You Just Can't Keep Me Away...

I know I know, I'm retiring.  But I had to share these little rehearsal dinner invitations I made for my little bro's upcoming nuptuals because they might be my favorite design ever, and I really did these myself!  The dinner is being held at an old Chicago steakhouse where the color scheme involves lots of vintage green, so I grabbed old art deco fonts from www.dafont.com and went wild!  I kept things simple because the happy couple is definitely more into "understated" than "over the top" but I think they came out juuust right.



I love them, potentially more than I love the adorable couple (ok just kidding guys)!  :)





Cheers!

Those Handy Little Freebies (Part II)

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I blogged about the free downloadable template I used to create a bridal shower invitation for my stepsister.  Well, after figuring out how simple it was to do I was pretty hooked, and I started looking at other downloadable templates.  And that is how I discovered (courtesy of iDIY)  these STUNNING downloadable templates from Download and Print.

These templates have quickly become all-stars in my crafting projects because they are so easy to use- you download them in word, print them on cardstock, and then just use a paper cutter.  Because the background color comes from the paper itself, you have tons of flexibility in terms of color scheme, and I especially love that you can choose your own fonts.  Love!

I used the last ones (Dandelions!) to make an engagement party invitation for my Stepsister's upcoming e-party, and look how cute it came out!  I ended up photoshopping the design a bit in order to make it into a file I could upload to VistaPrint (you knew they had to be involved somehow didn't you) because I knew I was not going to have enough time to print these myself, but I'm still extremely thrilled with the product!

Are you sold yet?

Tacky Tacky Tacky

I generally try not to focus on the negative here at The One! but once in a while, I hear about something so appallingly tacky that it would be a crime not to share!

Ok so here's what happened.  A friend recently received a wedding invitation where, directly on the invitation was the following poem...

To help us on our way

as husband and wife

gifts of cash are welcome

to start off our new life!

Um, excuse me, I know weddings often involve cash gifts, but seriously?  Just because the poem is cute does not mean that the concept is cute.  Every single etiquette guide I have ever read has said that under no circumstances may you mention gifts or registries on an invitation, unless you are specifically asking people NOT to bring presents.  Because nothing is worse than making people feel like they are being invited to a fundraiser.  To make things worse, most people are well aware of the rule and will judge you (severely) for doing it.  Sorry guys but as a public service, I simply have to call this out.

But of course, I'm not only about being snarky.  Here's a helpful tip- if you want to provide this information in a socially acceptable manner, put your registry information (with absolutely no requests for cash, there are alternative registries that can help you with that) on your wedding website, and the website information can be part of an invitation enclosure.  That way your guests can find out gift information if they want to.  And don't discount the value of word-of-mouth when it comes to gift giving.  You don't need to put it on the invitation, and if you do, you'll just offend pretty much everyone who gets it.

A good cautionary tale though right?  Have you ever seen any invitation faux pas?  And how about www.tackyweddings.com?  That should make every bride-to-be feel pretty good about her wedding choices!

images source

Those Handy Little Freebies (Part I)

I've blogged before about my love for the Wedding Chicks.  In fact, they are the reason I found my photographer, Jessica Morrisy, and they are responsible for so much of my own wedding inspiration.  And they also featured my wedding, which in and of itself was pretty rock star.  *love them*



Well, one of the many things I love about the Chicks is their section of freebies.  They have so many customizeable, free loveliness, its hard not to drool.  So it's no shock that I turned to them when I needed to design a shower invitation for my stepsister!



And while we're on the topic, yes, my stepsister's name really is Sarah.  And her future husband?  He has the same name as my husband.  Ah, the modern blended family!



My stepsister Sarah is planning a summery yellow and orange wedding, and so when planning the shower, we bridesmaids thought we'd stick with the same color family.  And once that had been decided, I immediately wanted to use the Wedding Chicks dahlia  invitation design I had seen a few months ago!

While the Chicks' design was intended for a wedding, it worked just as perfectly for a bridal shower.  And it was easy to do- I just downloaded the template and then added the text- it involved a bit of photoshopping the PDF, but in the end, the result turned out great!

I had the invitations printed on matte cardstock at (where else?) Vista Print, and they came back perfect.  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.  I used the same image to make coordinating insert cards and mailing labels.  And for the crowing touch:

Have you customized any good downloadable freebies lately?

