invitation samples

I'm knee deep in wedding invitation samples. Some invites I paid for and others were free. I have more coming. I started organizing them in the Hello Kitty expanding file and ran out of slots so I ended buying individual expanding file folders.

When I started wedding planning, I was set on ordering my pocketfold invites from Cards and Packets. I wanted the Vertico pockets in the shimmery lagoon color. I wanted the actual invites to be either floral, paisley, or chandelier and I wanted the inserts to be "step" or "layered." It was difficult for me to design it because I don't know how to use Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. I got someone to give me her high resolution paisley pattern and I attempted designing in Word on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I tried printing it and then cutting it. Ugh...the printing just didn't look professional and the cutting was a pain.

I then thought about ordering pre-printed invites in the correct size and gluing it to the pocketfold. The cost of purchasing professionally printed invites plus the pocketfolds was really high and still looked too DIY. I see a lot of DIY invites and well they look unprofessional and I really wanted professional-looking invites.

I've also been looking at weddingbee.com quite a bit to see some of the DIY invites. Pocketfolds are really popular. We received three pocketfold invites in the last few months. I can understand why people love them. Everything is in a neat package. I then started looking at other types of invites.

I fell in love with a lotus design and I ended up using it for my save the dates. I'm not sure if I will use the design for the invites but it's an option. If I do, I will probably mail the invite and all the inserts in a box.

I kept on looking and found these all in one invitations. I ordered a sample and people didn't like them. I think the reason they didn't like them was because of the font used. I would of course change the fonts. It's a tri-fold invitation with a perforated response card. People don't like the hand but I don't mind it.

I then ordered some letterpressed and Crane invitation samples. I think invitations printed on Crane paper or letterpressed are just classically beautiful. I actually ended up liking the letterpress paper that American Wedding used more than the popular Crane lettra paper that many letterpressers use. But letterpress, no matter where you order them from, are very pricey.

I think a very nice but less expensive type of printing option is thermography. It gives you the raised letters of more expensive engraving printing. I was able to find a few printers with reasonable thermography prices.

I really do like all sorts of styles of invites. I think it's a matter of me picking a style and sticking with it. I love the more modern styles but I also love the classics. I want something different but at the same time, I also want to be traditional.

I also ordered layered booklet invitations that I really like but I think I'll use that layout for my programs. I really like how they bound them using rivets. I visited Hobby Lobby after work one day and I think riveting will likely be my next project to tackle.