My fiancé and I have quickly become adept at making quick (yet hopefully sound) decisions. We “hee-hawed” when we first started planning the wedding, wanting to make sure that everything was perfect. We quickly realized, however, that with literally hundreds of decisions to make before it was all over and done we needed to learn to be decisive or the wedding would never get planned.

One decision that continued to frustrate me despite hours of research was our invitations. I am still a firm believer in written correspondence. As a hobby I’ve often custom made stationery and thank you cards to give to friends and family. My loved ones grew to expect these special notes to the point that one time when I purchased a store-bought card my friend opened it and frowned, saying, “Oh…you didn’t make it…” as if I had neglected her.
I didn’t want to hand-make my wedding invitations, but I did very much want them to be elegant, impressive, and well-made on heavy paper with raised lettering. I wanted them to reflect my love of paper. And I also felt that wedding invitations set the tone for your wedding; this was going to be my guest’s first impression of our upcoming wedding. And while much of my wedding has been planned online with great success (what did brides do before iPads?!) I hit a roadblock with online invitation companies. Don’t get me wrong, their selection is amazing…but that was part of the problem. I quickly amassed over 50 bookmarks on my iPad of beautiful designs. When I thought I had my choices narrowed to a few good selections, “I’d click the “customize” tab and then get stuck on all of the options. Thermography or letterpress? What “pound” of paper? How pearlescent is their pearlescent paper? Which features are worth the extra money (which can really add up!) and which are extraneous? Several times I got overwhelmed, and shut down, both emotionally and my computer.

Time was getting short when I saw an ad in a local wedding magazine for a gift shop that also sold stationery and was very close to my house. With nothing to lose I stopped in on the way home from work one day. The Pretty Penny had a quiet and cozy sitting area in the back of their shop filled with binders of invitations. This in and of itself could have been overwhelming, but they employ a stationery expert who simply asked me a few questions about our wedding venue, my style, and any ideas I had. She listened carefully, and then confidently said “Crane and Co” and pulled one binder off of the shelf. She left me to peruse the book, which had examples of every option they offer. Invitation styles, fonts, printing methods, and envelope liners…you name it and it was there for me to see and feel. The tactile aspect of sitting with this binder made all the difference, and all of the options I had been straining to imagine online were suddenly in front of me. Suddenly my new-found decision making ability was back, and in an hour I had the entire invitation perfectly designed to my liking. I brought my fiancé back that weekend to look at what I had in mind, and we ordered them that day.

I love the options and freedom that online wedding planning can bring, and I have many friends who have ordered beautiful invitations online, but for me the sheer volume of options was so overwhelming that it proved impossible to pick just one. I ended up with Crane’s Embassy Triple Paneled Invitation in ecru (which is not pinkish in person as it is on the website). We chose a charcoal grey letterpress wording, with a block font for most of the invitation and a flowery script for our names. The invitations actually remind me of my parent’s invitations, which make them all the more special for me.

Photo Source: zivajewels.com

After our talk I went through my jewelry and came across my late father’s ring that he had given to my mom. It was a fantastic ring of the early 1980′s made of yellow gold with a marquise diamond surrounded by a halo of twelve smaller diamonds. I loved it, but I knew I would not wear it the way it was. It just wasn’t my style or my size. I gave it to my fiancé and let him take the reigns.

When he proposed, I had a beautiful yellow gold ring. My center stone and setting were different, but I knew that gold was from my mom and dad’s ring. It was so touching to hold it and know that now it was molded into something for me. My center stone has a halo, too, and it took me a moment to realize that my mom’s halo is now mine!

It’s been a really cool story to share with others about how these materials have come a long way. Also, I like knowing that something I already owned was put to good use. I think my father would approve.

Though becoming an increasingly rare occurrence, every now and again, a fortunate individual wandering the beach comes across an antique glass Japanese fishing float that has managed to travel across oceans before appearing on shore. The people who find these treasured floats are said to be blessed, having been made witness to a momentous occurrence and been selected to participate in the journey.

Sharing Your Journey

So it should be with your wedding. Like a delicate glass float that has its beauty enhanced by the waves it has traveled over; taking the leap to wed attests that you, as a couple, have established the tenacity of your bond and found yourselves capable of weathering trials with your love intact. The choice to share your vows before the exceptional people in your life allows them to share in your continued joy and good fortune.

About bellaballs

While formed, each bellaball is crowned with a meaningful adornment stamped in Italian sterling silver. Adornments you may choose include: the Love stamp, Edwardian Heart, Beautiful Design, Neapolitan Bee, Lucky Horseshoe, Rococo Seashell or Classic bella Fig. With over 77 colors to choose from, we’re able to match your exact wedding palette. As with any bella, should you wish to use your own design or the dates of your wedding, custom stamps may be created especially for you.

Give Beautiful

Whether used as centerpieces, keepsakes for the wedding party, or favors for guests, everyone will feel connected to the joy and love you have brought before them as a couple.

To make your wedding bellas affordable, we blow them to a three inch size with no minimum order. Each wedding bella comes packaged with a sheer organza bag in silver, and includes a special display ring.

About The Guest Bloggers

With this inspiration, designer Lesli Jacobs-McHugh and glass artist Diane Hansen set to making their first bellaball glass floats for the wedding of Lesli’s daughter.  At the reception, each setting had a small glass float placed before it. In this way, each guest was given an affordable heirloom that would extend the currents of beauty and kinship into their own lives.

When Diane and Lesli met, they discovered their mutual love of Japanese floats. They created bellaballs as a symbol of strength and resilience. Bellaballs serve as a reminder that no matter where the currents of life take you, you always have the choice to live beautifully.

