DIY “Will You Be My Bridesmaid?” Cards

Phew!  I am finally back to blogging after a short hiatus called “wedding planning craziness” while I was in California last week.  Before I left for Cali, I imagined having lots of extra time to blog along with relaxing in the California sun…in reality, I was super busy the whole time!  Don’t worry, I did manage to squeeze in some cuddle/wrestling/tickling/giggling time in with the Squishy (aka my nephew Zachary).    I’ll be sure to share some of the deets from last week soon!

Now that all the lovely ladies of my bridal party have said “yes” I am excited to finally share how I asked them!

The gals that are in my bridal party are spread out across the country, so I wanted to think of some way to make asking them still be special even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to speak with each lovely lady face-to-face.  I read about all kinds of crazy ideas online from sending a cupcake to each girl (cute idea, but I was weary of mailing cupcakes across the lower 48), to creating a “bridesmaid survival kit” (which I figured would never actually be used by any of my girls and may just end up in the give-away pile), to buying barbies and dressing them up as each girl wearing a bridesmaid dress (can you say, creepy?).  I also didn’t want to get too crazy and spend a fortune.  That’s when I came upon The Wedding Chicks free printables!  I fell instantly in love.

Specifically, I fell in love with the free “will you be my” printable cards, which you can find here.  These were exactly what my little DIY Bride heart desired.  😉  I love how you can choose the colors that you want (and they have quite a few to choose from, might I add) along with the design.  I went with the vintage design in my wedding colors, teal and pink (tiffany blue and perfect pink were the exact colors that I used from Wedding Chicks).    LOVE!

It’s quite simple to use.  You create the design that you want, save the image as a jpeg file, and then insert it into a word document.  I placed it in the bottom left hand corner of the page.  It was pretty simple to change the dimensions also to make it about a 5 X 7 inch card to fit my DIY paper lined envelopes (now the reason why I made teal lined envelopes is all making sense, huh?).  I printed each one out on a piece of white card stock that I already had.  I have 9 girls in my bridal party…yes n-i-n-e beautiful, amazing, and talented women that I love and adore.    So, after printing them all out, I whipped out my paper cutter and got to work.

The first thing I did was cut an inch off the top so that when I folded the card it would be exactly 10 inches.  It’s funny how the blue laminate counter tops don’t really bother me until I see them in photos.  But, wow, those are some blue counters, huh?  Ahh, the joys of renting. 😉

Then I folded the card in half.

Normally, it would be easier to cut it before folding, but my paper cutter is pretty small (I bought it last year at Michael’s with a 50% off coupon to make Dane a framed map where we pin places we have visited and/or lived.  I’ll have to share that little DIY gift project soon.), so I improvised.

Once it was folded, I did my best to cut it so the design was centered.

Ok, now is as good of time as any to mention that although I absolutely love the look of these cards, the inner grammar crazy that lives inside of me had a very hard time with the fact that there was no question mark after ‘bridesmaid’.  I know, I know…nerd alert!  I was able to get past it eventually (obviously) and hopefully all my girls did as well. 😉

Once the card was cut, here’s what the end product looked like.  Cute, right?  You can catch a glimpse of the paper lined envelope in the background as well.

Inside each card, I wrote a special message for each girl and asked them to stand by me on my special day.

Isn’t it so cute with the teal lined envelope?  I thought they came out quite well, even if I do say so myself. 😉  And, the whole project only cost me a package of envelopes (score!).

How did you ask your wedding party to be there for your big day?  Were you the girl that cut Barbie’s hair and dressed her up like each girl?  If you are, I truly apologize for calling it creepy. 😉