Category Archives: Invitations & Stationery

Oui, Oui! Petite Marquise!

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In my quest for all things French-inspired, I needed to look no further than the always charming Crystelle Sabah, graphic designer, invitation specialist and owner of Petite Marquise. Once a blushing bride herself, Ms. Sabah developed Petite Marquise while planning her French countryside wedding.

Ms. Sabah is a gifted designer who channels her inspiration from poetry, bucolic gardens and cosmopolitan design onto her wedding cards. Depending on a couple’s style, there are 8 collections of romantic themes to choose from — each containing 28 cards.  La Pariessienne, Fol Amour, Marquise, Poems of Love, and Champs Elysses are some of my personal favorites. With more and more couples wanting their weddings to be  personalized, Ms. Sabah’s designs encompass that. They each tell a story.  Each set includes the wedding invitation and folder, the reception and response cards, the rehearsal dinner invitation, the save-the-date card and matching thank you note card.

The set also comes with a lovely menu card that is coordinated with 10 table stands and 10 place cards, all with a matching theme. Couples can print these cards at home or at the print shop of their choosing. For more information, email Crystelle at info@petitemarquise.com. Here are a few photos of designs from Petite Marquise!

Photos Courtesy of Crystelle Sabah of Petite Marquise

Budget-Savvy Wedding Stationery Tips

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I think many brides today are planning their weddings on a budget. I was no different. There were some items I was willing to splurge on, and some I didn’t mind going without. Invitations and stationery weren’t high on my priority list for splurges. We visited a few invitation boutiques and looked at a few DIY printed invites from places such as Michaels and Target.  I knew I wanted to incorporate the monogram Jerad had designed, and I wanted the invites to be printed on pink paper.

I was starting to get discouraged that I couldn’t commit to an invite and that nothing was fitting my vision. So much of my wedding was over-the-top that I wanted the invitations to be muted in comparison to some other elements.  Just when I was about to throw in the gloves and settle on a set of DIY invites, I decided to try Vistaprint. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve used Vistaprint for years for party invitations and Christmas cards, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use them for my wedding invitations. And, I wasn’t sure how to make all the elements of a wedding invitation work with their offerings. Since my wedding, Vistaprint has expanded their offerings and now offers complete invitation packs. After a little brainstorming and some cringing from my wedding vendor friends, Jerad and I came up with our perfect invitations that didn’t break the bank.

We ordered a total of 400 linen-finish invitations for $37.19. We didn’t invite 400 guests, but I had a coupon code and was trying to get the most bang for our buck!

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The invitations did come with free envelopes, but we splurged and ordered custom envelopes to match our invitations. We ordered 200 custom envelopes for $67.23.

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Like everyone else, we needed response cards. Vistaprint didn’t offer actual response cards, so we instead opted to order postcards that could work as the response card and the response card envelope. We ordered 100 response post cards for $19.73.

Response Post Card Front.

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Response Post Card Back.

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We also included direction cards in our invitations to help our guests find our venue. These were actually printed in a business card style. We ordered 250 direction (business) cards for $15.46.

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As the wedding approached, I ordered a few more stationery items from Vistaprint for our reception.  Our wedding venue was about an hour from our hometown and a little off the beaten path. I decided to order lawn signs with our monogram on them to place at various locations to help guests navigate their way to the ceremony site. We ordered two lawn signs for $17.98.

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I also ordered menus from Vistaprint to set at each of our guests’ place settings. I don’t have an actual picture of the place setting, but I do have the proof. I promise the font wasn’t crooked in the final product.  We ordered 100 menus for $27.99, and these were also printed on the linen-finish paper.

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The final touch of stationery for our wedding took the place of place cards. I had originally planned on assigning seats at the wedding, but instead opted to assign tables. But, I’d already ordered a boatload of glass slippers. We decided to place a business-size card in the slot of the slipper that read, And they lived happily ever after. The back side of the card was the address of the new home where we would be residing following the wedding. 

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If you’ve been keeping up, you’ll realize that all our wedding stationery needs came to just under $200 pre-shipping. Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself.

Did you use any unique websites to score deals for your wedding?

Decisions, Decisions – How to Finish My DIY Pocketfolds?

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So, if you recall from this post, I am making my own pocketfolds for my invitations!

I have officially scored and folded all the bases, as well as the insert pocket, and I’m halfway done adhering the pocket to the base.  It took me about an hour to cut ALL the paper, an hour to score and fold the bases, an hour to score and fold the inserts, and about an hour to adhere the half of the inserts to the bases that I’ve already done.  I’m assuming it will take another hour to finish adhering the pockets to the bases, which mean this project took me 5 hours in all.  But in reality, it didn’t have to take me that long.  I did all this while chilling out on the couch watching TV, occasionally throwing a Kong for the dogs to chase, etc.  It wasn’t 5 hours of real work — more like 2 and a half hours of work mixed in with 2 and half hours of watching TV and hanging out.

