I've been a little occupied....(budget wedding invitations...)

Because of this:

Yep, my little sister is getting married.  In less than three weeks!  So you might not see much of me in the next few weeks, but rest assured, I'll have plenty of wedding....stuufff...to show you later!

But in the meantime, let me tell you about the invitation I designed.  Photoshop, of course.  Simple, clean lines photo style invitation is what she wanted.  Fonts used: Jane Austen, Arrivals and Departures and skinny jeans.

I did some more looking around to find a printer, and I found an amazing deal from Got Print.  We ordered 500 5X7 postcards on 16 pt dull cover with matte finish, color on both sides, for $72.81, plus S&H (they are only sold in increments of 250, and it is cheaper to buy 500 from them than to buy less from someone else...A&B most likely won't send out all 500, but they have as many as they could possibly need).  Then over the course of a couple weeks, every time we went by a Michael's, we bought a package of 50 count 5X7 envelopes using the current coupon until we had 500, which cost us $40.54 plus tax.  Reasonable quality for a lower cost than the cheapest envelopes at Walmart or another online supplier.  (And speaking for myself, I just rip open the envelopes and then recycle them without even noticing how nice they are!  Not place we wanted to put much money into!)  So unbelievably, for $113.36 (plus the S&H and tax, of course), we got 500 beautiful invitations.  Is that a deal or what?!  And Got Print did a wonderful job, they look terrific.  If you are interested in their product, they offer a free sample kit you can order (I ordered one from them and two other companies before concluding they were the best and more affordable option). They also have detailed instructions for preparing your files to get the best possible result.  I highly recommend them for any bride, not just the budget conscious bride!  :)

(And no, I'm not getting any kind of kick back for this, just wanted to share a great find.)

So there you are!  See ya in a few weeks!  :)

P.S....we've had three of our six (combined) siblings get married in the past 15 months.....M&M, B&H and now A&B.  I need a break from weddings!  :)

DIY Wedding M&M: Invitations

My brother-in-law Matt is getting married in two weeks.  TWO WEEKS!!!  He is getting married up in Oregon, in the Portland Temple, as his bride, Mandy, is from Eugene...where we lived when my husband was in law school, and where Matt now goes to law school as well.  Which means there will be an open house here in Utah, where he is from, a week later.  So needless to say, I have been all kinds of busy with preparations, both for the wedding in Oregon and the open house here.  I'll have LOTS to share with you after the blessed event is over, but until then, I thought I'd share their wedding announcement.

I designed it based on this invitation that Mandy really liked.  

I used the ever faithful Photoshop, and a digital stamp by Stampin' Up!  The fonts are the King and Queen for their names, and Tangerine for the rest of the invitation.

We got them printed with Catprint, for a fraction of what our inspiration would have cost!  Mandy paid $158.55 for 300 invitations plus white envelopes, 30 insert cards for those invited to the temple ceremony, and 60 insert cards for those invited to the wedding dinner.  Just 300 invitations alone of our inspiration would have cost $306.00, plus whatever for S&H.  Yet another reason to love DIY!

Mandy then took this lovely photo of the two of them, 

taken in my in-laws backyard before church when they were visiting (and that I prettied up a bit in Photoshop) and got 300 printed at Costco with a coupon for $0.09 a piece, $27.00 total.

So 300 beautiful custom invitations cost them a grand total of $185.55!  Now if only stamps were free.....

I'll be back in a couple weeks with all kinds of wedding ideas and tutorials to share with you!