I'll admit, I found this Save the Date back in 2009 on one of Miss Gloss' posts!
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Image via Bklyn Bride
It had everything I liked - baker's twine! baby photos! kraft stock! rounded corners!

I tucked this post away until after P-Day (proposal day) and showed Mr. Jet my idea that-I-totally-just-found!  He liked it, so I sent him to his parents' house to find a good baby photo and I did the same.

I wanted to DIY my Save the Dates since it was a manageable project that wouldn't cost a lot of money, and being the obsessive person I am, I could bring them to fruition in just the way I wanted.

I am very, very, very, very lucky that my sister (MOH J) is a professional graphic designer and she's agreed to help with all of my paper needs!  HUZZAH!  Let's all praise her for just a second....

I showed her this idea and she offered up a little twist.  She mentioned that the Mini-Moo cards are pretty expensive for something like this so how about we use a little program called Printstagram instead?  She took our baby photos and gave them a little makeover and had them printed in the traditional Instagram 4x4 pattern so that each Printstagram print had two photos of me and two photos of Mr. Jet with a little white border around each that I could trim around.  This way, we'd get 4 pictures per print and ended up saving a bunch of money this way!

MOH J laid out all the text for me and sent me the file to print on my home printer.  (Note: if you aren't as blessed as I, Paper Source has downloadable templates for all of their stock paper sizes!)  I used the A2 cards and matching envelopes from Paper Source in Paper Bag.  Once I had all the cardstock printed, I rounded the corners using my Fiskar's corner rounder, then affixed the photos with rolling double-sided tape.  I cut my baker's twine to size and ended up with this: (All photos below are personal)
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Sorry for the blurred info. - but how CUTE is tiny Mr. Jet?!
Once I figured out the best process for making one, I called in Bridesmaids C & E and MOH K for an assembly line!  I promised pizza and wine to entice them....

Here is the craftsplosion before we started:
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Check out that GIANT spool of twine! Scored that puppy for $10 online!
Being the organized bride that I am, I set up stations for each girl and we got these things banged out over a few hours and several glasses of wine.  

Bridesmaid C stamped envelopes, Bridesmaid E affixed all the baby photos and MOH K tied the twine knots. (If you ever meet her, ask her how much she enjoyed her task!)

I had the task of cutting and inserting the envelope liners.  NO ONE LIKES A NAKED ENVELOPE!  More accurately, no one cares about a naked envelope except me - but I'm a glutton for punishment. ;)

I looked high and very, very low for the perfect paper and knew early that I wanted it to be wrapping paper.  It was cheap, easy to cut and wouldn't be too hard to fold or add too much bulk to the letter.  After visiting close to a dozen stores, I found the perfect, colorful insert at my local Paper Store.  I used the A2 Envelope Liner Template from Paper Source and ended up with this:
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this paper matched all of the tones of the std PERFECTLY. score!
I addressed them with simple clear mailing labels in a matching font and sent them on their merry little way!

Overall, I am extremely happy with how these came out and proud of my very first DIY wedding project.  

Check out the breakdown below:

For 90 Save the Dates

A2 Paper Bag Envelope - $0.32/pp from Paper Source
A2 Paper Bag Postcard - $0.14/pp from Paper Source
Baby Photos - $0.52 for one of each of us from Prinstagram
Wrapping Paper Liner - $3.79/roll from The Paper Store
Twine - $10 for a 2-pound spool  (I swear, this spool will outlive me) online from WeSellCoffee (and apparently twine?)
Return Address Stamp - $25.95 from Paper Source
Postage - $0.46 from USPS, duh.

Total per STD: about $1.48 each!  How do you like them apples?




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