We Tied 150 Knots

Weddingbee bloggers always refer to their invitations as a "labor of love" which is bridal code for "These mofos took a lot of effing work and I'm so glad to be rid of them." I vowed not to call mine a labor of love because I was going to go simple--there would be one piece for the invitation, one for the response card, and a return envelope. I wouldn't freak out about stamps, there would be no belly bands, and there would certainly be no pocket folds. But then, I saw this:

 

Image via TwoYellowShoes on Etsy

And I fell in love with stacked invitations. I don't think a stack would look very cool with only two pieces, so I decided to add a Reception card and an Information card. We would also be needing a belly band now. I really liked the heart belly bands Mrs. Cannon used:

Image via Mrs. Cannon on Weddingbee

And then I saw this (the moral of this story is STAY OFF PINTEREST):

Image via Bridal Musings / Design by Christina Moralego

 

So I decided to forgo my plans of having quick and simple invitations and just go all out. I still wouldn't call it a labor of love. Maybe a labor of hate? Here's the sneak peek I showed you before:

 

 

Personal pic

I had my friend and bridesmaid Barbara design everything for me, and she did a fabulous job! She also designed our save the dates for free. One thing I know about design from watching Project Runway is that a good designer needs to take the client's wishes into consideration while still maintaining aesthetic integrity. In other words, I knew what I wanted in an invitation suite, but I know nothing about graphic design, and Barbara did such a great job bringing my vision to life while still making it look professional. She designed four pieces for us and made multiple edits (we're talking a month-long email thread here), all without ever complaining. I wish she was a real vendor so I could recommend her here, but you should visit her blog anyway because she's a really good artist.

Without further ado, I present to you my labor of hate:

Here's what they saw in the mailbox:

When they removed the bellyband and unstacked the stack, they'd get the whole suite:

I made the envelope liners and belly bands from wrapping paper with help from my mom and FMIL. I designed the map in Powerpoint using Mrs. Ballet Flat's tutorial, and Barbara designed the Reception, RSVP, Information, and Invitation cards. Here they are close up:

And now, for the pièce de résistance, the main invitation:

 

The dirty deets:

• The swirly font is called Memoriam Pro, the sans serif font is Winterthur, and the date is written in Pistilli Roman. 
• The address font is called Witched.
• We got the gate fold cards from Cards and Pockets.
• We got the yellow outer envelopes, white response envelopes, and yellow mounting paper from Envelopes.com.
• We had everything printed from Catprint, which is awesome because they allow custom sizes!
• The polka dot wrapping paper is from Target.

 All in all, we spent approximately a million dollars and an infinite amount of time on these. I suppose they could be called a labor of love because they certainly were laborious, and I do love how they turned out.

Were your invitations a labor of love, or a labor of hate?