Creative DIY Wedding Invitations

These were a real creative process!  I knew I wanted recycled paper, vintage Vermont postcards and my grandmothers old buttons but I had to come up with a way to bring it all together.  I bought recycled brown paper envelopes and some recycled brown paper wrap for packages and began experimenting.  I used my printer to print our return address and the guest address on the envelopes.  It took a few tries to get it right but then it was easy so always make sure you have extra! 

I bought some velum for the actual invitation and tried a few formats until I found one I liked.    I then searched on Ebay for old wall paper books until I found two big ones I really liked and cut them up to go behind the vellum.  I used the brown wrap as a backing to the invites and secured them all together with twine and my grandmothers buttons.  Here is the poem I wrote while thinking about my grandmother and making these invites with her buttons:

My Grandmothers Buttons

 My wedding greetings are on the table
 Almost complete
  Twine, old wall paper flowers and handkerchiefs
  All bring back memories
  Of my Grandma
  Her smiling eyes and long fingers showed me
  So many things
  Like how to tie a knot
  On my shoes, dolls and sewing
  These are her buttons
  Red, blue, pink and green
  Attached with twine
  Securely

I also made my own map of the venue town since it was a destination wedding of sorts.    I did it on Photoshop and printed it on nice recycled print paper.  I tried to keep it simple with some of the venue information on it.  I created many versions and finally settled on this one.  See the map section to learn how!

**One very IMPORTANT detail about making your own invitations is to make sure you weigh each one so you have appropriate postage.  My invites all weighed slightly different and the envelopes were not flat because of the twine, buttons and hankies which also makes difference in the cost! **

I also used old Vermont postcards for my RSVP's.  I found some at a really neat Antique shop for less than $1  each and tried to buy all the covered bridge postcards and scenic views.  I also printed the RSVP options on the back of the post cards but you can have a stamp made as well.   Some of the types of post cards I used are seen below.  People loved them and wanted to keep them!

Now the question was how to tie them all together? I also bought a box of vintage style hankies from Ebay!  I used them as a belly rap around the invitation contents and secured with a matching ribbon. 

Fortunately I had a small wedding and only had to mail 40 of these!  Other wise these invites would not have been so elaborate!  As you can see in the picture below each invite was unique!  With a different belly wrap, ribbon, postcard, button and wall paper backing!