Porn for the Paper Lover

If you're madly in love with paper, just like everyone else I know, then you're going to totally love today's images.  My dear friend R. made, yes MADE, these gorgeous invitations, totally from scratch for her upcoming nuptuals.  The wedding is being held at an old mill, complete with the original old wood, wrought iron, vintage windows, and it's right next to a river.  Her details will all be antique-inspired and her materials will be very natural (think: burlap and craft paper).  Her colors are navy, ivory and blush pink.  And yes, I do have an exclusive to blog about it (hey, I'm a bridesmaid, so I get the perks!)

The invitation elements are as follows: (1) Navy outer envelope with wrap around craft paper address labels; (2) vellum inner envelope with invitee names, wrapped in baker's twine with a Thoreau quote on a vintage tag; (3) the invitation, also on craft paper and with vintage hot air balloon details; (4) RSVP card (with bright pink envelope), information enclosure, and invitation to the welcome BBQ, also incorporating vintage hot air balloons.  DROOL.   Most of the elements were printed at home on the bride's printer, though the tag was made with a stamp.

Ok ready to fall in love?  And by the way, I've had the good fortune of previewing other elements this bride is working on... I cannot wait to show them to you after the wedding!

Once Upon A Time: Invitations!

I am so excited today to FINALLY be able to share with you a project I'm particularly proud of... baby shower invitations for my sister in law!  I made (designed, printed, assembled) these myself, 100% from scratch.  And I'm so excited about how they turned out!  Sure, they were work, but I love projects and crafts-- and these were a labor of LOVE!

The first thing I love about them is their theme.  Sister in law T is a teacher, and so a book reference was a no-brainer.  When searching for invites online, I was instantly drawn to the "Once upon a time" themed invites, but the company I liked best did not make enclosures or RSVP cards-- and since we needed both for this set, I did some thinking. I realized, I could totally do this myself!  And so I ordered the paper and got to work!

The invitation consists of three parts printed on light pink cardstock- the main invite, the RSVP postcard, and then an enclosure with registry information, asking folks to bring a baby book in lieu of a card (cute, right?!)  The components are wrapped in a belly band of bright pink, and the envelopes are lined with the same shade.  And then, around the belly band, I wrapped and tied some yarn.  It's a little nod to my mother in law who knits, as well as baby appropriate- and on top of all that, it's a great little textural addition that peeks out of the envelope when you open it.  LOVE!

Since we saved some money making these, I splurged on custom Zazzle stamps for the postcard and envelopes... I think they add just the right finishing touch, and of course I had some coupons and Ebates to help with the cost!

One of the other things I love about this concept is that it would also work well for a girly-girl bridal shower.  And the components themselves are simply 5 x7 paper/envelopes, traditionally sized postcard RSVP's, and then smaller enclosures- all of which are easy to find at Paper Source or the craft store.  Seriously, anyone could make something like this!

Have I convinced you?  Would you try making your own invitations for an event??

Vintage Postcard Breakfast Invitations

One of the absolute most wonderful things about getting married so close to Christmas is that, in fact, it is so close to Christmas (!!), my favorite holiday!  And one of the things J. and I have been mulling over as the final countdown gets closer, is whether to have a breakfast the morning after the wedding for the guests, and if so, how to invite them!  So I began thinking about all how much I love those old victorian post cards you see in antique shops, and how fun it would be to incorporate them into our potential breakfast invitations.

After spending just a little bit of time surfing the net, I've already found three potential images which I think would work well, and I made a couple of little mock-ups for what such an invitation might look like.  These little cards could have the details of the breakfast itself on the back (postcard style) and could easily be printed at home or at my favorite place, Vista Print!  These samples are literally something I spent 5 minutes on, and nowhere near close to the final product (I'll need to spend some time in Photoshop getting the resolution and colors just right) but isn't it fun to see all the directions one might take this project in?  What do you think, is this a project you would attempt?

[caption id="attachment_1452" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="click on image to see source for original postcard"][/caption]

I cannot figure out where I got this image- if you know, please comment!

click on image to see source for original postcard

UPDATE:  Since writing this post, I have totally changed directions with this project.  The victorian thing ultimately didn't work out for me and I found a better format for shape to work with.  Stay tuned because I used some Mad Men-inspired fabulousness that was even better!

