Here are a few fantastic Love/Hate examples!

The laptop invitation – I personally LOVE this one. It’s such a cute idea – perfect for a couple who meet online or had a long distance relationship. Or for the couple that is proud to flaunt their geek side – kind of like me and my computer programming hubby lol. (Source)

Here’s a fun idea for a movie themed wedding – or for a couple that just loves their movies.  A wedding invitation designed to match your favorite movie poster.  I think it’s genius – my husband hates it. Like I said – Love/Hate lol. (Source)

This one is interesting. I don’t love it – but I appreciate it’s uniqueness. I think this couple probably has a fantastic sense of humor and chances are their friends and family will get that.  It is definitely a very neat idea. (Source)

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First. Printing. We decided to have the invites printed by a professional. We couldn’t afford engraving (seriously, who can? It’s a fortune!!!), but we were able to use thermography (raised letter printing). The invites turned out beautifully. BUT, I designed a fancy schmancy little monogram to go at the top of the RSVP cards. I LOVED it. But when I saw it in person I was horrified. I’d forgotten that there was a scrolly design already printed on the RSVP paper. It looks uber busy. Of course, Mom, Dad, J and a dear BM all told me it looked fine and I was overreacting (who moi??!), but I’m still disappointed in the way they turned out. My only consolation, they’re RSVP cards, so they’ll get sent back to my folks!

Secondly. Direction Cards. We needed direction cards. Our ceremony and reception are in two different locations, so I didn’t really know how I wanted to approach this. I went to wedding mapper and tried my hand at my own maps inspired by wedding bee (if I would have stuck with these, I’m sure my guests would have ended up in East Zimbabwe for the wedding, and Alaska for the reception), nothing looked right. I finally decided to ditch the map idea all together and just print out the directions. Happily, I went about double sided printing both sets of directions on the perforated direction cards that came with our invitation set. Uh. Oops. You CAN’T double side print on perforated cards. I had no idea. So, back to square one. I ditched the perforated cards and bought 4×6 card stock at Hobby Lobby. I double sided printed those, 2 per card, and then had them cut at Office Max for under a dollar and it took maybe one minute! Seriously, if you need a big set of anything cut, take them to Office Max pronto!

Thirdly. Typing. I don’t know how to merge one document into another, so I spent an entire evening typing my guest list’s addresses into Avery label templates. And that was just MY guest list. Dad spent an entire evening typing his list too. My eyes grew crossed and my head started to spin. My heartfelt apologies if your label has some poor misconfiguration of your name on it!

Fourthly. Stuffing. I spent a whole other evening stuffing direction cards and RSVP cards into 150 invites.

Fifthly. The bows. I told my mom that the bows that came with the set weren’t critical. We could just leave them off. It’d save us a lot of work and they wouldn’t be missed. Mom liked the bows. So, I started tying them on the invitations. Mom said something along the lines of “can’t you get them to look normal”, I couldn’t. But she could, hers looked like perfect little Martha Stewart bows, so she took over the bow tying task. 9 days, and a finger blister later, she has 150 perfectly tied bows. (actually, some people might not have gotten bows…. maybe it was more like 30 perfectly tied bows… but they are PERFECT.)

My Attempt:

Mom (Momtha Stewart)’s Perfection:

Sixthly (I’m making up words). The label putting on. Our invites are black. So we needed labels, as I mentioned thirdly, we printed them on Avery templates. Avery templates are wonderful. But they don’t actually put the labels on for you. You have to do that yourself. ;-p hehe! Well, Mom had to do that herself. I was back in Birmingham by that time. Another. Day’s. Work. (PS. Thanks for all your hard work, Mom!)

Seventhly. Work invites. All the aforementioned hard work doesn’t count the invites we’re giving friends from work (J and I work together). We decided to do those separately, since we only had 150 fancy invites. We got 2 sets of black and white damask(ish) invites from Gartners. I took a bunch of the extra sillyly printed RSVP cards with me to stuff in the work invites. Oops, they are done in raised lettering. I can’t send out raised letter RSVP cards and flat invites. So, I sent off the work invites to a printer in Birmingham (didn’t get nearly the good deal we got in St. Louis!) for them to be done in thermography as well. Still waiting on those. And then the long, tedious task starts all over! Thank goodness there aren’t any bows on those!

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The moral of this story. It might cost a teensy bit more. But don’t DIY your invites. Seriously, who needs the headache… or the blisters.

