Mike answers:

Do you want to gap to be covered?
If so, how about a ribbon, lace of strip of different paper that is a little bigger than the gap glued to one edge?
On dark blue I would go for a light colour to set it off, like spider-wed origami paper in white, or a cream or light blue ribbon. Or Dark blue just one shade darker or lighter than the card itself.
If you use ribbon or light paper, you might need to stiffen it with starch or glue.
Do that before gluing it on.

If you want to leave the gap open, you can make a small decoration in the colour of the inside of the paper or the colour of the text and glue that to the outside of the card, like the right hand corner.
Or use the same ribbon as the one you use for tying it closed for a decoration.

Mike answers:

This might be too difficult, depending on the number of people you’re inviting…
But these are the rehearsal invitations that i made for my wedding (which is in less than a month now!

http://imaginationacceleration.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-have-this-theory-when-it-comes-to.html

i also made our ceremony and reception invitations
i used a lot of scrapbooking materials to decorate (classily) what i had printed from officemax

our wedding invitations were “pop up”, too, when the ribbons were untied and opened, the invitations expanded to be 4 times their size. They didn’t take too long to make (maybe just 4 or 5 hours total) but i had the origami part down.

Mike answers:

You are a fellow crafter and artist! ! Good for you! I de-stress too that way. Right up until I decided to make Barbie clothes for a friend’s grand daughter. Hello stress! So tiny to work with!
With a little thought and planning, you could do a lot. Go to places like Hobby Lobby and Michael’s, do your research, see what you like, and you will do well.

I finally bought extra bead lay out boards, so if I got tired of one design, I could move on. I just stack them, I choose all the findings for the beads, ready to go. Be careful, the boards are flimsy. So, lay out the bridesmaid’s jewelry [their present from you] and work on them when you can. And do your own, and a thank you gift for the Mom’s would be nice, too. Pearls and crystals and chains are really in style right now. Keep your design simple and elegant, and it will be easy.

The hairpieces, same thing, lay them out, and they will store well in a plastic tightly sealed baggie and someplace out of the way when done. That’s another project you can lay out and work on when you have time. Cover them with a sheet when not working on them. Check out the fabric stores as well as the craft stores for them. Go to a website that sells hair ornaments for ideas, and one of the pattern books has a pattern for handmade fabric flowers. Here is a website with a good variety: www.caseysbridalboutique.net/hair-?ornaments.

Favors could be as simple as a tulle circle with miniature wrapped chocolates or Jordan almonds.
Check out The Dollar Tree Store. Believe it or not, they have wedding things, they had tulle circles and favor bags for cheap. And a bunch of wedding items.

I have seen hand drawn invitations before, they were nice. Match your place cards to them. Even do menu cards, or a pretty design and a wedding poem in place of the menu card. Sorry, I do not have an example. A menu board at the reception is a cute alternative. Check with the caterer to see if they have one, otherwise, design your own, and make it for cheap. Do you already have an easel?

What were you thinking of for favors? How about a beaded key chain? Or a bracelet for the girls? Easy to do, and use any leftover beads you might have for them. A friend made elastic bracelets for prizes at her daughter’s baby shower. She used leftover beads, and made them in every color imaginable They were well received. Use wood or earthy beads for the men, and the pretty stuff for the girls. How about a homemade treat, like cookies[buy the cellophane and ribbon at Michael's, or even cookie lolly pops. How about homemade truffles in a little be-ribboned box?

You could make a card box for the reception, just take a heavy duty big cardboard box like reams of paper come in, and cover it with fabric, cutting a long slot in it, stick the material down through it. Be creative with the designs, do swags or pick ups with the material, add lace or pearls or crystals to match your decor. Watch the remnant bin at the fabric store, I just got 3 yards of white peu du soir for half price. I am currently lining a peach peck box[yes, it had peaches in it] and will make a fabric flower out of the lining material as a fancy gift box for a hand made apron and matching refrigerator magnet.
You just take the material and wrap it around the box as if it were Xmas wrapping paper. Glue heavy paper on the box first to hide logos. Cut out your material, use fray check on the edges, of course take advantage of any selvages, and decorate and embellish the material to your heart’s content, then glue it onto the box[use staples where needed].

Make the ring bearer’s pillow, hand or machine embroider it. Embellish as you wish. Same thing for the flower girl’s basket. Use a real basket with posies in it, or a fabric one with some card board to strengthen it and to hold it’s shape to hold rose petals.

Easy to make bouquets and boutonnieres. Think about the maids carrying kissing balls, all you need is ribbon and styrofoam balls and the flowers. They sell plastic bouquet forms, if you wish to use them. Go see the butterfly bouquet on Martha Stewart’s website. Cute, especially for a flower girl.And Martha has some great ideas.

Sorry, I do not have any truly inspired centerpiece ideas, Rivers likea a glass globe with a candle, and a flower or greenery candle ring. I do wreaths and baskets, so those would be possibilities for Rivers.

PS, make your own garter!

Did you post this question in the Hobbies section? Might catch somebody there with cute ideas.

Mike answers:

I also didn’t use Kinkos, but I did do my own invites, which wasn’t hard at all. My biggest suggestion is to do them all at one time, and print out at least 25 more than you think you need. I didn’t do this and now I have to go to my computer and set up the alignment all all that jazz before I print a new batch….annoying for sure.

As far as Kinko’s goes, I’m certain their printers will accept card stock, but, I hear Kinko’s has gotten way expensive.

Just for comparison, I can tell you I printed out about 175 invites and reply cards on my home computer and it cost me about $80 and an ink cartridge.

Good look!

Mike answers:

I made my own and – before postage – spent less than $1.50 per invite and I actually got alot of compliments on how nice they looked.

I bought everything I needed on sale – - invitation kits were half price, ribbon, backing paper, crystals, everything to dress up the kits were on sale when I bought them.

I got a plain white laser-cut invitation kit and cut a red backing paper so the laser-cut was covered up, I used a paper hole punch to put a ribbon through both papers and I put a little self-stick crystal in the center of the ribbon. I wish I had pics of them to show you, they turned out awesome.