Oh, save the dates. I giggled, without fail, every time I tried to abbreviate to STD (as did Mr. Archer), so I got used to using the longer phrase. With two thirds of our wedding guests traveling to attend, it was really necessary for us to send save the dates. Time off work, hotels, and flights all needed to be reserved, and I knew our guests would appreciate the lead time. And, who am I kidding—I was psyched to actually execute, not just plan, something wedding related. Seventeen months is a long engagement, people!

So I started looking for ideas—like everything else in the wedding world, so many options! I wanted something a little out-of-the-box, something all our guests hadn’t seen before. I loved the idea of whatever we chose being interactive, or somehow useful, or very us. I wanted something more than a simple postcard, but had no idea what.

I totally swooned for these custom-printed balloons. I thought they were so fun and festive!

From L’Office Optimiste on Etsy

We’d have our engagement pictures, so it was tempting to have them made into a pretty little card—simple and sweet.

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

I loved these pencil save the dates! I’m also a sucker for all things personalized—these fit the bill.

From Melangerie on Etsy

With a destination wedding in New Orleans, I thought these custom map silhouettes were totally appropriate and adorable.

From DefineDesign11 on Etsy

I was obsessed with these pull-out, cut-out dates and mini envelopes. As always, Martha is killing me with the cuteness.

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings

I adored a card that “tied the knot” when opened! That’s one of my favorite wedding euphemisms, and I thought the idea was so novel.

Image via Bridal Musings / Design by Christina Moralego

With all of these darling options, I was totally undecided—so I showed them to Mr. Archer. He chose his favorite, and that was that. He’s got expensive taste, and the one he chose was spendy, so we DIY’ed. I can’t wait to share the process with y’all!

Of these options, which would you have gone with?

This article was originally posted on Weddingbee.

The key to DIY wedding invitations that don’t look DIY? A fabulous font! Last week we featured this DIY invitation suite that used Belluccia to create an expensive, custom look for less, and it inspired me to round-up 50 of my favorite fonts. This post doesn’t even begin to do justice to these beautiful typefaces, so make sure to click through and see them in action – some of them will really blow you away.

1. Aguas Frescas by Chank, $29
2. Ambassador Script by CanadaType, $70
3. Aphrodite Pro by Typesenses, $15
4. Attic by YouWorkForThem, $30
5. Aunt Mildred by MVB Fonts, $39
6. Baronessa by Juraj Chrastina, $39
7. Belinda by Mikas Melvas, $35
8. Belluccia by Correspondence Ink, $39
9. Bodoni At Home by Giuseppe Salerno, FREE
10. Bookeyed Suzanne by Tart Workshop, $30

11. Breathe by Lián Types, $20
12. Brioche by Jessica Hische, $79
13. Buttermilk by Jessica Hische, $49
14. Carolyna Pro Black by Emily Lime, $89
15. Cerise by Magpie Paper Works, $69
16. Channel by Mans Greback, FREE
17. Cheap Pine by Hannes von Döhren, $25
18. Chopin Script by Diogene, FREE
19. Cowboyslang by Hannes von Döhren, $30
20. Dear Sarah by Betatype, $119

21. Emily Lime by Emily Lime, $29
22. Fidelia Script by Melle Diete, $50
23. Gelateria by Flat-it, $20
24. Guadalupe by Latinotype, $29
25. Harmony by YouWorkForThem, $20
26. HoneyBee by Laura Worthington, $27
27. Jacob Riley by Magpie Paper Works, $32
28. Jane Austen by Pia Frauss, FREE
29. Jeeves by Red Rooster, $79
30. Lavandería by Lost Type Co-op, FREE

31. LiebeErika by LiebeFonts, $30
32. Mary Read by Melle Diete, $45
33. Matilde by Type Depot, FREE
34. Mishka by Fenotype, $30
35. Muncie by Lost Type Co-op, FREE
36. Nelly Script by Tart Workshop, $39
37. Packard Old Style by Red Rooster, $60
38. Parfumerie Script by Typesenses, $30
39. Respective by Mans Greback, FREE
40. Saissant by Magpie Paper Works, $54

