Somewhere along the way I fell in love with white font. Unsurprisingly (hello blonde), it took me a while to sort out that you can’t actually print white ink on a printer. Too late. I was in love. Nothing more I could do about it.

There are a few ways to get white ink, and all of them are either super expensive or super labor intensive. But they all turn out GORGEOUS! So I must have it. And seeing as I don’t sleep on a pile of money, this means that we need to go the labor intensive DIY route.

There are a few ways to achieve the white ink look. You can use letterpress, but I’ve heard that the white never tuns out that bright. So a better option if you have the room in your budget is engraving.

You can also use foil stamping, which turns out beautifully, but isn’t exactly the most affordable option.

You can also screen print your white text, which is a nice little (or big) DIY project! Or you can pay someone else to do it and keep some of your hair. It makes the white really pop, and gives it a nice vintage feel.

You can also have custom rubber stamps made and hand stamp all of your invites, like Michael and Tim here did (way to set the bar high, guys). Isn’t this stunning?!

And you can always incorporate white ink on the envelopes or in places inside the invite with a white pen. I wish I had handwriting this beautiful!

Sources: engraving, foil stamping, screen printing 1 & 2, stamps, pen

We decided to go with the screen printing option, because we really like the look of paint on paper. So now that I’ve finally agreed to be done with the design, we’re in the process of attempting to screen print all of our Save the Dates. And with all of the experience we have (i.e. NONE), this should be easy! We’re hoping to finish these up in the next couple of weeks, so I’ll have some photos and updates for you in the coming weeks.

Have any of you worked with white ink? Or have you screen printed your own invites? Am I going to hate myself by the end of this? I’d love to hear from you!

I could really use some words of wisdom and encouragement before embarking on this daunting DIY :)

This weekend my goal was to send out our save the dates. With my job, I design invitations to all kinds of events all the time, however it was very fun to finally get to design something that was entirely for me and JB. This has probably been the most daunting job for me simply because of the inspiration overload that I keep talking about. From letterpress, to printed balloons and magnets to film strips, here are some of my very favorites.

one, two, three, four, five, six

JB and I have been together for almost six years (2.5 of which were in high school), because of this we have done a TON of monumental things together from attending senior prom to venturing abroad to moving in to college dorms. I wanted a way to remind people of all the things we’ve done together in a simple, concise and adorable way…enter, the punch card.

We are punch card fanatics, if your restaurant has a punch card, you better bet that we’ll fill that card for the free froyo, sandwich…So we decided to combine our love of punch cards with a list of the things we’ve done together and there you have it, a *hand-punched* punch card ending with an un-punched “Vow I do.”

Kraft envelopes are my favorite and with my mom’s swirly handwriting they are the perfect amount of whimsy and handmade. The one thing I wish I could have done was to use antique stamps on the envelopes (like number six above), but when I really looked at my budget, it just wasn’t something I chose to do. I ordered the rubber stamps with our return address and the heart with “JB and Taylor” from  RubberStamps.net and even though it said 7-10 days, they had it to me in 5. Plus on this site, you can easily upload any .jpg image, see a preview and order a stamp (aka you can use your own handwriting for a stamp to make everything look perfectly handmade).

Next, on to the invitations! I want something more elegant for the invites, but still modern and fun. My mom is an incredible artist, so I would love to use her work. What do you think, hand painting, watercolor, more with the modern typography like the save the dates, what’s your pick?

A few people have asked me about Save The Date cards, so I thought I would gather together a few goodies that I sent over to one bride a few days ago. It might just be me, but I am crazy obsessed with stamping. Not only is is actually cheaper than printing, but it adds something extra awesome to any invitation or paper product. When I was sending her these options, I was looking not only at design, but the variety of placements for the stamp as well as how to wrap it up all pretty.

You can’t go wrong with Kraft paper. You just can’t. Notice the circular edges to make it a little something extra special.

This could possibly be my favorite little bunch ever. Custom muslin bags are amazing, or a little bit of confetti fits perfectly to make an amazing little bundle of awesomeness for those guests that will be receiving these. Neither of these were stamped, but they do provide some amazing stamp inspiration in terms of font and placement. Such as the above, it would be so simple to get a “Save The Date” stamp, then create a stamp with your names and wedding date that could be repurposed throughout the event as a common theme.

Credit: Save The Date, Save The Date, Save The Date, Save The Date,

So there you have it. To be honest, I didn’t even bother with Save The Dates. My wedding wasn’t quite big enough to warrant sending out all these cards, not to mention, I was in no mood to design, stamp and send them all out alone. I know, I’m being such as wedding grinch! I will say though, I absolutely love them and I love receiving them, that was just one of those expenses that got cut in order to afford some other fabulous things. It is all about figuring out what is important :). Just a little note for you budget brides out there.