Yup, it’s another post about invitations! And I can’t promise it will be the last. What can I say, I have invitations on the brain. Today I’m loving the idea of shaped invitations. Rectangles and squares can be awesome, but I’m digging the unexpected wow factor of some uncommon invitation shapes.

I heart this heart-shaped invite.

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A circle is such a classic shape, yet it’s rare to see in wedding invitations:

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I love how this is almost a standard rectangle, but with a twist—or rather, with a curve.

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The scroll design is echoed in the shaping of this gorgeous invitation.

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This suite is a sweet mix of many shapes!

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The incredible and intricate shape of the invitation creates the design!

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What do you think of unusually shaped wedding invitations?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

One of my favorite projects was our invites. It took me a while and many discarded design ideas to get to the end result, but I was really happy with them. We got tons of compliments from recipients and I like that they are very us (or at least very me, I don’t think Mr. MB cared one bit). They were also the thing I had the most control over, go figure. Hope you like ’em.

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They all went out in the mail Saturday, and it’s such a great weight off my shoulders.

For our names, I used the Ornatique font, for the invite text I used Harrington, and for the address labels, I used Belshaw. All fonts are from Abstract Fonts. The flowers were drawn with gel pens and markers, and the stitching was done on muslin and then both images were scanned in and merged together in Photoshop. The RSVP ornate frame is a brush from BrushKing (I think it was this brush set). And the RSVP card used that background from BittBox that I liked.

Mr. Moonbeam even got in on the action. He helped wrap the trace paper belly bands and attached some address labels.

Look at that intensity!

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I’ve been obsessed with wedding invitations lately. I know, I know. What else is new?

It’s crazy. I feel like a German shepherd looking for a missing child. Seriously, that’s how I feel. Whenever I see invitations, my ears perk up, my sense of smell improves, and my eyes pop out a little. I feel like I need to find them. Like I should have found them yesterday.

I know it’s going to take me aaawwwhhiillleee to decide on our invites. It takes me aaawwwhhhiiilllleee to decide on pretty much everything, so the invitations (being one of the most important elements of our wedding) are hardly an exception. I worry that if I don’t find them and the time comes when we have to order something, I’m going to be a ball of tears crying, “But, but, I don’t know what I want!”

Like many of you, my search began on the Internet. I searched thousands of stationery websites—thousands, I tell ya! Who knew stationery was such a booming buisness?

I even ordered samples! I’ve ordered about a dozen, hoping each time those would be the ones. I only really like one of the samples I ordered, and it’s from Wedding Paper Divas:

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My other inspiration is solely from online. I haven’t seen these in person, but I still think they deserve a spot among my favorites. Remember the invitations I swore were perfect a few weeks back (see my post about it here)? The pretty green and peach ones I absolutely adore! Here’s a picture to jog your memory:

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Well, I think I can add the Whimsical Scroll Wedding Invitations from Blush Paperie to my invitation-inspiration file. See below.

Purple is definitely not my color, but the good news is that fonts and colors are customizable! Yippee! Look at the same invitation in our colors:

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Gorgeous, no? Big difference, huh?

Way big difference. I love this design in the green and pink. It’s festive, feminine, and do you see those butterflies?!? Where did they come from? They weren’t on the original design, but I love them! These were obviously made for me! They are subtle and go really well with our garden theme…

Could these be the ones for us? More to come on this later.

How did you decide on your invitations?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Last time we talked about the Locket invites I was frustrated and unsure of how my YUDU was going to work out. In the end, due to time constraints and lack of patience, I ended up going in a different path and revamped my design. As you may have guessed, this isn’t the first time I’ve changed my invite design vision.

When I showed you my branched out-invite inspirations, I had mentioned that I had created my first invite prototype (pictured above). But as you know, indecision got the best of us, and we decided that an illustrated flower might better suit us. We ended up with the design below.

After much printing play, both Mr. L and I began to realize we were sick of our new design, and it was back to the drawing board. After a few hours I created our newest (and final) design suite and am happy to say I am satisfied with what I created.

And in case you are curious, here are the deets:

Design Details:

• Flower illustration is hand drawn and edited in Photoshop (to get the antiqued look I colorized it to purple-reddish shade).
• The main invite design is 4.75″ X 6.75″, and the RSVP and Ceremony cards are 3.5″ X 5″.
• The main font is Calamity Jane, and our names and headings are in Chocolate Box Decorative.

I wanted some sort of way to hold it all together but didn’t want to spend a ton of money on paper to make pocket folds. So I thought of a unique idea and created my own version of a pocket using that same floral print.

Creating The Lockets’ Pockets:

To create our lovely invitation pockets I made a new image of that same floral design but scaled it up to be a full 5″x7″. I then laser printed the design to its own page of Stardream Metallic Paper in Quart (105lb). After about 30 minutes of feeding the printer, I ended up with 80 pages of printed perfection.

