Here we are, 4 months until the big wedding, which means it's invitation time! Seriously, I might just quit my day job for this because they turned out awesome! And they were really fun to make.
When I first started thinking about the invites, I knew that I wanted them to be simple. I don't really like the silliness of the extra envelope and RSVP card, plus the directions and reception info, not to mention the crazy invitation itself with the fancy shmancy wording that comes along with it. That's just not us, and a huge waste of paper in my opinion. I even thought of doing the invites completely electronically, but there are many people on our guest list who either are not electronically connected or who are old fashioned and would be sad that they didn't get a real invite.
So. To keep this project as environmentally mindful as possible, I started out with a big stack of my
home made paper. I carved a block print of a fern and printed that on each sheet. I bought a pad of vellum paper (tracing paper) and printed out the invites, 4 to a sheet. (I got non-tacky wording ideas from
offbeatbride.com. If you've never checked them out, do it. Your head will explode at the sheer amount of awesome ideas it will give you.) These were carefully cut and attached to the paper with the fern print using a couple cross stitches in 2 opposing corners.
I created small info cards directing people to our wedding website to RSVP electronically, but also included a phone number that people can call to RSVP also. These were printed 6 to a page and carefully cut out as well. I printed them on some pretty card stock that I bought previously and had used for another wedding project (you'll see those later). Both the documents (RSVP cards and invites) were created on good old fashioned Word 2011. I have found through this whole DIY wedding process that anything can be created on Word.
The envelopes I bought were made to look like brown paper bags and include 20% post consumer recycled waste. I like that they're brown. On these envelopes, I printed out address labels on the same vellum paper (once again created on Word,) that wrapped around the envelope, with the to address on the front and from address on the back. This was my one and only idea that I got from Martha Stewart. Once I glued these on, I used another smaller block print that I used for the save the dates and printed that on the envelopes to spice them up a bit. Then all I had to do was slap a stamp on them and send them away!
Dudes. Invitations can be really expensive. Doing it this way, though it involves a lot more labor, results in really cool invites that reflect who you are, are less stuffy, and they're a blast to make. Who says weddings have to follow rules?
5/2/12 Update: HEY! These were featured on the Offbeat Bride Blog! So cool. Here's the link:
http://offbeatbride.com/2012/05/diy-eco-friendly-invitation-inspiration
Gorgeous! absolutely lovely!
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