{Wedding Inspiration} Dressing Up DIY Invites
Image: Style Me Pretty. Photo by Greer G Photography.
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with DIY wedding stationery. Not only is it a great way to stick to a tight budget, but what better way to give your guests a sneak peek at your wedding style? And whether you’re going the print-at-home kit route, or cutting blank cardstock for your own creations, your invites don’t have to look plain. It’s easy to use decorative elements to pack a punch and add a bit of personal flair. After all, your wedding should be your own!
The source of my inspiration is this lovely invitation envelope. While the paper itself is your standard white and brown, it gets prettied up with vintage-style stamps and a touch of lace, both of which are easy to achieve.
Let’s start with the lace edges. The practical side of me wonders how the delicate lace on the outside envelope would hold up in the mail. A nice alternative might be to use paper doilies instead — you achieve the same effect, but with more strength. And did I mention doilies are super cheap? (You can find packs of 30 for about $2-3 each.) If you need a little direction on how to cut and position the doilies, here’s a great DIY tutorial.
Image: Sparkle and Hay
On to stamps. While there are plenty of custom postage designs on the web to choose from, they require a little more dough than you’d spend at the post office (usually double or more). And when you tally up all the stamps you’ll need to buy — for save-the-dates, invites, reply cards, and thank-you cards…well, let’s not get into how much all those custom stamps would be! That’s why it was refreshing to find that the pretty stamps on the inspiration envelope can be purchased through the post office…at every-day stamp prices. Yay!
Featuring pretty herbs, you can mix and match these 29-cent stamps at your pleasure.
Herbs stamps – Roll of 100, $29.
If vintage and flora aren’t quite your style, the “Love: King and Queen”designs are a good bet, and less ho-hum than the Wedding Roses and Rings designs.
Or maybe you’re an unconventional bride, and you’d rather have and “pretty” isn’t a concern to you. With an open mind, you’ll find the post office carries many other choices. You might like something a little quirky, like the Mark Twain design, or even American Scientists. Neat!
How are you making your stationery special? If you’re going the DIY route, what special touches do you think you’ll add?
-Dana H.
Wow, I really like the paper doily effect! I'd love to see more ideas, maybe with dressing up interior parts of the invitation "packet"…
I bought a set of invites from Target that have a yellow and grey pattern on them. I plan on adding a ribbon around it and maybe something else…I guess I should decide pretty quick, I need to get them out next month! ;D
I'm soooo doing this! Easy and nice Thank you cards!
Designing the wedding invitations myself and having my fiancé help with the cutting, glueing and stamping was fun and super satisfying.
love the ideas! the first image was a creation of maria from tupelo honey design in new orleans. http://www.tupelohoneydesign.com/ — just to give her credit for the design! she’s an incredible stationer and makes the loveliest, unique invite sets for her clients.
very nice cards you gave me a idea for my wedding
Great ideas Dana! You are the best!
I am in LOVE with your idea of the white envelope with brown & the lace around it….it's so beautiful! I tried clicking on the DIY tutorial though and it said the page didn't exist…do you have the link to the tutorial?
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