Wedding Planning 101: DIY Bridal Party Invites

Despite how purple the envelopes look, I swear they are a dark navy :)
The first thing out of my mouth to my fiance after I said "yes" was "how do you feel about the colors navy and pink?!" However, that was as far as I got. I literally had no idea where to begin when planning my wedding. Luckily I have great friends in the wedding industry that have been helping me along and since I cannot be the only one lost out there, I'd like to share their knowledge with you all. Welcome to Wedding Planning 101.

For my inaugural post, I'd like to show you the invites I made for my bridal party. I am not really a DIY-er but they say necessity is the mother of invention so here I am. The issue was that I could not find any bridal party invites out there that were going to work. The reason? Well you see, I don't have a maid of honor, I have a best man and since men don't usually send cards asking their buddies to be in their wedding, I knew I'd have to take to the crafting table if I wanted to have matching invites. Luckily I love a challenge :)

While bridal party invites don't officially set the tone for your wedding in the same way as Save The Dates do, I did want mine to serve as a little sneak peek. I've decided that the vibe of my wedding is "southern charm" and my colors are light pink, white, taupe-y, and navy. 

While there were a variety of directions and styles to go with (I mean, I could have lost my mind in Paper Source), I landed on navy cards/envelopes, beautiful rose-printed paper and raffia. I felt these pieces together would really strike that balance between traditional/classic and relaxed. Plus it seemed to be just the right amount of work for my very first craft experiment :)
So after I chose all my materials, the first step was to tackle the envelope liner. This is an easy way to bring a unifying look to your invite with not too much extra work. You can buy envelope liner stencils to help you get the perfect shape.
After you have all your liners traced and cut out, its time to stick them to the envelopes. I purchased this rather handy double-sided tape roller that allowed me to place tape along the three sides of the top of the envelope. This is the only place that you need tape (I know, my mind was blown too). 
You then place the liner in the envelope bottom first and then press it down on the top part that has the tape on it. EASY AS PIE.
After I lined my envelopes, it was time to tackle the actual invites. I liked the look of adding a band across the invite. I had originally planned to do a thick ribbon and then place the raffia over it but since I had some extra of the beautiful printed paper, I decided to go with that.
I measured and cut the printed paper to be 1.75 inches tall. I then wrapped the paper around the invite and used more of the magical double-sided tape to make it a band.
The last touch was adding a raffia bow on top of the printed paper. It was a super easy touch that added that relaxed feel I was going for. Some of the bows were a little unruly but it was nothing a heavy book couldn't fix.
I know some of you may be wondering what I did on the inside of the cards. Since the cards were navy, I bought slightly smaller white cards and mounted them to the right panel of the card. I then wrote heartfelt notes to each member of the bridal party and asked them to be in my wedding party.
So there are my DIY bridal party invites. If I can do it, anyone can :)

Comments

  1. OMG- LOVE everything about these!! Your colors, the print, the theme! Especially the heartfelt note. How thoughtful and creative :)

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  2. wow!!! they turned out beautiful!! and you make making your own envelope lining look like a breeze. i'm due to send out a few thank you notes...maybe I'll make my own!

    p.s. i LOVE that you're having a best man. i may steal that idea from you actually!

    CupcakesOMG!

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  3. Cannot believe you made those!! I'm obsessed with that paper!!! I'm going to frame mine as soon as you send it to me. hahah! xoox

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  4. can't believe you did those yourself! they look gorgeous.

    http://itsthelittlethingsblog.blogspot.com/

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  5. Navy Blue and Pink are a great color scheme ! I bet if you bought invitations like that they would have costed you a fortune. We are in the process of planning for our June 2013 wedding, and I can not wait. So far the only thing we had picked out were our personalized wedding bands. I have even though of having a song personalized just for us. Also, I am very glad you jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, I love saving all my wedding ideas on there.

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  6. Love these invites! I just blogged about this, you make it seem so easy! I can't wait to give this a whirl for my next invites! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!
    http://thegoldenislesbride.blogspot.com/

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  8. You did such a fabulous job! I adore them! I am sure your friends were so excited to get such a beautiful/special note!

    www.bstylewise.blogspot.com

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