Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Paper Goodness

Our RSVPs have started arriving in the mailbox (!!), so I think it's finally safe for me to post about our invitations. I should warn you, Jesse already thinks I'm completely crazy to take so many photos of pieces of paper, but what can I say, these were my babies for the last few months. He already knows he's going to be marrying a very crazy lady.

(click any of the photos to enlarge)


Our save-the-date postcard, which we mailed a few months back


Jesse and I discussed the imagery and he kindly let me be the one to do the drawing. I *heart* the stamps we used (and you guys know my love for stamps).

Invitation envelope

After a mix-up with some envelopes we ordered, we just decided to make our own out of card stock and use the others for thank you card envelopes. Jesse was less than thrilled to add another home-made project to our plate, but I think it was worth it. The calligraphy was an experiment for me, but turned out to actually be very relaxing (after some horrendous first attempts).


The whole invitation suite

Of course I had to lay it out like a fake Martha Stewart magazine spread


A detail of the invitation and RSVP card


Yep, they're drawings of us drawing each other........cause we're illustrators. I did the one on the top left and he did the one on the top right (but made himself look so much less attractive than he really is, shame on him).


All lined up and ready to leave the nest


.......and pretending to be synchronized swimmers.


But this post wouldn't be complete without the obligatory photos of Jesse and I looking completely disgruntled while we put these together.


It wasn't really that bad, we just have our "concentrating" faces on. Notice how messy the rest of the room is while our supplies are so neatly stacked - house cleaning unfortunately took a back seat during this stage of wedding planning. And before I end this post, I must give a shout out to my beloved paper trimmer and corner rounder, the c0- MVPs of our crafting tools. They made the process so much smoother...along with a very patient fiance.

**update: larger images and more detail shots can be found here on my flickr wedding planning site.

10 comments:

Kathryn said...

Deanna! I LOVE THESE! You are one talented lady - any chance you have bigger pics of them? And would you consider having your wedding featured on Snippet & Ink in the future? I am always amazed by the creative minds out there...

Meg said...

Love! Saw these on Snippet and Ink and wow. You drew those? Lovelovelove. We are doing our own invites too, but We haven't made them yet. If your up for it, I'd love to post a picture of your invites over on my lil' blog. Very inspiring for us budget mided DIYers. Yay you!

Megan Dave said...

Wow! I love the idea behind the drawings..very sweet and smart.
Wish my bf was as interested in crafting lol.

Meg said...

Hi Deanna,
I'm going to put up my post on your amazing invites tomorrow evening, so check for it early Wednesday. I'm excited! I wanted to give you a heads up. Let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to say, otherwise you can always chime in on the comments, or even come do a guest blog about your amazing talentedness.

Maggie said...

These are so fabulous—could you tell me more about the production of them—did you illustrate and then order printing from somewhere? Where did you get your paper supplies?

maileen said...

Love these. I'm planning to do my own calligraphy on the wedding envelopes but have no idea where to start. Could you give me some ideas on what pens and ink to buy?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Totally a latecomer to this, but your invites are awesome! You guys did an amazing job! :)

deanna said...

thanks for the kind compliments, ladies! i'm always terrible about replying to comments. there are larger images of all of the photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/deannastaffo/

just look in the invitation set.

jesse and i illustrated the front images (we met at art school) and designed the the rest of the invites ourselves. we printed the invite, rsvp, and save the date as postcards through vistaprint.com (really cheap) and then rounded the corners ourselves. we made the belly band out of vellum paper, and just constructed the info book out of regular computer paper and ivory card stock bought from staples. the envelopes were made out of the same card stock, we just printed a pattern on the inside before folding them.

for the calligraphy i just used a bottle of ink, a nib point pen (both can be bought for $1 at any craft supply store) and looked at a lot of professional calligraphers' work for inspiration. i also drew straight lines with a dark marker on a sheet of paper that i put under a make shift light table (with the envelope on top) so that the writing wouldn't slope all over the place. good luck with all of your own invites!

Shannon :: The Scribble Pad said...

You did an excellent job on the calligraphy!

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