Haute Khuuture Blog
Lifestyle

How to Custom Design Your Wedding Invitations

 Happy Wedding Wednesdays y’all!

I spent countless hours scouring the web for invitation inspiration and once I stumbled upon gold-foil pressed cardstocks, I
knew it was EXACTLY what I was after!  So elegant and just the perfect amount of GLAM to fit our wedding style!  But these things don’t come cheap honey.  Here’s how you can save a pretty penny by doing it ALL yourself!  Minus the printing part of course…
 

Step 1 | Select a Color Palette

Once you lock down your wedding style, the FIRST step is to come up with a COLOR palette.  After booking The Historical Los Angeles Athletic Club (above) for our ceremony and reception, I allowed the gorgeous ballroom to dictate the color story for our entire wedding.
Crimson reds and merlot hues, accented with metallic gold and rich browns, anchored by my signature inky black gothic vibe.  I even went one further and designated a “mandatory” dress code card for guests, lol.  Something about a perfectly coordinated color palette that really excites me! As seen in previous dress codes HERE, HERE, and HERE.  I even sent all my gal pals the red carpet collage I made above for dress code inspiration.

Step Two | Select a Style

Since your invitation is the first impression guests will get of your wedding style, make sure it hits all the points you are trying to achieve while tying in the wedding colors of the actual day.

OUR WINTER WEDDING STYLE:  Glam luxe meets Gothic romance

I pinned some invitations I LOVED from Pinterest and after having contacted the graphic companies directly for a quote, these babies came out to over $50+ per invitation! Multiply that by 150 invitations and I’ve just blown a fraction of my budget on invites alone! Crazy!!!

Step 3 | Graphic Design

So to keep costs low, I designed all the graphics and layout myself, brought the artwork to my friends at Print 5K (Fountain Valley, CA) and let the professionals do their work.
Our CUSTOM Wedding Invitations included the following:
  • Formal Invitation (gold-leaf print front and back) with handmade DIY envelope
  • Ceremony invitation card
  • Reply card with handmade DIY reply envelope
  • Directions and map
  • Dress code card with handmade DIY envelope
  • Custom DIY invitation envelope
Pin to bookmark post
I purchased all the generic black envelopes and dress code card sleeves from Amazon HERE and began to customize the look with gold craft paint from Michael’s.

I sealed our envelopes with red wax and a Chinese Double Happiness stamp purchased on Etsy HERE.  Keeping in line with our palette, RED was the obvious choice to up the glamour quotient.

When it came time to custom design my reply envelopes, I knew I wanted a painterly quality and used a foam brush and the same gold paint to wash color onto the addressee portion.

The perfect gold background for our black address stamps!

Step 4 | Details, Details

Dress code cards fit snuggly into my DIY handmade card sleeve with matching ribbons to dictate the approved colors.  Guests remarked that they LOVED this idea and kept the card in their wallet and purses to reference when out shopping for their formal attire!  Love it when a good idea comes in handy!  Since I designed the invitation graphics and wedding logo myself, I modified versions of the design and extended it to every single facet of our event.  From the flipbook cover (above) to our photo booth layout (below)… Photobooth vendor: Pixta Perfect

Our custom GOBO lighting projection monogram with the graphic I designed

Every inch of the wedding just SCREAMED our style with all the custom designed graphics.

I placed Mega Million lottery tickets in more custom made envelopes I made as wedding favors for our guests…I’m a fan of practical gifts!  And who doesn’t secretly dream of winning the lottery? lol…

I also designed our seating chart in a scroll format with our custom logo on top and printed at Kinko’s.  The scrolls were displayed right at the sign-in entry so guests knew where they were seated.

Instead of Table Numbers, I opted for Table Names.  Designating each table with our favorite Los Angeles cities since our wedding was held in Downtown LA and we have so many fond memories, having once lived there.
The designer in me just doesn’t know where to stop y’all. My trusty Cameo Silhouette machine cuts and captures all the little handmade deets from the Table names, to the place cards, even down to the menu I designed.
I probably logged over 200 hours to design everything you see here. Soooooo time consuming but every time I look back at all I’ve achieved, I wouldn’t trade it for ANYTHING ELSE in the world!

 

And there you have it!  How to custom design your wedding invitations plus 15 additional DIY ideas to capture your wedding style, print by print.  What do you think? Would you endeavor DIY invitations and graphics when it comes time to plan your wedding?  Is the low cost worth ALL your personal time? Do tell!

 

Catch up on all related Wedding Wednesday posts BELOW:
GOING CUSTOM | The Making of My Engagement Ring Setting
HOW TO HIRE THE RIGHT PHOTOGRAPHER | Plus defining your wedding style
The FIRST 4 THINGS You MUST decide when planning your wedding
Wedding Planning 101 | Where to SPLURGE and Where to SAVE

 

FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | BLOGLOVIN’

Author

Related Posts

44 Comments

  12. sharon smith Reply

    I can't wait to get mine in the mail. Lol. These are amazing. I love how it represents your style. So special and well planned. It sets the tone from the minute it arrives. Congratulations.
    Sharon

  20. Lorena Reply

    Such a great idea to have the dress code in color coding ! I have never seen that. Veru creative J.

  22. Beckerman Girls Reply

    WOWOWOWOWO!!!! Your invites are NEXT level gorgeous!!!! WOWO! Totally just blew me away! Stunning, gorgeous, obsessive!!!! Your little tokyo theme is the BESSSST!!!! U r so talented .I lovvvve the gold brush marks and tassels!
    kisses
    xoThe Beckerman Girls

    http://www.BeckermanBlog.com

Write A Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.