41. Saltpetre by Magpie Paper Works, $32
42. Samantha Script by Laura Worthington, $29
43. Sudestada by Sudtipos, $59
44. Sympathique Pro by Canada Type, $30
45. Trithart by Emma Trithart, $25
46. Vermandois by Magpie Paper Works, $76
47. Verner by Fenotype, $35
48. Victoria by Eric Carlson, $25
49. Weingut by FaceType, $12
50. Wisdom Script by Lost Type Co-op, FREE

Whether you want something retro, timeless, playful or elegant, beautifully designed fonts offer affordable graphic design for your wedding projects. There are thousands upon thousands to choose from – these 50 are just a place to start, and I’d love it if you’d share your favorite font finds and font projects in the comments!

This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

We have been talking about our July 2012 wedding for, oh, about 21 months now, and somehow our parents still wanted to confirm the date we are getting hitched. So we figured we might should send out STDs. (Does anyone else feel like they are in 10th grade health class when discussing STDs?) Which brings us to the whole “What do we want it to look like?” question. Initially we had hoped to use our engagement pictures for the STD, but when our July 2011 planning trip was pushed to October 2011, thanks to the working/living changes, we had to come up with an alternate plan.

For a quick peek into how we make many decisions, it goes something like this:

1. I obsessively research and find things that I like and that I think Sweetie Scone might like.
2. After collecting several dozen options I share them with Sweetie Scone.
3. We pare the list down to 3–5 choices.
4. Then we try to make something that doesn’t look like a kindergartner made it.
5. The best one wins.

Here is the pared down list of STD options for your enjoyment:

Image via WeddingWire / Design by For Wedding Sake on Etsy

Image via Etsy / Design by Em & Bee

Image via Minted / Design by Andres Montaño

Image via GigPosters

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

After working with my Lil Boa on a couple of drafts for the invites, I started hunting down the paper I would use for them.

Cue Cards & Pockets—I loved their large selection of colors and immediately ordered a couple of free samples to get to see the colors up close.

*Personal Pic

I ordered six samples in white, light purple, and dark purple in both the shimmer and matte types of paper. My actual selections were: matte (Snow White, Grape, and Purple) and shimmer (Crystal, Amethyst, and Violette). I would like to pick one white shade, one light purple shade, and one deep purple shade.

Matte shades are on the left and shimmer on the right.

vs

vs

vs

*All images via Cards & Pockets unless noted

I really liked all the colors I had chosen but LOVED the Violette shimmer sample! I’m definitely including it on the invites, either as an invitation mat or in the envelope. I’m unsure of whether to print the invite on the shimmer or matte white. And have yet to pick the other purple colored paper (it will be either the Grape or Amethyst).

Should I go all shimmer or all matte on the invites, or should I mix it up using matte invites and envelopes with a shimmer mat, or shimmer invites and envelopes but a matte backer, or…etc., etc.

Have any of you used Cards & Pockets supplies for your invites?

Did you use matte or shimmer paper? A combination of both?

Help?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Hive, have you seen the new Randomizer series? I have, and it’s awesome! It seriously put me into “wanting to do recaps” mode just so I could participate. I feel like before I can start recapping, I should share one of my favorite things with you: our invitations!

Our invitation suite was a DIY affair…and it ended up taking longer than I thought (which is how it always happens, right?!). I’ll break the whole process down for you, but it’ll probably be easy to do in pictures.

The first step was to create the invitation suite. As much as I loved all those modern invitations I kept talking about so many months ago, I really wanted something that looked fresh, but ultimately traditional. I spend all day, every day designing hip, modern things…for our wedding, I decided to follow my little designer-heart and create something that I loved, even if it wasn’t exactly “cool” and seemed traditional. That was my inspiration…

That and I really wanted an invitation suite with multiple pieces. I don’t know why, but I wanted our invitation to have a whole bunch of pieces for people to read and look at. This is also why I didn’t want pocket fold; I wanted just pieces everywhere. Weird, I know. I made the pieces a few different sizes so they’d “stack up” nicely.

