Got our first RSVPs!

They're here!

You know that this wedding is actually happening when people start to tell you that they are COMING to your wedding! I guess we can't go back now! How exciting to get all this "real" mail for the next month! I am thankful for those of you who recommended that we had RSVPs sent to our house so we could get excited about them every day!

Since the invites have officially gone out, here is a peak at how they turned out!

Invitations!

 

 

 

We used different colored leaves for the invitations, so there are many varieties!

Check out this totally unique RSVP from my brother:

Thanks, bro!

Invitation Creation

Well, another week of wedding planning has passed, and I have worked hard to complete all our homemade invitations, with great help from my mom, sisters, and Mailboxes Etc's awesome card stock paper cutter! Here is a snapshot of the supplies:

• Heavy weight chocolate card stock
• Light weight ivory card stock
• Light weight fall colored card stock
• Leaf hole punch
• Firefly ribbon
• Double-sided tape
• Regular tape
• Scrapbooking adhesive
• Scissors
• Stencil
• Envelopes
• Ruler
• Printable mailing labels
• Exacto knife

Here is a preview of the creation process: 

Taking over the kitchen table

The beginnings

Looks like fall!

Now, I had been warned by many people to avoid making anything ala Martha Stewart when I could buy it for less hassle and stress. I was bound and determined to make my own invites, however. I know that I have scrapbook experience, and I could do it with the help of my family. We succeeded, but not without a few snafus.
              First, the hole puncher seen above in the picture was great, but some of the colored card stock we bought was too thick to punch through easily, so we had to experiment. Amanda would step on the puncher, but often it would then stick in the pressed-in position and the paper and the leaf cutout would get caught.
             After dealing with that issue, we realized that the envelopes were the wrong size. Oops, I ordered the largest size available in the color I had chosen, and it wasn't until we got them in the mail that we realized we had the wrong ones! Apparently, OTHER colors came in the right size, but the color I had chosen maxed out at A7 (2 sizes too small) and I didn't even read the size when ordering. Luckily we could return them and ordered new ones.
             There were a few other minor "oops" moments (breaking off the tip of the Exacto knife...) but we survived, no cuts, no major set backs, and ready to send out invitations as soon as we compile an updated and accurate address list.

Shout out to Vistaprint!

I love you Vistaprint. I love that I finally OVER budgeted for something in this wedding. I love that you let me mess with the format of the templates on your website to get exactly what I was looking for. I love that there was a Google Deal last week so I saved even more. You have saved me from endless hours of searching for the perfect Save the Date format and price. Now I won't feel bad about splurging on some other items.

Vistaprint

Now that I have gushed over this recommended website, thanks to past brides who were also budgeting wisely, I really do want to give my review of using it for our Save the Dates. I was really concerned about finding a nice Save the Date on which I could include our beautiful engagement pictures, but that also conveyed the important information necessary to help our out of town guests plan ahead for a destination wedding. As we were searching through templates, it was nice to find that "fall" actually counted as a category, as many wedding paper companies don't have seasonal selections. After browsing through various templates, I also discovered that there are "advanced editing" options. Using this feature, I realized that even though the template only showed 1 photo spot, I could add additional photos and format them in different ways, although a limited number of ways. I also found out that I could change font, text, size, and position. After messing around with the original design we liked, we then LOVED our new Save the Date. It is simple but gets the point across. I figure I'll save the details and labor for the actual invitations. 

So now I will highly recommend using this site for others, and not just for weddings but any printed mailings. Great deals and great options. Just opt out of the "free magazine subscription" offer at the checkout screen. :)

Wednesday's Wish

I was in a shopping mood over this past weekend, but mostly I shopped other peoples' boards on Pinterest. However, my number one shopping site has been Etsy. I found these really unique invitations there. Unfortunately, I will mostly like not be paying for them as my budget for invitations isn't quite $2.50 a person. Maybe for a smaller party in the future?!

Wood Chick Studio- Listed on Etsy.com