tris

mocha - ooooh exciting!! I have mine booked for Sunday, Feb 13th .

hamme - yay!! Let me know how they turn out. I'd love to see how different fabrics & designs end up looking. acireta - I LIVE off of the planning threads on here! I think it's my favorite part of this whole forum. I can't wait to do one! It won't be as in depth as a lot of the girls though. I'm not doing OOT bags and we're going pretty simple on decor since it's a lot of work to bring everything down with us . We'll see how much I can get away with though

acireta - Thanks! I was worried I wasn't including enough, so I kind of overdid the steps . In the end it's not that hard to do, just time consuming, that's all.

Awww, thanks ladies ! I'm so happy with how they turned out. I am a graphic designer by trade, so I do actually get paid to do this ! Hehe. I work for a local Advertising company doing logo design & branding for companies, and I have a little freelance business on the side doing wedding invites & other fun stationary (I have a link in my sig).

Teria - Yah, that's my job. It's a pretty sweet job actually. I get to be creative and make pretty things and get paid for it ! I work for an Advertising company in the city, and I also freelance on the side just for fun. Thanks (about my website) too! I do a lot more print, logo & branding design, but I can put together a website if need be. No problem about the tree colours If you ever need help with anything related let me know. It will take me 2 seconds to do in photoshop Thanks everyone else ! I'm so happy with how they turned out and I wanted to show off a bit !! Mocha - Your rings are gorgeous!! So shiny !! Greysgirl - I'm doing a BD shoot beginning of Feb. I'll let you know how it goes Oh, and it's 100 days until I get married ! Tomorrow is double digits! *woop woop*

Thanks Ladies!! I posted how I made them here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/67837/my-diy-linen-invites#post_1523477

As a graphic designed I knew all along that I'd go a little overboard on my invites. I wanted something a little more substantial than regular paper, so I decided to make linen fabric pocket folds to house the invites and give them a little oomph. I did them in our wedding colors, turquoise & brown with hints of berry as the accent. I also wanted them to be tropical, but not overboard. I'm also a sucker for interested typography... Here's all 20-some hours of my work: Now for how I did it! The "linen" I used is actually cross stitch fabric. You could use any type of fabric for this. Imagine the possibilities! The print is done on 110lb linen paper, but could be printed on really anything. Supplies: Large craft paper Scrapbook paper Glue gun ruler Scissors Utility knife Ribbon Fabric of choice Pencil Spray Glue (optional) Step 1: On a large sheet of card stock in a similar color to your fabric of choice measure out the basic structure out of the invite. The final invite size I went for was 6.5"x6.5" (in retrospect I wish I would've done them 6"x6", it's much easier to find envelopes and you'd use much less paper later on - so I'll give the measurements for both). For 6.5" - measure out rectangles of 6.5"X13" For 6" - measure out rectangles of 6"X12" Step 2: Cut them out using an utility knife if you can (scissors work but the knife/ruler combo gives you much more control) Step 3: measure out the center and fold using a bone folder (if you have, if not just fold by hand) Step 4: Get out your fabric ! Cut out rectangles that are approx 3/4 of an inch or 1" all around larger than your structure. Basically give it a comfortable border. The cut doesn't need to be perfect, you'll see why next. Step 5: As you can see, here's the invite structure with it's soon to be fabric covering. I use spray glue to keep it nice and tacked down. It's not necessary, but it's really handy. Step 6: Put a little spray glue on the one side of the structure and stick it down. Wrap the other side of the fabric around. This way the card stock doesn't warp. ] Step 7: Now, using a glue gun, put a small drop of glue in each of the corners and fold the corners in. Step 8: After all 4 corners are folded in, move to the shorter sides, putting a thin line of glue along the edge and fold them in. Then do the same with the longer edges. Step 9: Cut out 6.5"x13" rectangles from scrapbook paper. Since most paper is 12"x12", 6.5X12 is just fine, the other inch will be covered anyway. If you're going for the 6" invite, cut them out 6"x12" (basically cut the scrapbook paper in half, super easy). After you have it cut out. Score and fold so that you have a 6.5"X6.5" square on at least one side (for the smaller invite 6"X6") Step 10: Time for some more gluing! With the fabric covered structure folded, line up the scored folds of the two pieces and start by gluing the one side with the glue gun. Then the second. Make sure the folds match up! Otherwise it won't fold properly. Step 11: Ta DA! As you can see on the one side the paper doesn't go right to the edge. That's the side the pocket fold is going to go on. Let's move on to that. Step 12: The pocket fold paper is made out of card stock. It's 6.5"X3.5". Measure in 1" on each piece and score/fold. (for 6" invite, 6"X3.5") Step 13: Using the same technique as before, cover the pocket fold with fabric. The 1" folded piece only needs to be 1/2 covered. Just make sure the 2.5"X6.5" is nicely covered with about 1-2" going over onto the fold. Step 14: Line up the folded piece with the edge of the pocket fold. Using a good amount of glue, glue the fold down to the edge (as shown). Step 15: Now using a carefully placed line of glue (glue gun!!!) press down one side at a time making sure the glue doesn't run. Step 16: Using spray gun (or any glue you'd like, as I said before, I like spray glue) stick your invite in. The main invite is 6.25"X6.25" allowing for a small border and a pop of color. I did my invites with 3 inserts plus an RSVP. These can be designed at any size you'd like depending on how many you use and how you want them to overlap. Mine are the following sizes: RSVP: 5"X3" (to fit an RSVP envelope) Accommodations: 6"X5.5" Info Card: 5.25"X5.5" Itinerary: 4.5"X5.5" Now here is how I made my belly bands Step 1: Using craft paper (scrapbook paper or any card stock would work fine), cut 1.5" strips. Step 2: measure them out to size so they fit comfortably over your invites. Not too tight, but not to loose. I found basically giving it about .25" breathing room was a good call. Step 3: glue them together and trim them so that the overlap is in the middle (and will be covered by the monogram) Step 4: I used a translucent ribbon... so that made this more difficult. I had to make sure that the glue was only used in small dots in the middle of the band. If you use a regular ribbon, your life will be 100X easier. Step 5: Finally I covered the glue up with twine. I wanted to give it a bit of rustic touch. After this is all wrapped around I covered the edges up with the monogram. So that's how I did it.

