Let's Get Married - Handmade Wedding Invitations

So I wanted to make all my invitations by hand (yup I’m crafty like that).  I pulled up some ideas from pinterest that I liked.  

From Here.

 (From Here)

I decided I liked the idea of pockets the best.  And the idea I could sew the pocket would a) be relatively easy b) save money c) be created from fabric in my stash – so I went around that.

My brother Jay helped me design the wording.  We downloaded free fonts and laid it out in Visio.  Deciding on the wording may have been the biggest challenge.  I’m anything but traditional and formal so that was immediately scrapped.   I also wanted to inject some of our own personalities into it.  As we were reading samples I remembered something someone said when we got engaged it will be a union of “bossy fresh and sweet action”.  We decided to roll with this and the rest of the wording was history. 

With all the different pieces laid out to print several at a time to save paper and jamming of the printer, they were printed on white cardstock.  I rounded up all supplies Kelly Green and Fuchsia from my stash in the studio, and we took everything to Archiver’s to use their tools and move along faster.   Everything came together so fast with many helpers and before I knew it we had cut and punched all the individual pieces for 130 cards.

I had an assistant sewist who knocked out a big chunk of the sewing for me almost immediately after I dropped them off (thanks Rachael).  With some embellishing and pocket stuffing they were finished off.  Then Kathleen came and helped me address them all and figure out what to do with all the Indiana’s – originally I was going to stamp them but the stamp was slightly big, then I was going to put photos on them but the photos were blurry.  Finally I just decided to do our initials.   With that they were sealed up and mailed.  Oh and I should mention that I spent about $20 on paper & ribbon and adhesive, the heart stamp was $5, and the custom one $25(which we’ll be using later too.)   So roughly $50  out of pocket for invitations – I didn’t even need to purchase envelopes as perhaps you remember that one time I scored a mother load at a thrift store (granted the average bride probably doesn’t have a warehouse of cardstock, paper, and glue).  I think that’s pretty reasonable for custom invites with some personality – which I love.  And here’s the final products coming to a mailbox near you soon.

Big HUGE THANK YOUS to:

• Rachael and Jill for sewing pockets
• Monica, JJ, Lita, Mom for cutting and stamping endlessly
• Amy for mounting invites to cardstock
• And to my maid of honor Kathleen who tirelessly helped me stuff and address envelopes until almost 2 in the morning. 

You all are AWESOME!  I cannot thank you enough for all your effort!