Carrie + Derek’s Sweet Woodgrain Wedding Suite

November 06, 2012

This darling wedding invitation suite comes to us from Carrie Truslow of Pink Toast Ink, who also happened to be the bride. I love it when designers create their own wedding invitations and save the dates!

Carrie used a number of techniques throughout this unique suite. She hand illustrated a tree in her backyard to include on the save the date cards, plus she incorporated rubber stamping (using both pre-made and custom stamps) and heat embossing throughout the suite. She also dry-pressed a woodgrain texture into heavy white cardstock for the wedding invitation and lined the kraft invitation envelopes with sweet little doilies. This project was undoubtedly a labor of love, and the result looks like it was a perfect fit for Carrie + Derek’s big day!

photo credit: Love the Schultzes

Daniel + Leslie’s Vintage Poster Style Wedding Invites

August 27, 2012

It was crush at first sight when I spotted these fantastic, vintage poster style wedding invites over at FPO recently. The custom z-fold invitations were created by designer, Daniel Moore, and his very crafty bride, Leslie, and feature a combination of ink stamping, digital printing, and hand trimming, as well as fantastic, vintage-inspired typography and a price tag that won’t make you faint.

Coordinating paper pieces – Mr. & Mrs. chair signs, a thumbprint wedding tree keepsake, and additional signage – as well as lovely, handcrafted paper flowers, serve as the perfect compliments to this eye-catching, diy wedding invitation suite. Head over to FPO to see many more photos from this well-designed wedding celebration.

image source: FPO
photo credit: Jen Maki

Swell & Grand Printable Wedding Invitations

April 09, 2012

Confetti Suite

I’m always on the lookout for pretty printable wedding invitations, and it was crush at first sight when I spotted the new Swell & Grand printable wedding collection over at Brooklyn Bride last week. The lovely, do-it-yourself wedding suites were designed by shop owner, Leslie Hamer, of Unless Someone Like You, and you can choose from a wide variety of designs that are both super stylish and budget friendly.

Vines Suite

Alice Suite

Heart Suite

Beach Suite

image source: Swell & Grand

Ali + Gary’s DIY Letterpress Wedding Invitations

February 15, 2012

I was so excited to find these wedding invitations in my inbox because 1) they’re beautiful – I love the embossed and blind debossed flowers and the rich, yellow ink, and 2) they were made using the L Letterpress Machine, a contraption which I want to love so badly but with which I haven’t had great success. It gives me much hope that such a gorgeous letterpress wedding invitation suite can be done on the L; I may have to go dig mine out of the closet and start playing again.

This lovely suite was designed and printed by Ali Crouch of Lowercase a Design Studio for her own wedding. Ali loves letterpress printing but knew that she wouldn’t be able to fit it into her wedding invitation budget, so the L Letterpress was the next best option for her. She received one from her fiance, Gary, for her birthday and got to work on her plan to print her own invitations. She studied a great post by Boxcar Press about getting good results from the L and splurged on Crane’s Lettra paper, a favorite of letterpress printers. The project was a wonderful success, and Ali ended up printing her entire suite, including the main invite, a response card, a reception card, and a small card that directed their guests to their wedding website for more information the big day.

Because Ali had never printed using the L Letterpress before this project, she decided to stick to a one color design. Inspired by the gorgeous embossed floral paper that she used for her envelope liners, she used blind debossed flowers throughout the entire suite. This allowed her to use only one ink color while giving additional depth and interest to the design.

The pieces in the suite were tied together with ivory ribbon embellished with a paper disc (printed in blush pink) that contained their wedding logo. Envelopes were hand calligraphed by San Antonio-based calligrapher, Jennifer Lavin.

image source: Ali Crouch

Balsa Wood Airplane Save the Dates

March 07, 2011

Now this is one unique save the date! Kristi Delfino of Luna and Chloe came up with this inventive save the date concept after having a chat with a friend about destination weddings. She took her inspiration from toy balsa wood airplanes and created super fun, custom stamped airplane save the dates (these would be great invitations, too) that come ready to assemble in their own custom “air mail” envelopes. Invited guests would have so much fun with these!

Check out many more details and learn how you can make your own airplane save the dates over at Celebrations at Home.

image source: Celebrations at Home (via Luna and Chloe)

Polar Pop-Up Baby Shower Invitations

February 07, 2011

These crafty, handmade paper pop-up baby shower invitations by photographer, Edyta Szyszlo, are absolutely perfect for a February baby shower in Chicago. Edyta brilliantly transformed a 3d paper party decoration into the pop-up portion of the invitation, evoking visions of snowflakes and snowy winter days (though I’m sure one doesn’t need to imagine snow in Chicago in February, especially this year), and I’m totally crushing on the fantastic color palette of gravel gray and cherry red, soft teal, and yellow. Head over to Edyta’s blog to see even more of these fantastic invitations, including pop-up action shots!

Photos: Edyta Szyszlo

Custom Silhouettes: Le Papier Studio

Address Calligraphy: Sincerely, Dapper

Gravel Envelopes and Cards: Paper Source

Handmade Gingerbread House Invitations

December 06, 2010

I thought that Sara Westbrook’s bat Halloween party invitations would be hard to top, but she’s created a handmade holiday invite that’s also oozing with cuteness. These gingerbread house decorating party invitations are absolutely adorable, and if you’re hand delivering the invites you can even decorate them with real candy. So darling!

Download the templates and check out the tutorial over at One Charming Party, and create your own gingerbread cuties.

photos by Sara Westbrook

Pennant Invitations from Briones + Co.

September 21, 2010

Bunting and pennant elements are so popular right now for weddings, birthday parties, and pretty much any other occasion that you can imagine. Sara from Event Lucky was onto something when she suggested using this adorable Pennant Letter Kit by Briones + Co. to create fun party invitations that can be transformed into a custom decorative banner. Ask your guests to bring their invite with them to the party, and you can all take part in crafting cute bunting to decorate the walls. The kit even comes with twine, so you’ll have everything that you need to create!

image source: Briones + Co.