Then came the super fun part…trimming these babies and piecing them together. I was actually pretty excited about this because I had just purchased my brand new MakingMemories Precision Trimmer (on sale for $29.99) and couldn’t wait to put it to use. First off, I cut off the floral end, so I was left with a blank piece of paper that could be trimmed to 5″ x 7″.

After what seemed like many hours (but was probably less than one) I had two piles of paper. One pile of blank 5″x7″ pieces and another of the floral image. Can you guess what came next? MORE TRIMMING! I was already starting to lose my mind but trekked on to trim the excess paper from the floral border.

I am not exactly sure how much I trimmed off, but I left about a one-inch white border around the image. With the edges trimmed, I then needed to pull out my itty bitty scissors and trim around the detail parts of the flower (pictured below). You will notice that I didn’t cut around the full part of the flower on my left side because I wanted to have something there to fold down in the next step.

Once all of the flowers were neatly trimmed, it was on to the next step: scoring the three sides around the flower and cutting off the corners.

And after much scoring, cutting, and creasing, I eventually ended up with this neat pile ready to be adhered to that blank 5″x7″ piece of paper.

This last step was by far the easiest and least time-consuming part. I used a glue stick on the white edges, adhered it to the end of the 5″x7″ pre-cut sheets, and placed it under a heavy book to keep things secured and well pressed.

All in all this was a laborious process of trimming, creasing, and gluing, but I’d like to think it was well worth it even if it drove me crazy. Did you have any redundant projects? What are you doing for your invites?

Next up, you will get to see me put these pretty pockets to use!

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Our invites from Ajalon Printing & Design came in looking amazing, but because I like to make more work for myself, I decided to spruce them up a bit. Here’s how they looked before my additions:

Very “Tuscan Romance” dontcha think?

The little food icons are Mr. Jelly’s favorite part of our invitation suite

Accommodations/Website card

Here are the additions I made:

Cardstock backing:

I really liked the look of cardstock backing, but I wanted to save money so I decided to DIY this part of the invitation. I Googled “burgundy cardstock” and came across Paper-Papers.com, and it looked like they had the perfect burgundy shade. I emailed them asking for a sample, and it matched our invites perfectly! I proceeded to order 3 packs (100 sheets each) so we could use it for menus, programs, place cards, etc. Overkill? Maybe. But you don’t find the perfect share of burgundy every day!

I then cut 2 backings per sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ piece of cardstock to use as backings on our 5″ x 7″ invites using my handy guillotine paper slicer. I made sure to save the leftover 1″ x 8.5″ strips of paper, as I would later turn them into belly bands.

Next, I had to figure out a way to adhere the invites to the cardstock. I thought about double-stick tape, Zots, or even using my Xyron, but it all seemed too pricey and time consuming. Mrs. Snow recommended 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, and I’m so glad I listened to her!! This adhesive is inexpensive ($10 for a can), extremely tacky and very easy to use. I glued about 175 invitations in only a couple hours, with the only downsides being a minor headache and a sticky kitchen floor as a result (both can easily be avoided by working outside.)

Belly Bands:

Next, I took the thin strips of leftover burgundy cardstock, and used them to make belly bands that would hold together the various components of the invitation. I scored each strip of paper with my bone folder, folded each belly band over its respective invite, and then sealed the belly band with a gold wax seal (yes, this was as time consuming as it sounds).

Wax Seals:

For the seals, I used glue gun sealing wax, as it is much easier to manipulate than the old fashioned drip kind. I bought a “D” seal from Michael’s, ordered some Antique Gold wax sticks from www.letterseals.com, and followed the tips from this thread to make my seals.

So, are you ready to see the finished product? Here’s what you would see as a guest to the Jellyfish wedding:

Gorgeous calligraphy done by my very talented Bridesmaid Lauren (or done by me, if you’re an OOT guest – sorry guys, you kinda got the short end of the stick )

No envelope liners for this gal. After doing them for our thank you cards, I’d had enough.

Little bundles of joy.

The full invitation suite. The Welcome Dinner/Farewell Brunch invite is printed on the reverse of the wedding map (which was designed by my designer/photographer extraordinaire Bridesmaid Amy – what would I do without her?!)

Getting the all-important Stinson seal of approval.

So there you have it, the Jellyfish invitations. They were a lot of work, but I’m very happy with them and we stayed within our budget nicely. Were your invitations a labor of love? Anyone else buy their invitations, but then add DIY touches?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

… and the Lobster wedding invites are done.

Hello. We’ve been working hard and after a week of cutting liners, gluing backings, learning to tie twine, our wedding invitations are officially in USPS’ hands for guests to receive after the hot holiday weekend!

No line at the post office, what??

Before I do the reveal, I want to give a big shout out to Derek at 4fifteen who created a design that perfectly suited my tastes and our wedding style. He walked me through every step of the way and took care of things I am unfamiliar with including finding a reasonably priced letterpress printer! If only the Internet had feel-o-vision:

Mmm, letterpress

I shared most of the paper details in my previous post so we’ll just get to the pictures:

Initially, I wasn’t sure if 1 spool of twine would be enough. But it was more than enough even after using over 2 feet per invite (I made 100).

