Monday, November 1, 2010

Save-the-Dates!

Now that all of our Save-the-Dates are out, I can finally share them with you! Maria Bisso, my former colleague, and graphic designer for the Metropolitan Opera, designed our save-the-dates and the ink stamp we used on the outer envelope. Maria was a joy to work with, very responsive, open to all of my many requests, and extremely reasonable.

Here's what our Save-the-Dates look like.
Front
Back

I was going off of a pic that inspired me at Marit Hanson's website. I loved these save the dates when I saw them, and would have loved to order from her site, but felt that with Maria's help, she could create something very similar and personal for me.
http://www.marithanson.com/index.html
Once I had our "ticket" image from Maria, I ordered them as a "bookmark" on 4over4.com. They arrived 2 business days later! I had planned to order envelopes from the same website, but they only came in white standard #10 size and you had to order a minimum of 500!

That led me to find coin envelopes at staples. These were the perfect size for our sized Save-the-Date we purchased, and I felt that it was a little bit more authentic with the whole "ticket" concept. I showed them to Maria and she immediately suggested customizing a stamp to go on the outside. Well...blokay! So Maria sent me this image which I uploaded to rubberstamps.net and received my customized stamp in the mail the following week!     (Last names removed)
Our customized stamp

I also had planned to hand-write the addresses onto each one of these. A task that daunted me, but I was willing to do it. However, not only did I want these out sooner rather than later, I thought it would be really cool to print them out with a "typewriter" font. At this point, I was getting a little carried away with the whole look of these...which tends to happen with me. These bear no indication of the "theme" of our wedding, they were realy a fun project which I felt allowed me more freedom to be creative than I may have with our actual invitations. So, I downloaded a free font called "Traveling Typerwriter", which I thought looked perfect, and gave me the look that I wanted.

This is how the envelopes came out.

Adding the custom stamp on the side:

One thing about the stamp; I was worried that the stamp was going to run out of ink before we could even do all the envelopes. The ink was rather weak even after the first day of using it, and I didn't want to have to go out and buy another ink pad. If we rested it overnight and tried again the next day, it was usually fine and darker, but it was a little frustrating and nerve-wracking at the time.
 
Then we stuffed them with the "tickets"...

And these were ready to go!

Labor of love..but it was well worth it and I'm so glad they're done! I also have to say we got a few people tell  us "I  almost threw this out because I thought it was a direct mailing, but then I saw your name" which makes me wonder how many people actually did throw them out without even realizing??

There is nothing I can do about that now. I know that everyone who really should know our wedding date....does. I could have gone with a white or different color outer envelope and if I had to do it over again, I probably would have done that, and I probably would have handwritten the envelopes so it appeared more personal. I really wanted these to be more fun and not look so much like an "invitation", but I guess that's the risk I took for not having them be so formal. The important thing is I am so happy with how they came out and so thankful for all of Maria's hard work on them.

If you want to have Maria help you with any future design project or your own Save-the-Dates, she is seriously fantastic!

Maria Bisso
Kanopy Designs
mebisso@yahoo.com
Please put "Bisso Creative" in the Subject Line

10 comments:

Anne @thefitbridesmaid said...

Those look AWESOME! I also had more creative freedom with our save-the-dates; we did football tickets. They were so much fun to make!

Heather said...

Fabulous job! They look awesome!

Rachel said...

Stopping by from Mingle Monday and totally in love with these Save the Dates! I am totally impressed. Such a great idea! Can't wait to keep reading.

Dancy said...

This is such a cute idea. I also LOVE your fake address from blogging purposes. Adorable. :)

Claire Kiefer said...

I think they look amazing. I love the typewriter font, and the "ticket" look of the save the dates. So cute!

Jessica said...

Saw your blog on Mingle Mondays. I LOVE your save the dates!! So cute & creative!! Can't wait to read more :)

Mom said...

Wow, Laura, even though I knew so much of the process in making these Save the Date tickets I never saw it all put down in one spot. My goodness, girl! You just go all out for everything. I can hardly wait to see what you do with Christmas once your married and in your own home! I doubt it will be your run of the mill Christmas decorations! Your Save the Dates are really cool and unique.

Laura said...

Thanks for all the really nice comments ladies! So glad to have a few new blogger friends today!

Kate V said...

I think that if you had changed the color of the envelope and wrote the address, you would've lost that 'ticket' look! The personalized writing would've been too formal. I thought the typewriter font was really cute. I am glad you went for the stamp! That was really fun. Good job guys! I love the idea and enjoyed them :)

ARK said...

absolutely flippin adorable! I would love to feature these on my blog "Wedding of the Season"...if you're interested, just email me at weddingoftheseason@yahoo.com :)