It's Time....

Time that is to finally show you my save the dates.  I have literally worked my little fingers off making these babies.  I first found the inspiration on Weddingbee itself from the oh so crafty Mrs. Duckling.  She is AWESOME!  Martha Stewart was the orinial creator of this crazy craft.  I had been pondering if I should even attempt to make these things for a while.  Then after going back and forth for nearly 2 months I knew I had to make a decision on what we were going to do.  I had to get our save the dates out no later than June 1st (yea, that didn't happen) as this would give our guest about 8 months to start planning their trip to Texas if they were from out of town. 

So I finally sucked it up and decided I tackle this.  I mean...I now had a ton of free time since I was all graduated from school and everything and the Mr. was still away in Iraq. What else did I really have to do with all that free time? Nothing! So It started.

I first began cutting out all my dates with my cricut and knew I needed approx. 120 sets of them.  So I worked on those on and off for weeks!  Weeks I tell you!  I finally had it and needed to get the sets done so I went over to my parents and had the little sis A start helping me (she has a cricut too).  We spent nearly the entire day cutting and cutting and cutting. My poor dad I am sure was annoyed with our obnoxiously noisy cricut's both humming away as they cut our endless amounts of dates.  (It was his rare Saturday off that was spent watching re-runs of Little House on the Prairie). Thanks dad for putting up with us girls like you do!

So after a full afternoon we finally had them all cut and bundled...like so.

I thought that by bundling them this would make my life easier when it came time to streaming them.  Boy, was I right!

Little by little everything started to come together.  I had finalized the design for save the dates with the Mr.'s approval and got those printed off and cut to size. I had finished my oh so pretty envelope liners one night while watching my Wednesday night shows...Modern Family anyone?  I had my information cards all complete and cut as well.  I had the Mr. help me when he was home from leave to cut and stamp my tags until he finally passed out due to boredom I'm sure.  And...I had my stickers all done to seal the envelope so that people will actually see my liner!  Oh and I can't forget that I spent countless lunch breaks, free time and a couple nights hanging out w/ sister streaming those darn letters to the twine...That seriously took forever!!

In the end they turned out better than I could have ever imagined.  So now I present you the true labor of my loin.  My Our Save The Dates!! 

Once I had them all assembled it was time to call in more reinforcement to tie them all together.  After some wine and chit chat me and future sis in law and my good friend R had these.

Then it was time to stuff these puppies and mail them out.  This is what our guests will see when they open their mail box!

Pheeewwwwww.... I'm so glad these are finally done.  They are going out nearly a month after my so called deadline...silly silly niave bride I am.  But as always there are still so many other things to get taken care of on the never ending DIY list of this bride. Overall, I am so happy the way these turned out.  I hope our guests enjoy them as much as I do did!

So if you really wanna try to do these your self I wouldn't advise to do it to save cash.  These babies cost a bit more money than planned but they were totally worth it. 
Heres the cost breakdown

Pictures Printed at Walgreens                                    $28.86
Small Purple Envelopes (Cards and More)                  53.46
Grey Envelopes (Cards and More)                              36.89
Twine (Hobby Lobby)                                                   3.00
Cardstock (Michael's)                                                  10.00
Gray Scrapbook Paper                                                  7.00
Ribbon (Hobby Lobby)                                                  3.00
Postage                                                                        44.00
Butterfly Stamp (Michaels)                                             3.00
Save this Date Stamp (Michaels)                                    3.00
Black and Silver Ink                                                       4.00

 Total Cost                                                                $196.21     
                                                  
This comes out to be $1.63 per invite.  For how beautiful they turned out and how personalized they are I would say that was some money very well spent.  Even though I went over my $100 budget by nearly double would you say it was worth it?