Brilliant, DIY, Budget Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

 Today I am so excited, because our rehearsal dinner invitations have been sent and should be at their destinations by now!   These invitations were so much fun for me, because although I didn't DIY the wedding invitations (I had to make the call to preserve my sanity!) I decided that the smaller number of rehearsal dinner invites merited some DIY action.  And in case you didn't know, making invitations is WORK!  I'm glad I just stuck with these (and glad I had FMIL and FSIL to help)!  Don't worry though, I'll give you all the details for how you can make them yourself!

First, I went to Paper Source and I purchased enough of the following supplies to make 30 invitations: (1) A7 note cards in leaf, (2) cover weight 8.5 x 11 cardstock in leaf, (3) soft white enclosure cards, which are slightly smaller than the A7 cards, (4) 4 bar cards in soft white, (5) "Retro Snowflake" envelope liners, and (6) A7 envelopes in superfine white.  I also gathered up my handy-dandy address labels, which have been used for a variety of projects.

For step 1, we attacked the envelopes.  I had 50 envelope liners but only needed to line 30 envelopes, so I cut rectangles from the leftovers and glued them to the front of the envelopes.  I also used a heart-shaped hole punch to add a heart near the return address.  Using fonts we selected for the invitation, I printed out address labels and added them on top.

[caption id="attachment_1485" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Of course we couldn't send a plain envelope..."][/caption]

 Step 2 involved making the invitations themselves.  I set up a custom paper size in Microsoft Word to work with our soft white enclosure cards, and used my selected fonts to create a few different "proofs" which I circulated to my FMIL for her thoughts (she and FFIL are generously throwing the rehearsal dinner, so her input was important to me!)  Once we nailed down a look, I set my home printer to its "best" print setting, and fired them off.

[caption id="attachment_1484" align="aligncenter" width="260" caption="Detailed view of the invite itself"][/caption]

 Next came the belly bands.  Those were fun and easy!  I scanned baby photos of J. and I, and then used photoshop to crop them and turn them to sepia tones!  I also used the photoshop tools to age one of the photos a bit, so that they had a similar texture.  I printed the baby photos onto leftover soft white insert cards and then cut them out with crinkle-edged shears so that they would look antique!

We also took the 8.5 x 11 leaf cardstock and cut it into 1.5 inch strips.  Using the bone folder, we scored and folded the bands, and then used foam tape (to give the photos some height) to adhere the photos to the belly bands.  Cute right? 

What guests will see when they open the envelope...

Now it was time to work on the map and direction card, which would be inserted with the invitation into the belly band.  These were pretty easy to make.  I designed the map itself using the same technique as my invitation map enclosures and I made sure that all work was done in the same colors as the invitation and address labels.  It took some fussing (and some time) but it wasn't difficult.  When I finally liked the look of the maps, I printed them on the 4 bar cards using my home printer's "photo" setting- this was important for the map image, because it allowed for those tiny words to print crisply.

[caption id="attachment_1482" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The front of the direction card"][/caption]

On the back of the card, I included directions: hotel to church, church to restaurant, and restaurant to hotel.  The map itself has addresses, in case people want to plug into their GPS systems.  I carefully printed the directions on the backs of the map cards- I say carefully because I was very worried about ink smearing, or printing upside down.  By taking my time, neither was an issue.

[caption id="attachment_1483" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Back of the directions card"][/caption]

And there you have it- our rehearsal dinner invitations were complete, and for only about $50.  Which is less than they cost even at budget retailers- and so much cuter, don't you think?  A special thank you to FMIL and FSIL for their most excellent help in putting these together last Sunday.  It look a little while, but I think the final product was SO worth it.  And FMIL even found adorable holiday stamps for the envelopes.  Another wedding project successfully completed!

[caption id="attachment_1481" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The total package"][/caption]

 

 

A Compendium of Free Wrap Around Mailing Labels

It makes me glow with pride every time someone says how much they loved my wedding mailing lables because I loved them too!  And though there are a great many etsy sellers in the world, eager to design for you a perfect, custom label, I thought it would be good to share some freebie, downloadable templates I have found which also do the trick, all while looking adorable!  When I first started planning, I searched everywhere for these, and lately it seems I am finding new good ones every day!  I love how these could be used for so many things- not just weddings!   So without further ado, my compendium (note excellent use of legal jargon) of free wrap around mailing labels... happy Friday!  Note, each image links to its source.

