Since I proposed to Meridyth I have been super excited about sending out Save the Date cards. I had dreams of cool magnets or letterpress cards. I wanted something that was us but that didn’t cost a lot of money. Currently I have $2000 budgeted for the wedding which is $1000 from my parents and $1000 from Meridyths mom. Then hopefully Mer and I can throw in another $1000 if nothing unforeseen happens and we have to spend it on our house or sick kitties.
So I started looking on different sites because Mer was really into the magnets and I thought it might be cool. I looked on http://www.savethedatemagnets.com and http://www.vistaprint.com and about 100 others. All the prices were pretty comparable and would be about $100 for the magnets not including shipping to the house and then we would have to mail each magnet to about 60 guests which is another lets say 61 cents which would be around $40. I rounded and said that the whole thing would end up costing about $200.
For me $200 out of a guaranteed $2000 wasn’t going to cut it. That could pay for so many other things! So I talked to Mer and being a photographer and graphic designer I decided to make my own cards. My mom said she would buy new ink on her color printer and go with me to pick out paper (which probably means she will buy that too)! Now I am getting somewhere.
The way I usually design anything is that I start with the writing and then look for either free images online or images that I have that would go with it and then it slowly starts to come together.
I wanted the writing to be a little free flowing and fun. I don’t have Gigli script on my computer but I had worked with it before and I was thinking of something like that. I ended up picking Herculanum which looks like this:
I liked that it was curved and fun and a little flirty. I am a sucker for fonts! Now I had to decide on an image. I have a daisy tattoo on my back and Meridyth and I always buy each other gerber daisy’s as a treat for each other. So I decided to look for daisy images and I made two different cards and let Mer choose the one she liked.
Here are the cards:
Mer picked the one with the big daisy in the glass and we decided that we would have our colors be that pink color with green accents and hopefully we will be able to decorate with pink gerber daisy’s or at least our bouquets could be those and then the card and the theme will tie together!
I haven’t bought the paper yet or the ink but I think in total the cards are going to cost us about $60-$70 to put together and send out. Plus time, but I enjoyed making the card and I also was amazed that as I put together the card a loose theme and colors developed without that intention going in!
I am excited to really get going with the process and I am excited to have the cards done. Now I just have to print and mail them!
I really like that. It’s so pretty and the colors are great! Gerbera daisies stand for happiness and are a classic symbol of beauty and wonder! :-)
It looks amazing love the colors :)
I totally feel you on the expense of making Save the Dates…great way to incorporate things and still hold on to the individuality!
Hooray for budget brides! I love the choice with the big daisies… so pretty! It’s great that you are using your own skills to create things, it makes it all the more personal!