom calligraphy design. This, alone, can run you about $300 if you choose to have someone do it for you. I threw around the idea of hand-writing the addresses, but decided it would save me time in the long-run to print them out. This came with its struggles.
It took a lot of trial and error to get the print settings figured out. And there were times I was close to giving up. Figuring out the placement, only took a couple runs. However, after my first few envelopes my printer started dragging black lines across the envelope and smearing the design. Also, the printer would sometimes pick up two envelopes through the feed, throwing off the alignment of the design. These mistakes cost me about 15 envelopes, and I wasn't even a quarter of the way through.
Eventually I figured out some print settings that worked. Attempting to fix the black lines issue, I first cleaned the print-head, and ran through some sheets of paper to pick up any residue. But, I continued to get smears and smudges. Turns out, the envelope was being fed too quickly through the printer. I changed my paper setting (located within advanced printer settings) to heavy-weight photo paper. The printer then fed in my envelope slowly, and printed the design slowly as well. No more smudges! I had to feed each envelop in individually to keep the printer from picking up multiples. This may sound tedious, but I ended up getting all this printing done in one evening - for free.
For the return address, I purchased these large round adhesive labels from Hollo's (of course). I stamped on the addresses using a handy-dandy stamper I purchased for our save-the-dates.
Please enjoy the five Star Wars references on that envelope.
Stamps:
I wanted to use a variety of stamps. I had seen this idea all over Pinterest and loved it. I took a completed invitation to the post office and had it weighed (mine cost 66 cents to send). I used one forever stamp, and made up the difference using stamps of varying amounts. Side note: The lady at the post office honestly looked at me like I was crazy when I told her what I was doing. Luckily the stamp designs at the time were vintage-styled and complimented the whole look of my invitation.
I thought this was a super fun way to jazz up the invite. And, better yet, it is a detail that doesn't cost you any extra money!
If you can believe it, there is still so much more I could tell about these invitations. For now, this is where I will leave you. Thanks for checking it out!
I love creating custom designs. If you are interested in hiring me for your own event, please message me or keep a look out for my Etsy shop (coming soon!)
Laterbug Caiterbug.
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