our save the dates!!
Well, here they are! Our first DIY wedding project! After much back and forth and working in different styles, I came up with this design for our save the dates. I really wanted to incorporate yellow (what’s a happier color than yellow?!) and since we are planning a fairly traditional wedding I wanted the save the date to be reflective of that. However, I also wanted to strike a balance and make sure the card design had the right amount of modern and wasn’t plain or overly fancy.
We really didn’t need to do magnets (above), but my Mom and I love getting magnets with invitations. The magnet design piggy-backed on Brendan’s website design (below), incorporating a floral illustration and transparency (the site navigation he designed uses transparencies, as does the type on the magnet). I was thrilled to find vellum-like coin envelopes to fit the magnets, since I’ll use vellum every chance I get. The hand stamped flaps were made on an impulse. Apparently I can’t leave any surface untouched…
One of my bridesmaids, Amy, helped me gocco return addresses on the back of the envelopes. It looks good but was also a big timesaver. It was my first experiment printing with a gocco, and I’m already trying to envision what part the gocco will play in our invitations!
The kraft paper envelopes made the whole package less formal (and therefore much better in my opinion!) The tabs on the envelopes with the addresses written on them are the strips of paper left over from printing the save the dates. The printer kind of laughed when I asked him to save all those 3 inch strips, but they were put to good use! Waste not want not!
Above is the set…
And this is the website Brendan designed and built for us. Since most of our guests will becoming from out of town, the site incorporates lists of restaurants, bars, activities, museums, and good shops in my hometown.
Here is a list of the vendors I used for this project:
Outer envelopes: French Paper
Paper: Neenah Paper
Sticky magnets: Office Depot
Custom stamp: Rubber Stamp Champ
Coin envelopes: Envelopes Express
After weeks of putting these together, it was really satisfying to dump them all in the mailbox! I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out, and once I had the design for the save the dates I was able to work backwards and come up with a whole color scheme and feel for our wedding. But that’s another day!
Responses to “our save the dates!!”
Tracy Hancock
November 14, 2008 at 11:42 amFantastic stuff Ellie, congrats on the wedding and the beautiful design (I loved the stamped flaps, it made me happy).
Mom
November 14, 2008 at 5:06 pmBeautiful I must say!!!! (and I’m not prejudiced at all!) Love, Mom
Betty
November 14, 2008 at 8:30 pmThe whole package came out lovely! I love your colors choices. Thanks so much for these links too. Great resources
joanna goddard
November 14, 2008 at 10:33 pmthese are SO LOVELY!!! congrats, what fun! xo
Leah
November 15, 2008 at 12:00 amThese are lovely. Congratulations. One quick question – I’m thinking about wrap-around labels as well and was wondering how you attached these? I’ve seen folks do them on self-adhesive/stickers before but I was hoping to use paper and wasn’t sure the best way to go about it.
Mary Marg
November 15, 2008 at 12:14 amWhat a burst of sunshine on a rainy day , so charming. Beautifully designed ! You are so talented Ellie , and so dear…
ellie
November 15, 2008 at 11:32 amthank you, everyone!!
Leah – the labels were actually not wraparound. Since I used leftover invitation paper, they were too thick to wrap very well. (if you used a thinner paper you could definitely do wraparound the same way). Instead, I glued the labels right to the edge of the envelope. I used regular elmer’s glue, and used a paintbrush to make sure the glue was applied evenly, and the corners were covered. Then, I used the bottom of the glue bottle to rub all over the label and make sure there were no corners or edges sticking up.
But I do have a warning – after you glue the label on, make sure you open the flap and let them air dry overnight. The first 50 I made, I put them in a box right after gluing and the glue seeped through and sealed the envelope!! Ooops!
Emily@oncewed
November 15, 2008 at 8:33 pmWow! They turned out lovely. I adore the yellow…
stevanny
November 16, 2008 at 5:46 amoh wow.
these turned out so great!
i love the colors that you used.
perfection =)
The City Sage
November 17, 2008 at 1:00 amWow–these are stunning! The perfect blend of fun and playful, romantic, and traditional. The colors, the motif, the execution: everything is perfection. I can’t get over them!
Sallie
November 17, 2008 at 8:43 amThe save-the-date package arrived on Friday. It is wonderful and so creatively designed. We are really looking forward to your wedding.
Love, Aunt Sallie
ellie
November 17, 2008 at 8:57 amthanks!!!
juliette c.
November 17, 2008 at 9:28 amLove the little card for a save the date! Also the stripes in yellow are so colourful!!
renee
November 17, 2008 at 11:34 amthose are so awesome–you did such a great job–pretty and sophisticated, but still fun!
so which French Paper did you use–and what sort of printing are they? I’ve been curious about French paper, but the website doesn’t say much about what papers print best with the different print methods.
amalia
November 17, 2008 at 10:44 pmEllie,
Which paper did you select on the Neenah paper website? I can’t find it! Help!
Thanks!
sony
November 18, 2008 at 12:22 amI LOVE these!!!
ellie
November 18, 2008 at 9:22 amHi everyone – updated post with more paper & printing info here
danni
November 18, 2008 at 2:37 pmohmigosh, your mom is so cute, lol. totally reminds me of my mom when she leaves a comment on my blog.
but these are simply amazing.
i can’t wait to design mine (one day) + i will be back here for inspiration.
love your design!
Rosie p
November 19, 2008 at 7:36 amThese look really great, you’re very inspiring and creative!
alanakdavis via flickr
January 29, 2009 at 9:57 pmI love these so much!!
evphotogal via flickr
January 29, 2009 at 9:57 pmThese are so great! Congrats!
pikaland via flickr
January 29, 2009 at 9:58 pmLove this — and I’m planning my wedding too, although not officially (no venue booked yet!) so wonderful to see yours slowly unravelling!
Amber
March 31, 2009 at 2:02 pmA girlfriend had all her save-the-date magnets stick to the inside of the mailbox and they weren’t delivered until AFTER the wedding! So do a test on metal first.
Jessica
May 14, 2009 at 4:31 pmYou’re save the dates are so much fun and I love the colors! I was wondering what the envelope color/name is that you purchased from French Paper? I am not sure how true the colors are from their web site.
Congrats & Much Appreciated!
Jessica