Your Presence is Requested: A DIY

Photo Credit: Chelle Wootten Photography

One of my favourite decisions for the wedding - and also one of the most nerve-wracking - was deciding to DIY our invitations.

We sent our save-the-dates via email (using Paperless Post) but kept them consistent with our scheme of black, white, and brass/gold. Then, I sketched and sketched and sketched out invitation options, pulling inspiration for wording from various places on the internets.

When I finally settled on something I liked (approximately 3 months later), I sketched out a final version of our invitation, an RSVP request with directions to our website (we used Minted's free basic wedding website - SO good), a few actual RSVP cards (for grandmothers and other relatives who would have difficulty RSVP'ing via the internet), and a rehearsal dinner invite for the wedding party and our immediate families. These were all just simple black pen (I used these amazing Muji ones that my bestie introduced me to) on white cardstock.

early iterations

I picked up a bunch of white cardstock and black envelopes at Michael's, and then brought the cardstock to FedEx for printing. It's a good idea to check with your printer first to find out if your invitation dimensions are too small for their printer or not. The cardstock I used had to be at least 5" on all sides to work for FedEx's printers. Given that my invitations were around 4" on one side (and other pieces were even smaller), we ended up printing two or more to a page in order to ensure the cardstock was wide enough for the printer and then just used the paper cutter to separate them after printing. The printing guru at FedEx scanned and cleaned up my sketches and then printed them onto the cardstock I brought in within a few hours.

our wedding website

Then, I laid them all out on our dining room table to be gold leafed. If you've never used gold leaf before, it can feel intimidating, but it's seriously the EASIEST thing ever. Seriously, my bridesmaids helped me gold foil our programs the night before the wedding and they were shocked at how easy it was. I decided to do a large gold swipe on each invite to keep it simple. Using a paintbrush, I swiped across each invite with adhesive (I use the Mona Lisa brand), and then left them for around 25 minutes for the adhesive to get tacky. Once the glue was sticky, I placed a small pinch of gold foil (you don't need much) on each invite, and used a foam brush to spread it across/press it into the adhesive. Once they were all done, I used a clean fluffy paint brush to clear away the excess gold foil. The excess will get EVERYWHERE, so be prepared. It vacuums up pretty easily though! (Side note: Andrew thinks it's hysterical when I vacuum up pieces of gold. Our dyson looks ridiculous.) That's it!

with a totally legit address, haha

The final step in invitation prep was to address all of the envelopes. I did a little research for the best white pens, and found that these ones were the most opaque and inky - highly recommended. Japan knows their writing utensils.  Using my own handwriting and printing, I addressed each envelope and chose a non-wedding but colour-scheme-appropriate black and white Queen Elizabeth stamp for each envelope. I wish we had the selection of gorgeous stamps the US does - they're practically artwork! But Queen Betty had to suffice for ours. 

I also elected to have an address stamp made locally, using my handwriting (thanks to a heads-up from the delightfully talented KDPLetters), which I used to stamp the back of each envelope in white ink. Each invite was sealed with a piece of gold washi tape. And that's it!

It wasn't a minor amount of work, haha - but I really really enjoyed the process.

MORE WEDDING POSTS:

For photos of our wedding, click here.

For details on our wedding decor, click here.
For our DIY "guestbook", click here.

For our DIY programs, table numbers, and place cards, click here.