Wedding Invitations

These are what set the tone for the rest of the wedding theme. I fell in love with the idea of watercolors as the base of our branding. I don't know how to express in words how much time and energy I spent on these invitations.

I purchased the digital flower elements package from Creative Market and went from there. I used Adobe InDesign to create the digital files and then I had them printed at Zazzle. One of the things I love most about Zazzle is being able to print just one invitation. I was able to get test prints to make sure I liked everything before actually ordering all of the invites. I sent out 39 total.

Once they were printed, the real fun began. On each blue flower, I used an embossing pen and made about 10-20 dots then sprinkled blue embossing powder and heat embossed them. Next, I used a heat pen and magenta foil to dot the center of each pink berry. On the back of the Itinerary card I heat embossed a gold starfish since the back of this card was more simple I was able to add a nautical/tropical touch.

After finishing up the 3 different cards (Invite, Circle, Itinerary) I wrapped them together as a set with a coral color twine that I found on sale at Hobby Lobby. I tied the twine into a bow, but not before adding a bronze anchor charm.

The envelopes were purchased from Cards & Pockets. I ordered a bunch of sample materials, and I'm glad I did because I didn't end up going with what I thought I wanted. Each envelope had a gold heat embossed seahorse on the back point and gold heat embossed return address stamp on the front opposite the custom stamp.

Also purchased at Hobby Lobby was a roll of turquoise foil wrapping paper. I used my Cricut machine to cut envelope lines. One day over some wine and football, Joey helped me assemble all of the liners.

I found a local calligrapher who works for American Greetings as her day job and employed her to hand address each shimmery soft coral envelope with a brush and a mix of two shades of blue inks to resemble a watercolor effect.

I don't know what I was thinking. In the end I think I spent about 80 hours designing, making and assembling these things. I would do it all over again in a heart beat. They were absolutely beautiful when finished. I spent a decent amount of money on 40 sets of invitations and I did all of the work myself. I can't imagine how much it would have cost if I outsourced these.

I spent the time because I fully understand that your save-the-dates or wedding invitations - whatever the guest sees first, is the first impression they will have of your big day. I am asking my guests to spend a lot of money to attend our wedding so I wanted to show them that they are special to us and they are worth the time spent on the elaborate invitations.

Of course the best part was people absolutely loved them!

#Zazzle #Invitation