When planning a wedding, everyone has his or her own idea of what is the most important. Some brides dream of their dress and sparkly tiara while grooms just want to be reassured that there will be plenty of food and beer (gross generalization, I know). We of course, like everything else have been much different. Throughout our planning our list of importance has pretty much been:
#1 Invitations
Yep, invitations have been the one thing that we have put the most time and planning into…everything else has just fallen into place.
Through out my career I have done numerous wedding invitations. I always worked really hard with my clients to make sure they got exactly what they wanted. Of course, I could always steer them in a direction that was a little different than they thought they wanted but ended up working out better than they had hoped. I’ve always designed them outside of the box and made them to be memorable but when it came to my own, I was straight-up brain dead.
The Woodsman and I (being graphic designers) felt completely self-inflicted pressure to make really kick-ass stationary. We had too many ideas and no starting point, what to do? Ask Emerson Street Stamps to created a completely custom stamp that would be used on everything! Not many details were given but she sketched on the fly and came up with something so perfect you’d know it was us just by looking at it! (It also doesn’t hurt that she’s a very good friend and bridesmaid). Next, we took a trip to the Paper Source. One of my most favorite stores EVER and picked exactly what we wanted (poppy and chartreuse accent paper and fino luxe cream for the main parts). The Paper Source is so inspiring those of us who love paper and crafting. It was there that we found another perfect element for our stationary…a desk embosser with a bird motif. It was love at first sight! We printed and cut everything ourselves. Simple laser output and 2 rotary cutters did the trick. Lastly, we gathered a few bridesmaids, 2 heat guns, lots of custom mixed Zing embossing powder and went to work.
We spent months trying to express ourselves and our quirky, handmade, semi-formal, DIY summer wedding on paper…I can finally say that we’re done and we couldn’t be happier. The best advice that I can give anyone would be to stay true to your ideas and your wedding. Calligraphy, white raised card stock and lined envelopes don’t have to be the only option. More and more people are making their own invitations and that is an amazing thing. Explore your option and keep in mind they don’t have to break the bank (ours total didn’t at all).
Thank you to all that gave input, proofread, carved stamps and battled a hot apartment to glue, emboss and assemble our invitations. We greatly appreciate the help and love :) Once everyone has gotten their invitations in the mail, maybe I’ll post some pictures of the complete finished set! Until then happy crafting and it’s now under 2 months till the big day…still no stress.
