The cutest little package!
My save the date inspiration came from a bunch of different things, but the main look of it came from this post! When I saw those save the dates I just fell in love and I knew I could make my own after reading their post! I loved how the whole thing folded up in a nice little package where you just addressed and stamped it right on the save the date-no money spent on envelopes-major win in my book! :) I also really loved the middle section where it had the save the date.
One summer when I was still in college, I got home for summer break WAY before any of my friends so I spent a good week vegging on the couch watching TLC wedding specials. I always remember seeing a cute save the date where they put a little heart stamp on the date that the couple was getting married and I guess it stuck with me because I wanted to include that element in ours!
Then I saw this post (which was inspired by the first post I found!) and knew I HAD TO HAVE the tying knot aspect-how fun, different, and cute!!
Finally, I came across this pin and decided that's exactly what we needed for the right side of the tri-fold for it to look complete! I just picked a cute Instagram picture of the two of us; they came in the mail super fast and looked great! A lot of people really thought that was a cute and different aspect to our save the dates! It was fun seeing our friends and family send pictures of them using the stickers to mark their calendars! :)
I started in a plain old Microsoft word document- (I don't have Photoshop so everything I made came right from a regular word document!) I used the same FREE fonts from the "Be my bridesmaid?" post here so everything would match (since I'm crazy like that). I made three columns and started adding the elements for my design.
The calendar I made by inserting a table and typing out the August calendar. You could probably find a calendar for your month and year in a google image search, but I really wanted mine to have matching fonts to the save the date as a whole (see above paragraph about my craziness). I made the calendar in a separate document then copied it over the the save the date document which worked a little easier for me. I added a heart symbol from the symbols available in Microsoft word and changed the color of the heart via the tools to match our colors (dusty grey blues, sage green, and pops of light pinks). Then I did the save the date middle design and finally I ended with the blurb about the pictures to add to your calendar.
Then I copied each item in each column and spaced (by counting how many times I hit enter) and pasted them underneath the original until the document looked like this:
The hardest part was figuring out the spacing, but once that's done its really smooth sailing.
Then I printed out the amount I needed onto my cardstock with my regular printer. This is the exact cardstock I bought in the Kraft paper color to stick with my rustic theme. Then I bought this hold puncher so I could make a small enough hole to only knot the string once on each side. Finally I bought twine from the dollar store and craft ribbon in olive green and gummed paper tape for keeping the whole packaged closed! I bought one of each item linked above and it was enough to make 170 saved the dates for our 300+ guest list!
Once I had all my supplies and the save the dates printed I cut on a paper cutter marked where each fold was to go and folded away! Then I punched a hole on each side and cut twine to size. Loosely tie a knot in the twine right in the middle but do NOT tighten it. Then string each end through the punched hole and tie a knot and fold up your save the date. The string should be small enough to have to pulled tight to open so the loose knot will tied tightly as the guest opens it! This took a little fiddling but once you get the right size use that piece of string to measure the rest that you cut.
The above picture was sample I made to try it out!
Once your add your string and the sticker pictures (which I added using double sided tape) you can start wraping up your little packages! I closed it by using the gummed paper which I cut out using a 1" whole punch. Then I tied the green ribbon around and cut it to size.
Look how cute! :)
I just added a clear label with the couple's name and or address right on the front. We finished right about the holidays where we saw a lot of our family and friends so we ended up just handing them out at Christmas parties and such! The ones we didn't get to see we just stuck a stamp on it with a return address on the back and put them in the mail box!
Hope you found these as cute as I did! Please let me know if you have any questions about how I made them! :)
