you are cordially invited...

So I survived the craziness of work and was rewarded with the relief of FINALLY sending my invitations out!  After all the months of planning and designing and gluing and addressing, I sealed them up and brought them to the post office.

For all of you who are curious about my calligraphy, below is an example of how the envelopes look:

For someone who has never done calligraphy before in her life, I think I did a pretty good job of inking 150 addresses AND return addresses.  Go me!

And now here's a picture of the actual invitation, all made and assembled by yours truly.  As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I had the design printed by Cards and Pockets on pre-cut cardstock.  I then used a Martha Stewart snowflake hole punch on the invitation and then mounted it on "Sparkling Sapphire" panel cards.  I wrapped a silver belly band around the entire invitation and "sealed" it with a snowflake.  All of the items used to create the invitation were purchased by Cards and Pockets as well. I highly recommend them!

Here's

The most important characteristic about my invitations is that it matches all the other stationery I am creating for the wedding.  I didn't DIY the invitations because I thought it would save me money; it took me a lot of time and dedication to get these babies finished.  I made them myself because I wanted everything to fit together.

I can't believe the invitations are finally out!  What a relief! 

Now onto the RSVPS!

busy, busy, busy!

To my faithful readers, I deeply apologize for not writing an entry sooner!  It's not that I've been too busy to write, it's just I haven't had too much to write about just yet.  

I've been spending the last few weeks finalizing my DIY plans.  What began as a simple thought of making my own menu cards has now turned into doing everything myself!  And while I'm still ironing out the kinks, I thought I'd share with you a couple of things I've learned so far:

1. Give yourself enough time.  While your ideas may change along the way, it's really important to leave room to not only decide on your vision but to determine how you're going to achieve it.  Sure, layered programs don't look like much but when I actually sat down and had to figure out the dimensions of the pages, I was relieved to know I had plenty of time for trial and error!

2. Order samples.  Textures of paper or fabric cannot be felt through a computer screen and colors are RARELY represented accurately.  I probably spent $25 on all sorts of papers and ribbons and invitations but it was well worth it.  What appears nice on the screen may end up looking cheap or tacky in reality!

3.  Seek inspiration.  Just because you're doing the project yourself doesn't mean you have to be creative enough to come up with an idea from scratch!  My design didn't just magically appear in my head; I took other creations and mixed and matched them to fit the snowflake vision I already had.  If you have an idea or color, I suggest entering in a keyword into Google images and let it do it's thing.

4. Be organized! If you were to ask my father about my organizational skills, he'd laugh.  My work desk has papers scattered all over it, my bedroom has drawers filled with random junk and my car needs a maid in order to stay neat.  When it comes to my DIY projects, however, I am pretty anal.  I keep track of everything - the color, size, amount, company, cost, dimensions, etc.  And I don't order anything until I consult my spreadsheet.

5.  Ask for help. Don't assume you can do all these tasks by yourself because unless you are a stay-at-home bride, you won't have the time.  There's so much that needs to be done and some of it doesn't even require lifting a finger.  My co-workers have been so helpful with helping me determine paper colors and design layouts that I don't think I'd have the confidence to go forward with these projects if it weren't for them!  And when it comes time to assemble everything, I'll be fine even if only one or two members of my large bridal party can spare an hour or so to help out.

6.  Know when to go professional.  I'm doing a lot of the stationery myself but that doesn't mean I want it to look that way.  So instead of using Momzilla's temperamental deskjet printer, I'm having all of my stationery printed by my local Alphagraphics.  And while I was able to pull off a crash course in calligraphy, there are still some trades I know I will never be able to learn.  Like how to cut in a straight line. As I mentioned above, my program pages will be layered and I really don't trust myself to use the paper cutter in my office to make each layer the exact length it needs to be.  So, in addition to printing my stationery, Alphagraphics has offered to laser cut my programs, menus and placecards as well.  This will certainly cut my DIY time in half!

So there you have it!  Granted, nothing major has been finished yet so I can't tell you if these tips really work but so far, everything has been going smoothly.  I've started the invitation making process and have already begun addressing a couple of envelopes.  I don't want to post up any of my finished work until after the wedding, but I do plan on blogging my progress along the way.  And if any of you other DIY Brides have advice or questions, feel free to comment below!

Happy DIY-ing!

invitation situation

I've heard about it.  I've read about it.  And now I'm thisclose to actually doing it.  That's right, I'm pretty certain I'm going to make my own invitations.

Now before you all start to freak and yell about how I'll want to rip my hair out in the process, let me first inform you that I'm not making the invitations from scratch like some of the really DIY brides do.  Instead, I'm taking a simple design that I liked and recreating it myself with a few minor adjustments.  I'd like to think of my latest invitation decision as a hybrid of professional and DIY -- a DIP, if you will (do-it-professionally).

