We've been MIA lately, and for that we are truly sorry. Between school, work, Hurricane Sandy, holidays, and wedding planning, we're finding ourselves stretched thin! But here's an inside look into what we've been working on.
Once wedding planning is well underway, the bride and groom have to bring their guests into the loop with the almighty Save the Date. Saira and Henry are getting married in June, which used to mean that the Save the Date would be mailed out in January. However, in real life, couples send Save the Dates very far in advance, some even giving their guests one year notice. While we think sending a Save the Date that far in advance may be a little much, we do understand the urgency in getting it out as soon as possible. First, if you have guests traveling from afar, the sooner they know the better, as they need to work out their own logistics. Second, if you're a 20-something bride, it's very likely that your guests will end up having more than one commitment on your wedding day, so whoever sends their Saves the Dates out first, wins!
We started off with a picture of Henry and Saira that we wanted converted into a drawing. After more than a few efforts, we were able to come up with a decent shot of us both. A word of advice to future brides -- get a friend to photograph you, as self-portraits are a hassle!
The next step was commissioning a professional artist to make a portrait using the photograph. Unfortunately, this proved to be harder than we thought and after a few failed efforts, we took matters into our own hands. With the help from
Toon Paint, a super cool iPhone app that converts photos into drawings, we were able to make a cartoonish, but realistic looking portrait.
The next step involved the genius talent of Jen. After several attempts
with a graphic designer friend, we again decided to take matters into
our own hands. Lucky for us, Jen is a bit of a wunderkid when it comes to
graphic design, and she was able to design us a very simple, but
elegant, Save the Date. We then purchased cardstock, note cards and matching envelopes from
Paper Source,
which is pretty much our dream store. Of course, we do realize that we could have saved some money buying paper online, which is something we will
consider when designing our invites.
We thought once we had the designs made, the hard part was over. Alas, this was not the case! The first problem was printing as many of the design on a page as possible, in order to save paper. After some painstaking design work, we were able to evenly lay out the designs on the page and include subtle cutting lines for easy assembling. Then, as neither of us own a high quality printer, we took our order to Kinko's for some quick and dirty printing. Unfortunately, due to the thickness of the cardstock, our print-out did not come out as vibrant and clear as we hoped. Nonetheless, we were satisfied with our results and went on to the next step!
Thanks to the carefully placed cutting guidelines on the print-outs, and our handy-dandy paper cutter, cutting the Save the Dates down to size was actually pretty easy! Sure there were some mistakes, but overall it was a quick and painless procedure.
We then glued the cut out Save the Dates on the pre-cut
Paper Source 4 Bar shimmer gold note cards (along with matching envelopes), to give it some depth, color, and glitter.
And voilà! We were able to create simple, yet creative, Save the Dates which cost us less than $200 altogether, which includes paper, envelopes, supplies, and printing.
Overall, this process taught us the importance of planning ahead and working independently. Of course, we realize that not everyone has the genius talents of Jen at their disposal, but you can still hire someone to do a design and then assemble the Save the Date on your own in order to save some dough. We definitely learned a lot from this experience, and are excited to begin working on our invitations!
XOXO,
Jen & Saira
