All Things Wedding From Wedding Stationery to Bridal Wear

Lamberdoodle’s sweet cousin handed out programs on the day of our wedding. She was so excited to be part of the festivities and took her duties quite seriously.

I was really proud of how they turned out, but of course, there’s a whole, long back story.

One day, I was at Michaels. (Aside: Michaels probably wonders where the loony scavenging for black and white goods on discount went – or maybe they just think I morphed into the lavender and sage hunting crazy getting married in June?) Since I had previously left some very good, cheap paper in our wedding colors on the shelf to never be found again, I jumped at the chance to buy them out of 3 stacks of 8×8 crafting paper. I had no earthly idea what I was going to use them for, but gosh darn it, I would have them laying around when the time was right.

The time was right when I conceived of the idea to make programs. I quickly cut out a few pieces of scrap paper to ensure the measurements would work out. Lo and behold, if I cut the 8×8 sheets exactly in half and then created a tri-fold program on 8.5×11, I could get two programs from each piece of paper and tuck them neatly into their little jackets.

It took a few hours and several printing tests, but I finally was able to squeeze all of the information we wanted into the allotted space, using Publisher.

I used Abigail font for the titles and Californian FB for the rest of the text (with some italicized). Both of these fonts were standard in my version of Office. I set the margins so that they would all be equal when I cut down the middle of the paper. In execution, I sent a PDF to Kinko’s and had them print and cut the cardstock. For $24 dollars, it was definitely a sanity saver not having to print double-sided on my home printer and cut each by hand.

The day after Christmas, I set my family to work. I had previously cut and folded all of the jackets while burning through my Netflix queue, but tri-folding the freshly printed insides was taking a bit of time. I also had a 1/16″ hole punch that was the needle eye to my 1/8″ ribbon camel. I also had quite a bit of pre-cut ribbon; however, I overestimate how many we would get from each roll. Since we needed more ribbon, I decided to break down and buy the 1/8″ hole punch while at Michaels. To top it all off, I had a ribbon length sample from a previous project, so Ewe Mother inadvertently cut all of the new ribbon into ties about 2 inches short, making them harder, but not impossible to tie. There was some rough going, but nothing says holiday cheer like everyone gathered around the table, carols on the radio, and teaching your Dad how to handle the bone folder. He’s a regular Martha Stewart now!

Did you con your family into wedding craft projects during a holiday gathering?

*First two photographs by our wonderful photographer Sam Hughes, and the rest by me.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Our invitations arrived on Wednesday, and I am just giddy with excitement! Our mailman probably thought I was crazy, considering how fast I grabbed the box out of his hands and closed the door on him.

I know I haven’t shared much about our invitations yet… but I love them so much that once I get started, I’m sure you’ll be begging me to stop. For now I’ll just say that I designed them myself and had them letterpress printed by Kristin at Twin Ravens Press. They turned out even better than I’d imagined, with double thick Crane Lettra paper, delicious indentations of my most favorite fonts, and pink envelopes, of course! I will slowly reveal them to you over the next couple weeks as I’ve only begun the little touches I’m planning to add!

Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! How are your invitations going? Are you designing them yourself, or turning to a trusted professional? Is the process going better than you expected or turning out to be a disappointment?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I cannot craft. And I really, really mean that. I cannot craft. Back in my seventh-grade-teacher days, I sometimes assigned my students to make the occasional poster or collage and usually made an example for them to see. The kids always, ALWAYS soundly trumped my example with the projects they turned out. I was out-crafted by thirteen-year-olds on the regular.

So when it came time to start planning for our save-the-dates and invitations, I knew that I would not be touching a Gocco, a Cricut, Adobe Illustrator, or even plain ol’ MS Word with a ten-foot pole. Instead, I turned to your friend and mine, Etsy, and put out an Alchemy bid requesting someone to design PDFs, which I could then print myself (that makes it sort of DIY, right?!).

I got some good bids and some very, very not-good bids (think www.regretsy.com), but I got one outstanding bid, from seller gramkinpaperstudio. She offered me a great deal: $100 to design for our save-the-dates, invitations, RSVP cards, and information inserts, with five rounds of revisions for each item. Then I checked out her badass portfolio:

(Source: all from gramkinpaperstudio’s Etsy shop)

Hi. Sold.