And I'm not doing this to save money.  While I will save a little bit by doing it myself, it's not the cost that motivated me.  I've actually found several professional invitations that are really pretty and are right in my budget.  No, the thing that pushed me over the DIY edge is the fact that pre-designed invitations won't match the beautiful stationery I've been working so hard on these last few months.  It would really bother me if my invitations didn't match the programs, menu cards, and table names.  And if I'm doing all this work already, why not go all the way?!

So how do I plan on pulling this off?  Well, without spoiling the surprise for my guests, I'll explain:

1. Envision the design.  This was pretty easy for me since I already had an idea from another invitation but I did draw it on paper out to scale so I could get an idea of what the final design would look like.  What makes me really happy is knowing I'll get to incorporate my monogram colors and font!

2. Create the invitation.  I'm having my invitations printed through Cards and Pockets and in order to do so, they ask for your document as a PDF with the exact paper dimensions that you plan on using.  This has been the trickiest part so far, mainly because I couldn't convert my Word document into the appropriate PDF size.  Luckily, I had my graphic designing uncle do it for me.  Thanks Uncle Al!

3.  Create the RSVP/enclosure cards.  Like the invitation, the RSVP and enclosure cards need to be a specific size so while I already have the design created, I need to have my uncle resize them for me.  He's certainly earning the boutonniere he'll be wearing on the wedding day!

4.  Submit designs for printing.  This is pretty self-explanatory.  I just email the PDFs to Cards and Pockets and they'll print it all for me on their pre-cut cards.  The pricing is reasonable and it doesn't require any paper cutters on my part, which makes me happy.

5. Order the paper and envelopes.  I plan on backing my invitations on cardstock also ordered through Cards and Pockets.  Cards and Pockets does a good job of informing you what sizes you'd need for each type of invitation you can design.  And they have a lot of really nice colors that can also be matched on envelopes from the site as well.

6. Mount the invitation.  I'm anticipating this to be the most tedious part.  I was told spraying two invitation backs at a time with adhesive would do the trick.  Haven't decided who will help me with this task - MZ?  Groomie?  Or the fair maidens of mine?

7.  Address the envelopes.  Thanks to my wonderful instructor, I'm feeling pretty confident about my newly acquired calligraphy skills.  My regular italic lettering is decent and I'm set to start learning copperplate, which is nice and fancy if done correctly.  The only thing for which I want to give myself time is the spacing.  Most of my guests are probably not reading this blog and will therefore not know that I will be doing the addressing myself so I want to make sure it looks semi-professional!  The good news is by doing it myself, I can order the envelopes even before the invitations so I can get a head start on the addresses.


Here's an example of italic calligraphy:

And then here's copperplate:

So I know this is going to require time and patience but I'm up for the challenge.  My only fear is that I'll screw it up somehow!

Has anyone else made their invitations?  If so, any advice you can give me?

first impressions

When I first created my wedding budget, I didn't allocate much to the invitation department. But the more wedding blogs I read, the more I'm starting to become brainwashed by stationery companies who remind me that first impressions mean everything.

I still don't believe in spending a fortune on wedding invitations (they usually get tossed in the garbage!) but I began thinking outside of the box in terms of style and design.

Luckily, I found a great vendor on etsy.com, who not only has the perfect design to fit my snowflake/DIY motif but is also really affordable. I'd post an example but I want my guests to be surprised!

So now that I have invitations in mind, I am contemplating whether or not I should hire a calligrapher to address the envelopes. There are a couple of calligraphers that have decent prices and cute handwriting but Momzilla doesn't think they are "formal" enough.

First, there's Swoon Over It. Amanda, the calligrapher, has three different styles. This isn't the one I would pick but it's the only image I could find on the web!

Her pricing starts at $0.95 an envelope.

Then there's Blink Calligraphy by one of my favorite wedding bloggers, Preppy Bride at 2365. Apparently she shares my love for wedding planning and DIY projects!

Below are the styles I like but again, Momzilla doesn't think it's fancy enough for a wedding. Her pricing starts at $0.75 an envelope.

Then there's Calligraphy by Michele, run by a woman who lives really close to my parents so it would be quite convenient to drop off and pick up the envelopes. This is the only calligrapher to whom MZ gave approval.

Her pricing starts at $1.15 an envelope. But I suppose I save on shipping since it would be local.

And last but not least, there's one more calligraphy option. Yours Truly. I signed up for an 8-session calligraphy class that will begin next week and I'm hoping my $95 enrollment fee will make me good enough to address my own invitations and then some. Who knows, maybe I can begin my own calligraphy service one day!

So what do you think? Is calligraphy worth it? If so, which style do you like?

Or do you think I'm making a big fuss over nothing and should just run the envelopes through the printer for free? :)