tackling the stationary

One of my favourite parts of wedding details are the invitations suites. I just love how they are the perfect opportunity to showcase your wedding before the big day. Considering one of my favourite places to browse the aisles at is Staples, I think it's safe to say I have a thing for office supplies and stationary. Seriously, a new pack of pens can make my day. Don't even get me started on filling out a fresh calendar.

in love with the Wallaby suite //  Image by Mrs. Wallaby 

When it came to our stationary, prior to becoming engaged I had done a lot of searching and loving on inspiration for when it was our turn. At the time, I wasn't sure how we would execute the plan. I knew that our stationary budget would be low and that while I had a serious love for wedding stationary, I couldn't prioritize it (over other priorities).

I had just purchased Photoshop for my business (just the Photoshop Elements 12 version) when we got engaged. A few weeks after our engagement (when the thrill of planning was still at an all-time high) I started playing around with ideas for our invitations suite for fun. After about 2-3 hours of "playing",  I had a preliminary drafted suite. I hadn't decided until that night that we would make all of our own wedding stationary. I now knew I could pull it off, and that I could save us a lot of money by doing so. 

anyone else still obsessing over Squid's beautiful suite? //  Image by Mrs. Squid

Since our invitation suite is still getting finished up to order, I had to back-up a few steps and start thinking about Save the Dates. At first, I wasn't sure if we would do a Save the Date. Save the Dates aren't a necessary part of planning, but something I have a serious appreciation for. They had to be low in cost to be part of our wedding. If I was making them myself, I knew it was something we could easily squeeze into the budget.

Mad love for the Hen Save the Date // Image by Mrs. Hen

I knew that I wanted to use an engagement photo for the Save the Date, while tying into the invitation suite I had already drafted. I also knew that to keep the cost down, it would have to be a post card (to save on the cost of envelopes). To keep myself busy while waiting for our engagement photos, I did some searching to find the inspiration behind our Save the Date.

Spoiler Alert: This was what inspired our Save the Date // Wedding Paper Divas Genuine Love

Once I had the photos in my hands, it was time to create our first piece of stationary!

Did you decide to make your own wedding stationary?