Change of plans..

Our wedding is definitely on a budget. We were originally thinking of capping it at 10k, but I soon realized that, even though this is a hefty chunk of change, it does not get you very far in the wedding world - especially not in the DC area. I have been trying to squeeze out my creative juices and find alternatives to your "typical" wedding venues and receptions, which Scot and I had hoped to do anyway. We aren't ones for tradition, generally speaking (except for the whole marriage thing of course!), so I figured that having 2 years to plan would be on our side. More on that later.

One thing I was SURE that I was going to do in an effort to save money was make our own invites. Way back in the day, I had a certain level of imagination and artistic ability, and was even considering majoring in graphic design instead of or in addition to dance. Well that never happened, and I stopped doing anything graphic design related for the past 7 or so years. I wasn't going to let this deter me, however, and downloaded a decent program for my Mac (I only had Illustrator and Photoshop for my busted PC and wasn't about to spring a couple grand for those programs just for invites), bought a pack of 10,000 fonts, and went on my way. I basically had the whole thing planned out and designed before we even found a venue. I still wasn't entirely happy with what I had created, and Scot was rather indifferent. Again.. good thing we have 2 years, seeing as I'm a perfectionist to a fault.

And then! I feel like a huge jerk, but I COMPLETELY forgot that my good friend Michelle is a freelance graphic designer. I have seen her work, and this girl is incredible (you can see her stuff here). She sent me a message on Facebook, letting me know that she would love to help out with the invites, with a special friendly discount that was actually a price we could afford. And of course I would pay her that and then some, she is an amazing friend and I want to help her and support her in any way I can. I sent her the invites I had already "made", plus some other inspiration, and I must say that I am so excited that she will be creating something special and unique, just for us.

In the end, I know I would not have been happy with whatever I came up with, since really, it would be amateur. Although I do have my paper cutter at the ready to put those invites in the cardstock I already bought at 4 different Michael's stores!