Our Custom Destination Wedding Save the Dates

I must have been crazy trying to plan a wedding in just four and a half months – just completely off my rocker. Seriously. And a destination wedding, no less. So as June was coming to a close, I realized that we hadn’t even created our guest list, much less picked out wedding stationary. While this *is* the 21st Century, and I *am* a hard core digital girl, it doesn’t change the fact that I still want the personal touch of paper and snail mail for my wedding Save the Dates and Invitations.

Why? Well, call me a hopeless romantic, but weddings are about romance and sweet surprises. Our mail boxes, both virtual and otherwise, are filled with far to much spam or junk mail and bills. How nice is it to open an envelope, hand addressed to you, from an old (or even new) friend?

And in this digital age of “pinterest” weddings, how hard is it NOT to fall in love with unique, DIY Wedding Save the Dates like these?

So here I am, all through June, with this totally sane idea in my head that I would sooooooooo have time to make these and customize them for us. It wasn’t until we actually sat down to WRITE up our guest list and then discover that it would take a while to gather up long lost snail mail addresses that it hit me like a ton of bricks. No matter how much I *wanted* to be a DIY Bride, there was a better chance of me being struck by lighting tomorrow. Sigh.

I briefly thought about designing my own save the date magnets but that would require designing, printing, aligning them onto large sheets of magnets and then tediously cutting them out. Seriously? When you factor in opportunity cost like time, energy and resources it simply isn’t feasible or worth any cost savings. With all of the other details consuming my life for the next 4 and a half months, I know that I simply don’t have time for DIY.

…but that doesn’t mean my Save the Dates can’t look like they are. It made so much more sense to go to Wedding Paper Divas and get the DIY look with the speed and convenience of a pre-made invitation. (If you’re not familiar with the name you may recognize it’s other quality brands like Tiny Prints, Treat and Shutterfly). I’ve used Shutterfly and Tiny Prints over and over again to create Whistler’s actor comp cards and have received many compliments on them. 

I found so many really cute and unique Save the Dates that I actually had a really hard time choosing. I especially love their Custom Type Collection Designs because they look like you hired a graphic artist to make it just for you. We especially loved this retro looking “poster type” design.

Then I remembered that I had a tiny bit of foresight on our wedding research trip to Cancun last month and took a few cutesy, love photos on the beach. I *really* wanted to use a specific shot we took so I went straight to the section of the site where I could create Save the Dates from my own photo. Following with the current trend of magnets, I found a design I liked (We the Wed) that went well with the photo I wanted to use. What’s awesome about their site is that aside from having a gazillion designs to choose from, you can further customize any one you like with the help of their designers. (For instance, I needed to add an additional line of text to ours.)

We are so thrilled with the way these turned out and they arrived faster than expected. I’ve satisfied my requirement of “unique” while also salvaging what little time I have to spare. To give them an even more personal touch, I used a custom self-inking stamp I had ordered last year for Christmas cards. Truth be told, I would have really loved to use an embosser instead!

With our Save the Dates out of the way, we are already working on our Wedding Invitations. Once again trying to incorporate our very own unique touch with the speed, ease and quality of Wedding Paper Divas, I’m going to see if I can push them to the limits of customization. Stay tuned!!

A huge thank you goes to Wedding Paper Divas for agreeing to partner with me on my wedding stationery needs so that I could share my experience with you. I honestly approached THEM because I knew from previous experience that they were a brand I wanted to endorse and that I could trust with something as special as my wedding. I am so glad I did!

PSST! Wedding Paper Divas is offering 20% off wedding invitations, response cards, enclosure cards and thank you cards, plus free shipping on orders of $49 or more when you enter coupon code INV20SHIPBS14 at checkout. Offer expires 07/31/13 at 11:59 pm (PT).