Grey Likes Weddings Rockin' a new rock?!

This past week I put our wedding planning on hold as we made the trek up from Des Moines to Minneapolis for my older brother’s wedding. My sister-in-law and her mother were so organized {check lists for the CSM at their hotel, complete with photographs}. I was snapping photos left and right of things to note when it is my turn a year from now…just you wait, I will have a round up!

About a year ago, I was asked to create the invitation for Cam & Amanda’s couple’s shower. Amanda, my sister-in-law, had briefly mentioned in a prior conversation that she loved when the fonts on the invitations were different. Having a themed couple’s shower – she’s an ISU Cyclone and my brother is an Iowa Hawkeye {a house divided}, this made their invitation all the more fun to create. I combed through many ‘couple shower’ invites on Pinterest and found one that was easy to recreate for their shower. I downloaded similar fonts and got to work. While the aunts hosting the shower thought the invitation was a bit busy, the bride loved the invitation so much she asked me to create their wedding invitation.

Camanda, as they are more commonly known to friends & family, had previously received an invitation to a wedding that Amanda knew she had to have for hers. When you know, you just know. So I got to work, scouring the Internet for similar fonts. One can find them self in a click spiral when searching for fonts. I have a new found obsession with typography after this!

With a few tweaks and with a list of the links to the fonts, the bride & groom were able to create their RSVP post cards, directions, and registry information for their wedding. The most amazing part – is they did this all by hand – cutting out the invitations, embossing, the works. Impressed.

As the wedding date approached, I helped my mom with the rehearsal dinner plans. Once again, I was in charge of the invitations.  I needed a design that would allow for all the information we needed to give to the guests. I don’t have much experience with Photoshop other than editing photos, and I have zero experience in Illustrator or InDesign, but I made these in Photoshop and scoured the internet for free vector designs to find the silverware shapes {some even have then as fonts!}.

After these experiences creating the printables for this lovely bride, I am heavily debating creating my own for my wedding. But does designing and printing the invites on your own cause more stress? I have the vision in my head, so it makes sense to follow through with the design, but at the cost of any undo stress would it be easier to hire out the invitations and save the dates? I’m so torn!

How did you come to design your save-the-dates & invitations?

Did you to it on your own or did you hire someone?