Brandy. I made them . It's all from scratch. The linen fabric is actually cross-stitch fabric that I bought at Micheals by the roll

Hey Ladies!! All done the invites!! I've put close to 24 hours worth of work into these bad boys so I'm pretty damn proud of them ! Being a graphic designer I put way too much thought & love into these... I also took pics as I put them together and I'll be posting it all in a new thread, but I was too excited to wait to share!! Here they are! Let me know what you think

oh and Brandy, my FI's suit is almost exact to what yours picked (and it looks great on him *wink wink*)

Teira - If you send me the image I can do it for you Brandy- Wow you've accomplished a lot!! Way to go!! We picked up all of our invite prints and tonight I've put together our "guide" (ie. super messy invite example). Tomorrow FI & I will assembly line them together. Omg they look great! I can't wait to post them tomorrow!! (I'm also taking pics to do a how to for DYI)

I had my first dress fitting today! It went awesome. It was nice because my BM Jenn got to tag along and she wasn't able to come with when I bought the dress. The bad news is I found out my super sexy shoes are much too tall for the dress.. and I don't want to try to add length to it. Boo! Back to square one. Now invite making tonight! Yay!!

http://theperfectpalette.blogspot.com/ check out this site. it's AMAZING. be warned, you'll spend hours on it.

Those frames are so cute!! Go to a dollar store and buy some cheap ones, sand them down and spray paint them!!

That's so exciting for you ! I'm going with a V-day package Sugar & Soul is offering. $200 for 15 touched up images on a disc, 3 prints, makeup, 30 min of shooting. Plus one of the other ladies on here is splitting the cost of the studio with me so it's only $50 extra for the location. Yay! In my price range!!

I want a long weekend FI & I are registered at Home Outfitters (Canadian ladies, even you aren't having a shower, you should register there! You get some free stuff when you register and you get 10% off everything in your list that isn't bought for you for a year after your wedding, so it's totally worth it!). We are also registered at Sears for family back at home. I'm pretty sure I'm getting 2 showers, one from my Mom with family, my parents friends, etc, and my bridal party is throwing me one out in the city here with younger girls, drinks, you know

I know a lot of girls on here mentioned how they wrote their own script and it wasn't a big deal. That's what FI and I will be doing. I have no problem with the prayer. I'm sort of religious, FI isn't, but we still pray before large family meals so it's fine, but I understand how uncomfortable it would be if you're not and I'm sure the resort would accomodate this.

This weekend: - pick up invite prints, construct invites, address envelopes & mail out - pick up wedding dress & go to first fitting *eeeeeppp!!!!* - send GM links to the pants they need to buy & remind them to get white shoes I think that's it for this weekend

Lite - That's awesome! How much are you ending up paying if you don't mind me asking?

Awww... well I already have my dresses (I posted them a few back), but this would've been great. I have my first dress fitting on Saturday... I'm getting it done by a little Chinese lady ! She's charging me like half the price that the bridal shop was going to charge.

Brandy, I LOVE THAT DRESS!!

Awwww Boo!!! My kitties are always getting in my pictures too. "What? Something's going on here?" Silly cats. The bouquets are beautiful. I love the pop of blue!

Lua, I'm pretty sure you just get the marriage license in Jamaica. Unless you're doing a legal ceremony back at home. Most places include the license in your wedding package as well.

Hey Ames, Sorry to hear you're having trouble. I don't have the # off hand but it is on the website. We called and spoke to her once. If you don't mind me asking how long have you been waiting? When it came to booking she was pretty quick with us (no more than a week between emails) but since we've booked she takes about a month to get back to me....

JayKay, All the brides I've spoken to who hired the band said it was the best thing they did. We are having them play at our champagne ceremony after the reception so the hour makes sense for us. You could always have them for the hour and the half hour after the ceremony just have guests mingle, say their congrats' and enjoy the music? Congrats on booking the day!! With most of us getting married within the next few months you'll have tons of reviews to go of off