[caption id="attachment_1184" align="aligncenter" width="277" caption="French postcard."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1182" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lil' prettie."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1183" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Martha's pink labels."][/caption]

Pen pal.

Dots!

Ming.

Antique ledger paper

[caption id="attachment_1175" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Cherry blossoms."][/caption]

School house.

[caption id="attachment_1181" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Damask."][/caption]

Wedding Invitations Are Out!

I have been ITCHING to write this post for a long time.  And now I finally can because our wedding invitations *should* all have arrived at their destinations by now.  That's right, we sent our invitations out last Friday!

[caption id="attachment_880" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chloe helps me get the invitations ready to go."][/caption]

I hear people say how much they love paper all the time, and because of this fact, I've kind of started to internally roll my eyes every time someone says how much they love paper.  I know its hypocritical because I've said it too, but I've slowly come to realize that everyone - or at least everyone I know - loves paper.  It is such a luxury, its like loving flowers on Valentine's day or like loving a great pair of Manolos!  Duh, everyone loves them!  But then, when I look at these invitations, guess what I think about?  How much I too love paper!  In fact, it pained me to put redactions on these photos, that is how much I loved our invitations.  So I hereby promise to stop rolling my eyes at all you paper lovers out there!

[caption id="attachment_881" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The full suite!"][/caption]

We had an itty bitty invitation budget because J. is not quite so enamored with paper as I am, and we had to prioritize.  I'm not kidding, it was seriously itty bitty.  Try to imagine the cheapest bridal store you know of, and then think about the fact that I probably couldn't afford their invitations.  I am in no way saying that our budget was not adequate (I welcomed the challenge!), but I had a real champagne taste-beer budget problem.  That is when I found My Gatsby.  Their website really doesn't help their cause (the invites don't look as appealing online as in-person), but when I logged on, I found cute invitations with monograms that I thoght might work for us.  And when I ordered samples, they literally sent me a huge batch of swatches with every single kind of paper they work with.  I was floored by the reasonableness of the prices and the quality of the products.  The thermography had a nice feel, and the paper quality, while not super thick, was quite nice considering how affordable they were.  We had to make some concessions for paper weight, but for something people will throw away, we decided it was worth it.

Closeup, with and without the belly band.

One of the ways we saved money with My Gatsby was to design our invitation ourselves (i.e., myself).  Its a little risky if you are typo-prone like I am, but they have an online preview tool- so as long as you can recruit your 25 favorite spell-checking lawyerly friends to read it like I did, you can rest assured your invitations will read ok.  And you can also pay a little extra to have My Gatsby help you with that!  I also saved money by skipping the inner envelope (I also like that this saves paper, yay earth)!  Instead, I ordered sheets of cardstock to match my gold envelopes, cut those sheets into one-inch strips, and turned them into belly bands.  The belly bands took some time and some folding patience (using a bone folder and grid-guide) but they really added some polish to the suite.

[caption id="attachment_884" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Maps and hotel info!"][/caption]

Another way we saved money was by getting creative with enclosure cards.  We splurged with a two-color invitation and reception card, but for our response card we limited the printing to one color.  We figured that since people would mail them back to us, nobody would notice or care if they were printed in all-green, and that helped our bottom line.  I also made the maps with hotel information on Vista Print (see previous blog post on this topic here).  One enclosure card in two colors ran about $60 for 100, whereas Vista Print cards ran about $6, so I saved more than $50 on this step.

[caption id="attachment_886" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And the address labels in action (and yes, we did send one to the President)!"][/caption]

And a further way I saved money was by skipping calligraphy (you may recall my love of calligraphy from the past).  I really, really, really wanted calligraphy, but at $1-$3 per invitation, it was not going to work for us.  Instead, I had my friend Sarah at Belletristics make custom address labels for our invites.  Yes, I slaved over these, between putting the addresses on the computer, cutting out the labels, using the bone folder, and then adhering them to evelopes without making them crooked.  It was a labor of love.  But I asbolutely loved how they turned out!!  Even J., paper curmudgeon that he is, was impressed and excited to send them out!

[caption id="attachment_1100" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Love these!"][/caption]

And of course, we used our king and queen of hearts stamps too- they worked perfectly because we needed exactly $.88 postage- so each envelope received both a king and a queen- it was meant to be!

I was a little bit sad to let these guys go, but I am so thrilled that our invitation- the first true impression of our wedding that our guests will receive- is everything I'd hoped it would be!