What is letterpress? For those who don’t know – it’s an ancient type of printing. Today, modern technology and traditional techniques are combined to create a soft, 100% cotton paper with a hand-crafted look and a luxuriant feel.  MagnetStreet offers invitations with RSVP cards and envelopes. Check out these gorgeous designs – my favorites from the new collection:

Check out the full collection at MagnetStreet Weddings

*Affiliated

Yes. It says “come to our wedding or we’ll kick your butt”. I thought it was hysterical. In fact it made me laugh out loud. Literally. I showed J. He laughed out loud. I showed my mom. She laughed out loud. See, it’s funny because neither J nor I would ever hurt a fly.

This pic was taken right after we got in a horrible car accident and J’s face made friends with the windshield. On a side note, PLEASE don’t text and drive. J and I were driving in the slow lane of the interstate and a car slammed into the back of us, catapulted us across three lanes of interstate traffic, we crashed into the cement median and spun around so we were facing traffic. We ended up with some bumps, bruises, cuts,  and a broken nose… but we could have easily been killed.

The driver of the other car was texting. (If you still need convincing watch this video *warning, it’s graphic*).

Anyway, back to Zazzle. I’m pretty much obsessed with it. As I mentioned in a previous post, we already have our invites, but since so many of our guests are coming from out of town, there’s no way to get around sending Save the Dates. I think the most cost effective way to send STD’s is to send the post card version. And since I double as a photographer and J and I have enough pictures of ourselves to fill a municipal library… I thought it would only be fitting to have a photo on our STD’s. Here are some options… What do you think?

J and I are both television producers at the same television network. In fact our offices are right across the hall from each other… which I think is cool… But our co-workers probably get sick of me yelling out “J come here I have to show you these custom monograms/bridesmaid’s bouquets/centerpiece mock-ups”… who am I kidding, I’m sure he gets sick of it too, but the wonderful fiancé he is, he rarely acts disinterested!

At the very beginning of our relationship J and I were in St. Louis, my home town, for an even our television network was putting on.  Since the event was in my hometown I went as an attendee, he went to work.  I drove 10 hours to get there.  He flew non-stop 1 hour to get there.  The girl I drove with ended up getting ill and flying back, so I was stuck by myself to drive 10 hours without any company.  J offered to give up his quick and easy flight to join me on the loooong drive…  in a compact car!  His sacrifice spoke volumes to me.  That’s the official moment when I knew he was the “one”!

I had the same aha moment when J and I were shopping for rings.  I put one on that I thought was way out of the budget but “knew” it was the “one”.  I felt like Cinderella when I tried it on.  And felt like the luckiest girl alive when he popped the question with it!  I still catch myself staring at it!  And I still feel like the luckiest girl alive!

Not long after J proposed I found myself in a Michael’s (let’s be honest girls, isn’t that where most newly engaged diy budget brides find themselves!? Haha).  And came across this LOVELY black and white damask invitation set, by Brides.  I “knew” they were our invitations.  Despite the fact that I hadn’t done ANY invitation research yet, I called my mom and she bought every box in the St. Louis area, with a 50% off coupon.  Cheapo!  Can’t wait to find some great ways to make them a little more custom.  Maybe a belly band?  Or a great monogram?  Who knows, I just loved them and knew they would set the tone for our dreamy delightful diy damask wedding! 

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Working on your invitations? Add some personality. You don’t have to go as far as this – but find a way to let your personality show. Use colors, unique wording, custom inserts or other little details to really make it memorable.

Get this – 100 Invitations and 250 RSVP cards (cause that’s the smallest order option) for $30!

How? VISTAPRINT! Yes, I swear lol. In our case, we are doing things a little less formally since it’s not a wedding so we asked guests to call or email for RSVPS. Since the RSVP cards don’t have to be mailed – we used a design from the free business cards they offer. Then we designed out invitation using the matching standard size postcards which are $25 for 100 – plus $5 for matching envelopes. I had them printed with a blank back since we won’t be sending them as postcards.

THE RESULTS:

Some Ideas:

If you need to be able to have your RSVP cards mailed back to you, you could either pick up envelopes at your local office supply store that are large enough to be sent int he mail. Or – create your invitation on an oversized postcard (50 for $20) and use the standard sized postcard for your rsvp. 100 invitations with RSVPs and envelopes would still be only $80!

