My Fairytale Wedding Invitations

Since my mum has her own event management/wedding planning business, which I used to work for and my other half now works for, I am slightly feeling the pressure when it comes to my wedding. People keep saying things like ‘I bet it’s amazing having a wedding planner for a mum’. ‘The wedding will be amazing’. Well whatever we do it will be amazing for us which is what is important but I do want to get people excited about it. I might be biased but I do think its going to be awesomeness! So I wanted to start getting people excited and give little sneak previews of what to expect for the wedding. The best way to do this was with the invitations we sent out.

I was actually quite late sending my invites out and only actually sent them with about 3 months until the wedding. At first I was convinced I wouldn’t find anything I liked and everything was either a bit too plain or too cheesy. I liked bits of things but didn’t completely love anything. I spent hours and hours on Pinterest, Ebay, Amazon, Google and Instagram hoping to see something that caught my eye but I just really struggled. I was getting messages from family members panicking at the fact that I hadn’t even decided on a design never mind sent any out. I was starting to worry I was going to be really late sending them out and I was 1 second away from saying, screw it! I was just going to order the ‘least ugly’ one and that would do.

I didn’t even consider the possibility of buying bespoke invitations that were my own design. I just thought it would be ridiculously expensive and truth be told I kind of couldn’t be bothered with the hassle. I came across a website called The Paperdoll which was recommended to me in a Facebook group and after seeing what they were capable of I decided to enquire. Well I was so surprised to discover just how pain free having bespoke invitations made was. I thought I would have to design every single bit but that wasn’t the case at all. I just sent some colours I liked, photos or inspiration I liked even if it was a little image to do with my theme. I told them exactly what I didn’t want and very quickly they came back with a proposed idea.

The Paperdoll sent me an email with the design and asked if I wanted to make any changes. Aside from a very small thing everything looked absolutely perfect. It’s like they could create what was inside my head and I couldn’t. They knew what I wanted and I don’t even think I knew that. I was then asked to provide the info to go on there and they told me exactly what they needed. That was probably the most difficult bit but it’s the same whether your invites are bespoke or not. I didn’t realise just how much info I actually needed to try fit on there!

The design I went for ended up being a little booklet which I felt was really different and exciting! The colours really complimented each other and included a blush pink colour and even some sparkle. The paper they used was a parchment style paper to give it an old book feel. The pages had ‘chapter 1, chapter 2’ etc. on them. The last page had a little pocket with a cute RSVP card slotted in. The detail on the invites was the best bit from a little glass jar with a rose inside on the front along with a tag and key and a tassel on the spine of the book. It was a work of art and even the drawings inside were amazing including an exact sketch of our venue!

We did have a couple of problems but I would say this was down to the postal company. Some of the glass jars on the front had smashed or had come off. It was only about 8 out of all of the invites we ordered so not too much. I got in touch with The Paperdoll and they immediately sent out replacement jars and some glue and other bits to repair them very quickly and it took just minutes to do. They also sent us some bigger envelopes as I felt the invites were a bit squished inside of them. I ended up getting lots of bubble wrap and wrapping each invite up before putting in envelope and then put that envelope in a padded one. So if you were hoping to pay minimum postage then you might get a slight shock with these. However they still weren’t bad at all and I actually ended up under budget for postage.

The invitations only cost £6.50 each and I think that is really reasonable for something completely bespoke and unique and with so much detail and effort put in to it. The Paperdoll could remove little things like the tassel to work to your budget if needed. They were quite a complex design and there was a lot to them. We were obviously only sending 1 invite per family so we didn’t need too many, so it didn’t work out too much and I think we ordered about 45 day time invites.

The Paperdoll made some equally amazing night time ones which were postcard style but looked very much like the little booklets. They had a little white bow and mirror charm on the front and had all the info on the back. I wasn’t actually expecting to get something so detailed for them as I didn’t really state what I wanted and just said if I can have a simpler version for reception that would be great. They could have even been the main invites and they were still so impressive so I was blown away by both of the invitations! The night time invites were so reasonable at around £2 each too and looked like something you would expect for a daytime invite with them being so nice and detailed.

I was really happy with what I ended up with and I am so happy I ended up having a bespoke design. If you are like me and just can’t make a decision then this is definitely the way to go and I would recommend The Paperdoll as the people to go to. The comments I have had about the invites has been amazing and people have told us they are the most beautiful invites they have ever seen. I love how they give people an idea of what is to come but without giving much away. I felt they were the right amount of fairytale without being too cheesy!

I should say I am not even one of those people who is that bothered about stationary. Sorting my invitations out was actually quite a dull task for me compared to everything else but somehow I actually found myself stroking my invites and not wanting to send them out! The thought of having to give them away was actually quite sad. I did make sure there were extra ones for me to keep and I have treasured it ever since. I think when something is just so right it gets you excited even when you didn’t think you would be, especially over something like wedding stationary.

I was always someone who would happily write on a piece of paper towel rather than be one of those people with the beautiful Instagram worthy notebooks and matching pens. I just didn’t get the obsession and why people got so excited about stationary. Now I have found myself actually looking at pretty notebooks and being like…aw I want to write all my life lists in there! I actually quite like stationary now and pretty paper things! I feel like it’s set me off with a little obsession and I have thoroughly enjoyed my bespoke invitations experience!

ThePaperDoll.co.uk