The Save the Dates are Complete!

Happy New Year!

Amist all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season- spending time with friends, family, and loved ones, awaiting Santa, getting ourselves and our presents ready for Christmas, etc. I was thinking about our Save the Dates.

Well, yesterday morning during some errands, R and I stopped into the Paper Source and picked up a pack (25 count) of their Flat A6 (4 1/2" x 6 1/4") Cards in Luxe Cream.

Once we got home and I had some time to mess with them while R was napping, I started what I like to call my "trial and terror" printing method, by which I only ruined TWO cards! Normally this would have resulted in me freaking out, having to buy at least another pack of cards and possibly more ink. :x

Well, the finished product, if I may say so myself, is just gorgeous. And as a plus, Matt likes them too! ;)

The Wedding Chicks make it super easy to create and print their Printables, but just in case you were wondering how I did it:

1. First I tried to do it all in Internet Explorer, but it wouldn't even "compute" the image. So, I downloaded Google Chrome and things went smoothly from there.

2. I entered all my info and uploaded my picture for the front of the card. I dragged the image onto my desktop then opened it in my picture viewer.

3. I opened the picture printing wizard in Windows and when I came to the page where it asks you what printer to use and your preferences, I clicked preferences. I chose a customized paper size according to the measurements of the A6 card- 4.5" x 6.25" (that size wasn't an option in my list of paper sizes). Then I chose my number of copies.

4. I printed out the front of the postcard. When they would come out of the printer I'd take them out and lay them printed side up so they could flatten out and to let the ink dry all the way (they got a little rolled in the printer).

5. I then went back to The Wedding Chicks and entered in all my info for the back of the postcard. I tried to drag and drop it on to the desktop, but it was trying to save it as the exact same name as the "front." I just renamed the front by adding a "1" to the end. Then I was able to drag and drop the back onto the desktop.

6. I messed up another card when I tried to print the back. I know how my printer feeds, so that wasn't a problem, but I tend to over-think things and when it came time to chose my preferences, I switched the measurements & chose landscape, not remembering that the wizard "rotates & crops to fit." After that mishap, I kept the measurements the same, kept it at portrait, and printed out the number of copies I needed.

I ended up with 22 out of 25 cards. I addressed them, and messed up only one, so that left me with 21 cards! Luckily I only needed 20. The Save the Dates are going out as an informal heads up about the wedding, so I didn't make one to send to every.single.person. For example, hypothetical situation: if Cousin Eddie also lives with his brother, Charlie, they would get a combined Save the Date addressed to both of them. Once we send out the invites, Cousin Eddie and his brother Charlie would get separate invites. Make sense? :) I know this is different for everyone, but since we are inviting only closecloseclose family and friends and our wedding is VERY informal, they all understand!

I'm very happy with how they turned out and so far all feedback has been positive. :)

-B

Sample Bridal Shower Invites

My wonderful future sister-in-law and future mother-in-law have offered to throw me a bridal shower. It is going to be a tea party complete with hats, finger sandwiches, and antique china courtesy of Matt's maternal great-grandmother. I am so honored that Nancy, Matt's mom, has offered to let us use her grandmother's china for my bridal shower!

I can't not help Lori with the shower. I think it's my OCD, or maybe my love of crafting, but I stumbled across this cute DIY Painted Card with a FREE printable! It's the cutest thing ever- its a card with three teacups on the front and you paint them with tea! That's right, tea! Any type of tea, really.

So I made three sample cards: one painted with tea, one with regular water colors, and one colored in with colored pencils.

Aren't they just so cute!? I then just put together a little invitation on the back with the computer and printed it out.

I was playing around with them and on the water color and tea color ones I outlined the teacups with colored pencils. I like how this gives it a straight, clean edge. What I don't like is how I traced over the boarder with colored pencil, it looks horrible. When I make the real ones, I will leave the border alone! ;)

I think with some practice, one of those fancy paper cutters that cut a straight line, and new ink for the printer (we're almost out) we will have some quality home-made invites- the best kind! :)

Save the Dates

Matt and I have been talking about our Save the Date cards recently. We want to send them out with enough notice because our wedding date is set for the Friday after Labor Day.

The Wedding Chicks, an awesome DIY Wedding Blog, has many invitation suites and other printable cards that are totally customizable. You chose your colors, wording, date, picture, etc. then print it out on your choice of paper!

When we first started planning the wedding, Matt and I fell in love with the Vintage Post Card Save the Date.

We will send them out like regular post cards, that means no envelopes! The plan is to have the Save the Dates in the mail shortly after New Years. That will be a little less than 5 months notice and will hopefully give our few out-of-town guests a chance to book flights if need be, figure out lodging, etc.

I will follow up this post with a how-we-did-it once we pick out our paper and start printing!