So we got crackin’ on collaborating to design save-the-dates! I described my ideas—red and purple, statement fonts, throw a calendar in there somewhere, and can you find a spot for a few quirky little graphics?—and she responded incredibly quickly. With each revision, the design got closer and closer to what I had in mind, until, on the fourth round, it was perfect. I sent my PDFs off to OvernightPrints, and squealed with glee when these showed up a few days later:

I was really happy about how sharply the details of the design came out in the printing process.

They’re the “premium” postcard option, and they turned out exactly how I was hoping. The design is just what I had dreamed up in my head, and the print job is perfect. I was looking for something pretty and classy, but also a little off-beat and unexpected. I really hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do (although to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t actually mind if they do or not, because I love them enough not to care!!).

I included this picture so you could see the shine from the “gloss” treatment the postcard gets.

The one dumb, dumb mistake I made in the design process? It never occurred to me to ask the designer if, instead of putting lines for the return address in the top corner, she could instead actually include our return address. I paid for that oversight by writing our return address eighty times in a row. It was so super dumb, you guys.

And now, after many hours of address-writing and hilariously-irrelevant-polar-bear-stamp-affixing, these suckers are ready to be mailed to our guests!

Here’s a bonus shot of our save-the-date cozying up to Bridesmaid Erica’s save-the-date on our fridge.

Cost breakdown:

• Design fee: $25 (though it was really all one lump some with the invitations; I just broke it down like this)
• Postcard printing: $47
• Postage: $23

Total: $95—exactly 95 cents per card!

Where did you get your STDs**? Was it a DIY, a semi-DIY, or a DISE (do-it-someone-else) job?

*Ha!
**Ha ha! Seriously, can’t stop myself.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Our beautiful invitations have arrived! Having picked these out nearly a year ago, I am happy to present them (in slightly altered form, sorry):

They are beautiful to me now, but when I picked them up I was a little disappointed with the accent color, a neutral-ish shade of pink that was a little different from how it appeared in the store sample book. Also, it was a bit of a struggle to get these invitations designed in quite the right way (multiple proofs), and this probably added to the underwhelming-ness of seeing them for the first time.

But I got over it quickly. The first thing that helped me get over my disappointment was seeing Mr. Oyster’s reaction to the invitations. Earlier readers may remember that it was him who turned me on to these invitations in the first place — he has excellent taste!

When he came home, I showed them to him without comment, to see what he’d say. He didn’t say anything for a long time, but he just sort of stared at them, smiling. Finally he said, “We’re getting married!” It was very sweet.

These invitations, of course, are not about shades of pink and cursive and script and fonts; they’re the first announcement that my fiance and I intend to start a life together. Seeing him hold the invitations in his hands and really get that for the first time was priceless, and everything else I’d been worrying about suddenly mattered much less.

Another thing that helped was a little design tweak that was inexpensive and only took a few minutes! I decided to round the corners.

Smock can round the corners of your invitations for you, but we didn’t select this when we ordered them. When they arrived, I knew it was the “something missing” that I needed to fix. I ventured into Hobby Lobby and found this sturdy-looking “Corner Chomper” and its cute matching case:

This is the perfect tool for this sort of thing; it cuts clean, perfectly curved corners, and holds up really well. It’s perfect for the super thick card stock of our invitations.

And now for the results! First, the before:

This tool cuts two types of corners; a quarter inch (it appears that this is the shape the company uses if you have them round the corners)…

…and a half inch, which is the one we’re going to use:

You can see the corners better in this shot:

I have to give major props to the Crop-a-dile. The corners it cuts are absolutely perfect… no flattening of the paper or extra weird notches. It’s amazing how different the invitations look now. The softer edges really help our names to stand out, since they’re now the only angled things on the invitation. I think the soft corners provide some much-needed balance and definition. Not only that, but with this hard cardstock, they’re much easier to get in and out of the envelopes.

Oh, and another thing — did you notice? Several of you mentioned wanting to see our invitation suite, and this is it. We went with our simple-is-best mantra with this wedding and decided to splurge on this one beautiful card (which we got on sale!) and eliminate the things that were less important to us. Even the language on the invitation is super-simplified.

So, no STDs, no response card, no postcard, no maps, no folding things, no menu, no programs. It’s all on the website, including our RSVP! We’ll see how that goes.

So for now, that’s the story of our invites. We’ve got nothing left to do with them but send them out (but not until we finalize the guest list… oh, no!).

*Photos by me.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I am in the thick of making my invitations. I have the letterpress invites. I printed the envelopes. So it was time to make the rest of the suite: the hotel card and the reply card.

