Save the Date!

I sent out our Save the Dates at the end of June, and now that I have been assured by the majority of my guests that they have arrived, I can share with you the process by which they were made!

Even though our wedding is pretty much "no frills, no fuss", I still wanted to send a Save the Date: 1) so people knew when we were planning our nuptials (obvs, that is the purpose) and 2) because I was so excited about the upcoming wedding, I wanted to make *something*, but wasn't sure what. Thus, the Save the Date was born! I was super-inspired by Emily's wedding invitations that had recently hit my mailbox, but I wasn't sure about the Save the Date. I wanted it to be simple enough that it would not upstage the actual invitation, and I didn't want to go the route of magnet or photo of the two of us (ew). I really loved the idea of having it serve a purpose, and I almost went with a bookmark idea -- the Save the Date would read "You're booked!" (or something equally cheesy) and have the info on it. Logistically, I couldn't get it to quite work out, so I went with this idea instead.

I originally saw the wording/folding idea on the Martha Stewart Weddings website (the inspiration, sadly, did not come from MAD magazine, as one of my friends suggested after receiving his card). So, I set out to make a Save the Date that would incorporate our colors, some cool paper stamping, and my love of ribbon, while keeping the cost low. I went to the stationary store next to where I work to pick up a few paper samples, and quickly fashioned a prototype. It was pretty easy and not too time consuming! I finalized the guest list with Deane and figured out what I would need. Here's the cost breakdown (because I am a huge nerd and think people will actually care?):

• Cardstock, pack of 25 (2 cards made from one sheet): $3.99
• 3 spools of ribbon, $2.99 each, used coupons to make them $2.19 each
• One large rubber stamp, used over and over for the paper and the envelopes, $9.99, fancy coupon price adjustment made it $5.99
• One ink pad, $6.99, coupon made it $4.99
• Martha Stewart bone folder (I caved): $3.99
• Brush tip pen for lettering, $2.24
• Green envelopes, 30 cents each, $12.00 for 40

...for a grand total of $39.77, not including postage. Considering I made 40, that's less than a dollar per Save the Date. Normally, I would break that down into an average savings, but even as I perused wedding invite websites, I couldn't find anything like the Save the Date I wanted and ultimately sent. Plus, I think my guests are happy to have a handcrafted souvenir of our upcoming wedding. (I would also like to interject that JoAnn's has AWESOME coupons, and you should never buy anything there without one!)

I set up the process in an assembly line style. First I stamped all of the cardstock on front and back along two sides, since I would be cutting it down the middle to make two cards:

I used a Sharpie to mark the rubber stamp -- it was a large square, and I only needed to use part of it, as well as needing to make sure the pattern would line up. This stamp was clear, so it was easy to see through to what I was stamping.

Once all the cardstock was stamped and dried (and my kitchen table half covered in green ink), I measure and cut each piece in two. Then I measured, measured, measured again and folded the creases (bone folder is highly recommended!) to line up with the wording:

Next, I folded them together, penciled in lines to keep my wording straight, and hand lettered each Save the Date. It was time consuming, but I really liked doing it, and I only suffered one minor breakdown (when the green ink seemed to be smearing all over evvvvveeeeerrrrrything). The only part I didn't enjoy was erasing all the pencil lines at the end, and I actually had a hard time getting them all to go away. I hope that, in some way, the remaining lines added to the handmade charm :)

After that, I hole punched along the bottom (with a fancy schmancy small rectangle hole punch that I already owned) so I could thread the ribbon through. I laced and tied up each one and put them in an envelope, which I had stamped with the same design as the inside card. I hand addressed each one with a fine point Sharpie, and I was done! Here it is (complete with smeared out last names and addresses due to internet paranoia)...

And once you untied the ribbon and unfolded...

Overall, I think they came out super cute. I really loved making them and was so excited when I got to send them out -- now everyone better be saving the date!