What's the Difference between Custom and Semi-Custom Wedding Invitations?

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

My Favorite Watercolor Supplies

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Wedding Invitation Design Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

The origin story of Crissie Vitale Creative starts with the story of my own wedding invitations. 

I had always been a big fan of gorgeous paper, so when it came time to plan the invitations for our wedding, I knew I wanted something unique that really reflected what our wedding was going to be. Invitations are the first tangible experience your guests have with your wedding - and I knew (even back then!) how important that was! 

But everywhere I looked for invites I came out disappointed. Things were either too generic, too expensive, or just poorly designed. I decided the only way to get them right was to do them myself, turns out I was right - and wrong, in a lot of ways. 

Let’s start on a positive note!
WHAT I DID RIGHT:

I worked with a designer for our monogram. 
I knew I wanted a central element that would live across our wedding paper and signage. I wanted it to be unique, and was not confident in my own artistic abilities at that point (I still believed the myth that if you had bad handwriting you wouldn’t be good at calligraphy). So I had Mel Chiusano design that piece for me. 

I cared about details. 
I wanted all the bells and whistles to make our invites truly special. Paper weight was super important to me (and still is!) having envelope liners, varied card sizes, a way to hold the suite together and euro-flap (non-white) envelopes were all on my must have list. 

I committed the time. 
I spent ALL of my free time working on these. From designing, to sourcing paper and envelopes, to problem solving (keep reading for the problems!!), to assembling (Liners! Twine! Double envelopes!), to hand addressing  every envelope (oh, AND learning calligraphy first), the time commitment to get these right was huge. This helped me realize WHY custom invitations cost what they do. You not only pay for great design, but a lot of hard work and time! (Stay tuned for a blog post all about pricing!) 

OK, now for the fun part.
LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT I DID WRONG: 

Over-ordered. By A LOT. 
Let’s start with the Save the Dates. 
First of all, I ordered enough Save the Dates for each individual person invited to the wedding to receive one instead of ordering one per household like I should have. I still have a HUGE stack of extra Save the Dates (as you can see in the photo on the left.)

Quick tip for you: A good way to estimate how many invitations you need is to divide your total guest count in half and add 25. 

Didn’t start with a clear vision. 
I also felt rushed sending these out - so I didn’t have a vision for the rest of the suite when I created them. Not 100% a bad thing - in my custom process I often design the Save the Dates months before the invitation suite, but I also have a good feel of there I want the rest of the design to go. Our save the dates were printed on a totally different color paper, and the foliage elements were a much brighter green than where I ended up for the rest of the suite. They still look like they are in the same family - but I wish they were a bit closer to the final look. Working with a designer for your full suite will help you keep a cohesive design from start to finish!

Had a few sizing snafus. 
The 5x7 invitations I ordered from a cheap DIY site where I could upload my design were not actually 5x7 at all but 4.75 x 7.25. (In retrospect I should have caught this before I ordered when I had to resize my final art file - but I thought it was just some weird print file set-up thing, how was i to know any better!? The site said 5x7!) 

Because of that extra .25 inches in length, my beautiful double-thick invite cards did not fit into the envelopes I had specially ordered from a different vendor. To solve this issue, I decided to re-order larger envelopes, which was cheaper than re-printing the cards and felt a lot safer than trying to evenly cut them all down to size. But since I was doing an inner and an outer envelope (like I said - I was all about the extras!!) I had to find new sizes for BOTH sets of envelopes! Ugh!

Letterpress Printing 101 & An Elegant Brooklyn Wedding

Photo by Michael Justin Studios

Before we dive into the gorgeousness that is this Brooklyn wedding, I wanted to chat a little bit about letterpress printing. I have long been obsessed with all things letterpress (even before I got into the stationery game…!) Letterpress is a super old-school printing method where you use polymer plates to imprint (press!) your design (with or without ink) onto paper. It’s so beautiful and super elegant - so when Annie asked about letterpress printing for her custom invitation suite I was all for it!

Letterpress came to be in 1440 (told you it was old-school!) and originally used single letter blocks - or movable type - that printers would use to form words and print books and newspapers. Movable type had been around for a while already - it was invented in 1040 in China, using ceramic tile. But Johannes Gutenberg gets credit for inventing modern letterpress with his wood blocks and a wine press.

Moveable Type, Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash

For wedding invites these days, we use plates to create the design impressions. Here’s one that was made for a save the date (this one was actually for foil stamping - so it is copper, letterpress plates are very similar but usually polymer since they don’t get hot like with foil.)

With letterpress, you have to print each color individually - which can get pretty pricey. So, for Annie, we did a one color letterpress invitation that was supplemented with digitally printed RSVP and details cards, and an envelope liner to bring more colors into the suite. The result was the perfect mix of elegance and whimsy for her December wedding in Brooklyn, NY. Here are some photos from the day, taken by Michael Justin Studio. (click a thumbnail to open the gallery)

I worked with Steracle Press here in Chicago to get these printed  - and they did such an amazing job.

Get in touch HERE if you are interested in letterpress for your custom invites and we can chat all about the process and resulting prettiness!