Mission Accomplished: Pocketfold Invitations

Invitation making is in full swing now, and I'm already about halfway through!

I have about three weeks to finish the rest of the invitations, but I hardly think that will be a problem now that I've got my system down! :) Here's a little rundown on my invitation assembly line...

1. Take an 8.5" x 11" sheet of cardstock (I'd recommend at least 100 lb. cover cardstock for optimal strength) and measure 4" from one side and 2" from the other.

2. Fold the cardstock along the lines you've marked off. (I used this laminated math formula cheat sheet to help me fold in a straight line!)

3. Trim 1.5" from the top of the piece of cardstock. This will create a 5" x 7" invitation when folded (11" x 7" when fully open), which will fit perfectly in an A7 envelope (more on those later).

4. Don't just throw this little strip away though! Trim another 0.5" off of it (so it's 1" thick), and set it aside to use as a belly band for the orange invitations.

5. Next, take another 8.5" x 11" sheet of cardstock and cut out two 5" x 4.75" pieces. These will be used to make the pocket of the pocketfold invitations. I saved the rest of the cardstock to use for the placecards I will be making later on.

6. The next step is to make the flaps of the pocket so it can be attached to the invitation. So, measure 0.5" from all sides except the top.

7. Then, fold the flaps over where marked. Again, I used my handy-dandy math formula cheat sheet to fold them.

8. To make the corners of the pocket, it's necessary to snip of the excess cardstock. So, fold the corners and snip away!

9. Then, to attach the pocket to the invitation, I used glue dots on the corners and a glue stick on the edges.

Here's what the pocketfold invitation looks like without any of the text or inserts added yet. Pretty fabulous, eh?

10. Next I glue-stuck the invitation and reception cards to the invitation.

11. Then I inserted the direction and response cards into the pocket.

12. For our out-of-town guests, I added a "Travel Information" card. I actually like the look of the invitation with the third card in the pocket, but I figured it was unnecessary for the local guests.

13. Next up were the belly bands! Remember the strip cut off from the top of the invitations? Well, here they are in action! After affixing the monogram with a glue dot, the belly bands were slipped into place.

14. The invitations were then placed in an envelope of the opposite color. Then, envelope wraps were glue-stuck (new favorite verb!) on.

Here's a view of the back of the envelope. That's our return address on the back. :)

15. This is my favorite step - adding the completed invitation to the "done" box! :) I'm trying to keep them separated - the stacks on the left are those with the "travel information" insert and the stacks on the right are those without. I'm not sure if there will be a difference in postage, but it'll be so much easier if there is!

Ciao,

Fun with Monograms

Well, I finally bought into the monogram trend! I initially thought it was kind of silly since I didn't think I'd have to many places to put one. Well, that was before I figured out I'd need something to connect the ends of our invitation belly bands! So, it was "hello, monogram!"

I was pretty dead set on incorporating our damask theme into the monogram design. So, here are my various iterations of the damask monogram...

The first monogram I came up with mimicked our invitation and save the date design. I like it, but I thought it might be overkill! :) So, then I started playing around with just a single damask image...

Cute, but unfortunately, it's a little too hard to read. :( So, I tired to make the K a little darker...

Uh oh! Still can't read our names so well! And at its final size of 1.5" by 1.5", the text would be positively illegible.

Well, that's better! By flipping the color of the text, the monogram instantly became much more legible! Plus, I like that the pink and orange are both in the background. I can't really explain why, but it seems much more cohesive! :)

Once I figured out how to use Photoshop, it was relatively easy to create these monograms!

Ciao,

You Are Here

I love the look of custom-made maps for wedding invitations, but seeing price tags of $300 or $400 per map, I decided that good old Google maps would be good enough for me!

But that was before I saw this fab tutorial over on Weddingbee.com. Though Mrs. Ballet Flats used Microsoft Power Point, I used Microsoft Publisher instead. I imagine either program would be fine since they use the same tools, but, since I did all of my invitations stuff on Publisher, I figured I'd keep it up!