A few more VISTAPRINT designs I liked:

Derek & Sharon shared this inverted security envelope idea on Design Sponge earlier and I thought it was worth mentioning. Now, probably not a great idea for wedding invitations – but it’s a very neat way to dress up thank you notes. They  are very affordable – all you need is a little glue. They are also environmentally friendly, since you are reusing envelopes rather then throwing them out. Visit Design Sponge for simple, easy to follow instructions.

Whenever you plan a wedding theme, the first thing to do is pick a key point. For a beach wedding, this might be the color blue, or sea shells. For a 4^th of July or Memorial Day wedding, red, white and blue – and flags, are the obvious choice. So, how do you plan a red, white and blue wedding that is gorgeous and affordable? Well, let’s take a look:

Start with the clothing. For the bride, a stunning red and white wedding gown, like ANNA shown here. For the groom, a white or navy blue suit with a red vest and tie. The flower girl will look beautiful in a red gown with a navy blue sash, to match the navy blue bridesmaid gowns. The groomsmen would be in navy or white tuxedos with navy vest and tie. Personally, I think white would look amazing. Tuxedos with tails and top hats would also be stunning. Finish of the look with red necklaces for the girls, and blue for the bride – and red roses for the bouquets and boutinierres.

For wedding invitations, use a navy blue cardstock, with a frosted vellum overlay printed with your information. Tie the two together with a red ribbon, and seal in an envelope with a flag sticker or a wax seal.

For the ceremony, decorate the center aisle with a white aisle runner. At the edge of each pew or row – place a pew bow of white tulle decorated with red and blue ribbon, ivy and a tiny US flag. If you need to fit into a smaller budget – put them only on the first few rows were immediate family and honored guests will be sitting. If you want an archway at the alter, decorate it with white tulle, red and blue ribbon, ivy and tiny flags to match the pew bows.

There are two unique guest book ideas that come to mind. You could take a large piece of parchment and have your names, date and place written on top in old fashioned calligraphy. Distress the paper, and tie it with a ribbon for a week or so before the wedding – so it has the just unrolled look. Have guests sign – just like the fore fathers did. Of, find a flag that is large, but small enough to still hang on a wall. Have your names and dates embroidered on the center, and then have guests use fabric pens to sign on the flag. This flag can then be framed and hung later on.

Remembrance – You may want to do something to remember those who gave their lives as well. Place a small side table with three candles – red, white and blue somewere were it will be seen. Place a wreath of red, white and blue flowers in front. This could be placed by the guestbook table, or near the entrance to the sanctuary. It could also go in the reception hall near the cake table or in front of the head table if you wanted.

For reception décor, use white table clothes. Decorate the head table with tulle, ribbon, ivy and tiny flags as you did the pew bows. For the guest tables, you can use small flower arrangements of red carnations with blue and white ribbons, and a little flag in the center. Accent the centerpiece with red, white and blue confetti. Oil lanterns with an old fashion look would also make great centerpieces. If they are clear –red and blue oil make a great touch! If you are using table markers – name each table after a founding father or a state. A rose bowl with a floating candle would make a great centerpiece as well – just tie red and blue ribbon around the top.

This is the perfect wedding theme for an All American Bar-B-Que! For an informal wedding, offer a buffet of freshed grilled beef and chicken burgers, fruit salad, potato salad, coleslaw, etc. For a more formal wedding, bar-b-qued chicken with baked potatoes is perfect. A cake or dessert dish decorated with strawberries and blueberries is the perfect end to the meal. We have another article posted on red, blue and white wedding cakes for a 4th of July wedding as well -you can read it here.

And for a finishing touch – don’t forget to leave the wedding in a bang: yes I mean fireworks. Plan for a fireworks display to take place as part of your farewell as you and your new husband leave the wedding! If you are not able to have fireworks, opt for some amazing 36” sparkles for guests to use to see you off!

AFTERTHOUGHT: Eagles would also make a great addition to your decor for a July 4th wedding. Don’t think eagles are romantic? You might change your mind. Eagles are one of the few animals on earth that mate for life. When a pair of eagles meet, they will soar together as high above the clouds – male chasing female. Then, she will allow herself to fall. If the male catches her on his back – they will remain together for the rest of their lives! What a wonderful display of love, trust, and faithfulness. “When you soar, I will soar with you. When you fall, I will catch you.”

FOR MORE 4th of July Wedding Ideas and Wedding Favor Suggestions, Click Here.