Semi-DIY Invitations: It's What's Inside That Counts!

I've already shown you the "basic" invitation we sent to our guests. However, for a few special people, "deluxe" invitations were found in mailboxes.

The full "suite": stamped and "fauxligraphy" addressed envelopes, front and back of the wedding invitation, wedding map, liner, rehearsal dinner and bridesmaids' brunch invitations.

I held off sending invitations to anyone in our wedding party or family that would be attending the rehearsal dinner and/or bridesmaids' brunch to save on postage (I also hand-delivered invitations to people I see on a regular basis to do the same).

For the rehearsal dinner and bridesmaids' brunch (a tea party!) invitations, I really wanted to give my guests a sneak peek into what was in store for the events. So I found "templates" (aka, I may have gotten a little creative using some Google images...) online for both and printed them using Zazzle.com.

Rehearsal Dinner:

Bridesmaids' Brunch:

Now that you've seen all of the invitations, it's time to find out how much they cost. To be completely honest, this is the first time I've added all of it up. I was getting down to the invitation deadline wire and that meant being less picky about prices and just wanting to get them done and out the door.

Labrador Invitation Cost Breakdown:

Wedding Invitation Design: $18 (includes iStockPhoto image credits)
Map Design: $0
90 Wedding Invitations & Maps printed by Vista Print: $89.52 (includes envelopes I didn't use)
Rehearsal Dinner & Bridesmaids' Brunch Invitation Design: $0
20 Rehearsal Dinner & 10 Bridesmaids' Brunch Invitations printed by Zazzle: $36.95
100 Shimmer Chocolate Envelopes from Paper Source: $54 (10% discount for ordering 10 packs)
10 Taupe Brocade Liners from PS: $25 (1/2 off sale + 10% discount for ordering 10 sheets)
Liner template from PS: $9.50
USPS "Vintage" Stamps (20 Silver Coffeepot, 100 Tiffany Lamp, 20 American Toleware, 20 Chippendale Chair, 80 Green Wedding Hearts) : $38
Metallic Gold Pen: $4

Grand Total: $274.97
Cost Per Invitation (90): $3.06

These numbers are really skewed because I overestimated supplies so much. For instance, I only ended up sending about 65 invitations because many were addressed to couples or households. I have left over liners because I was able to squeeze so many onto each sheet. I also have leftover stuff I can use for future projects like my liner template, stamps, and envelopes. So I'm guessing the real cost is more like $2.50 or less per invitation. Nonetheless, I'm still out $274.97, but I think that's a more than reasonable price to pay for my "babies", don't cha think? Plus, I'd rather have leftovers than not enough! ;)

Map It Out: Another Check Off the Labrador DIY List

Bet you've been wondering where I've been lately? In Busytown, that's where. I started my final semester of classes (yay!), landed a second job (wtf was I thinking?!), and worked near full-time last week at my original job; all while continuing to plan this little wedding of ours.

We are *thisclose* to our 2 month mark and I am about to $hit bricks full of anxiety. No, I'm not being dramatic. My stomach churns just thinking about how little time we have left. But at the same time, I'm soooo ready for the day to be here! Conflicted much?

Somehow during a week full of 64 hours at work, 11 hours of class, and a coed wedding shower (pics soon!), I found the time to crank out our DIY wedding maps! I never really considered maps a priority, but after seeing Mrs. Ballet Flat make it look easy as pie, I decided to give it a try and shocked myself with the result. Here's what I came up with in PowerPoint:

Click on map for more detail!

To be completely honest, I'm no stranger to PowerPoint. Mrs. BF's tutorial was definitely thorough and easy to follow, but I'm also not a beginner. While the logistics were easy to me, it was still a tedious task! It took a few hours here and there to complete (mostly because I'm a perfectionist). Newcomers will have a tougher and longer time with it. But don't be too discouraged! If you have time to play around with it, you'll end up learning and getting better. That's how I learned PP: totally self-taught!

I won't repeat Mrs. BF's steps, but here's a run through of my project from start to finish. First up, the Google map of Savannah! "A" is our ceremony site and "B" is our reception site.


Then I traced the main roads and Savannah River. I added icons to represent event locations and lodging. I found all the icons through Google Images. I tinted them pink by double clicking on the icon, then clicking on "picture", then "recolor".


Here's my first attempt at removing the map in the background. As you can tell from the final map, I changed a few things because they didn't look quite right.


After some serious tweaking (what I spent most of my time on), I had my official map! I added the compass rose and map symbols and steam ship to give it an extra special touch. The title font is "Scriptina" free from Dafont.com and matches our save the dates! The font even coordinates with our invites, which I'll reveal very soon now that they're finished being designed and are on their way to be printed up and shipped out! :D

Our maps are more on the "cutesy" side than the super informative side. But our guests will have our wedding website for more thorough directions plus actual Savannah visitor maps in their OOT bags. I'm just hoping they'll use this map as a supplement that provides a visual pinpoint on where all the festivities will go down!


The perfectionist in me isn't quite happy with them yet. I'm stuck on the title of the map:

"The My Last Name - His Last Name Wedding
Events Map"

I think we're keeping the first line, but I'm not sure that I'm feeling the second part (Event Map). Should I keep it or change it to one of the following? [Poll]

• Event Map
• Events Location Map
• Events & Accommodations Map
  
• Just our names in the first line and "Wedding Events Map" in the second line.
  
• Just use "The My Last Name - His Last Name Wedding" title and that's it.
  
• None of the above. I'm leaving a comment with a suggestion!
  

A Taste of Savannah (aka Our OOT Welcome Bags)

I've slowly been collecting supplies for our OOT welcome bags the last few weeks. Although they're not finished, I wanted to share my plans for them!

I'm using brown bags and found this adorable package presentation that I thought looked very "southern". If you haven't figured it out by now, this entire wedding will scream "the south" to our guests.

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If I can't find cheap doilies I might just use some lace ribbon as an accent. I'm also putting little tags on the outside that will say something like "Welcome to Savannah!", "Thanks for being our guests!", etc.

Moving on to the inside of our bags...First up, maps! I nearly cleared out the visitors' center of maps and brochures, all for free! I'm also going to include contact numbers, an itinerary of the wedding events, my suggested places to go/see, and maybe even a homemade map ala Mrs. Ballet Flat (IF I find the time and patience). Many of the maps and brochures also have coupons included, so hopefully our guests can save some money while seeing Savannah!

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Next up, salt water taffy! Yum. Savannah is on the coast, so the candy is a little nod to that. There are some pretty popular places that carry the gooey goodness in the area, so I wanted our guests to have a few pieces to "chew" over. Har har.

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Okay, starting to make myself hungry...and the next item doesn't help my case: pecan pralines! I thought about peanuts at first, but decided that more people have tried peanuts than pralines. Man, I wanna nom nom nom on this picture.

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Next up is a no-brainer. Savannah is the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, aka the founder of the Girl Scouts. So, of course we've gotta include these famous cookies:

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Unfortunately, the cookies are not in "season". Thankfully, there are plenty of places on the interwebs that provide them in fresh, unopened boxes! Mmmm. There's even a version that says "Thank You" on them! But my all-time faves are the thin mints. What's yours?

Finally, I wanted to include a "relaxer" of sorts to help our guests unwind from hours on the road. So perhaps they could pour one of these minis into their vending machine coke? I know Southern Comfort isn't native to Savannah (or Georgia for that matter), but I just couldn't resist the "southern" part of it. We southerners love our "SoCo"! ;)

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So that's the gist of our OOT welcome bags! Have I blatantly forgotten anything that screams the south or Savannah?