Our Save the Dates: A Sneek Peak

It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to do for our save the dates. Starting was difficult. When I thought I decided, I would change my mind , and then change my mind again. I would start a project or get a really good idea, get discouraged, and be back at square one.

Know what saved me? Weddingbee. Mrs. Sunrise, in particular shared her fabulous DIY save the date magnets and envelopes, and I was inspired! I literally ran home to re-start ours and get them done. Once and for all.

It didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped. I hit quite a few roadblocks. The first being finding a program that would allow me to add text to our pictures. Again, know what saved me? Yup, Weddingbee. I started a thread on the boards - literally desperate - asking for advice on design programs (that didn't involve knowing adobe programs like photoshop or having a mac). Someone told me about picnik and I am forever indebted! Wow! What an awesome website! I can't say enough good things about it. It was exactly what I needed. My saving grace.

Once I got our picture squared away, it was time to submit it for the magnet. I ordered about 25 just to test them and guess what? They were hideous. Seriously, we looked like martians. We were orange. I guess I got a little too carried away on picnik and enhanced the colors too much. I also added a border (which the Overnight Prints strongly recommends you do not do), and geez, I thought, "Can we please catch a break!" It felt like we were never going to get them done.

Mr. B encouraged me to contact Overnight Prints and ask for a refund. They did even better by offering to reprint them, walk me through the process, approve my image, and guarantee good quality.When they arrived, everyone fell in love. We were so happy too, because we finally had pretty save the dates. We finally had something to work with. Finally, something went our way. So we ordered a bunch more. 

Think the struggles ended there? Think again.

There was the packaging to consider. If I thought getting started and designing the save the date was tough, I didn't know what was coming! Figuring out how to decorate the save the date (just putting the magnet in the envelope was out of the question) and embellishing the envelope (heck, picking out the envelopes), was like opening up a whole 'nother can of worms.

To make a long story short, after three trips to Paper Source, two trips to AC Moore, and some serious fiddling with Microsoft Word (to create the labels), I finally had it all figured out. You can just image my excitement when it came time to assemble!!

This was what my workspace looked like (actually, it was a lot messier, but you get the idea):

Note all of the supplies. Who knew making your own save the dates would entail so much? I had a cutting board, sticker maker, corner rounder (or whatever you call that thing), ribbon, save the date stamp and ink pad, scissors, and um, oh yeah, the embossing heater, which is not pictured here (links to all of these things will be in my next post).

Also, note the coffee. I tend to drink a lot of coffee when I'm slaving away on big projects. I was cutting, then sipping, stamping, then sipping, embossing, then sipping, rounding corners, tying bows, and you guessed it, sipping.

The coffee was working, too. See how much progress I made. Definitely on a roll:

I don't want to spoil the surprise, but here's a little sneak peek of the actual save the date:

I couldn't be happier with the final result and seriously - I never thought I'd be able to say that. This was definitely a labor of love and my advice to other brides out there is to start early! I'm doing these just a week before they need to be sent out, which was not a good idea. We're way too close to the deadline and that's stressful. I've learned my lesson. I know the invitations are going to be way worse, too, so that means I need to start, um, yeah, pretty much yesterday.

A bride's work is never done!

Did you hit any roadblocks in the process of creating your save the dates? What saved you?