Our invites started off to be a DIY project after I successfully made our monogram. I was able to put together the things I wanted - like how it would be folded, what are the essential things that I wanted to incorporate. Unfortunately, as time went by, I have kept it aside thinking I'll always have time to do it - to which I was wrong. :( My work became crazier than usual, and so making DIY stuff for the wedding at night was next to impossible.
That's when I started to look for layout services from co-w@wies. I actually found previous w@wies, and I wanted to book them, the only catch is, they do not offer caricatures which was something I was looking for as well.
To my surprise, my brother mentioned one of his classmate's sister who happens to work for an advertising firm. He was telling me at how amazed he was at his classmate's booth back when they had a bazaar because it was completely packaged as a fully set-up business would be, even including custom tumblers, flyers and a mascot. Back story - my brother is an entrepreneurial student, and they small businesses set up as part of their curriculum. So I quickly asked for their numbers, and as soon as I had them, I sent them a message right away.
That's when I met Kat - Katrina Ben. She was very easy to talk to, and her prices are quite reasonable. So, of course, I asked for her portfolio to which she sent the same day. While browsing, I noticed that her portfolio only contains corporate ones, and no wedding nor birthday invites/statios that I could look at. I was almost worried, but this changed the moment I saw her illustration rates - which included a few of her illustrations. You may think why, right? This is because I finally found the caricature that I wanted, and that she could draw one for us! Boom! That was it! The search is over! :))
I immediately told Ron, and like always, he would say yes. Haha! So Kat and us met, first Sunday of March to discuss the stationeries. The meeting went very well - I loved how Kat was so detailed asking us the type of paper we would be using, what kind of printer, what we expect, and of course what elements we wanted in our invites.
The first email I got by the way, was the illustrations of our Chibis - 3 sketches to choose from. And when we picked our choice, she sent us our final Chibis in full color! :)
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| Our options for our Chibis |
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| Our final Chibis... can you spot the special accessories? |
Then days after this meeting, we exchanged numerous emails as she had sent us her options, and we carefully looked at each design she had. This is the stage in our wedding preparations where I finally admitted and realized how OC I was! After sending Kat an email, I realized how detailed it was - from the size of the papers to its margins, borders and its colors, even the fonts! Well, if that wasn't enough to make me realize I don't know what will. Haha!
Anyways, after weeks of designing ang layouts, we finally received the final statio set, and met with Kat to pick up the CD. Of course, the papers were ready and so the printing begin. I did not expect that it would take me that long to print all those 100 set of invites - took me almost 2 weeks (only time we had was during night after work, and even night time on weekends after running errands).
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| DIY printing: Notice the "book guide"? |
And the pain of DIY did not stop in the printing part. There came the assembly of invites, from cutting, to folding, to placing on envelopes, even printing names on the envelopes to make it more personal.
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| Ron - the cutting machine! ;) |
So after almost a month of doing them, here are our semi-DIY invites.
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| Our super cute and affordable invites! :) |
I must say, all the hard work and dedication (and paper cuts) paid off! :))
Ready to mail them,
