Invitations: Part 1

The very first thing in the planning of my wedding I did was design my invitations. Before I even knew where or when I said, "What will the invitations look like?" I have to say I never really looked at wedding invitations I have received until I started thinking about my own wedding. Then I became obsessed! The evolution of this design has gone from a simple bird, to a simple tree, to now roses. I shall never look at another invitation again till mine are happily sent to their destinations. I fear I may change them again!! Over the period of designing an invitation I discovered the Gocco ! I am mad for GOCCO. I politely hinted to Santa and he delivered! I have been dying to try this little machine out. I read so many articles and contacted a few people about how to make the perfect Master. In the process I became possessive of my gocco bulbs and screen (think Elaine from Seinfeld and her sponges). I ordered my inks and extra bulbs and screens. I just couldn't "waste" them! So I decided that as soon as I set my wedding date I would print the invitations. Then I said well I could print the roses-- The wedding date doesn't affect them. So the last two days I spent printing these roses. It was a two step process. First I printed the the top corner rose and then let them dry over night, and then I printed the bottom corner.I was in love with this little machine!! ( I have since been coming up with every piece of stationary I could print that wouldn't need a date!) The print was beautiful and here I was a gocco virgin! I did screw up on a few prints but I said to the FI, who is more anal about those things than me,"if you expect perfection you shouldn't print them yourself. " Overall there are only about 3 that really I wouldn't send, all products of me forgetting to put a cover over the rose I wasn't printing. The hard part! I bought my cards on clearance at Micheals. They came with gold trim and matching envelopes, which seemed like a good buy. Therefore I couldn't just cut a new card. Also how did I print in the corner on a card that was gold trim? At first I had the FI taping the corners. He hated this! So after the 6th card we decided to make a make shift trim saver. This is hard to describe but basically it was a strip of paper that covered the border around the corner. I think it did a great job for 95% of the cards. It was just difficult to line everything up and tape it all down each time.

My beloved Gocco!

Here is a mock-up of what the invitations will look like. I have changed a few things.

Here are the cards laying out to dry (only the top half was drying). Do you see how meticulous they are lined up? That is Mr. Engagement. I would have had them thrown everywhere. The apartment was needless to say A MESS this weekend. The other half are in the drying racks.

What were you most excited about in the planning stage?