How I DIY’ed My Minted Wedding Invitations

 

I’m not sure if it’s luck, the fruits of planning ahead, or my inclination to jump in and make decisions just to get sh*t done, but we’ve had an easy peasy wedding planning process thus far. With almost every vendor and detail, I did my research and then chose the first or second option we seriously considered. The one exception: our Minted wedding invitations.

These have been an ordeal. And, because of that, I’m actually going to dedicate 2 blog posts to the wedding invitation process. I had planned on writing a post about choosing an invitation, the wording, and other frequently asked questions – similar to what I did with our Save the Date’s. However, as I went through the process, it became clear I wanted to write about the struggle I had in finding invitations and how I finally settled on one that I love.

LITTLE WREATH MINTED WEDDING INVITATIONS

Perhaps it’s because I consider myself to have a design savvy eye, but I had high expectations of what I wanted the invitation to look like and the mood I wanted it to set for our wedding. I wanted the invite to be traditional, but not too stuffy. I wanted it to evoke the wintery, intimate feeling of our wedding weekend.

It just took a bit of scrolling through the hundreds of options on Minted to find an invite that fit the bill. While I ordered samples of several invitations, I knew that Little Wreath was the front runner. I loved the wintery wreath motif, the gold leaf details, and the design of the matching menu, program, and other wedding related paper goods. Excitedly, I ordered the invitations, ivory envelopes, RSVP cards, the weekend detail cards, and couldn’t wait to put them together.

 

 

NOT QUITE THE INVITATIONS I DREAMED OF

Except when they came, something was missing. The beautiful, wintery invitations I had imagined lacked some oomph. Something seemed unfinished. I started thinking about ways to throw money at the problem – maybe if I order the belly band that would make them seem more complete? Or perhaps the envelope insert? Each idea was adding another $65 to the total, something I didn’t want to do. But, I also didn’t want to be disappointed in the invitations I was sending out.

So, I started considering DIY options. DIY was the last thing I wanted to do for anything wedding related, but I also was aware of our bottom line and keeping things relatively in budget. An extra $145 may seem like a drop in the bucket, but it adds up – and wouldn’t I rather put that money towards something else?

 

 

CHOOSING A KRAFT ENVELOPE

The first change I made was to order a brown kraft envelope and RSVP card envelope to replace the ivory ones that I had originally ordered with the invitations. Luckily, I had a brown kraft envelope on hand to test out the look before placing the order – and, sure enough, it added a bit of warmth and coziness that gave the invite a more finished look.

Honestly, I could have sent them out just like that and I would have been totally happy. But, on a trip to the craft store to buy frames, I decided to take a look at the paper aisle…and the ribbon aisle. And the ideas started flowing.

ADDING A GILDED INSERT

I strolled down the scrapbook paper aisle wondering if maybe I could create my own inserts for a fraction of what I would pay to order the inserts through Minted – plus, I didn’t love the Minted inserts,  they weren’t gold foil, which felt kind of flat when juxtaposed with the invitation.

Bingo, I found an entire section of paper with gold foil print for just $1.99 a sheet. I settled on a tree bark print that felt appropriately seasonal, bought 4 sheets for a total of $8, picked up a glue stick, and was good to go. I created a simple stencil, cut 4 inserts out of each sheet of paper, and glued them in. It took no time at all and looks as nice as a store bought insert would have.

 

 

TYING IT TOGETHER WITH A BOW

Similarly, I thought, there must be a way to tie the invitation together that isn’t nearly as expensive as ordering the belly bands through Minted. I made my way over to the ribbon aisle wondering if a gold wire ribbon could offer the same finished look. I picked up a simple gold ribbon that would hold its shape and for just $6, I had enough for a DIY belly band for all of our invitations.

THE FINISHING TOUCHES

Of course, there was still just a bit more I could do to give our invitations a special look and feel. I had already decided I wanted to hand letter the invitations, but looked for inspiration on Pinterest and settled on large scale gold script that would fill up almost the entire front of the envelope. Then, I added a menagerie of 5 stamps to give it a nostalgic, artsy vibe.

The final result was exactly what I had wanted all along. It took a while to get there, but sometimes the end game just requires using a bit of creativity, thinking about what you have, and making it happen.