Save the Date: Planning & Visualization

Hello everyone! Again, I've been MIA from this blog but this time for good reason! I've been blogging with a couple of friends from grad school AND Brad and I got engaged right before Christmas! We are thrilled; we've found a caterer, set a date and have a venue in the works! I've decided to blog about my wedding planning process here so that if I in fact learn anything I can help others and it will keep me more active on the blog. We are going to do as much DIY as possible. Our style will be rustic & vintage with a country flair without being full-fledged country. Country weddings are trending right now and as adorable as they are I want to do something different for ours. Replace the cowboy boots and hay bales with steamer trunks, rusty horse shoes and tattered shutters... in the most chic way possible of course! The wedding doesn't mean that we've abandoned our house reno though; the bathroom is making progress with tiles finally up around the shower!

DIY Save the Dates

Everything to do with our wedding has been fast and furious already. From the second we got engaged people started asking us when!? Literally, an hour after he proposed I was asked that question. According to my wedding binder we’re having an “express” wedding and because we decided to get married this summer so we’re already “behind”. Most of the wedding timelines I’ve seen start two years out. Personally, I’m not worried about it but it seems a lot of other people are so I decided to get the save the dates out ASAP. My goal is to have them in the mail by the end of January which gives people a solid seven months’ notice. I also wanted to do them DIY to save $$.

To mail or e-mail?

At first I considered sending off a quick e-mail. It’s easier, faster and postage in Canada is going up to $1 a stamp (from 60-some cents!!) so it made sense. But, when I started to think about it I realized I already had a vision for what I wanted and I realized It was more “me” to do a crafty DIY save the date. I decided that if I could keep it simple and affordable this was the way to go.

My idea was a rustic kraft paper postcard with a stamp on the front and basic info on the back.

First I did my research. I pinned and googled. I pictured myself making something on Photoshop. I experimented and realized my attempt looked too simplistic, extremely childish and was not in line with my original vision whatsoever. I can make my way around Photoshop but definitely not to the degree that I would be happy with for my save the dates. On vistaprint I found magnets! Adorable! But they're $4.99 (on sale) for 10.. that's just under $100 without envelopes, shipping, tax and postage. Yikes. I had to keep telling myself these are not the formal invitations and these could be free if I go with an e-mail. I will show you what I found and loved though in case the idea of magnets is too cute to pass up for you:

Cute Magnet
Source: VistaPrint

Change of plan. I started browsing Etsy. I found a plethora of amazingly gorgeous invites and save the dates. While I will consider getting fully prepared invitations sent to me in the mail I wanted something simpler for the save the dates and something with a personal touch. I am going to share a couple that I found and loved in case you want to go that route!

Rustic Forest Wedding
Source: CoreSolutions

Burlap & Lace
Source: RusticEleganceDesign

Sweet Wreath
Source: JuneBrideLettering

Finally, I found “printables”. Essentially, the Etsy vendor creates a customized .pdf with yoru names, date and location which you pay a VERY reasonable price for and then get to print them out yourself on whatever paper you so choose! No shipping, very little wait, no hassle. I love it! Luckily, I will be able to print mine at work and save on that cost as well.

Option One: Printable Post Cards
Source: SimplyFetchingPaper

Option Two: Vintage Postcards
Source: HeSawSparks

Option Three: 4 x 6
Source: missprintdesign

Option Four: The Winner!
Source: sweetinvitationco

I am thrilled with the design I chose. It simple, rustic, tredy (hello bunting!) and completely adorable. I approved them with the bf and my two most design savvy bridesmaids before purchasing them. The design I chose will allow me to print four save the dates on one 8 x 10 piece of paper so essentially 50 piece of whatever paper I choose will make 200 invites. Not bad at all! Further research taught me that this means I will need size A2 envelopes.



I spent most of yesterday searching the internet for envelopes. Initially I figured I could get some locally at Staples but all I could find were plain white invitation envelopes. Boring! Michaels? They did have kraft envelopes but they came with cards. The bright envelope in the picture was so eye catching I realized I really wanted a coral envelope which is my accent colour for the wedding. So, I decided on coral envelopes. Of course they turned out to be impossible to find. I couldn’t find ANY on Etsy. Sure there is orange, pink and red. There’s even peach, lava and sunrise. But coral? Nothing to be seen. I considered going with hot pink but even the lowest priced envelopes were over my budget even before shipping. I looked into the most popular paper goods websites. I found other people on message boards asking where are the coral envelopes? The prices on the paper goods websites were better than Etsy but still high especially with shipping and taxes to Canada. Apparently because paper is heavy shipping is totally outrageous for envelopes. I started to get discouraged. Then, I found them. Thank you god for American Amazon. $20 for 250. The shipping and taxes brought the total to $50. What a steal! AND they get to me before the end of the month. If you want to find them on Amazon go through the link on the picture or search:

"Mohawk BriteHue  - A2 Envelopes - ULTRA LAVA - 250 PK"

The Envelopes
Source: Amazon

I simply loved the look of the doily wrapped around the invite for the Burlap and Lace invites. I've seen it done multiple times and in multiple different fashions. I decided to order 200 paper doilies to do my own thing with them. One of my bridesmaids pointed out they might not fit into the envelopes but if it doesn't work out I'll just save them for the invites.

White Lace Doily
Source: TheEnchantedWedding

That's everything I purchased yesterday. I still need: 8 x 10 Kraft cardstock to print the .pdfs out on and rustic twine to wrap the doily around with (easy enough to find cheap & locally). What i still want are rubber stamps. Who knew they could be so chic?

Option One: Calligraphy Save the Date
Source: featherletter

Option Two: Postage Stamp
Source: stampcouture

 My issue now is that the option two stamp won't be ready in time. I've contacted the seller and they are going to look into rush international shipping. My question today is could I make my own save the date stamp?

That's all for planning and visualization for now. When I start receiving my different parts in the mail I'll put it all together and show you how it looks! :)