Cindy's DIY Passport Invites - a true labor of love!

[cindy2013]

I finally finished my passport invites and wanted to share with all of you how they turned out!  Thank you to the many brides on this website for inspiring me to take on the challenge.  I sent them out last week and have already gotten some RSVP's!  I started off searching the entire forum for DIY passports and gathered ideas from the many beautiful passports that have been done.  A huge thank you to skp1, gatorgirl and joanneireland for the inspiration...I found myself going back to your invites many, many times!

 

I started off with figuring out what information and how many pages I wanted to include.  I used Aylee's free template because I wanted to insert my own monogram and backgrounds into the passport, so figured this was the easiest way to go about doing that!  I played around with the design, pictures, and wording for quite a while before coming up with what I would finally include.  I also changed the template a bit because when I printed up what I wanted, the pages didn't match up at all.

 

I found my paper at paperandmore, using the recommendations of brides on this site.  I found some amazing deals:

 

• 200 pages of double sided metallic champagne text paper 80#
• 100 metallic champagne 4 bar Euro flap envelopes
• 100 metallic champagne A-2 envelopes
• 100 silver double heart seals

 

From Michael's, I purchased about 50 12x12 cardstock to make my passport covers and luggage tag RSVP's.  These, I cut down to 8.5x11, was able to make two passport covers with, and a couple RSVP's.

 

 

These are the passport covers just after folding.  I printed them on my printer which is just a standard inkjet.  I had gone to Staples and a few other places, but they either weren't able to print on my paper, charged a ton of money for printing, or took a few weeks to submit orders.  I did some trial runs and ended up being happy with what the outcome was.

 

Once I printed all the passport covers, I started printing the inner pages.  This took a long time because I wanted to ensure each page dried properly.  Then I had to print them double sided to get the effect I wanted!

 

 

This is the assembly line we created.  My parents were a huge help with making sure they were packaged right, and that everyone on the list was checked off.  Below are my RSVP tags, which I numbered individually in case people would return them without writing their names (another helpful piece of advice from the brides on this site! These were made using the leftover cardstock, cutting it down until I was happy with the shape.  I cut all of them using the original one.  I then printed off my RSVP's on the metallic paper, cut them all out, and glued them to the cardstock using repositional glue bought at Michael's.  They were then hole-punched and the string was looped around so that they looked fancier!

 

 

After all was printed out, it was assembly time.  I cut and folded for longer than I care to ever do again!  After all the pages were folded, I tucked them into the cover and did this 100 times.  Next step was to punch out two little rectangular holes so that I could bind the invites together with ribbon.  I wasn't sure how to best tie the pages together, but after experimenting, I just went with this method.  I then cut string out and tied each passport, then cut the corners of the passports to make them look more authentic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the picture quality, I just used my iPhone!    I also created a french version for my mom's side of the family, which ended up being exactly the same layout.

 

Thanks again to all the brides for giving tons of advice!!

[2ndtimesacharm]

Very pretty!!!  I can't believe you created a whole separate version in French too.  I'm sure your guests will really appreciate that!!

[cindy2013]

Thank you!  I've gotten quite a few texts today from friends...so exciting!!

[elissae]

GREAT GREAT JOB, Cindy!!!!  They are beautiful!  Love the wine bottle in the picture!  LOL!  That was me and my BFF while we did mine!

[kmiller8609]

Love the ribbon you used to bind them!!!! looks great!!

[MissBubbles205]

Cindy, I don't know how I missed these before!!  You did an amazing job!!!.. I attempted Aylee's template but mine did not turn out like this at all, so I had to start from scratch. Love your invites, and the white ribbon was a great touch!! Also, I think it's awesome your created a french version!!  Love it! )

[cindy2013]

Originally Posted by MissBubbles205 

 

Cindy, I don't know how I missed these before!!  You did an amazing job!!!.. I attempted Aylee's template but mine did not turn out like this at all, so I had to start from scratch. Love your invites, and the white ribbon was a great touch!! Also, I think it's awesome your created a french version!!  Love it! )

Thanks so much! I used that template as well but had to basically start from scratch because it didn't work as I had planned the first time around!  Definitely lots and lots of work though!!

[Jenna1511]

These look great! You did an amazing job! I too used the alyee bits template for passport invites and it's been a bit of a struggle! It will all be worth it if they look anything like this! Thanks for sharing again really great job!

[Ryves]

I started to work on passport but it has really been a challenge. Fortunately all yu DIY brides are an inspiration to me. Thanks for sharing.

[Ty Roane]

I love this.  I am finding Aylee's template a tad difficult in WORD...Gotta figure this out :-/