When we were planning our invitations for our wedding, we wanted something that looked very fancy.

When we shopped around for the invitations we were finding the pricing very high (for our budget) so we figured out how to have the invitations we wanted for the price we wanted. (About half the price but more charm) This was something very new for us to make our own invitations.

Sources for materials:

http://www.cardsandpockets.com/ (Pocket Card, Envelopes, Templates)

Staples (Card printing, mailing labels, printing)

Michaels (Ribbon)

Stamptitude.com (Metal Wax Seal)

Other materials needed:

Hot Glue Gun

Hot Glue

Scissors

Paper Trimmer (Optional)

White Glue (Elmer's Glue All)

Postage Stamps

Sealing Wax

Step 1: Design Your Insert Cards

First you need to decide what kind of pocket card you want, there are a few, refer to the photo with the options from www.cardsandpockets.com.

For this instructable, we will use the Vertico style.

Now head to the Free templates section of the webpage for some ideas

http://www.cardsandpockets.com/freeweddinginvitati...

Unfortunately, you can't actually size the invitations to the dimensions you want, they will be stuck with the default.

You can also create your templates using microsoft word or another graphics software.

Using MSWord:

-Start a new document

-Change Orientation, under the Page Layout to Landscape

-Set up 2 columns in the Page Layout tab

-Press enter a couple of times in the document

-Insert 2 tables, 1x1, a line apart as shown in the picture

-Right click inside a table and select "Table Properties"

-Under the row tab, click the specify Height box and enter the height of your card

-Under the column tab, click preferred width and enter the width of your card

The cards for a Vertico Pocket card with a matted invitation and all remvable cards the same width as shown in this instructable, should be the following dimensions:

Invitation Card (not removable): 4.5"W x 6.5"H

Directions Card: 4.75"W x 6.5"H

Reception Card: 4.75"W x 5.75"H

Response Card: 4.75"W x 5"H

-Fill in the design with graphics, fonts, colours etc. to suit your tastes. (I designed a custom seal for our wedding)

-Copy and paste from one to the second card on the same sheet (uses up unused space)

-Save

Matting:

-Find a pattern online by searching "clipart pattern free" and look though the patterns that are there you want to pick one that is royalty free, and has no watermark.

-Using the same word file format make a sheet with 2 Matting cards on it using the "insert image" option, and the dimensions of the card are:

Matting Card: 4.75"W x 6.75"H

I have added the designs that we personally used for our wedding to this instructable for reference and inspiration to make your own.

Now you are ready for printing.

Step 2: Printing/Ordering

Pick your favorite printing service, for this tutorial, we will use Staples Chain store.

-Bring the files with you to the store and set yourself up for printing on a colour machine.

-Once you are ready to go, get an employee to help you with putting the correct paper into the machine in either the normal feed tray or the manual feed tray.

-The type of paper to use for the cards are as follows:

Matting: Resume White Linen, 24-lb. Bond.

All other Cards: White, 65-lb. Index Paper

REMINDER:

The number of prints you need of each page = Number of Invitations / 2

If you order prints online, just make sure they are NOT scaled as then they will be the wrong size for your pocket cards. (See photo for Staples page to place print order in canada)

For the pocket cards and envelopes, go to www.cardsandpockets.com.

and make sure you get

1 Vertico Pocket card, 1 A7 Envelope and 1 RSVP envelope

for EACH invitation you intend to send.

Step 3: Cutting Down to Size

When at Staples, you could have them cut the cards to the correct sizes for an extra fee.

Or, you can cut them yourself using scissors, sliding cutter, or a guilotine cutter. We used a guilotine cutter.

Now, on to assembly.

Step 4: Assembling the Pocket Card

- First you want to glue all the "Invitation Cards" to the Matting pieces.

- I used Elmers Glue All, and smeared it on the back of the invitation card (not too much), centered it best I could by eye, and glued it to one matting piece and smoothed it out with a ruler.

- Once all those pieces are done, you can now glue the combined pieces into the middle portion of the inside of the pocket card using the same method, make sure that the edges have some glue, you may need to add some to stick them down.

- Place the cards into the pocket largest at the back, EXCEPT the Response card.

- (Optional) Place postage on the Response envelope and write your mailing address in the centre of the envelope. We used printed labels for the address.

- Holding the response envelope face down, with the opening towards the right, slip the response card under the flap.

- Place this as the front card in the pocket.

Step 5: Adding the Ribbon

- Cut ribbon of your preferred colour and width to 3 foot lengths. (I suggest a 1/2" width)

- Mark the centre of each ribbon using a pencil

- Mark the centre of the back of your invitations with a pencil

- Using a hot glue gun, apply a drop of hot glue to the centre of the back of an invitation

- Before it cools, apply the center of the ribbon to the drop of hot glue, make sure the ribbon is orientated along the long dimension of te invitation.

- Once all are done, flip the invitation back over, pull the ribbon taut, and tie a bow in the centre of the card.

- Using scissors, cut a forked edge onto the ends of the ribbon.

- Place the finished invitations into their envelopes with the ribbon facing the front of the envelope and seal the envelopes using water and a sponge.

Congratulations you are almost done.

Step 6: Final Touches

We added a final touch to our invitations that we feel made it really special.

-I designed a wedding seal for us, that we used the silhouette on the Invitation card.

-I sent this design away to Stamptitude.com and ordered an over size 1.25" Wax Seal.

-The product was excellent and worked wonderfully.

How to make the "wafer seal"

-Get yourself some sealing wax sticks. Wick sticks will have a marbling effect due to the burnt wick mixing into the wax.

-Get the stamp you intend to use.

-Melt the sealing wax stick

-> if it is a wick stick, just light the wick and as it melts, drip it onto the spot where you want to have the seal

-> if it is wickless, use a torch lighter to melt the stick, you can use the end of the stick to spread out the wax on the surface so it's nice and even.

-Breathe heavily on the end of the stamp, this puts moisture on the surface so that when you separate the stamp it doesn't stick to the wax

-Carefully place the stamp on the liquid wax and let sit until it has cooled

-Carefully remove the stamp from the surface to reveal the great seal you have just produced.

Warning: The seal can heat up quite a lot with doing multiple seals, so I recommend letting the seal cool about 2 min after each seal. You should be able to touch the surface of the metal without it feeling hot.

Note: It's a good idea to practice this process on a regular piece of paper to get the hang of it before doing it to your invitations.

Our friends and family loved the seal so much, many didn't want to open the invitation and cut around the seal so they didn't break it.

After all are ready to go and addressed, head to your post office cause you will likely need additional postage, and send them off. Your family and friends will be in awe of the great looking invitations that YOU made yourself.