wedding invitations

my niece is getting married in june; suzanne is the maid of honor. this is an extra special honor because even though they're 4 months apart, they've lived their lives 1000's of miles apart. ashley lives in PA & we're here in TX. the girls have spent some vacations together -- suzanne even stowed away in their van one summer when they were here! i had to fly to PA to get her!!!! that same year she flew to PA for christmas & had her 1st taste of real snow. the day ashley got engaged she called suzanne & asked her to be her maid of honor. suzanne was over the moon with excitement -- she called me & said, "mom, ashley asked ME to be her maid of honor - out of all her close friends, she asked ME!!!" ashley's comment was, "family is what matters." tears. brought tears to my eyes!!

a couple years ago my nephew asked me to make the invitations to his wedding. i was secretly hoping ashley would too!!! and she did!!!!! i've been bugging her since christmas to get me the info & give me ideas of what she wanted & FINALLY last saturday we finalized everything. (is she a procrastinator? YES!!!)

well, 100 invitations, 100 response cards, 100 mini envelopes, 100 outer envelopes, 100 "insides", 100 ribbons, 200 embossed doilies, lots of measuring & cutting and 3 rolls of card-making tape & they're done!!!!

brian's were very formal & classy. ashley's are very casual, but still classy. they're very "ashley". ashley's a bluejeans & t-shirt kinda girl, who can dress it up with a scarf. relaxed, but classy. one of my favorite pictures is one of her & suzanne. they were weeding the garden & ashley has on a tank top, shorts & mud boots -- she dressed the part, but i don't think she did much weeding!!!!!!

anyway, back to the invitations --- one of the ideas she had was to have lace on them. and she wanted kraft paper. and maybe burlap. my thought was lace is going to be expensive. kraft paper i can do. burlap is going to make them heavy. heavy = more postage. i came across an idea on her pinterest board that used stampin' up!'s doily stamp. i have that stamp & hadn't used it yet. i made up some samples & we agreed on the design. ashley said doilies reminded her of grandma (my mom) & that was a neat way to incorporate her into the wedding even though she's gone. (mom's favorite flowers were irises. brian's invitation had a silver embossed iris on them. it's nice that the kids wanted a part of her in their weddings.)

i've posted comments on facebook while making the invitations. everyone's dying to see them, so here you go:

family. it's what matters.