I got married in August 2007, and I was very much a do-it-yourself bride. There were many reasons for this, but the biggest reason was because I had a hard time finding things that really reflected our lives and tastes. We wanted a simple and elegant beach-themed wedding, and all I could find were invitations of dolphins kissing or invitations that were way too busy. Fed up with the limited choices available to me, I decided to make my own invitations that reflected our aqua and green colors, our starfish and sand-dollar motif and our tastes.
Getting Started and Buying Supplies for your DIY Pocketfold Invitations
After combing the normal wedding boards, like www.theknot.com and www.weddingchannel.com , I decided I wanted the trendy pocketfold invitations. I wondered about making them myself, but decided that the time it would take would not be worth the effort. With some homework and advice, I decided to order my pocketfolders from www.cardsandpockets.com. I started by ordering a few sample colors and invitation styles, which I got for under $10.00.
They have a huge variety of colors and paper styles – matte, shiny and metallic – and several different pocketfolder designs from which to choose. The best part of all is the cost – about $1.00 for each pocketfolder! I ordered my folders in Honeydew, which is a lovely muted green.
Because I wanted a layered look, I also ordered invitation mats from Cards and Pockets. I ordered mine in Pool – a classic beachy turquoise color – and was pleased with the results. This combination of blue and green really set the tone for our wedding. I also ordered printable invitation cards that were perfectly precut, so all I had to do was
Pocketfolders have a central area for the invitation, and a pocket to hold assorted inserts. I ordered enough inserts for 5 for each invitation, so I could include inserts for Directions, Accommodations, an RSVP card, an “About the Area” card (because we had a destination wedding) and a “Celebration” card, with details about the wedding ceremony, reception and other events.
Designing your DIY Pocketfold Invitations
Because I am a technical writer, I am pretty comfortable with graphics programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I chose, however, to do my invitations in good old Word. I downloaded some fonts I loved from www.dafont.com (I chose Optimus Princeps and Scriptina). I highly recommend choosing one “Print” font and one “fancy” font and sticking to those two!
I then went about getting some beautiful illustrations of a sand dollar and a starfish. I found these on Google images in a gorgeous, hand-drawn format. In Photoshop, I adjusted the black-and-white color so that they were both shades of green that matched out theme.
I played around with our wording and styles for the actual invitation. I went for a fairly simple style, with our ceremony information lined up on the left, and our sand dollar and starfish in the background, on the right, half on the page (see pictures for more details!).
I designed all of our inserts with the same fonts, and made sure to measure them so I could have the layered, staircase appearance I wanted. It took a few tries to get the cards lined up properly, but once I got them there and measured them, I designed each insert as a separate Word file based on the exact measurements of my inserts.
For the “About Port Townsend” insert, I gathered information about Port Townsend, the site of our destination wedding, and listed activities and places of interested guests could do on their own. For the accommodations card, I listed a few hotels with contact information and a blurb about each (“formal and Victorian-inspired, with a restaurant for elegant dining”, or “A family-friendly hotel with comfortable rooms and a pool for the kids, located right on the beach.”). I made sure the “Celebration” and “Directions” inserts had as much information possible, and included an alternating starfish or sand dollar on the top of each insert, so the theme would be continuous throughout the invitation.
Because I wanted something that would make the invitation truly “ours” on the front, I printed a series of 2 inch by 2 inch “monogram” papers that had our names and our starfish to use as a “seal” on the front of the invitation.
I then went about printing everything. A word of warning: this takes many tries to get right, and takes longer than you may think. I spent an entire weekend printing out invitations – about 16 hours – and then I had to cut the inserts to the sizes I had measured. I had estimated it would take about 4 hours. Add some time to your estimate – something will cause a snag, and it’s best to have the time built in to your schedule!
Assembling the your DIY Pocketfold Invitations
After I had everything printed and cut out, and stacked everything neatly on my desk. I had purchased some adhesive scrapbooking tape and some glue dots, so I used those to attached the “Pool” invitation mats to the invitation card itself. This takes some practice getting lined up perfectly, but it goes fairly quickly.
I then put all my inserts into the invitation – and they looked adorable. I closed the invitation and tied a piece of blue ribbon up and down the front of the invitation. I attached the monogram seal to a piece of 2.25 inch by 2.25 inch “Pool” backing paper and glued it to the invitation with the glue dots. For the finishing touch, I tied a piece of natural raffia around the invitation with a small silver shell charm I purchased at www.paperdirect.com.
The finished product was more beautiful, personal and meaningful that I could have ever imagined. Although it was hard work – it took two full weekends of 8-hour day, my DIY Pocketfold invitations were truly unique and one of a kind. When our guests received them, I got phone calls raving about them. Most of our guests have kept them as a souvenir, and the design inspired the décor of our wedding ceremony and reception. Best of all, I was able to make these for less than $2.00 per invite (that doesn’t include the sweat equity, of course!)
We were able to carry over the themes of the sand dollar, starfish and wedding colors to our favors and centerpieces as well, and I made some adorable “Lovesavers” and personalized candy bars that matched the theme. For more information on that, see my article, How to Make Your Own Personalized Candy Bar Wrappers, which includes a template you can modify to make your own that match your theme.
Making my own invitations was a great experience that made our wedding ceremony and planning very personal and rewarding. With some time and effort, you, too, can have this wonderful experience. In case you need a place to get started, I’ve put all my templates for the invitation and the inserts here:
http://www.box.net/shared/q05tw6mko8
Play around with the fonts, keeping in mind that if you don’t have my Scriptina or Optimus Princeps font downloaded from www.dafont.com, some of the wording will look funny. These templates fit the “Signature” pocketfolder from Cards and Pockets perfectly. Good luck, and have fun with it!
