Monday, May 5, 2014

DIY Project: Wedding Programs


(I mention brands and companies that I used for my own wedding programs in this post. This is not a sponsored post, but simply me sharing my success in this project.)

When I was deciding on wedding programs I was frustrated by a number of different things. First, that most of the fun, original, creative programs were really expensive to purchase (both the actual design and to have printed) and the things that I did like just weren't EXACTLY what I wanted. There might have been one part that was missing that I really wanted to include in some of the designs.

So, with my little bit of design knowledge, I took it upon myself to design my own wedding program. Initially, I went through a bunch of different concepts before I got to my final one. I knew I wanted something that was about the size of a half page of regular paper (8.5 x 11) and printed on the front and back. (Not a folded program) So, with that I set to designing. I got something that worked and looked into printing and it turns out that this isn't a very normal size to print and the printing costs were going to be kinda insane.

So, back to the drawing board.

I went onto Vistaprint's website and browsed their materials to see if I could find something that was about the size I wanted. Then I saw this. It's a rack card. Basically, it's those skinny/long cards that fit into brochure slots but are just two-sided. (they aren't folded) After looking at a few examples, I decided that's what I'd use. The best part about Vistaprint is that they provide templates for their designs that you can add artwork to. I elected to use this since it would be the exact size they need for printing. I downloaded the template and got to work.

I worked in Adobe Illustrator to design the programs. I kept the design pretty simple, but incorporated the elements that I wanted. It was important to me that I named the wedding party, included a section in memory to our deceased grandparents and a fun little area that gave some facts about M and I as a couple. I used our wedding colors and came up with this:

___________________________Front Side________________________________
 
________________________________Back Side________________________________


If you want to use my design (but put all your own info on there, of course), email me and I can send you the Illustrator files.

I also wanted to add a little touch of crafty to our programs, and not just have the cards. I decided that I wanted to incorporate some of our wedding ribbons into the top of the program, so I left a space at the top of my design to incorporate the ribbon. I purchased a paper punch from Michael's to make a hole in the top of my programs. I purchased a punch that would make a big hole, but I wanted it to be big enough for the ribbon to fit through comfortably.

Once I received my programs, my mom and I spent a couple of evenings punching holes and cutting/tying the ribbon. Since I had three colors of ribbon, we just split the number of programs (200) into three and did 1/3 of them in each color (navy, pink, green). Instead of doing anything fancy, I decided to just tie a knot and be done. It's simple and looks like it took some effort but it's not

Here are the final results:



I loved our wedding programs. It's simple and very "us" and it didn't cost a lot of money. I got 200 programs for $53, the punch was $7 and the ribbon (which I bought in bulk and used for various other wedding things) was $24. So, even WITH the cost of the ribbon, the total cost for 200 full-color, two-sided programs was significantly less than what I saw in most other places. AND it was exactly how I wanted it to look.

I'm very pleased with how they turned out. This is about as DIY as it gets on my blog...but, thankfully, this one was a win! :)

6 comments:

  1. I really love those, especially the facts you included about you guys! Great intimate touch.

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  2. These are really great! I did a kind of DIY too (with the help of a friend who did my programs based on something that I saw online) and printed it all out on cardstock, cut and was ready to go! We saved a bunch of money, too! WIN WIN WIN! :)

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  3. These are so cute! Congrats on the wedding!!

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  4. Wow! Beautiful cards.It very simple and cute.I like it.

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