And lastly, I wanted something that could dictate the look of other printed materials for our big day (table numbers, programs, escort cards, etc). Having one look I could essentially “re-use” over and over made things easy, and look cohesive. But more on that later!

I designed the whole set in Adobe Illustrator, using the fonts Burgues Script and Mrs. Eaves (for the small caps).

We didn’t have a theme, but since I used hearts on our save the dates, I carried hearts over into the invitations.

The Invitation (5×7″), RSVP card (3.5×5″), and Reception card (3.5×5″).

Our Map (4×6″) and Accommodations card (4×6″).

Next, I cut out belly bands while Mr. G embossed the flap of our envelopes with my Cuttlebug.

I believe Mr. G said at this point, “Now, you can’t say that I haven’t done anything for this wedding ever again.” Haha.

Well…after I got all our invitations printed (through gotprint.net), Mr. G took off for his Bachelor week of skiing/camping with our Best Man. Luckily, the Giraffe Parents picked up the slack!

The photo above shows how I used our not-theme of “hearts.” You can click the photo to make it larger and see more clearly, but there were hearts everywhere! The address labels were heart shaped, as were the return address labels, and every belly band had a heart tag  around it that listed our guests’ names.

The labels on the front of our envelopes were printed on my parents’ HP printer, and the cut out with my Cricut (the same goes for the labels on the back). Our labels on our RSVP envelopes were smaller versions of the ones you see here (but with our address, of course!).

The back with our return address labels and Cuttlebug embossing. Gotta love those metallic envelopes!

I made the envelope liners using the heart-gyle, I had designed for our website. I bought a ream of 11×17″ blue paper from OfficeMax, and was able to print 3 liners per page…of course, I also bought a ream of blue paper from Staples so I could compare the “blueness” of each. Needless to say, 6 months after the wedding, I still have a ton of blue paper.

I stacked all the pieces of the invitation from big to small (with a small wallet sized e-photo of us on the top), wrapped a belly band around it, wrapped baker’s twine around that, and attached a heart tag with the twine.

Okay, okay, Daddy G did the stacking and tying, but I put them in the envelopes!

There were so many! The DIYing went on forever!

So there they are! They whole kit and caboodle (…until recently, I thought it was ’kitten caboodle’). I’m pretty happy with the final product and I head a lot of nice things from our guests, and that’s what counts.

If I did it all over again, I probably still design my own invitations, but I don’t know if I’d go through all the work of doing the extra pieces! I spent a looooooong time trying to set up my Cricut to cut the hearts correctly and I got super frustrated at times. I loved how it looked, but I don’t think I needed all that stress at the time.

Did you take on the daunting tasking on DIYing invites? Would you do it again?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

All of the subtle details from Hannon and Cameron’s wedding invitations seemed like they deserved their own post – I figured if you love paper like I do, you’d want to see more. I especially love the blind press on the save-the-date – gorgeous!

Stationery by Holly Hollon Design and Calligraphy
Photos by Jessica Wright

See more of Hannon and Cameron’s wedding right here!

This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

When I was first came across handkerchief save-the-date inspiration, I could not contain my excitement. Thus, in addition to searching the web for pictures at roadrunner speed, I also immediately ordered supplies to get my project started!

I was quite pleased when I came across these on GiftWagon.com. They have a scallop edge to satisfy my need for a little something pretty, and they meet Mr. Dalmatian’s request of not having flowers on it. (FYI, they also have ones with a floral border for those of you who can convince your fiancés.)

Just to make my life more difficult (oh yeah, and also to make the save-the-dates look nicer), I decided to hand embroider a small heart in the corner of each one. The process went a little something like this:

Use a pencil to trace your shape onto your handkerchief.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Sponsored Post

Have you met MagnetStreet Weddings, a long-time sponsor of Snippet & Ink? Maybe you know that they offer magnetic save-the-dates, but did you know that they also offer entire invitation suites? They even have reception items like place cards and table numbers. Styles range from classic to modern, and all of their save-the-dates and wedding invitations can easily be customized with your choice of color and font. Here are a few favorites…

In addition to these styles, MagnetStreet Weddings offers pocket invitations - with coordinating enclosure cards that are neatly organized and presented, they’re the most popular style. Want to make sure that MagnetStreet is right for you? They’ll send you free samples so you can see and feel for yourself the quality, details and colors of their wedding stationery.

