Heidi over at idieh|design has so willingly offered to share with me a great piece from her stationary design. While all of her work is fantastic (and it truly is – check out her portfolio), this save the date happens to be one of my favorites. Probably because it’s a tad bit nautical, and I love pretty much anything nautical (i.e. knots and anchors).
Images courtesy of idieh|design
idieh|design has a great selection of pre-made work, and is definitely willing to work with you to make a custom piece. So, if you’re on the hunt for the perfect Save the Date or Wedding Invite, send them a note!
Because we decided on envelopes for our save the dates, we had to figure out a way to address these puppies. There was no way I was handwriting anything. And, I surely did not want a plane label. So I searched for ways to create a wrap around label. I mean, they’re all over the place, but considering we wanted to mail these out pretty soon, I was working with a short timeline. Which left me with very few choices.
My mom had purchased what she thought were Avery 5160 labels (you know, the traditional, 3 across, 10 down labels). When she opened the box, they were the 2 across, 10 down type. So basically, longer that the 5160 labels. How convenient? I picked them up from home one night, and downloaded the Avery DesignPro program. I was not about to figure out if Photoshop could do a mail merge of about 200 addresses, and Word only gives you so many options in terms of design. DesignPro, is like the easy, free (and extremely low tech) version of Photoshop with a mail merge.
So, with a little magic and inspiration from our Save the Dates design, I crafted a wrap around:
Boy, did this make the addressing process entirely too easy. I already had everyone’s address in an Excel file, so it was a matter of merging the two files together. Taking off the labels (and stamps) from their backing sheet, and sticking them on the envelopes!
After a marathon sesh of label/stamp sticking, we were ready to mail them off!
How did you address your save the dates?
P dot S, I promise the reveal is coming!
What sucks was that I spent countless hours designing our Save the Dates. Countless, people. I’m a perfectionist, and so it took me about 15 plus tries to design something that I was pretty happy with.
Design One: Bleh. Was based on an invite design I did back in April 2009 (yes, you read that correctly, almost a year ago).
Design Two: Update of design one. Do you see a trend here?
Design Three: I decided to play off of a Frank Lloyd Wright wall stencil I found (the Mr. just loves the work of FLW).
I seriously have about 4 or 5 iterations of each of the above designs. I originally thought I wanted something edgy, but each time I designed something, the result was something more simple (hence why the three fairly art-deco-y designs above).
On top of that, I would spend endless amounts of time swooning over all of the save the dates I found online and from which I wished I could get inspired. So, what did I do? I walked away. For six months (wha??). Yeah, I totally forgot about them for six months, until we had our engagement photos taken, and I realized we should use one of those pretty little photos with our save the dates. Duh!
How long did it take you to pick out or design your save the dates? (Hopefully not six months, like me).
When I first saw these on iDIY, I assumed they were printed just like Miss Cowboy Boot‘s map.
I mean, the yellow is rich and the detail looks great. I was pretty sure they were screen printed, or maybe even Gocco’ed. But, better yet, they were printed at the bride’s home, on her ink jet printer. Wha?! Yeah, that’s right.
Images by tulle and feathers
By using a technique that involves ironing freezer paper to the back of the handkerchief, you can print directly on fabric using your ink jet printer (so long as it is not water resistant).
You can visit the bride‘s blog for more details.
Now, you know that if you received one of these in the mail, you’d be in heaven (unless, of course, you’re not a fan of lavender). But, this is a great touch, one that is small, but memorable.
Are you including anything in with your invitations? Feather, herbs, etc.? Share your ideas below!
Image courtesy of Follow Studio via Once Wed
