This week’s real invitations are some of the most distinctly personal DIY wedding invitations that I’ve featured here to date – and I hope you all love them as much as I do!  The invitations come to us from Haley, whose save the dates you might remember from here.  I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Haley a bit better since I featured her save the dates in April, and her invitations suit her personality perfectly!

From Haley: When it came to the wedding invitations, I didn’t have to think twice about making my own.  I had so much fun designing the save the dates that there was no way I would pass up the invites.  Plus, I’m probably more picky about stationery than anything else and I don’t think even the most patient designer would want to deal with my paper particulars.

At first I  had trouble, thinking my invitations had to be more formal than my save the dates (formality is not my strong suit).  As my wedding planning progressed it was clear that every aspect was going to be pretty DIY and I wanted the invites to reflect that.  I love to draw and I love to hand letter, but I don’t use pencil and I don’t use rulers, haha, so I must have made a billion versions until I finally had one I wanted.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get it printed.  I really had my heart set on letterpress (my love) but had trouble finding someone to do it.  Eventually my co-worker set me up with a printer friend of hers and she wonderfully accepted the project.  She did a beautiful job and printed everything in the AS220 Community Printshop here in Providence.

Haley had her invitations printed in a light seafoam color ink on an off-white linen texture paper backed in charcoal gray (see below), while the enclosed rsvp cards were printed in gray ink on light blue paper.  I love how Haley used a consistent color palette of blues, creams, and grays throughout the invitations, from the gray rsvp envelopes (complete with a stamp of Edgar Alan Poe!) to the blue invitation envelopes.  Haley packaged everything together in a half-moon enclosure envelope like these from Paper Source.

I’m also completely crazy for all of the amazing hand-lettering that Haley did for her invitations!  I can only imagine how effort Haley put into creating the design – although I’m sure it was a labor of love.  Just incredible.  You can see more of Haley’s unique hand lettering in her etsy shop right here.  Thanks so much Haley!

{all photos by Oh So Beautiful Paper}