Well I must say in the two months (and a few days..but who's counting) that I've been away from blogging, SO much has happened that I literally did not have 2 seconds to breathe, let alone 2 hours to sit down and put together a blog post. (yes it sometimes takes me that long...it's my Type A).
Anywhoo, it is officially 282 days until the BIG day and it seems that the closer we get, the more excited I get. Even though balancing all the planning/preparations with my new job and grad school has been...interesting I guess would be the word. My students don't believe me when they ask what I did over the weekend and I say "homework." They all laugh, and I'm like "No, seriously..." So far, I have not been feeling too much pressure because I have a pretty good routine down but we'll see how it will go as we get closer.
With only 282 days to go, it only seems appropriate to move on with the save-the-dates. We will be mailing these out at the end of this month/into next month. "Proper wedding etiquette" says guests should get a save-the-date 6-9 months in advance especially if they will be traveling. November 12th will be exactly 8 months, so we should be good to go!
So I'll start at the beginning; When Greg and I first got engaged, Pinterest was my LIFE. And to be perfectly honest, it still is a huge inspiration with all the details I'd like to include on our wedding day. As I was looking for ideas on save-the-dates I came across a "tying the knot" version at The Natural Wedding Company blog that was SUPER cute and I was instantly set on have a very similar idea for our own save the dates. My original inspiration can be seen here . Being the creative, over ambitious, Type A, perfectionist that I am, I wanted ours to be more unique and represent us as a couple. So I put our own twist on it; here's some pictures of our finished product (the envelopes are handmade also) :
So here's how I did it:
I started with the paper. I wasn't sure what type or weight of paper the original blogger used at The Natural Wedding Company so tried to do some research on kraft paper products and weights but I'm not good at determining the difference between 80lb paper and 110lb paper unless I can touch it (one skill I will have to hone in I guess) So, I set out to find some paper I thought would work best. Hobby lobby has a great section of scrap-booking supplies/papers and this is where I found the paper I was looking for. Each of our save-the-dates is a half sheet of 8.5 x 11 kraft paper card stock (cut long-ways) so I purchased one pack of 50 sheets and bought 5 individual sheets to have enough for 110 pieces.
From there I simply created a Word document that had our information on it and printed a test sheet on regular printer paper to make sure everything would line up after being folded. Once I had everything in place and the right colors etc, I just printed all 55 copies. This was quite interesting because we have a bottom feed printer so I literally had to feed each sheet into the machine because the paper was so thick... It took about 20 mins, which really isn't too bad I guess. Once all the sheets were printed, I cut them using the straight edge cutter Greg got me last Christmas so I could clip my coupons faster (he knows me so well :P). Sorry for not taking pictures of these steps! I didn't think about it until it was too late.
After all pieces were cut long ways, I used a hand-held hole puncher to create the holes for the twine:
(Yay for remembering a picture!!)
After all the holes were punched I added the magnets using removable Glue Dots (like the ones that hold a new credit card on a letter or a gift card on the cardboard hanger).
Just press the dot onto the paper then press the magnet on the dot!
Glue dot in the middle of the center square:
With the magnet in place:
Once the magnets were in place, I started tying the twine on. This part was so BORING!! And about 1/4 of the way through I seriously started doubting why I ever thought this was a good idea...but since I just punched holes in 110 half sheets of paper (that's 220 holes!!), there was no turning back...
I cut each piece of twine to approximately 16 inches so that there was enough to tie both ends and still get a nice loop effect when the card was opened. Each side need to be tied 3 times so that the twine wouldn't pull through. I started on the left, tied the knots, wove the twine through the hole, created a big loop, wove the rest of the twine through the right hole, then tied the remaining knots. This seriously took me about 6-7 hours in total, just for the knots -__-. It'll look so good she said, they'll love it she said...yeah... lol GREAT idea! Shout out to my bridesmaid Janet for helping me out while visiting <3...how fun to visit and tie knots...
Once the cards were completely finished, I realized when they were folded up, they were an awkward size. All the envelopes I found online, in stores etc. were either too big or too small. So, yet another brilliant idea! I recently shipped a package to our friends in New Hampshire with an engagement gift (Congrats Billy and Kate!!) and had to purchase a roll of kraft paper to wrap it in. I still had the paper and was curious if it was possible to make an envelope (the paper matched so nicely!) So I Youtubed how to make an envelope and got to work making a template.
