they have arrived!

Our invitations have arrived! And since I recently received permission from the creator of the artwork we used, I get to share them with the blog-o-sphere. After working on these puppies for the last... um, almost 8 months, I am ridiciulously happy to finally have them finished and ready to go. While I won't be entirely rid of them for a few more months, I am definitely looking forward to April when we get to send them far, far, far away. And now that it's over I have an incredible sense of pride for having created them on my own.

Okay, not really on my own. Not even close.
I have to give a big thanks to Etsy seller adrianneasu who sold me the original artwork which I modified to fit our style and personalities.

I also have to give kudos to Mr. FP, without whom this project would have been impossible. Not only did he teach me how to use Photoshop, but he spent endless hours listening to me freak out at my computer when things weren't going my way and trying to help me through the snags. More importantly, when I started to doubt myself, he spent time (probably more than he wanted to) convincing me that I was doing a good job.

Although the photos leave much to be desired, I've tried to do the best I can to give a sense of the quality. If my word means anything, I think they're top notch and I think it was definitely worth the $1.00 it cost to upgrade the paper for the invitations from glossy to linen finish.

I've also used the first photo to show off one my all-time favorite fonts (especially for wedding stationery) called "Feel Script". For a while, we were using Honey Script (another one of my favorites) to emphasize our names, date and location, but as soon as I came across this one, we both fell in love with it. The only sad part is that I have no idea where I found it. I know it's for sale online, but it was in a random pack of free fonts that I downloaded a while back and now I'm at a loss to find my resource for it. For those who are interested, I do know the rest of the font is called Libby Script and can be downloaded for free here.

{click images to enlarge}


And talk about an economical project! Thanks to VistaPrint.ca we were able to order 60 invites for $31.50 (since I get half price through e-mail offers) which also included free envelopes and an upgrade to linen finish. As for shipping, it only cost $10.10 because we opted for the slowest shipping time and although VistaPrint estimates that the process for what they call "slow shipping" should take up to 21 days, we received ours within 2 weeks. All in all, they cost us a measley $47.01 and while 8 months is longer than I would have liked to spent on the creative process (blame my indecisiveness, not me!), it was more than worth the time, effort and repeated yelling at my computer.

In addition to the invites, I designed RSVP's to fit VistaPrint's postcards as well as business cards with our wedding website which includes guest information, driving directions and information about the area of our wedding since it's out of town and unfamiliar for the majority of Mr. FP's family. And the cost for both of those projects was FREE, plus $15-ish for shipping.

I'd highly recommend that anyone with any computer and/or creative ingenuity take this route for wedding invitations. While many choose the 40-pack of invites from places like Michael's, we never had any luck finding a design that matched our personalities and I was a little scared about how much they would cost after factoring in ink. Not only did I enjoy (for the most part) creating our stationery, but they fit us perfectly, which my grandmother noted after seeing them for the first time by telling us that they were very me. And if, like me, your talents don't even come close to those of a graphics designer, there are tons of digital artists on Etsy who will sell their designs for you to personalize as you please.