There are not a ton of opportunities for do-it-yourself projects in a totally in-park wedding at Disney, unfortunately. One big one that I can definitely work on, however, is the invitations.
Ive actually gone back and forth a lot about what I want these to look like and what I think I need them to convey to our guests. Obviously there is a lot more information that needs to be given for a destination wedding, and arguably, yet more for a Disney World wedding. So I kept going back and forth between:
1. Very informative invitations and no STD/simple STD
2. More informative save the dates and a simple formal invitation
3. Simple formal STDs and invitations, and informative newsletters
So many combinations, so many options. I think my DF and I have finally decided to go with simple STDs sent out very early, invitations around the one-year mark once everything is confirmed with DFTW, and then newsletters as necessary to fill in any gaps.
Save-the-Dates:
For our save the dates, were going to do a simple card with ourselves as Disney caricatures, the date and of course, that it will be at WDW. My DF is working on putting these together, and I actually havent seen any of the work he has done on them yet. But Ive been pushing him to send me more regular updates.
Invitations:
Now, back to the invitations. While looking at invitation ideas on the internet I found a couple amazing links to book style invitations handmade and bound books that include all the details. I really, really loved the idea the instant I saw them. They are of course a lot of work, and probably not the most cost effective invitation out there, but it would a huge project that my DF and I thought could take a very long time in those early months of waiting for some actual planning to begin.
Source:
http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/2011/02/diy-hardcover-vintage-inspired-book-wedding-invitations/
Source:
http://www.merrimentdesign.com/smythe-sewn-letterpress-wedding-invitation-book.php
What I am hoping to achieve from this project is a little hard cover bound book, with all the details about how we met and got engaged, the formal details and schedule, and then a few basic ideas about travel and expenses, that way all the info would be in one convenient location, and hopefully it would be harder to misplace a whole book than a single invitation card. I can hope anyway!
Also, I was thinking there are a couple of people who I already know wont be attending the wedding who might actually like to have something like this as a keepsake (my grandmother, for example, who defintely can't travel the distance). Anyway, were going to be making one invitation book per household, which we feel will be a manageable enough number.
At this point Im writing most of the text for the invitation and DF is doing most of the graphics, but Im hoping we can trade off on that a little too. And even though I thought I said I was against a logo/monogram, it was the first thing DF started to come up with. And its super cute, so its okay. (Ill post these later on.)
And lastly, just to contribute something that Ive actually done, heres the colour palette that weve decided were going with for our wedding! Yay!