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.

In my humble opinion, Kinkos will be expensive. In my area, I always refer people to two local print shops here. I often have to tutor the people behind the Kinko’s counter on what to do so it’s time consuming. Unless you know how to tell them to fix your invitations, I would go somewhere else. Especially if you designed your invitations from scratch, I would go with a local print shop so they can customize to exactly how you want it. They’re more likely to give you exactly what you need. However, not knowing your area, I wouldn’t know which local shop to refer you, too. I would checkout online reviews on yelp.com or similar sites.

A couple of national print services recently contacted us to do promotions on our site: uprinting.com (current promotion) and 123print.com (promotion ended earlier this week). I think it’s worth checking out to compare against local printshops in your area. I hope this advice helps. Please let us know what you decide and what you thought of their service! And congrats on your engagement!

Source: cardsandpockets.com

Cards & Pockets is having a 20% sale storewide through November 1st. They sell a large assortment of paper, cardstock, pocket folders, ribbons, stamps, etc. I just ordered a bunch of samples today, so I can’t personally speak to the quality of their merchandise yet, but they’ve gotten plenty of great reviews!  Remember to enter coupon code “FALL2010″ at checkout.

Photo Source: Daily Candy

It’s so easy….even I can do it.

Photo Source: World Label

Yes, I’m a roll with the free printables. As long as you can read PDF files, you can use these templates from World Label. Each set of templates has these files:

• WL-OL1200 – CD labels
• WL-OL775 – Favor Box Label
• WL-OL325 – Monogram Sticker
• WL-OL125 – Mailing Address Label
• WL-OL475 – Wine Label and/or Invitation
• WL-OL150 – Thank You Card

I think the most helpful from this list would be the favor box label, mailing address label, and thank you card. If you need to purchase any of the paper, you can go to their site to purchase.

Tipped off by: DIY Bride

Photo Source: e.m. papers

On the same theme as the free printable wedding favor boxes, there’s also free wedding invitations from e.m. papers. They have several for sale, but this black and white option is free and you can print from your own printer! It takes me back to those days when I was a little kid and I would print out birthday cards on that paper that had those holes on the side to hold the printer paper. Do you know what I’m talking about? Anyways, this looks like a fun (and free!) DIY project.

Photo Source: Don't Eat the Paste

Nice! From Don’t Eat the Paste, download free printable favor boxes.  Can’t beat free!

If you use it, let us know what you put inside.

personalized water bottle

My husband and I have been helping out with my brother-in-law’s wedding lately. This is our latest project: custom water bottle labels. Since the majority of their guests are coming from out of town, the bride’s mother wanted to welcome everyone with a little gift bag for all the guests staying at the designated wedding hotel. Most of the contents in this bag is a mystery to me but I do know there will be bottles of water.  The bride had asked me to design and make some custom labels for the water bottles. I was really happy with how these came out. They were not only easy to make but going to add a special touch to the welcome bags.

printed labels

To do these yourself. You will need an image editing software (I used adobe photoshop), a color printer, 8.5×11 paper, water bottles, scissors, and glue stick. First measure out the size of the existing label of your water bottles, then use these dimensions to put together a layout on photoshop. Once you have the labels designed, printed, and cropped. Remove existing labels and adhere new ones with a little dab of glue.

finished bottles

bridal shower invitation with pink cupcakes and pink pretzels

My brother-in-law is getting married in August! Yay! I have the wonderful privilege to be a part of their wedding as a bridesmaid. As some of you may already know, I love weddings and what I love most about weddings are the paper goods. For the bridal shower, the bride picked out a cute invitation from weddingpaperdivas, who were a pleasure to work with. The turnaround for the proof and the actual invites was so quick and seamless.

recipe card

For the shower, the bridesmaids wanted to do a recipe box for the bride. Since I was in charge of sending out the invites, I wanted to send these cards with the invitation so that the guests would be able to fill them out before the shower. First, I scanned the invite pattern to create the cards (with Adobe photoshop), so that it would match the invitation. I found a cute recipe box from Hallmark so that it would be convenient for the bride to take home.

Hallmark recipe box

Other than sending out the invitations, I was also put in charge of some of the games. For one of the games, I took the same invite pattern and made blank cards for the “who am I?” game. When the guests arrived, they were instructed to write out a memory they have shared with the bride without including their name. Later on, we had the bride read the cards aloud and guess who each was written by. Imagine the nostalgic atmosphere it created. The cards made a lovely keepsake for the bride.

cards for "who am I?"

Another game we played was the buzz word game. To begin, choose a “buzz word” such as bride, groom, wedding, etc. To go along with the invitation pattern, I made flowers out of felt and put them on bobby pins to use for this game. When each guests comes into the party, we handed them each with a felt flower. Then, if someone hears another person saying any of the “buzz words,” they get to take that person’s flower. The person with the most flowers at the end of the party wins.

handmade felt flowers

This is also posted on madebymelis.

The photo doesn’t quite show the colors right, but the blue strip through the middle and around the edge is bright blue vellum.  The invitation is printed on Pearl White Pearlescent paper.  The inserts are printed on white linen cardstock.  I did find that the laser printer didn’t really like the linen but it was fine on everything else. The “pocket” is a pearlescent “pochette” or “petal card” – these are mailed to you flat, and you just fold them together.

One thing I did differently on this invitation set was that I stuck everything together with Krylon Spray Adhesive.  Best idea ever! To do this, I got some newspaper and made a square with painters tape that went around the outside of the invitation pieces (I made two squares – one for the white paper, one for the blue vellum).  I then lined the papers up inside the squares – this helped minimize getting spray adhesive on the good side of each piece of paper.  And remember, if you’re working with any aerosol spray, make sure to turn the can upside down and spray until you get clear gas when you’re finished!

presents

DIY Wedding Favor Boxes

by Amanda

Source: Finch and Hawk

Source: Finch and Hawk

The Finch&Hawk Paper Goods Store on Etsy.com sells templates for boxes, bags, and even seed packets for your wedding or party favors. There are three different shape designs to choose from: cube box, dome box, and gable bags. The designs also allows to you to choose from an assortment of colors. Some designs will even let you customize your box to include your names and the date of your wedding. Your purchase (priced at $5-$6) of Finch&Hawk Paper Goods products includes instructions and a high quality PDF of your template. All that is required for you is to have a color printer, Adobe Acrobat 6 program (or higher), cardstock and you are ready to assemble! Check out Finch&Hawk Paper Goods selections.

About Our Guest Blogger

Amanda, co-owner of Fresh Events Company, is a talented wedding planner from the Los Angeles area. She delights in wow-ing her clients with her design talents and creating memorable weddings.