Mockup invitations

Over a hearty meal of butter chicken, lamb saag, garlic naan, and basmati rice, my ex-roommate (who happens to be one of my best friends) commented "There you go again!" She was referring to wedding invites, which I previously was very "whatever" about, and which was now my latest obsession. I had decided early on to eliminate married women from my wedding party, otherwise she would be right up there with me on my wedding day. Though a bit sad, I think it's a good thing I made that decision because since then, 2 of the candidates (including her) have gotten pregnant, and 1 may very well get pregnant between now and the wedding.

So last weekend, I had a wedding invitation appointment in LA at JC Printing. I was expecting to be blown away by creativity and uniqueness. Instead, as I flipped through 3 8-inch thick sample albums of invitations, it seemed like I was mostly just seeing the same invitations over and over again, each a different variation of paper, color, text. And gosh, how the prices add up. Every single set of inserts, envelopes, etc, was yet another add-on with its own price point. Since my venue has a strict capacity limit and I am planning on sending invites in waves, having different printed RSVP dates would also cost me more (for example, 2 batches of 75 is more expensive than 1 batch of 150). A little bit disappointed, I left the store, promising to return with my parents on a future date (but knowing I probably wouldn't).

Later that afternoon, I happened upon Paper Source in Pasadena. That store is a gem for someone in my shoes. They too had albums of wedding invites, but I still felt like the invitations weren't unique or me enough. The store had rows and columns of all sorts of different papers and materials; so much eye candy everywhere! And so was born the thought of DIY (which said friend above did for her own weddings and who is a great source of inspiration for me).

For some reason, I was fixated with the idea of a booklet of tearout paper, much like a boarding pass, checkbook, or coupon book. I thought it would be fun. Upon researching it online, I was disappointed to find out that the boarding pass had already been done before (http://www.ayleebits.com/2006/06/10/diy-boarding-pass-save-the-date/). On the positive side, it meant I could use other people's existing templates instead of starting completely from scratch.


I also decided I liked vellum. To be fair, at JC Printing I did find a really cute and unique vellum invitation (but it's probably a little too small for my parents' tastes):

I'm not sure yet if and how I will incorporate vellum into my DIY invitations, but I love that see-through envelope with a picture of a flower!

The 3rd thing I really wanted to include was our original idea for save-the-dates, which we ended up not doing because we didn't want to commit to inviting everyone early on (due to capacity issue), and didn't want to only send to select people. The idea was a magnet of our favorite recipe! Instead of just taking up fridge space, we wanted the save-the-date to be useful for guests (if they want to try our recipe).

This mockup invitation includes the boarding pass and magnet save-the-dates, but due to the particular size of A9 envelopes I'm thinking of using, not sure if I'll be able to find the right colored vellum envelope. I'm thinking of using vellum for the map though, which would probably be placed right behind the magnet. In the images below, imagine the white pocketfold cover in silver, and the RSVP envelope in lavender. I would consider purchasing pocketfolds instead of creating my own especially since they're cheap to begin with, but I really want that extra slit pocket for the boarding pass which ready-made ones don't have. I'm thinking of using the small tearout portion of the boarding pass as RSVPs. There would be 1 boarding pass per invited guest (hence a couple would receive 2 boarding passes, tailored with their names).

Here is my mockup (credit for boarding pass goes to Aylee Bits):

Yes, boarding pass and recipe magnet do seem kind of random for a wedding invitation. I want to write something on there to tie them together. Note sure what I'll write yet, but a boarding pass really does represent the relationship of kyzen8 and silverbuggy, who have been together for 6.5+ years, all long distance of flying back and forth 2-3 weekends a month. Doesn't hurt that we both love to travel as well. And recipe? Well that one is easy. We love to eat!