Designing Our Own Wedding Invitation

It’s only a little over 4 months to go before the big day so the smaller details are now underway. We’re now working on finding wedding favors, looking for custom bridal shoemakers, scheduling our CANA seminar, finalizing our guest list, and of course, making the invites. We didn’t want the traditional, formal-looking, scented wedding invitations that most classic couples use because they look a little old for us. Thankfully, more and more wedding invitations are making use of fun graphics and incorporating out-of-the-box ideas so there’s plenty of inspirations to take advantage of.

Because we didn’t want to spend much on the invitations, we opted out ordering custom-designed invites from famous personal invitation stylists. Being a professional (motion) graphics artist,  the fiance has been  appointed (by me of course) to design our invites. 

We wanted something that looks like these (all photos lifted from Google Images): 

 

http://www.missmoss.co.za/2012/01/24/love-vs-design/

And in two days, he was able to create a draft that incorporated typography.  For obvious reasons though, I won’t be posting the finished template. =p

Once all the details have been finalized-the names of the sponsors, the location map, etc- we’ll just send the design over to a cheap printer somewhere in Recto for production.  Even though we’d still be spending some amount for the printing, at least we didn’t have blow out a hefty price to hire a graphic designer to personalize the design. It really helps if you make use of your (or your friends’) intangible resources A.K.A mad creative skillz if you want to save up some cash.

But for those who feel they're not artsy enough but still want to do their own wedding invitations, there are sites that offer custom wedding printables and downloadables for free. Two of the most popular sites to get your free downloads are Wedding Chicks and Martha Stewart Weddings, which scrimpy brides can explore for more options.

I’m so excited to get our invites printed and sent out to our guests! The fiancé better finish the final prototype soon!

Wedding Favor Part 1: Enchanted Farm Cafe, Quezon City

From custom-labeled wines, to coffee beans, to candies, and cupcakes, we’ve practically considered everything that we eat to use as our wedding souvenirs. Yes, there are lots of options out there, but one thing’s making choosing a little difficult---we don’t want those cheap-looking wedding figurines (wedding couple, dove, bells, whatnots) that guests would probably just throw out after the party. We want something that will perfectly go with a simple “thank you” note so we’re looking at the edible side.

We went to Enchanted Farm Cafe in Quezon City to check out some organic food items that we can consider. The cafe is a social enterprise led by Gawad Kalinga, which showcases home-grown products that aim at improving the lives of the poor. Since the restaurant is a hub of social entrepreneurs, there are plenty of things that look wedding favor-worthy. Here are some of their products:

One refreshing drink.

The Enchantea is really good. I just wish they sell this in concentrate form so the souvenir could last at least a week. This would be like giving C2 or Real Leaf as wedding favors. But it only costs Php 35 a bottle so still worth considering.

Would've been a nice wedding favor if only we liked salabat.:/

I didn't ask for the price of the salabatea because I've no plans of buying it. I like teas, except ginger. They should make a powdered matcha green tea instead. LOL.

I should've tried this one

 This crunch bar looks good. But I'm thinking of something bottled as wedding favor. There's just something vintage and rustic about bottles.

We'd love coffee in a burlap sack as favors, problem here is the price tag. Php 250 is waaaay too expensive.

pardon the blurry shot but I think we've found the winner in this feta cheese

These are gourmet feta cheese made from goat's milk and they taste super good. Unfortunately though, they cost Php 200 a bottle. I asked the store manager if they could customize the product and he said it's possible, we just have to tell the manufacturer our requirements. We need to see first if we're going for this one.

In the meantime, we're going to look for more options. We'll keep this in mind for now.

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On a different note, the fiance and I ordered some of the items in their menu and everything's good! We need to go back soon!

What we ordered:

Pinoy pesto with lemongrass chicken

Salad with calamansi vinaigrette

Enchanted Burger--Jollibee should be ashamed of their lettuce size!

Cheese sticks using kesong puti--YUM!

Enchantea served in mason jars -- very refreshing!

Love everything about this store!

Enchanted Farm Cafe
Unit 2A, 463 Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City

09328722427, 09178933003
enchantedfarm.cafe@gmail.com