But now, I’ve come to a crossroads — and I’m being slightly indecisive.  In my original post on how to make pocketfolds, I finished them with a decorative hole punch.  Since then, I’ve acquired yet another decorative hole punch that could look pretty awesome and came up with another idea.  So, I threw together one of each, so hopefully you all can help me be less indecisive (I HATE being indecisive).

Here are all three:

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Top left is done with a Martha Stewart hole punch:

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The middle is done with an EK Success hole punch:

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And the bottom right has 2 circles cut out (for which I used my Fiskars circle cutter — the same tool I used to cut the circles for the belly bands on the other versions), that has been fastened to the flap of the pocketfold with a gold eyelet (that I set using my Crop-a-dile). And then, rather than a traditional belly band, I adhered a piece of red ribbon to the back of the circles that could be wrapped around and used to fasten the whole thing together:

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If I do go with the third choice, I wouldn’t use ribbon, I would either use gold or red string (or even gold AND red string…oh the possibilities).

So, here are the supplies I used…

Top left is my Martha Stewart hole punch, top right is my EK Success hole punch, and the bottom is my Fiskars circle cutter (which can cut out a wide range of sized circles).  And they’re all sitting on top of a Fiskars cutting mat that will protect your table from the circle cutter and prolong the life of the blade.

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Then we have red and “champagne” paper (the red paper was used for the belly bands, and one of the circles for the third version, the champagne paper was used on all three), my ribbon that I had available but probably wouldn’t use for the real thing, and a stamp of our monogram.  I don’t think I’ll stamp the monogram no matter which technique we go with. Instead, I’ll print it out and then cut the circles.

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And finally, my Crop-a-dile (which is a nifty eyelet setting contraption) and my adhesive that I’ve been using (Therm-o-web permanent adhesive — I’ve used this guy with a number of projects outside of the wedding and it still has a lot of juice left; I don’t think I’ll have to refill it before I finish my 80 pocketfolds).

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I really like that the third style is less common than just having a pocket-fold with a belly band, but it kind of looks plain to me.  I might have to try it using a hole punch, as well.  If I did that, I would have to use the EK Success punch, because the Martha Stewart punch cuts off considerably more paper.  But I’m really not sure yet.

So, what do you guys think?  Which style would you be most impressed with if you received it in the mail?  I’m not going to announce which style I went with here on the blog until after I send out all my invitations, because I know there are a few people who read the blog who will be receiving an invitation, and I don’t want to ruin the surprise for them!

Happy Wednesday, Weddzilla readers!

Saying Thanks: Put a Smile on Your Vendor’s Face!

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donmilleris.com

While wedding planning is exciting, it can also be stressful at times. When you are planning, it really turns into a “part-time” job, and for some people, it begins to consume their daily life. That is why it is so important to choose vendors you know are right for you and will work hard to complete your vision. One of my most favorite parts as a planner is seeing all of the vendors come together the day of the wedding to bring to life the reality of the bride’s dream. 

A couple of weeks ago, I did a wedding and brought the bride and groom into the reception room to see it for the first time before it was full of people. The expression on her face was pure joy and astonishment as she looked around to see all of her hard work, as well as the hard work of the vendors, come together. She was SO appreciative, and it was so nice to get a note from the bride, mother of the bride, and the bride’s sister letting me know how much they appreciated my work. It got me thinking about vendor feedback.

To some brides, as soon as they come back from their honeymoon, it is back to reality and the daily thoughts of the big day are over. While you are looking through your pictures and smiling at how amazing everything turned out, take the time to write feedback to the vendors whose services you appreciated and were satisfied with. It will really put a smile on their faces…trust me!

Thank You, Thank You!

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Happy Friday — it’s the weekend!!  Today, I decided to show you my thank you notes for my bridal shower. Yes, I am doing this backwards, but the pictures are not ready yet!! My cousin took them, and she is an amateur photographer who is just starting to take pictures for lovely weddings, which is exciting because I know the shower pictures will be great!

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This was one of the three food tables — more on that on Wednesday!

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Here is our card! I searched all over for a cute design, but I wanted a personalized one that matched our save-the-dates and our invitations, so I made one! I have never been very good at using Photoshop or Illustrator — wish I was, but instead, I designed it on PowerPoint!! It matches our save-the-dates quite well!

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They were very easy to design and print. The hardest part was writing all of the thank you’s and making them sound unique! I think it was so hard because I tried to write them all in one day. Take it from me and take  a break. I will definitely set a goal each day after we get wedding gifts, as there is no way I could even get them all done in two or three days!!

XOXO,
The FairyTale Bride