My sister, Rihana, is getting married this year. We haven’t been to a wedding in a looooooooong time. I’m so excited to have something outside of the house to look forward to! As a result, House*Tweaking might get a dose of wedding this year. Consider that a warning. I’m matron of honor {doesn’t that sound so matronly?}. Layne and Everett are ring bearers. Mabrey is a flower girl. And HH just gets to sit there and look pretty. What he does best.
My first job as matron of honor was to send out invites for the upcoming engagement party. Well, it was mine and my other sister, Alina’s, job. She’s maid of honor. I know. That just got confusing. I come from a big family. And we like unusual girl names, m’kay? Anyhow, Rihana was adamant about not labeling the party a “shower” or “celebration.” My extended family is extremely laid back and casual and we like to keep our parties the same. {Beer helps.}
Alina and I thought it would be best to DIY the invites to keep it casual. Plus, DIY’d invites have the added benefit of being a little more personal than store bought ones. A few months ago, I took engagement photos {also totally casual} of Rihana and her fiancé. I asked if she would mind if I used one of the shots for the invite. She was game.
I had 24 photos printed at my local Moto Photo in the 4″x6″ size in sepia tone in a matte finish with a white border. They were ~40¢ each. {I’m a Moto Photo member…so that might be a discounted price.} FYI – I opted for a matte finish because I think it looks more professional and I thought it would hold up better in the mail.
Then I bought 24 of these postcard stickers off the shelf – also at Moto Photo. They were 25¢ each. {I’ve seen them on Amazon for about twice that.} Last Friday night, Alina came over and we set up an assembly line to turn the photos into postcards.
Alina peeled the postcard sticker off the release paper.
I carefully lined up one photo edge with the sticker edge…
…then smoothed it out. FYI: Once the postcard sticker is stuck, it canNOT be removed. So, it’s really important to line things up properly before you smooth it all out. There’s no turning back!
Instant postcard! The sticker is quite stiff so it feels like an actual postcard too.
Alina and I are both lefties but somehow she managed to get all the good handwriting skillz. She wrote out the invite info and I addressed them. I bought fine {as in thin fine, not as in Ryan Gosling fine, although, now that I think about it, that would have been way more fun} Sharpie pens just for this step to avoid indenting the photo side of the invitations. Worked like a charm.
“He liked it so he put a ring on it” came from pinterest. I believe there were dancing Beyonces on the inspiration invitation.
Alina and I were really pleased with how they turned out. Rihana received her invite today and I got a text right away. “Got our invite in the mail today. So cute!!” Two exclamation points. I think that’s a good sign.
You could easily do this for just about any casual occasion or event: baby shower {hello, sonogram pictures!}, birthday party, Valentine’s Day {just around the corner!}, graduation open house, birth announcement, we’ve moved, Christmas postcards, etc. Really, anything. The best part is you save money by: 1) forgoing envelopes and 2) buying less expensive postcard stamps. With postage and all, I think we spent less than $1/invite which is pretty awesome considering invitees get an actual photo as a keepsake.
And now I would like to point out that I have exposed the image of Rihana & Jack kissing more than half a dozen times in one post for all to see. Jack, you are loving this, aren’t you?
One more. For good measure.
And one more because you’re a Ravens fan.
And one more because I’m a Steelers fan.
images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
DIY, inspiration