Beach Wedding - Invitation

When my cousin Nina announced that she's getting married I offered to do her wedding invitations.  I told her I will make some samples and she can decide if she wants me to make her hand-crafted invitations or she can go with professionally printed ones.

It will be a beach-themed wedding and her color of choice are turquoise and dark pink.  She wanted "beachy" items incorporated in the design and possibly include real beach sand.

I made three samples in three colors.  She could not decide between the white folder with turquoise accents and the turquoise folder with turquoise accents.  In the end, she decided she wants them both - 35 white and 35 turquoise invitations.

I used seashells as the main design elements.  All seashells were heat embossed in clear, white or turquoise for texture since I will not be incorporating real beach sand.  The white invitations were embossed in clear embossing powder which, unfortunately, I could not capture with my small digital camera.  The turquoise invitations and all the inserts were embossed in turquoise embossing powder.  And the turquoise bands were embossed in white embossing powder.

All the white cardstocks for the invitations and inserts were sponged with water-based turquoise inks for the "ocean/beach/waves/blue sky" concept.  The seashell embellishments on the bands were die cut from kraft cardstock and sponged with brown water-based ink for dimensions.

All the texts were done in Word and printed on 65 lb cardstocks.  I originally planned to use 110 lb white cardstock but could not find a printer that can handle that weight.  It took a team of six women roughly six hours to put together 70 invitations.  My heat tool stopped working around the third hour and I had to run to the craft store to get another one.

Total cost of materials including the new heat tool was approximately $250.00.  I was told that this style of invitations cost between $600 and $800.  A considerable savings if you have time to invest in designing and making hand-crafted invitations.  Although with some adjustments you might be able to cut the time in half, like eliminating the heat embossing and just stamp the images with appropriate inks and you can also eliminate sponging all cardstock and leave them plain white or ivory.  I do not recommend skimping on supplies.  I used premium cardstock and adhesives.  You want your invitations to stay intact and withstand the post office handing.

There you have it.  If you're thinking of taking on a project like this, consider yourself warned!  LOL!  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Cardstocks, rubber stamps, embossing powders, inks and adhesive were from stampinup.com

Folders were purchased from Cards & Pocketscardsandpockets.com

Dies were made by Lifestyles Craft Seashells Die purchased at amazon.com