After a lot of trial and error, I figured out that the starting size of the envelope paper is just about twice the size of the largest side of the card (round down to the next whole number to reduce waste). So my cards are 4.5'' x 3.75'' when folded up (round down to 4'') I started with a 8 x 8 inch sheet of printer paper:
Once the creases are formed you have to cut the triangles out so that the envelope will fold properly. Theses are made by the creases:
After cutting away the triangles:
You can tell which flaps are the side flaps by the straight edge on the bottom:
These straight edges will touch the bottom flap:
I then trimmed the side flaps to open up the "pocket." I started 3/4 of an inch from the side of the envelope so that the pocket would be sturdy enough to hold the cards. Then drew a line from there to mark what would be trimmed off (I literally cannot cut a straight line..even if my life depended on it):
The top and bottom flaps will be a little wonky too so just trim to desired shape just like the sides. I liked the flat edge look for the bottom so I cut the tip off the top of this triangle:
Once I had the sides and bottom flaps all set, I centered the top flap. To make the envelopes look more uniform, I measured 3/4 inches from the top crease to start my angle. I also marked the exact middle of the envelope so that I could see how much I needed to cut off and make sure it was centered. *This step may take a little trimming to make sure your envelope is how you'd like it. But once you have this template done, it is very easy to make the actual envelopes.
Center line:
To be trimmed:
All trimmed up!
Once I was satisfied with how the template looked and folded, I simply traced it onto the kraft paper roll and cut them out. *I used some spare scrap-booking paper for this picture so I didn't have to hold the roll of kraft paper and try to take a picture..lol But the process is the same:
Cut out the envelope:
Then using a straight edge, crease the flaps where they will fold:
I used double sided tape to seal the bottom flap to the side flaps, and it worked out GREAT! It's really easy and very sticky:
And you're done! All ready to be stuffed!
Once I stuffed all the envelopes, I sealed them again with the double sided tape. The hearts are just decorative, they don't actually keep the envelope closed. I used regular craft glue to stick them on.
Remember those paint chips I forgot to put in the bridesmaids' gift boxes?...Yup! You guessed it! I bought a paper puncher at Joann Fabric and used it to punch the hearts out of the paint chips :) It was a great way to incorporate our colors and use up the stuff I already had lying around. I used two shades of grey (the boys will be in these shades) for these and will be using the purple hearts for the actual invitations.
P.S. the paper for the invitations came in today and I literally cannot not explain how thrilled I was when I opened the box! I scared the poor kitty because I was so excited! Lol it's the simple things really :)
In case you were wondering, here's a breakdown of where I got the materials for this project and costs for each piece:
Hobby Lobby:
8.5 x 11'' Kraft Card Stock- $4.99
5- 8.5 x 11'' Kraft sheets - $2.00
Natural Jute Twine- $3.29
Glue Dots - $4.99
Big Lots:
2 Rolls of Kraft paper - $2.00
3pk of Double Sided tape - $3.00
Joann Fabric and Craft:
Heart Paper Punch - Free (typically $14.99)
Vista Print
125* Business Card Magnets - $41.61 (with tax and shipping)- they were having a 50% off sale!!
*you can only order in 25 unit increments
Total: $68.83 (with tax) = $0.63 per save-the-date
And that's that! I'm super happy with how these came out and even more excited to say that I MADE them AND they're UNDER budget!! I can't wait to send them to everyone!! I just ordered the return address labels so once those come in I will post a picture of the "ready to mail" envelopes (and update the total costs).
What do you think? Is this something you would try? What are you doing for your save-the-dates?
Leave your ideas in the comments below!
Happy Planning!!
Update 11/12/2013
Well today was a big day!! After much planning and preparation the save-the-dates were sent out this morning :) And with all that excitement I forgot to take a picture :( (Maybe my #1 fan can take a picture once she gets hers in the mail?!!.. No pressure Mom! ) I do however have an update on the total cost for this project:
The return address labels came to $.05 each and the mailing address labels came to .02 each.
AND of course the stamps....came to $.66 each...for a grand total of $1.36 per save-the-date with postage.
Not too shabby for a custom creation! Still very happy with our overall costs for these and hoping that everyone receiving them enjoys them as much as I do. :)
