Wedding Invitations

When my daughter got engaged a few years ago and we started planning "The Wedding", I decided I wanted to make the invitations. My daughter picked her colors, sage and gold, and we knew that we wanted to use wedding cakes as the center pieces on the tables, so what would be better to put on the front of the invitations than a wedding cake.

I got into card stamping along time ago, over 20 years, and when I moved to central Indiana, 10 years ago, I met a very dear friend, Connie, she helped me jump into it with both feet.  After doing some research, and looking at many invitations I came up with a plan, Connie was such a great help in the whole process.

This was the sample card inside and out. 

I knew I wanted a cake on the front of the card, so I needed to decide how big, what color, and what to put on top of the cake. I decided that it would be three tiers, cream color with sage trim/icing, and a flower on top. This would be similar to the tall single layer, cream iced cake with sage lace, and a sage or gold handmade satin flower on top we were planning to have for the reception centerpieces.

  First, Connie and I made templates for the cake tiers. A lot of measuring and trial and error.  We cut our three different size rectangles using a paper cutter to make sure they were all exactly the same size. We got all three tiers the size and shape we wanted, and then we had to figure out the trim/icing. We decided on a lace trim/icing, and found an edge paper punch that was perfect.  We punched rows and rows of sage lace trim/icing. We layered the top tier of the cake with sage and cream lace trim/icing. This means that we had to make the top tier of sage lace wider then the lower tiers, so the cream lace would fit over top of the sage layer. All corners had to be curved, so we laid the lace on the top side of a rectangle tier, cut off the excess lace, glued it in place with paper glue, and used a corner punch on the top two corners. For the topper of the cake we used a small flower punch, one cream and one sage, offset the colors and put a sticky pearl in the middle.

This card was a sample, the top tier is a little crooked.

For the actual wording of the invitation, I went online and looked at hundreds of samples.  I ended up putting several of them together, and I really loved how they turned out. After the wording was done, I had to print it on a cream piece of card stock. I was able to print two per 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of card stock, cut them to fit on the inside of the invitation and punch decorative corners.

I really love the wording! Just like a government document the names have been redacted.

The inside pocket of the invitation was a little trickier. I used the same card stock as the card, and cut it at an angle with  the outside being about 2 inches shorter than the outside of the card, and the inside about 2 to 3 inches long. I then, using paper glue, glued the sides and bottom down. The glued edges were a about 1/4 of an inch. Make sure it is completely dry before you try to put the cards in them.

Make sure you use a good liquid paper glue. It was the only glue that held up to the pressure.

The Response and Reception cards were printed 4 per page and I used a program that let me print on the card sideways and upright.  The wording was also the result of the research of several dozen samples. They were then cut, so the banner label was staggered, and both could be read. We bought sage small envelopes for the response cards, addressed, and put postage on them.  The envelopes fit perfectly in the pocket behind the cards.

Should that say "have" been? OMG, a grammar error I found 3 years later.

The final step was the decorative ribbon. I bought 10 spools of cream ribbon at several fabric stores. Measured the correct length, cut them all, wrapped them around the card, and tied a bow.

CUTE, CUTE CUTE!!!!!!!

I was living in Indiana at the time so, I packed all the pieces, took a road trip to Texas, and we had a craft party at my daughters.  She invited her friends over, and we spent the evening putting the cards together in an assembly line.  All that was left to do was to address and mail them.

I did not save money or time by making the invitations, but I sure loved doing it. It was just one of the many things I was able to do to get involved in the process of planning our Daughter`s wedding while living 1000 miles away.