This step-by-step guide to making hand-made wedding invitations was written because I believe that if the builders of the great pyramids of Egypt had left instructions then there would be no doubt as to how they created one of the wonders of the ancient world. If you follow these instructions for making your perfect wedding invitations then it should only take you a matter of weeks and you’ll end up with something truly special, if not a little emotionally crippling.

1. Come up with the big idea for the wedding invitation. After a few shopping visits to arts & crafts retailers, we decided on going for a fabric miniature red and blue rose entwining with each other, affixed to a shining heart shape to represent our love. Inside the card is to be a comprehensive 8-page wedding booklet bound by matching ribbon. On the back of the wedding invitation is a stamped ‘Handmade by’ with my name and my fiancée unmarried name.
2. Resource materials for wedding invitations:
   • Pre-scored pack of 135mm x 135mm white blank greetings cards (with envelopes)
   • Translucent birds-nest type mesh paper for cutting translucent heart shapes out of
   • Metallic blue and pink A4 sheets of card
   • Matching blue and pink ribbon for binding
   • Packs of Red and Blue miniature fabric roses
   • White A4 paper for wedding invitation inside booklet
   • PVA Crafts Glue
   • Photo-mount spray glue
3. Resource equipment for making wedding invitations:
   • Cutting board and knife for cutting out heart shapes and also for trimming
   • Metal Ruler
   • Guillotine
   • Hole punch
   • Scissors
   • Stamp with “Handmade” written on it and accompanying inks
   • Access to printer for printing booklets
   • Adobe Acrobat PDF software for using the only known booklet mode that works
   • Shoebox for keeping half-finished components in when not being worked on. This should reduce the amount of dust that needs to be removed.
4. Create spreadsheet of recipients so you can tally up number of cards to be made, confirm the correct name of each recipient (and partner/family) and check to see if you have their postal address
5. Create stencil of the heart shape from a piece of card and then cut out all your hearts from the translucent mesh paper using the cutting board and scalpel
6. Guillotine the metallic blue and pink card to produce squares 130mm x 130mm square
7. Affix the metallic square card to the blank greetings card using photo-mount spray glue
8. Affix the translucent heart to the metallic square card using photo-mount spray glue
9. On the back of the greetings card we decided to use an ink stamp that said “Handmade by” and then sign our full names. This is best done at this stage whilst the card is still flat. We used two colours of ink to make a nice graduation effect. Each stamp is good for 2 or 3 cards.
10. Select a blue and red fabric rose and entwine the two stems together
11. Trim each stem to be the perfect size
12. Affix entwined roses onto the translucent heart using a good dollop of PVA crafts glue and allow to completely dry for 24 hours to ensure a good hold
13. Write the text to go inside the booklet and use a desktop publishing program to layout the document. Remember to leave a good sized margin for binding and trimming. We settled on an 8 page booklet containing:
    • Welcome to the Wedding Invitation and Introduction – leave space for hand-written ‘To’ and ‘From’
    • Order of Service
    • Wedding Survival Guide – information on food, what to wear, accommodation, etc
    • Travel Instructions (including map)
    • List of Contact Details
14. Microsoft Word 2002, Open Office and Dell printer drivers both had booklet creating modes, but they liked to resize the printout meaning the finished booklet was too large for the greetings card. In the end, the only solution was to produce a PDF file in the target size and then use Adobes booklet creating mode which worked a treat. This was not obvious and was our last ditched effort before the booklet became a separate entity.
15. Guillotine the booklets down to size and fold.
16. If you are smart then you should have trimmed an extra couple of millimetres of the right-hand edge so when the booklet is folded and inserted into the greetings card that it doesn’t stick out. If you are like me then you’ll need to go back through them all with a metal ruler and scalpel.
17. Insert the booklets into the greeting cards
18. To make the holes in the spine for binding with the ribbon you close the hole punch by pushing on the lever. You then slide the greetings card and booklet into the hole punch until you meet the resistance against the closed teeth. Then through trial and error, you slowly release the hole punch and move the card under the teeth by a couple of millimetres to form a perfect semicircle hole in the spine of the booklet and greetings card
19. Cut the ribbon to the exact length. I think we went for 35cm. Make the cut at a 45 degree angle to make it easier to thread through the booklet and greetings card.
20. Carefully run a lighter over the ends of the ribbon. The flame seals the ribbon and stops it from fraying (thanks mummy for the tip!)
21. Use the ribbon for binding the greetings card to the booklet and tie the ends in a bow to fasten the wedding invitation together. In some occasions, it is best to trim from the ends of the ribbon to make the length even. If you do trim, remember to seal the ends with a flame.
22. Address and sign the wedding invitations, write out the postal address on the envelope
23. Coerce the wedding invitation into the envelope ribbon first. You might find that the increased thickness of the package causes difficulties closing the envelope using the traditional ‘lick to stick’ method. In such cases (and definitely for invitations delivered by royal mail) I found it best to use PVA glue – but try not to glue the envelope to the card.
24. Mark recipient on spreadsheet as having been given their wedding invitation
25. Attach stamp to envelope and hope that the increased thickness of the wedding invitation does not disqualify the package from going as normal first class.

Related Articles:

• Alex Kent and Claire Kenyon Marry on the 2010 Summer Solstice (Pics and Vids)
• Alex Kent and Claire Kenyon to Marry! Jan 2010