Pretty, Pretty Paper
My fiance and I created all of our stationery items ourselves. I loved it so much that I started my own business designing stationery for weddings, bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and other events. See something you like on either my married bio or planning bio? Please contact me or visit my Etsy shop if you'd like me to create beautiful paper goods for your own wedding.
Save the Date Postcards
Long before we had our wedding photographer booked we knew we wanted photo save the date cards. We also knew we wanted to send them out several months in advance since we have a lot of out of town guests. We asked one of John's coworkers, who does nature photography as a hobby, to take some photos of us with his digital SLR camera. John and I edited and resized the photos in Photoshop and then created the front and back of the postcard in Illustrator. Then we had them printed through Vistaprint when they were running one of their free specials. After the file upload fees and the shipping cost, we got 100 postcards for $11.69 total. We were very happy with how they turned out; there were some spots in the white borders where the black or purple ink bled over very slightly, but it was something you had to look at really closely. In the end, most people aren't quite as picky as we are and won't notice, and it was a great quality for the cost.
Bridesmaid Cards
I decided to ask my bridesmaids to be in the wedding by hand-making some pretty cards and writing a heartfelt note inside about why I wanted them to stand up with me on our wedding day. I also decided to send my Matron of Honor's card with a bouquet of stargazer lilies (her favorite). I bought some very pretty paper and embellishments from Archiver's, as well as a stamp set and ink, and got to work making these:
Invitations
We decided to make our invitations almost entirely from scratch. The only component we did not make was the pocketfolders which we ordered premade from cardsandpockets.com. We designed everything using Inkscape, an open source version of Illustrator (thanks to the knottie who suggested it- KarmasCreation, I believe, or I never would have known about it!). We had some major issues ordering the student version of Illustrator from Adobe, so luckily we downloaded Inkscape and didn't have any major issues using it. Basically, I had the "vision" of what I wanted them to look like and how I wanted the wording, and my fiance created the maps and other images using Inkscape. We printed the invites on our home printer, an Epson Stylus Photo 1400. The only images that weren't printed using the Epson are the flourishes seen on the main invitation panel, the pocketfolder corner, and the "Celebrate" insert card- these were hand stamped by me. Also, all of the paper was hand trimmed, assembled, and adhered by me. All of the paper, including the envelopes, was metallic text or cover weight paper that we purchased from paperandmore.com. Here's how they turned out:
(names and places have been blurred or removed to protect the innocent)
Our invites ended up costing $0.81 to mail. When I went to our local post office the two clerks actually disagreed on the amount of postage we needed. One USPS clerk said we only needed $0.61 to mail them based on weight. The other clerk argued that they would be subject to the $0.20 nonmachinable surcharge. We decided to play it safe an put $0.81 postage on our invites, and not risk having them be returned to us or delivered to our guests with postage due.
Programs
We made 5.5" square programs out of metallic and solid ivory card stock and copper satin ribbon. We included three favorite quotes on the front and back covers, as well as the monogram we used on our invites. On the inside pages we listed our wedding party, the order of the ceremony, information about the traditions we included, and a note of thanks.
Table Name Cards
We decided to name our tables after things that are important to our relationship. For example, "The Arch" refers to the St. Louis Arch, which is where John proposed to me. Another table was named "Great Outdoors" because we love to do things like go hiking and camping. John took photos of us that corresponded to the table names and then he used Photoshop to make them into black and white photos and to add the table name text and effects. We printed them onto metallic champagne cardstock that was leftover from our invites. Then I backed those with metallic purple cardstock to create a "frame." For the holders we bought alligator photo clip stands that we found in the gift section at Borders and used those to hold the cards up.
Escort Cards
We created hang tags out of metallic copper card stock for our escort cards. These hung from our manzanita escort card trees located at the entrance to our reception.
Place Cards
We created simple place cards out of metallic ivory card stock. The guest's name was printed on the front, and the back of the card listed the guest's meal selection so the servers could easily see what each guest had ordered.
Menu
We made one menu card for each guest table. The menu was printed in metallic ivory paper which was mounted on a metallic copper 4" by 9" tent card. The menu was accented with eggplant satin ribbon and crystals.
Miscellaneous Signs
We made three miscellaneous signs for various tables. The first was placed on our guest book table and explained our guest quilt top. The second sign was on the escort card table, and the third was placed on the DJ table. I bought three 5" by 7" frames from a dollar store, spray painted them with metallic copper spray paint from Micheal's, and we printed out a sign to put in each frame. The cheap $1 frames were not in very good shape by the end of the day, but they were inexpensive and did their job.
Our Stationery Supplies
Since we ordered everything in bulk, it's hard to break it down into separate parts. Here's the breakdown on the supplies we used to make 60 invites (needed 45, plus some extras), 45 programs, 9 table name signs, 67 escort cards, 67 place cards, 9 menu cards, and 3 misc. signs:
- 60 Signature Pocketfolds in metallic Copper from Cards & Pockets
- 50 sheets of 11" x 17" metallic Champagne card stock from Paper and More for the invitation inserts, program booklet covers, and place cards
- 100 sheets of 8.5" x11" metallic Champagne text weight paper from Paper and More for the invite panels, monogram square on belly bands, wrap-around labels, menus, table name signs, and misc. signs
- 100 sheets of 8.5" x 11" metallic Ruby Purple text weight paper from Paper and More for matting the invite panel to give it a purple border
- 100 A7 metallic Ruby Purple envelopes from Paper and More
- 6 sheets of 8.5" x 11" metallic Ruby Purple card stock from Paper and More for the monogram squares on the belly bands and to matte the table name signs
- 4 spools of 5/8" wide sheer satin edge ribbon in Eggplant from Joann's (6 yards on each spool) for the belly bands
- Flourish stamps from Archiver's
- Brilliance Pigment Ink Pad in Cosmic Copper and Versa Color Ink Pad in Boysenberry from Archiver's
- Scotch Permanent Adhesive Runner from Michael's to adhere paper and card stock pieces
- Zots medium size clear adhesive dots from Michael' to attach ribbon to card stock for belly bands
- 50 sheets of 11" x 17" solid card stock in Sand from Paper and More for the inside pages of the program booklets
- 4 spools of copper colored 5/8" wide sparkle satin ribbon from Joann's for the programs
- Cube Clips photo frame holders from Borders used as table name sign holders
- 14 sheets of 8.5" x 11" metallic Copper card stock from Paper and More for the escort cards
- 1 spool of 1/8" wide brown satin ribbon from Michael's (10 yards on the spool) to hang the escort cards
- Amethyst colored crystals from the Martha Stewart line at Michael's for the escort cards and menu cards
- 9 metallic Copper tent cards size 4" x 9" from Envelopper Inc. (sold in 25 pack) for the menu cards
- 1 spool of 5/8" wide sparkle satin ribbon in Eggplant from Joann's for the menu cards
- 3 5" x 7" picture frames from Deals (dollar store) and copper spray paint from Michael's for the misc. signs