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my work station

My wonky printer made it so that I had to hand feed each envelope with a post-it to avoid printer dashes.

Annoying dashed lines!!

A 100 card backs and 100 invites? No problem with some double stick tape and World Cup soccer in the background.

In case you’re interested, a twine tying pictorial:

Cross your twine, twist it, flip it over, tie a bow, and cut to length.

Upon opening the envelope, this is what the guests will see:

Then this:

And the main invite:

Finally, the full invitation suite:

Printing the envelopes was the most time consuming and stressful part of this process. After that was the twine tying. While most guests won’t even bat an eyelash before untying the sucker, I still *had* to do it.

By the time the last invitation was sealed, I was soooo over these invites. And yet I still found it difficult to just drop them in the mail. I asked one of my bridesmaids, “should I go get them hand canceled? or just get over it” to which she responded, “just let it go, girlfriend.” LOL. But I couldn’t…

So early on Saturday morning, I made Mr. Lobster accompany me to the post office for a proper send off after he informed me that the first 50 were free and 5 cents thereafter. The postal worker kindly counted out my invites, put them in a bin, and said OK, they’ll be delivered in 2-5 days. What? I don’t get to hand cancel them myself? I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye…

Did you find it difficult to “let go” of your invitations? What was your favorite or least favorite part about the invitation assembly?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I’m almost done with the invites. I promise! Until then… the paper details. When I was researching for invitations and first started reading Weddingbee, I was so overwhelmed with paper terminology and types.

overwhelmed with invitation details

Here are ourinvitation details – hopefully to help someone out there!

Sizing

I used a standard A7 (5″x7″) size for the main invite and 4bar (3-1/2″ x 4-7/8″) for the reception and RSVP cards. This made it easier to find pre-made envelopes.

Weight

Mrs. Pug did a nice series on paper here. I also found this reference guide from Paper and More very helpful. I recommend around 110# to have that invitation “feel”. For the envelope liner, go as thin as you can cut for two reasons 1) it’s easier to cut and fold thin liners and 2) saves on postage.

Paper

Envelope Liner: Print Icon 24# Text in Silver Dot

Main Invite (A7 size), Reception, and RSVP (4bar) Cards: Crane Lettra 110# in Fluorescent White

Card backing: Paper Presentation Classic Linen 80# cover in Charcoal

• The Crane and Linen papers have very nice texture. The Lettra is made for letterpress but if you use digital or offset printing, your printer person might recommend a less textured/less soft paper so that the print stays crisp and doesn’t bleed.

Envelopes

Outer A7.5: Paper Presentation Classic Crest in Solar White

RSVP / Reception card 4bar: Paper Presentation Classic Crest in Solar White

Inner A7: Print Icon Vellum in White

Twine: Divine Twine in Oyster and Lemon

• Originally, I sent my envelopes to a printer to do the addresses. The professional sized machine warped the envelopes and the heat sealed them shut. I ended up printing them on my home printer (came free with my Mac). I did have some creases but I’m blaming that on USPS.
• Tip: Buy EXTRA envelopes if you’re printing at home. You’ll run into snafus like printing on the wrong side or upside down, etc. Or test print on some envelope-sized papers.
• Printing on vellum? Change your print settings to draft or transparent to lessen the ink used. Allow enough time for the ink to DRY completely for no surprise smudging.

Twine tying options

First attempt at printing envelope – creased with rando dashes

Postage

The invitation ended up weighing in at 81 cents and that’s because of the twine tie adding the “package surcharge”. Be sure to bring it in to ask your friendly USPS rep and don’t say you want to mail it “regular mail” because it doesn’t exist. It’s called First Class mail and Mr. Lobster learned that the hard way. LOL.

a king and a queen for my 81 cents

Lobster Lesson: start putting together your details WAY ahead of time. I procrastinated because of indecision and didn’t account for snafus that ended up adding a couple of weeks. Now I’m pushing the envelope (HAHAHA – is that an invitation pun? I hope so.) on the proper RSVP window time for my guests. And please. For the love of invitations. Proofread. A LOT.

Did invitations take much longer than you expected? What kind of obstacles did you run into?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Couples have been advised they can make their big day an environmentally-friendly affair by handing out plantable wedding invitations.

Julie Greco, writing for the Standard, said these invites are made from recycled paper and are embedded with seeds that can be grown afterwards.

"Guests simply plant the card into the soil and, eventually, it will blossom into beautiful flowers that could also serve as mementos of the wedding day," she explained.

Ms Greco stated weddings generate a lot of waste and she was determined to have an eco-chic style when she married her husband.

Wedding invitations are not the only element of the ceremony that can have a negative environmental impact, she went on to say, with disposable cups, monogrammed napkins and thank-you cards also offenders.

According to Green Uses For Waste, vintage or second-hand wedding dresses are becoming increasingly popular for brides looking for a more sustainable option for their ceremony.

Wedding invitations are the first step towards filling your wedding with friends and family. Make sure you do it right by getting the wedding invitations right.

This article was originally posted onHitched.