Skinny Black Tie Wedding Invitations

My cousin Annie got married back in 2010, and when she asked me to be her Maid of Honor, I was SO thrilled. She's been like a sister to me my whole life and I couldn't wait to help her plan her big day. She decided to have a black tie wedding at the Branford House in Connecticut, a beautiful stone mansion on the ocean. The theme was what I'll call "vintage elegance", with unique touches all over the place. From the antique centerpieces to the vintage place settings to the black and white family wedding portraits, everything was one of a kind, romantic and super special. I've never seen an event with more personal touches! It was a lot of work (and shopping, and hugs, and tears and glasses of wine) but in the end the day was perfect and well worth it!

SO, when we set out to think about invitations, I knew they had to be special. The main reason we chose to make them by hand was to save on cost, but the more I played around with the design, the more we all realized that this was going to just add another personal touch to the whole day. What's more special than receiving a handmade, one of a kind, wedding invitation in the mail? I was so excited!

The shape: I knew I wanted something different. It couldn't just be a typical folded invitation. So once I had the idea to create a sleeve of some sort, the shape sort of fell into place. I went to Paper Source to look at paper, and after an hour and a half, all the other details had fallen into place.

The design: I started out with a vision that included some sort of ornamental "swirl" and a complementary swirly, elegant font. I ended up scanning a piece of wrapping paper for the swirl, and I went with Edwardian Script for the cursive font. I'm really happy with the way they turned out!

The construction: It took 4 of us about 6 hours to put these together (and we're all artistically inclined!) Definitely not a simple construction, and if I did it again I may have planned the pockets a little differently. A complete invitation had 11 different pieces!

Love these invitations? I am now taking orders for personalized handmade invitations! Complete this form for a quote!