When I sat down and started working on the posts for my lovely invitations, I realized that I never revealed my Save the Dates! Yes, I showed you the magnets that I made and even provided some instructions for making them...and I even went so far as to show you a mistake that I made on one of the envelopes...but I never showed you the actual Save the Date! The shame...and horror...so, better late than never right? Hope so!
Without further ado, here is our Save the Date:
Outer envelope
Postcard – front 
Postcard – back 
That’s it. Easy, simple and to the point.I designed the postcard using Adobe Photoshop, but looking back at it now, I can see that it was obvious that I was just learning what Photoshop was all about...it was a very simple design. Nothing too complicated. I know how to do soooo much more now, six months later. Oh well.
Let’s see. I used the pictures that B had used during his proposal to me (missed out on that? here you go!) so that all of our friends and family could re-experience a little of his thoughtfulness. And really, who doesn’t want to show off their cute kids? We do!
I also included a picture of the two of us on the front with the date and a little cutesy saying that he and I came up with and agreed on, that continued onto the back design. The back was left clean and simple so that it emphasized the magnet. I was in LOVE with the magnets, and didn’t want anything to detract from them!
I used a coupon that I found online and ordered the postcards from overnightprints.com for a steal. I’ve still got half a box of postcards that I don’t know what I’ll ever use them for...but the price was right, who was I to complain? I simply attached the magnet to the backside of the postcard in the ample space that I left open and viola! They were done.
I went the practical route and bought cheap envelopes from Office Depot. I knew that they would just end up in the trash, so I couldn’t justify spending too much on them. In hindsight, I wish they had been just a little bit better quality, with a little more thickness to them. But oh well, they went in the trash, right? Right.
I found a font that I liked here, joehand2 and used it to create a mail merge from my Excel address spreadsheet. Ironically, many people who know my handwriting thought that I actually addressed the envelopes, as the font was similar to my own writing. Bonus points for me!
Then I decided to practice with my new embossing tools and stamp set that I had bought specifically for the invitations. Yes, I know that these were just the Save the Dates, but I thought that it would be a nice tie in to the rest of the paper products, while also allowing me a practice run to see if I really wanted to tackle DIY-ing my own wedding invitations.
After a few small hiccups at first, I got the hang of embossing quickly. There’s not much to it...but a word of warning: you have to use EMBOSSING ink...archiving ink will NOT work. Just in case you’re like me and go the cheap route the first time around. You’re just creating more work for yourself, trust me!
All in all, I was VERY pleased with our Save the Dates, and received many, many compliments on them. I was proud to say that I made them, and they left me looking forward to working on my wedding invitation suite.
Here’s a cost breakdown:
Postcards from overnightprints.com – $30.94
Magnets – $20.95
Paper – $22.51
Adhesive – $5.40
Envelopes - $8.65
Postage - $34.60
Grand total: $123.05
Cost per STD: $1.23
I mailed our Save the Dates out somewhere around the six month mark. We were not getting married on a holiday weekend, and there were just a handful of out-of-state guests, but a lot of guests that would be driving in for the event. I know that it wasn’t really necessary to do them, but I really wanted to. There were just so many cute ones out there to follow, and I thought that it would be a good practice run before attempting the actual invites. Doing them stretched the Stationary portion of our overall budget, but I’m happy that I did them and satisfied with the end product!
Did you choose to do Save the Dates, even if you didn’t technically need to do them? Why did you make that choice?
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