I printed the secondary pieces at home to save money. I used the same color of Crane paper as the letterpress invites to maintain consistency. So I printed all of these pieces out, multiple “cards” to a sheet of letter-sized paper.

Then the cutting began. Let’s just say I didn’t enjoy this part.

This took me several hours. Several tedious, annoying, agonizing, soul-crushing hours. I prefer not to think about it.

What lengths have you gone to in the name of DIY?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Our Save the Dates are complete and have been sent!

When we were figuring out what to do, I turned to Weddingbee for inspiration. Through different bees on the site, I realized I wanted to incorporate a few things: tie in our theme/color scheme (navy and white with starfish accents), create a look that is simple, clean and classic Newport, incorporate some fun/humor, and special details. I think we did a pretty good job of getting the exact look we were going for.

We decided against calligraphy for the envelopes. Our wedding is a little more casual, so we didn’t want super fancy save the dates. We’ll save calligraphy for the invitations to make them a little more formal.

I created envelope liners using the Paper Source templates. I absolutely love envelope liners. I feel like they are an added surprise when you open a letter/note/invitation.

We wanted our save the dates to be informative with a personal touch. We included a “mission statement” explaining the importance of our wedding location, as it is a destination for most of our guests.

We made sure to include accommodations suggestions. The main reason we decided to send save the dates was to get the hotel information to guests. Hotel blocks end by the time our invites go out, and we want everyone to have the chance to get rooms that are convenient and hopefully a little cheaper. We also included our wedding website, which has information on restaurants, activities in the area, and information for wedding events.

We also added in magnets. Mr. Starfish really loved the idea of magnets, and I loved that we got to include photos from our engagement shoot. I say photos plural, as we couldn’t decide on one design and ended up with five magnet designs. We sent out specific ones to different groups.

And here it is all together:

The mission statement and information cards were completely created in Microsoft Word with some embossed elements. I think sending them out makes it all more real!

Photos used for save the dates taken by: David Bibeault

Did you make your own save the dates? What was your favorite element?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Along with Mr. Sew’s desire for no-doodle manvitations, there was another wish he had on his list of things that are formal.

Wax.

I agreed with him. A wax seal screams “formal”. So to realize his vision, I bought Mr. Sew a little double happiness seal, and found some white glue stick wax at the now-closed Pearl Art Store in San Francisco to go with it.

In addition, we purchased some red ribbon, and cut it into 100 ten-inch strips to wrap around our pocket folds.

Now, there’s already a great thread going around on the boards with tips and tricks for glue-gun wax seals, but I’ll show you our process as well.

First, Mr. Sew created an elaborate setup (that’s probably completely unnecessary). He took a baking pan and placed an ice pack inside. Then he covered the ice pack with a loaf pan, creating his “working surface”.

He also used a measuring cup full of ice water. The ice-water was used to chill his metal seal before and after each application.

He simply pumped a few squirts of glue onto his cold surface, and then plopped his ice-chilled seal into the puddle, holding it there until the glue set.

Once set, he pulled the seal out, and peeled the seal off the surface to fully dry. It’s that easy!

Now, he chose not to glue the seal directly on the ribbon belly band since he didn’t want to mess any up on accident. There were quite a few screw-ups at first, since you have to figure out how much of a glue puddle will make a good seal.

He tried melting the mess-ups down to reuse the wax, but it created a sputtering hot mess. I don’t suggest it.

Gathering materials, it was now time to attach ribbon and wax to the cards!

To attach the pre-made seals, we first glued the ribbon together with normal hot glue.

Then we added another hot-glue dot, and placed the seal on top!

Not too shabby!

Cost breakdown thus far:

Total from previous steps: $112.28
Wax seal: $14.90 (with shipping)
Glue sticks: ~$4
Ribbon: ~$18 for six spools (we needed five, but one spool was cut incorrectly)

Total so far: $149.18 or $1.49 per manvite.

Any wax seal guys or gals out there? Real or faux – what’s your preference?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Our invitations make me smile for three main reasons:

1. They have bunnies on them.
2. They are pink and white, my two favorite colors!
3. Other people made them. And they made them awesome!

I did not have to lift a finger to work on these until we received them in the mail—designed, printed, and cut to perfection. Here’s what arrived at our doorstep!

The main invitation, all dotted and swirled:

I asked for a variety of thick and thin swirls but never would’ve imagined them looking (and feeling!) this amazing.

