The Save the Dates the Wern't

[dominiqueamber]

Here are the Save the Dates I almost went with...I'm posting them because I see posts asking for non-passport, non-boarding pass, non-message in the bottle, and non-luggage-tag save the date so I thought these might inspire the ladies looking for something different. 

 

I started out with way too much inspiration, I tried to find a way to incorporate everything I liked. Here was my inspiration: FIrst I fell for a unique twist on magnets.

 

  I like the idea of fridge reminders but I’ve never liked the idea of my face on your fridge. But if I did magnets I’d want a seashell one too and that was going to be expensive to mail. The school supply obsessed kid in me went crazy over these.

In the course of my research I found the little golf pencils were cheaper but that any pencil would be very difficult to mail. I really like audience participation so I wanted guests to feel like they could “playâ€. You would get a personalized golf pencil and three tiny magnets, one with our faces, one with our logo and one with a tiny seashell. Here's what I came up with: 

 

 

  I shopped online for tiny magnets, they wern’t cheap and I hate paying shipping. I went to the craft stores and Wal-mart and found a few, good ole’ Wal-mart was the cheapest. I found glass gems/bubbles at the dollar store, both large and small. I originally planned to print the date on paper and make it another glass bubble but then I found wood disks at a pretty good price on Etsy. I really wanted to incorporate wood. (I LOVE wood, it reminds me of going to the hardware store with my father as a little girl.) This would make the project more expensive because I would need to make a stamp to get the date on. I just needed shells.  Finding the right size was difficult. I spent hours and hours working on this project and I just wasn’t feeling it. It would be costly and time consuming. I played around with the cardboard postcard next. Here was my inspiration:

Source: http://masonjarbride.blogspot.com/2009/02/as-promised.html

 It’s so pretty right. The best part is it’s green and cheap. It’s made with repurposed cardboard boxes, labels, lace trim and ribbon. I knew this would work well in my shrinking budget and I loved the contrast of the torn cardboard and pretty lace. And here is my (digital mockup) version:

I liked the non-traditional look of these STD’s because they were different than just a picture of the couple of someone’s fridge. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, I just feel weird about my face on your fridge until you get sick of it. Plus I have a strong desire to be creative, unique and different than the rest. Being the indecisive person I am I had such a very hard time choosing one. So it was time to start designing again...Stay tuned!

If you want more details of the journey to my save the dates you can see my blog here: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/79241/dominiqueambers-wedding-planning-blog