This post sponsored by MagnetStreet Weddings.

This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

In my last paper post I wrote about my indecision about invites. I realize I was a little premature with the invite post before the save-the-date post, but I have it set in my mind that our save the dates need to be cohesive with the invitation suite—they just do. I want one element on every single piece of paper used in the wedding. Obsessive, Honey? Yes. That’s why I started with invite inspiration; now it’s back to the drawing board with save-the-date inspiration. Paper inspiration posts are one of my favorites.

I have decided we won’t be using pictures of ourselves on our save the dates…mainly because we won’t have done our engagement pictures by the time we’ll be designing our save the dates. I was kind of bummed initially, because who doesn’t like seeing a picture of themselves on every friend’s refrigerator for six months? I kid. I was actually bummed that we wouldn’t have a save the date like this:

Image via Love vs. Design / Photo by Love Me Sailor

Can’t cry over spilled milk, right? This just means that instead of showing our smiling faces on the save the date, we will get to incorporate them into our invitation suite—yessss. I had to move past all the picture inspiration and focus on creative text and presentation instead.

Creative-Text Save the Dates

Image via Wedding Wire / Designed by West Willow

Image via Style me Pretty / Designed by Marilyn Chien

Image via the Bridal Blog / Template by Wedding Chicks

Graphic-Design Save the Dates

Image via Etsy Westwind Days on Etsy

Image via Wedding Wire / Design by inkOBSESSIONSdesigns on Etsy

Image via Minted / Design by Ashley Moura

Whimsical Save the Dates

Image via Kaboodle / Design by Emandbee on Etsy

Image via Oh So Beautiful Paper / Design by Red Red Orange

Utilizing Custom Stamps

Image via Flickr / Design by Jason Permenter Graphic Design



Image via Instructables

Save the Dates with Creative Touches

Image via This Next

Image via Postcards and Pretties / Design by Ruby and Willow



Image via Dot Girl Blog

Customized and Illustrated Save the Dates

Image via The Flirty Guide

Image via Rifle Paper Co.

Image via Swiss Cottage Designs

See the transition from simple to impossible? Much like my invitation drooling, I started basic and kept stepping up the complication level. As much as I would die to have a custom-illustrated save the date, it’s just not in the cards for the Honeys. Looking at all the other inspiration pictures, I concluded that I like three elements: a graphic background, a whimsical element, and a fun statement…all to be accented with a pretty font and our colors on a little postcard. Quite the tall order. The fact is I could go back and forth on my entire paper design for days months, but the good news is I have made progress and created a save the date that hopefully reflects our wedding vibe, shows creativity within our means (AKA Microsoft Word), and will make our guests smile.

Who else is obsessive like me and started with invitation inspiration before the save-the-date inspiration? Tell me about a must-have element for your save the dates!

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

For some reason, I’ve always wanted to do a save-the-date magnet. Looking back on it now, I’m not sure why I was so obsessed with the idea, but it turned out cool anyway…

I used Photoshop to create the design for the magnets. Then I uploaded my design on Vistaprint onto one of their magnet options. I chose one of their invitation designs and customized it with my text and font choices. When they arrived, I used a small piece of fashion two-sided tape to adhere the magnet to the back of the main card (which I included the word “magnet” on so that people would know what it was). I then tied some twine (which I bought off of Etsy) around it into a bow.

I also included a paper on lodging information so that everyone could start planning and get an idea of where to start looking and what things are going to cost.

The save the dates were only sent to the people who will be attending the wedding in Colorado, which includes immediate family and our wedding party. We’ll be sending invitations for the at-home reception to everyone else separately.

Anyone else doing their own invitations to save money?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.