Handmade Wedding Invitations

Old Hollywood Glam Inspired Invitation Suite!

As a 2023 DIY bride I wanted to share some of the short-cuts and tips I used to create some of my wedding decor on my own. As an owner of my own small business and a background in design, I knew I wanted to do things myself when it came to my wedding. I love creating and I also love the challenge of creating something that looks *legit* and cuts some costs!

Details are below of my process but feel free to email me with any questions!

Design: Canva

Every DIY bride knows that a Canva Pro is your gateway into looking legit. That's the first thing I recommend! You'll have options for different fonts and elements, as well as the most useful piece I found, being able to edit your project size as you go!

Below is a breakdown of each piece, something to note is to scale your design to be bigger so that there is space between your text and the edges of the paper.

(See Printing: Vista Print)

• Main Invitation: Pulled inspo from pinterest, instagram, and larger invitation companies to create my own design. (Size: 5x7.26in) I created the front and our logo on the back!

• RSVP: Our venue didn't need the food choice so we just wanted to gather RSVPs and if they were staying over for welcome bag counts. I designed the back off of the black and white floor of the cocktail hour room! (Size: 3.5x5in)

• Details: All the essential info for our guests! To keep the design clean I used the icons for the timeline and pointed people to our wedding site. Also creating a design on the back "BEATTIES 10.7.2023" (size: 5.5x4in)

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Printing: Vista Print

After creating my design in Canva, I downloaded into Vista Print. Below are options I chose!

Main Invitation:

Invitations & Stationary > Wedding Invitations > Upload your own design.

• Selected: Flat Vertical 4.6x7.2.

• TIP: I kept my text in Canva tighter and space around the edges so that Vista Print didn't cut any words or anything was too close to the edge. Keeping clear of the Safety Edge and Bleed Zones. No worries if you don't on your first try. That's the nice thing about the Canva Pro and being able to edit your size!

• Paper Options: For the main invitation I chose the "Linen" option for some texture. For all others I chose "Standard Matte". The higher quality ones were tempting but I thought that 90% of these will be in the trash when people do there new years purge so I spared the extra cost. I was also pleased with the standard quality!

• NOTE: I purchase envelopes on Amazon: details below!

RSVP Card:

Invitations & Stationary > Wedding RSVP Cards > Upload your own design.

• Unfortunately the only "Upload your own design" is a Horizontal Version. So I designed this with a tilted head.. if you design is Horizontal, then you are spared from the extra hurdle :)

• Following the same steps above.

Details Card:

Invitations & Stationary > Wedding Enclosure Cards > Upload your own design.

• Choose your vertical or horizontal style.

• Following the same steps above!

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Envelopes: Amazon

The envelopes are my greatest triumph of the process and where I felt my DIY skills could pass for being a legit invitation suite. Again, reach out if you have any questions!

** TO START ** I wanted to incorporate my color scheme and the options in Vista Print were limited / oddly expensive. The only thing... is that they have a unique size that work for their exact invitation, so I did have to shave off a 2mm off of each invite to that it slide in and out of each envelope nicely. (a great task for your fiance while he's watching whatever "game" is on).

Materials:

Link to Invitation Envelopes: A7 Powder Pink

Link to RSVP Envelopes: Black RSVP Envelopes

Link to Water Bottle Labels: Address Labels

Link to Heart Paper Clips: Paper Clips

Link to Envelope Insert: Insert (See steps below to print out so you have it ready for assembly)

Link to How-To Print an Envelope: How-To

Link to Free Fonts: DaFont.com

Link to Scrapbook Tape: Tape

Printing:

Once you have all your materials the first step is creating your envelopes. The steps in the How-To Print an Envelope are super easy to follow. I have a basic printer and this worked very well for me. Make sure you test and get your alignment correct and then it's simple copy and past for each guest! (Lengthy-ish process but I watched Love Is Blind Season 5 UK and it was great background noise for all DIYs)

I also use DaFont to find some pretty fonts, but Stephanie on Pipkin Paper Co. shares some more and some font options. I did just go one by one versus her recommendation of loading up your full list.

Inserts:

Next, I used the Etsy insert template and created the insert for the envelopes. I saw a girl with this on TikTok and I thought it gave such a great impact! I chose a photo of my fiance (husband now) for a little romantic edge but you could use a pattern or a picture of your venue! The template comes with everything you need. I sent these to Staples to print for a crisper look and crisper black and white. They were ready in three hours!

Another fiance assignment, I had him trim out each insert from the template and then we assembled the envelopes!

RSVPs:

Since my envelopes were black. I was a little stuck on what to do for self addressing and being easy. I copied the same thing I did with my RSVPs, and use the water bottle labels to create easy return address labels. I found this on Instagram and just used the template that comes in the packaging of the labels and printed them. I left the back blank for guest to fill in but no one did and we got every RSVP back :)

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Assembly:

I intended to wrap everything in a cute velvet bow but I just couldn't get it to look right. I opted for these cute heart paperclips and people couldn't get over them! I wasn't sure if it fit the ~vibe~ I was going for but it ended up being perfect and a cuteness factor!

LINK TO TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@mallyb73/video/7294435200031919402