By Invitation Only

I'm not a fan of the 8pack box of invites in every color and theme with the blanks for locations and RSVP dates. Not that I don't enjoy receiving them :), I just go a different way when sending out invitations.

I tried to type that 7 different ways, and all 7 could offend someone who uses the 8-pack boxes of invites, so I gave up and just typed it as I thought it.  Please invite me to your next party anyways! :)

The thing is, I don't like to be boxed in.  What if the address of the party is way too long to fit in that standard underlined portion of the invite?  What if I need to give guests special instructions, like where the bride is registered, or the theme of the nursery?  I could insert a business card with some extra information, but isn't it nice when you can just put the invite in your calendar or slap it up onto the fridge under a magnet without worrying about losing any extra inserts?  

Also, don't you hate it when you're throwing someone a 27th birthday party, but the stores seem to think that birthday is unimportant, in favor of 30, 40, and 50, so you have to get the generic primary color balloon invites...again?

For those reasons, I'm a fan of making my own invites.  Sure, if I'm in a pinch and I have a simple party going one, I'll pick up a pack and love them just as much as the DIY kind, but OCD'ers like me usually aren't in that tight of a pinch.  Knock on wood.

Remember these?  ...and these?  Fun.

My favorite place to get materials, other than my craft closet for a true made-from-scratch creation, is By Invitation Only.  Based on the decor in the store, I'm sure they make a bulk of their sales in wedding invitations, but they have the most awesome wall of paper!  The whole left wall when you walk in is full of blank invites for all sorts of occasions:

It's heavenly!

I visited this heavenly establishment in the last few days to browse their selection for an upcoming birthday party.  The helpful associate pointed me in the right direction to find paper that might fit the theme, a Riverboat cruise, but unfortch none of the options that were available to take home immediately caught my eye.  They had some fabulous ones that they'd be happy to print for me for only $3.40 each.  No thanks.

So I got creative.  I saw a bunch of preppy geometric invites in red and blue and that got my gears turning.  Red and blue -> riverboat -> water -> nautical -> lifeboat!  

EDIT: Duh, it's not a lifeboat. It's not even a boat at all is it? Life ring! Haha! Thanks Amey! :)

I paired a preppy geometric with a life ring accent and bam!  Invites done!  Well, purchased.  

Both pieces are made by Cross My Heart, but don't bother clicking that link because they're closed!

All that was left to do was come up with the wording I want, print them up, and assemble them!  That's the fun part :)  The store even provided glue squares so the life ring seems raised from the paper:

I can't show the whole thing because I don't want to spill the beans about the party until the guests actually receive these in the mail, but here's a sneak peek!

Only $14 for 10 invites - I'd say that's pretty affordable.  Not $3.99, but affordable.

Another great place to get invites in RVA is Paper Plus at Libbie & Grove.  They're awesome, but not 5 minutes from work like the other place :)