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Our DIY Wedding Stationery – Invitations, Programs, and More—Designed by Me!

Apr 5, 2018

Personal

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I decided to design my own wedding invitations. I figured it would be cheaper, and would ensure that I got exactly what I wanted. In the end, I was happy with them, but MAN was that a stressful thing to take on while I was graduating from college, planning a wedding, buying a house, and trying to find a job. YIKES. I lived though, and thought it would be fun to show you guys everything!

We got married on a farm, so I wanted something a little “rustic,” but not too much, since we weren’t really going for a “country” vibe. I didn’t exactly have wedding colors—I was way too indecisive—just an image of flowers that was my inspiration for the wedding (see below). Looking at this image now, those colors I pulled from it do not go together at all. I don’t know what I was thinking. (The flowers are still pretty to me, just not all those ugly colors underneath that I tried to make go together.)

First up, our invitations! It took me a veryyyy long time to get them “perfect,” and I finally ran out of time and had them printed. Ultimately, I’m happy with how they turned out. In these photos, the invitation and RSVP card/envelope are wrapped in a pink piece of paper with the twine tied around, but the ones I actually sent out to our guests had a green piece of paper wrapped around it. I just didn’t have anymore green paper left for these pictures I took for the blog! (This was an invite I saved from the wedding that I just photographed today. (:) I topped each “set” with a piece of vellum paper, and this is what they looked like:

Our RSVP cards were fun because they had prompts on it where guests could give us advice. Not everyone did it, but it was SO FUN getting these in the mail and reading them. I saved them all, and I still love them.

One of the best decisions ever—having recipient address labels printed! I didn’t want to have to write our address on so many invitations, so I made cute little wrap-around labels and LOVED how they turned out. I had all of our guests addresses printed on the envelopes too. That saves SO MUCH TIME when you’re already spending so much time stuffing and stamping! Definitely spend the extra for the printed addresses if you’re doing everything on your own. But honestly, grab a professional to do all this for you if you have it in the budget. I have some great recommendations I can send you, just ask!

This is what the back looked like, and then the part with our names and (very old) address wrapped around to the front, perfect for mailing.

Next up is our programs. We got married in May, so I wanted to do fans in case it was hot. They were easy enough, but took a long time to put together. And the worst part was that only about a quarter of the amount we made got taken. I came home with a HUGE pile of them that never got used. EESH. All that work for nothing. Win some, lose some.

This I-spy thing was a cool idea, but no one did it. I made up that cute little poem and no one participated. Haha. Win some, lose more, when it comes to these I guess.

Lastly, and these were fun, I made little packets to give out to everyone at our rehearsal dinner! These were so fun, and helpful (at least I thought so) because they were PACKED with information that everyone would need for the wedding day. There were notes in there about pictures the next day, who to call and phone numbers, when to arrive, etc. etc. It was great! We also did a time capsule, so there was a little card with prompts where people could make guesses about what our lives will look like in 2025. We have all of those answers locked away in a box with small bottles of wine we bought the year of our wedding, and we won’t peak until our anniversary that year!

It was a lot of hard work, but it was also fun to be able to create everything myself. It was a nice relief to get to stuff envelopes and pick up all the pretty paper from the printer in the midst of all the crazy happening. (I was still in college when I made these, and it was like Christmas when printing services would email me and say things were done printing. I would pretty much run to that building to pick them up!) Even though 2015 was a crazy year for us, it was such a good one. And these little pieces of paper are such a good reminder of it all! <3

Want to see how I organized our guest list so I had every guest’s name and address in one place? I have a free download you can grab by filling out your name and email below!

My passion is in documenting the lives of our families well (mine and yours), and teaching you how to do it too. Follow along as I share photography tips, inspiration, and beautiful portraits.

hey! I'm Karly

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