Above photos by The Aerialist Press

The map and reception card—combined, because I was totally baffled by the idea of a separate reception card. I loved the pin dot border and small circles of information in the bottom left and top right corners. The letterpress made the circles look like puffy little pillows!

The RSVP card, which was meant to be a postcard. Adam thought they would be more secure in their own envelopes, so I upgraded our stamps and bought some bite-sized envelopes for the little cuties:

Here is one cheerful combination. Please pardon the lack of tables in our home!

And a version with a silver envelope:

And that’s it! I love every bit of ‘em and can’t take any credit for ‘em. Alexandra from The Aerialist Press was extremely professional, sweet, and timely; and I am continually amazed at Julie’s artistic talent. I told her she should open an Etsy shop—if you’re with me, leave a comment below! I’ll pass along any comments to her.

Were you happy with how your invitations turned out?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Proposal season has officially come to a close.

I know. I am sad too. The fun and anticipation of festive Will You’s is now replaced with the painstaking planning of the I Do’s. There’s just so much to think about! Take your wedding stationery, for example:

Do you have to send save the date cards?

Can boys be invited to the bridal shower?

How many envelopes are really necessary for formal wedding invitations?

You might not have these questions. You might be “stuff it all in one envelope and reply online” kind of bridezilla, and we applaud you! But for those who have even the slightest inkling to do wedding invitations and wedding stationery by the book, boy do I have the book for you.

Not Emily Post (frumpy).

Not Miss Manners (prissy).

Wedding Invitations Wording & Announcements Etiquette: The Ultimate Guide is a free ebook designed for every bride – from traditional to trendy, old-fashioned to fashionista. The wedding etiquette experts at Storkie Express will inspire you with their wording suggestions and beautiful sample images. Get the low-down on when to order every invite and card so nothing gets back-ordered or sent out late. Learn how to properly acknowledge two married doctors on one envelope!

Easy to download in a PDF so you can save it to your computer, print out to sleep with under your pillow, or send it to all your fellow bridezillas.

Let the wedding planning begin!

This article was originally posted onBridezilla.

By no means am I particularly traditional. When Mr. Lace and I asked our Moms about any traditions they wanted us to have at the wedding, they didn’t have anything they needed or wanted to do. We asked to make sure. Tea ceremony? No. Change into a different dress? No. Chinese banquet? No. We thought we’d covered all our bases. We even mentioned to them we were thinking of having our bridesmaids wear black dresses and use black tablecloths at the reception. Nothing was said.

There was a bit of grumbling when we passed out our invitations in their black envelopes. You see, in Chinese culture, black and white mean death. So, when you get married you want to pick a prosperous, lucky color… like red. While red is a lovely color, it’s SO not us. However, within our parents generation, only a couple of people said something about it to my mom, but dismissed it saying that we are really Americanized so it’s not a huge deal.

However, little did I know that I’d get backlash from my Grandparents on Poppa Lace’s side, who I hardly see and am not very close too! They were so upset at the black invitation that they didn’t even open it initially. When they finally did, they called Momma Lace to complain about what kind of daughter they’d raised. My Mom tried to defend me, but my Grandparents were NOT having it. I think, at the end of that conversation, they were okay, but still asking, “Why in the WORLD would you pick BLACK of all colors?”

So, when Momma Lace relayed this conversation to me, I experienced a rush of emotions.

First, I felt bad that my mom had to endure a belittling conversation with my Grandma. I felt horrible that she had to bear the brunt of it.

I then felt mad. We are family, but we’re not close at all and the last time I saw them was at my cousin’s wedding. Although my Grandfather is over 90 years old, he didn’t initially recognize me when I saw him two years ago. Someone had to say to him, “that’s Poppa Lace’s daughter.” So, where do you get off rantin’ and ravin’ about black envelopes? You obviously don’t know me well enough to know that I’m totally Westernized and not superstitious.

Last, I felt stressed out. Our bridesmaids’ dresses are black. Our tablecloths are black. I was planning on using more black in our paper goods at the wedding. Would I have to scrap everything and start over?

I’ve only talked to my family, Mr. Lace, and now, the hive about this. I feel like I shouldn’t change my plans because two people are unhappy about it. At the same time, I don’t want there to be a blowout at the wedding because of a black envelope. I am considering calling or writing a letter, but there’s a communication barrier between my Grandparents and I. I am considering resending an invitation with a RED envelope even though it doesn’t match.

Any advice on what to do? Have you had an unexpected cultural issue arise during wedding planning?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.