OUR WEDDING INVITATIONS (CUSTOM DIY)
We finally sent out our wedding invitations a few weeks ago… and phew… what a weight off our shoulders! Even though we sent some Save-the-Date cards that I covered in a previous post, the wedding somehow feels more real with the formal invitations sent out.
I am really proud of the work that we put into these invitations. Can you believe that more than 100 hours of our own time and hard work went into these? Although they were printed elsewhere, I am really happy to say we did these 100% by ourselves: designing it, handwriting it all, illustrating it all, mailing it, and putting it all together.
I designed our wedding logo and ordered an embosser and plates to do our gold seals for the envelopes. We’ll also be using the embosser for other parts of the wedding such as programs and napkins. Good job to Allan for getting these perfectly centered while doing the pressing 
As before, we continued to use our custom return address stamp from Paperfinger on Etsy…
And I spent hours upon hours doing all the hand calligraphy with a dip calligraphy pen, and also did all the heat embossing myself for the gold tree on the envelope as we did with our save-the-dates before.
We really wanted to do a unique invitation, so we continued with the theme of the wooden wedding invites and thanks to my awesome bridesmaid Charmainne who gave us the idea of doing a #10 size card. It was hard to find envelopes that size that matched our save-the-date envelopes… but I managed to find some at Paper Source.
It turned out really cool and I love the length of it. I designed the text and the logo and we sent it all off to Night Owl Paper Goods to be printed on wooden birch cards… Kudos again to Night Owl… they turned out beautiful!
I also designed our insert cards in Illustrator — 2 double-sided cards with lots of information about the wedding and the area.
One of my favourite hidden parts is the pattern at the top and bottom of the cards… they are actually surfing waves if you look really closely. Thanks to VanPrint for doing an awesome job on the printing.
Probably my favourite part of the wedding work we’ve done so far is actually the custom wedding map that Allan and I made together. Both of us laboured over Adobe Illustrator for probably 60 hours alone just on this map. Allan did all of the illustrations himself… what you see here on the image is actually all done by vector work from scratch. I also did the text work, the actual road map, and the colouring. I had a pretty clear vision of how I wanted this map to look, so it definitely took some time and some heated discussions and tons of compromise between us to get it to look just right and represent both of us. It sounds funny, but it was a good test of our relationship.
Check out some of the little personal details… that’s an actual representation of Allan’s little green VW golf with surfboards on top.
And of course our interpretation of the Black Rock and the Ucluelet Community Centre … and us on the little patio getting married Hee hee!
I can’t believe the wedding is only 2.5 months away… scary and exciting! Yay!
Tags: #10, birch, chartreuse, Custom, design, drawn, embossing, envelopes, illustrated, Illustrator, insert cards, invitations, invites, map, seals, vector, wedding, wedding map, wooden
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June 20th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
I absolutely LOVE your illustrated maps! I thought your save the dates were original, but your invitations take the cake!! Wishing you a stress free couple of months (if possible) leading up to the big day.
June 20th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Love them..the perfect shade of green ! And a great communication exercise for the two of you !
June 20th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Very impressive! My wife and I tied our own ribbons/stuffed our own envelopes and thought that was a lot of work which is nothing compared to your efforts. The illustrated map is amazing. I’m sure you have a great photog already but if not, this was ours. He is great! http://lilophotodesign.ca/
Congrats!
June 21st, 2011 at 11:26 am
100 hours on invites…? a MAP that people will look at for about 5 seconds being a “test of your relationship?” is your brain going to explode if the table napkins aren’t perfectly folded on your wedding day? methinks you need to get some perspective, and fast!
June 21st, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Thanks everyone for your kind words!
georgia, yeah, I agree it’s definitely overkill
I shouldn’t have called it a test of our relationship as we’ve been together for over 4 years now, but it was definitely something fun to work on together that we’ll be able to have as a keepsake. Thanks for your comment! It’s no secret that I’m OCD about wedding planning and organizing. I really enjoy it 
June 23rd, 2011 at 5:38 pm
I LOVED the map when I opened my invite – my fave part is of Allan’s golf flying down the road with the surfboards on top. Great job on it. Your attention to detail is not unnoticed =).
Really looking forward to the wedding in September!! Just need to find something fab to wear.
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June 24th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
I’ve waited so long to open it- didn’t want to break the seal. Oh my goodness, they are the most beautiful and personal invites I’ve ever seen. So incredibly special and so you two. In love. xo c wowza
June 26th, 2011 at 11:17 am
What a beautiful set of wedding invitations. And it’s incredible to think that you’re getting married SO SOON!!!! Congratulations!
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July 10th, 2011 at 10:04 am
So awesome and fun! Way better than what I had done for mine. Congratulations
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July 20th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
The invites are amazing! I’ve already emailed this post to a couple of friends who are getting married. they need inspiration!
August 5th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I love them! The maps are darling too, you guys are so creative.
A work horse team for sure!
August 7th, 2011 at 7:40 am
Congrats from the CoH Community! Cool invites
August 20th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Amazing invitations (and stunning engagement photos I must say! Camille and Chadwick are the best!) If you could share with me where you got your embosser and round sticker seals, I’d be so grateful.
Cheers!
August 21st, 2011 at 6:23 pm
I do love the gold card a lots, It’s very best design and hard to do here.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:02 am
[...] Apex outdoor ice hockey tournament and snowboarding some untouched powder. We also managed to get our wedding invitations out after tons of hard work doing all the illustrations, designs, and calligraphy [...]