Saving the Date

Now that we had received our awesome engagement photos it was time to decide what to do with them.

The first thing was…. Save the Dates!

I knew from the start that I wanted to use magnets for our save the dates. I started squirreling away inspiration photos like this:

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

Image via Wedding Paper Chicks 

When our photos came in I set to work.

At first we looked into Magnet Street. Some of our favorites were:

Image via Magnet Street

Image via Magnet Street

Image via Magnet Street

Even though they have some really great customization features, I am way too much a perfectionist to use them. I quickly became frustrated trying to customize it and in the end I decided that I wanted full control. That meant designing them myself.

Here's the thing. I've never designed anything in my life. I don't know anything about graphic design and I know literally nothing about Photoshop, Illustrator or any of those other programs out there.

At first I was like, psssshhhh easy peasy. I'll just use Powerpoint. I wasn't really sure what I wanted the design to look like yet and I wasn't really sure what I was doing so I decided to mimic that last image from Magnet Street to see how it looked. 

This is so embarrassing, but I'm actually going to show you the first thing I ever designed. Ever.

Personal Photo / Yikes.

 

And the thing is, I was so damn proud of myself for actually making something that I thought that this was the best freakin' save the date ever created.

Yeah Mr. Coyote quickly set me straight and told me it looked like crap.

Tough love in our house baby.

And so I grumbled and moaned and got myself Adobe Photoshop.

I opened up the program, stared at it blankly for a few minutes, turned the computer off and went to bed.

What the hell was I thinking??

Then I read through a ton of tutorials and it took me a lot of time to figure out the program, but I'm here to tell you that anyone can cook make their own design.

Image via Pixar Wiki

I made a billion ten different versions and looked them over with Mr. Coyote.  Don't worry! I'm not going to make you sit here and stare at ten freakin' designs until your head explodes. That's Mr. C's job. :D I will save you from all of that and show you five:

(Personal Photo)

This was my first Photoshop creation. Still not amazing, but it's a start!

 

(Personal Photo)

I liked the way this one came out, but I feel like it's hard to see our names (well of course it's hard for YOU to see our names because I blurred them out, but you'll just have to take my word for it!).

(Personal Photo)

Okay, here we go. Now I feel like we're getting somewhere!

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

At the end of the day I'm sure a graphic designer would have been able to whip up something in a lot less time that looks a lot better, but I can honestly sit here and tell you that I created the designs myself, I love them and I'm damn proud of myself for how they turned out.

Did you create your own save the dates or did you leave it to the professionals?