Ranunculus Wedding Invites That Don’t Suck!
Alright so when it comes to “DIY Wedding… Stuff” I have to be the least inspired, least creative, and least motivated bride in the world.
Make something? Spend hours putting it together? It might not turn out the way I wanted and I’ll have to commander a whole room to lay everything out, plus clean it all up.
Hell no. I’ll just pay someone else to do it for me, thankyouverymuch.
So Vince and I looked at invitations online and we found a couple that we really liked but nothing was perfect.
Invitation Vince and I loved, but thought was far too bright.
Then I decided I wanted ranunculus flowers on our wedding invitations so I began a very specific search.
And I couldn’t find a single. damn. one.
(okay not true, but the two I found freaking suuuuuuucked.)
Now, the nice-designs-that-anyone-can-order invitations, like the one above, are freaking expensive.
But custom invitations? Yeah forget it. People will remember the food, not the piece of paper inviting them to eat food (unless you’re Vicki and mail out a work of art). I couldn’t justify the money.
I was explaining this to my Maid of Honor, Jess, when we had the idea to search Etsy for ranunculus flower .jpgs and .pngs. And low and behold, we found a set of high-rez, pink ranunculus flowers for $8.00.
Sold!
So pretty! So pink!
After Jess went home I opened the flowers in Photoshop and spent 1 to 2 hours cropping and changing the colors with the help of Color-Hex.com.
Then I wandered over to my favorite online scrap-booking site, Mixbook.com, imported four purple ranunculus flowers as stickers, and started laying them out similar to the invitation we liked the most.
After another couple of hours, I had our invitations.
Front and back of my invitations! I freakin MADE this!
Now, if you’re like me, you think these are way too bright.
That’s why I ordered samples, and I expected them to require adjustments and tweeks. I was prepared to beg Joanna to help me properly calibrate my monitor and pick purples.
Hell, I ordered them over a year before our wedding so I would have time to slack off .
But then,… they got here,… and they. are. freakin’. PERFECT!
I printed them on 130# 16 pt matte paper stock with a sparkly matte finish, so the cardstock is really solid and did an amazing job of absorbing the ink. They’re not nearly so bright in-person.
I have officially made my own ranunculus wedding invitations – and they don’t suck!
And thanks to Mixbook Groupons, I got 95 invitations for $75.00.
Next up: Information and response cards to match! Wish me luck! 