Here's how my first map turned out...

(Obviously, I changed the names of the major streets and rivers. Hehe, I don't live in a spy-themed town!)

I really love the way it turned out. I have to do a test print to make sure the words are going to be big enough to read on the 3.5"x6" direction card, but I'm pretty confident that they are.

Ciao,

Another Way to Jazz Up My Invites!

Now that I've sent out the first batch of Save the Dates, I'm ready to start on the invitations. Well, I've technically started over a year ago, but I do have a new development! The envelope wrap! Here's a fab design I found over at The Fussy Designer!

Unfortunately, the second picture doesn't show much, but that's where you'd put the return address.

There are a plethora of colors available, including this fabulous orange one, but sadly there were no pink ones! So, what's a pink-lover to do? Make her own, of course (or at least recolor one of them)! After a bit of time in Paint and Microsoft Publisher, I was able to make the pink one!

Now to decide whether to hand-write or type the addresses on them. I know hand-writing them makes them seem more thoughtful, but I'm not sure anyone really even cares about how their name was written on the envelope. I mean, would you feel snubbed if your name wasn't hand-written? Decisions, decisions...

Ciao,

Invitation Envelopes

While I'm waiting for my mom and Steve's mom to provide us with the addresses for our Save the Date cards, I've been busy thinking about the invitations! One of the latest additions to our To-Do List from The Knot is to order our invitations, so I feel like I need to get on board with their design!

I was hoping to get away with folding the cardstock in such a way that it could be an envelope in and of itself, like this example...
That way, I could save money on envelopes and the presentation would still be super cute! The only problem is that I usually see this style inside of another envelope, like this...

Is there some sort of invitation etiquette that I'm missing out on?!?

Now that I've come to terms with the fact that I'll need envelopes, the mission has been to find the cutest ones at the lowest price! Here's what I've found...


At just $1.09 each, they're a pretty good deal! :) While they may be the most expensive part of the invitation, I think they'll be a nice touch.

*Edit: I take back every single time I've ever said how much I love math and how it was my best subject in school! The envelopes are only $0.11 each! Hehe, forget to carry the decimal over two places!*

If worse comes to worse and I don't want the added cost, I'll either just found some simple white envelopes or try my idea of using the invitation itself as an envelope.

As far as sizes go, I will probably go with the A7 envelope, which will fit a 5" x 7" invitation. Not too big, not too small! Since we are sending about 115 invitations and 115 thank you cards (230 total, if you do the math!), we'll probably get three boxes - 2 pink and 1 orange. Hehe, I always have to overdose on the pink!

Ciao,

Invitation Iterations

Although I still need to finish the Save the Dates, I'm already thinking about the invitations! Honestly, though, I've been thinking about them for some time! I think I've gone through about five completely different iterations so far...

From a purple and blue (yes, I said purple and blue...told you they'd be completely different!) version of this vintage-inspired invite...

to a pink and orange version of this elegant stationary...

My latest (and hopefully final!) iteration mimics the Save the Dates with the damask stamping technique. Although, I may get a little fancy and use embossing powder! Here's what I had in mind...

(click image to enlarge)

The response card, which would be about postcard size (which makes sense b/c, well, it'll be a postcard!), would be in a little pocket. I considered adding a direction card as well, but most people these days have access to a computer or GPS, so I figured they can map it themselves! :) Plus, we added a little blurb at the bottom about our wedding website, so guests can go there for directions and such.

I'm not entirely sure how big the invitations will be. I initially considering making them to fit an A2 envelope (4-3/8x 5-3/4"), but now I'm considering making them slightly larger to fill an A7 envelope (5-1/4 x 7-1/4"). But, I won't worry about that until I get Microsoft Office back on my computer and I can start playing around with them again!

*Side note: See the cute little pink blurred out word on the first line? That's my last name. See the much longer pink blurred out word just underneath? That's Steve's last name. Ugh, not looking forward to that name change! :P

Ciao,