Postcard designed by the bride and printed by uprinting.com

After the big day has come and gone, you feel such a relief that all your hard work is over. At least that’s what I thought, but there were still the thank you cards that needed to be written.

Considering, I DIY’ed everything for my wedding.  I thought one more DIY project wouldn’t kill me. Luckily, Uprinting.com made the process so easy and fast!

I wanted to create a vintage postcard. After getting our pictures back from our photographer, I used Photoshop to create the layout and played around with settings to make the photo look “old”.

Uprinting has a really user friendly uploading program. Even if you don’t have Photoshop you can still upload a picture and add text.

That was it! Once I uploaded the picture, and received my confirmation. My postcards were in my hands within a week.

I was really happy with the quality of the paper. I used the 14pt cardstock gloss postcards. The paper had enough weight and shine to make them feel like real postcards. I was afraid of the cards being too shiny, that I wouldn’t be able to write on them.  The gloss wasn’t heavy at all, you can write on the back of the card just fine with a ball point pen.

If you are looking for a more personalized thank you card option, photo cards are great way to show off pictures.

About the Blogger

Edris is a talented newlywed in New York City and got married this year. Her friends brag about her creativity and her wedding ideas definitely show her ingenuity! Congrats on your nuptials, Edris!

After browsing around the web, I found this cute idea of paper dolls. It was easy to make and customize.

-Medium weight paper in 18”x24” size to make the bodies. I used a white color, but you can certainly use any skin tone color you prefer.

- Colored paper in the same color as your bridesmaid dresses. I bought three sheets of 8.5”x 11” paper to make 4 sets of dolls.

-Different colored paper for hair (all my bridesmaids have black hair so I just had to buy one 8.5” x 11” sheet for black paper.)

-Rubber cement or glue stick

-Xacto knife

Cut a long strip of paper, 18” long and 6” wide.  Fold the paper accordion style, as if you were making a paper fan. The number of folds will depend on how many girls you are making. I had four in my bridal party so I made the fold four times.

On the first page, pencil in an outline of the body. Make sure the hands and feet connect at the folded edge and open edge. Otherwise you won’t get the dolls to connect (hold hands).

After you cut the dolls out, this is how they should look. Now onto the fun part; decorating!

Using the hair colored paper, cut hairstyles that look close to your bridesmaids usual hair style. Glue the hair with a glue stick or rubber cement. For the dresses, I used the body of the doll as a template to draw the shape of the dress so it will cover the body.

The best thing about this project is that you can customize the dolls as much as you want. You can add shoes or jewelry with things like beads or metallic ink pens.  I also added the names of each of the bridesmaids on the front and on the back I wrote out their contact information.

After making the dolls, I realized I forgot to add myself!

“Love you so much, been through so much, will you be my bridesmaid?”

In the package, I also made a card asking each girl to be my bridesmaid and some event details.

The girls all packed up and ready to be sent out!

Photo Source: uprinting.com

Congratulations to Michelle for winning 100 FREE wedding postcards from UPrinting.com. These postcards can be used for anything, including save-the-dates, thank you cards, or anything she desires. Thank you to everyone for sharing your ideas.

Photo Source: jackandjillwedding.etsy.com

Looking for unique wedding invitations to express who you are as a couple?  Check out our friends at Jack and Jill Wedding at their etsy page for a great selection of themed invitations, save the date cards and other wedding related stationary that is available for customization to you!  They are offering a 10% discount for our readers, be sure to use the code BFC10 at checkout, available now through 9/30/11.

To celebrate their launch, our friends at muujee is offering Big Fat Cake readers 25% off their exquisite photo books until Aug 31, 2011 and cannot be combined with any other offers. Check out their high quality work:

Notice the thickness of the pages and the quality binding. Photo Source: muujee.

You can have two-page layouts.

At checkout, use the code: 25OFF-BIGFATCAKE. It is valid for all their albums.

They are also conducting a giveaway this month for a FREE flushmount wedding album on their Facebook fan page. Take a look before July 31st!

Good news! Big Fat Cake is joining with 123Print.com, the popular online printing company, for a great giveaway for all brides-to-be. One lucky winner will receive $1,000 worth of wedding invitations—FREE! If you are planning an upcoming wedding, or know someone who is, just head on over to the Wedding Invitations Giveaway page at 123Print.com by July 20, 2011 to enter. The giveaway winner will be chosen on July 25, 2011.

For contest rules, please see http://www.123print.com/go/Wedding-Contest-Rules

Good luck! I hope a Big Fat Cake fan wins it! (we’re competitive over here).

Anyway, enough of that – here’s the invitation suite:

Long invitation printed on metallic paper and backed with blue and black card stock. Matching long envelope with Martha Stewart inspired wraps.

I originally had two designs - one A7 size, and one size 10. The bride picked the long one (size 10). Here is the RSVP card and back of the directions card.

How do (or will) your invitations reflect your personality?

The silhouettes incorporated into the seating cards

These are very classy ways to include your favorite pets into your wedding. How have you seen pets incorporated into a wedding?

Sample Designer Stamp. Photo Source: Three Designing Women

Sample Designer Stamp. Photo Source: Three Designing Women

About Three by the Quill Pen: Three is a custom fine invitation and photography business located near the Galleria in the Dallas metroplex. The company offers truly unique services, from furniture rental and sales, elegant custom invitations, soft and sweet photography, vintage signage, labels, and practically anything paper-sourced. The company is run by its founders, Marsha Bonneau, and her two daughters, Chandra and Aubrey.