Posts Tagged ‘invitations’

Freebie: Printable Baby Shower Invitations

4 Comments

This post is sponsored by The Baby Cubby. Baby Cubby is the go-to for fantastic nursery and baby must-haves.

The marketplace includes the best of indie designers and shop owners. Click here for the baby gift registry, click here for new mom resources. 

Baby cubby isn’t just for new moms. I stocked up for Junie for Christmas with all sorts of darling duds and tactile toys that leave her entertained for hours. 

A friend of mine is expecting a baby, and all of us in the neighborhood are so excited for her! 

I had fun designing these invitations, they’re feminine, but the blues and pinks in the design still keep it open-ended. 

This was the inspiration behind the invitations. I took this photo at my cousin’s baby shower around 2 years ago. I love this bright and cheery combination. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

The download includes a fill-in-the-blank version and a design your own version that you can pull into word or any other editing software and add the text yourself. Invites are 5×7, and work with A7 envelopes, like these pretty teal ones.

Printable and its contents are free for personal use only. Any alteration or distribution of the file (beyond adding your own text) without permission is prohibited. 

Calligraphy: Eric & Margaret’s Invitations

5 Comments

Our family just expanded! My brother-in-law Eric got hitched last month to a really awesome gal. We’re so thrilled to add her to the family.

melissaesplin-calligraphy-design-margaret-eric-wedding-1

Since Eric and Margaret live pretty close to us (for about a year Eric lived with us), we’ve been able to get to know Margaret really well. But for some reason, I was coming up blank when it came to the design of the invitation. I think I started 3 different designs. None of them felt quite right. Too masculine, too formal, too boring.

melissaesplin-calligraphy-design-margaret-eric-wedding-2

The other limitation was the size. We went with an A2 envelope, which left us with basically a quarter sheet. With only that much space, I had to be creative to get information for both receptions on there without looking cramped or tiny. With relying on the personality of the type and going for a simple layout, I was able to make this happen.

In this case, bride and groom had varying amount of letters in their first and middle names. This made balancing out left to right a little complicated, but the extra flourishes to the right of ‘Eric’ did the job.

melissaesplin-calligraphy-design-margaret-eric-wedding-3

The colors were greens and bright yellows, which are perfect summer colors, but can get a little overwhelming if you have large fields of those colors. We opted for a bright white stock and green print with little details of yellow in the printing and with washi tape.

melissaesplin-calligraphy-design-margaret-eric-wedding-4

The design and assembly of the invitation was simple, but special. I’m thrilled how it all turned out. I’m also thrilled that they got hitched, too. :)

Boy Dino Party Suite Download

6 Comments

As promised, but a week late, I give you the boy version of Penelope’s dino party suite.

I changed a few minor details, the color, the script font is now my handwriting & the heart in the middle is now a star. This is definitely more suitable for a boy than my pink invitation suite, but It could still totally work for a girl. Hope someone out there gets some use out of this freebie! Send me pics if you ever end up using any of my downloads! I’d love to see how you use them!

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Chris & Cesia Wedding Invitation

8 Comments

If you ask a designer (at least girl designers) what they enjoy designing most, most of them will say wedding invitations. Just ask a designer you know. For me, I like designing them because it’s print (I love print design), I get an excuse to do something a little more formal, the wording is already laid out for me (I’m terrible with creative text) and it’s a great way to get my creative juices flowing.

A couple months ago, my engaged cousin asked me if I’d design their wedding invitations, of course I was just thrilled to. I had a lot of fun working on these, and I’m so excited to share the design with you.

Chris & Cesia have a lot of family and friends; they printed and sent out 700 invitations. 700! So of course the cost of printing was definitely something to we had to consider. While brainstorming and discussing the design, they decided that they really liked the invitations I designed for my own wedding nearly four years ago. I feel like I’ve grown a lot since designing those, but it is flattering that someone liked the design I did so long ago!

Here’s a little bit of info about the creative process and the invitations themselves:

  • A10 Envelopes & Invitation – I formatted the invitations to fit A10 envelopes; they are very inexpensive and you can find them in almost every color!
  • Black and white digital printing – We kept the printing cheap, but used good-quality 110lb cream uncoated cover so it didn’t feel cheap.
  • Custom Stamp – Getting this custom stamp made cost about $35, and added a whole lot of color and variety to the invitations. This is also a great way to add a touch of your wedding to anything (i.e. favors, envelopes, centerpieces, thank yous, place cards, etc)!
  • Sewn Invitation – This added a bit of variety and structure to the invite and kept the invitation and photo together. Additionally, it allowed us to include and hide registry information.
  • Photograph – While I don’t shoot engagements, I did take theirs. They were so easy to photograph! It was really nice to have full control of the quality and styling of the photograph.
  • Fonts – I used Quicksand for the invitation text and my own handwriting for their names.

There you have it. Chris & Cesia were SO incredibly easy going and fun to work with on these invitations. Now I’ve got to work on getting the rest of my cousins married. ;)

Nathan & Linnley’s Wedding: The Invitation

14 Comments

I’ve been anxiously waiting for the right moment to blog about my sister’s wedding invitation. I’ve been so excited about the design and even more excited when all of the elements came together about 3 weeks ago. My sister’s colors were black and light blue and their wedding budget was pretty tight, so I worked very hard to figure out the most economical way to print these babies.

linnleys-invitation

Click on the image to enlarge

The invitations turned out beautifully, but the production was not simple or time-friendly. I have many very nice aunts and cousins that agreed to hang out at my parent’s house for nearly 6 hours scoring, folding and taping items into place. Granted, not all 6 hours were working on the invitations alone, they were also assembling blue petal boxes to fit a small handful of chocolate cashews (the candy that brought the couple together in the first place).

Nathan & Linnley Invitation pocket detail

The wedding went very well, and I think Nathan & Linnley are very happy together. To read more about their story, check out their blog.

mobile site