DIY weddings usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to personal opinion. Due to the many Pinterest fails of the last decade DIY can often get associated with poorly done, cheap alternatives. I believe that doesn’t have to be the norm though. Today we are walking through how to DIY your invites and signage well using the powerful website Canva.com. If you are unfamiliar with Canva, it is basically a design software for the everyday person. You don’t need any skill in design to create beautiful designs with their templates. The design process is basically a drag and drop system with customizable fonts, colors and embellishments. With a $12.95 pro subscription you can even gain access to thousands of stock images, stock designs, more fonts, etc. Enough about Canva, let’s dive into how to DIY your invite suite well.

Laying the foundation

Before you can hop in and start designing, you’ll need to create a clear wedding aesthetic/wedding brand. What does that mean? If the goal is to not look DIYd then you’ll want a cohesive look between all your stationary materials. This includes things like your signage at the wedding (seating chart, menu cards, welcome sign, etc), the save the dates, the invites, the thank you cards, etc. This can be done with using the same fonts, colors and design embellishments. Get onto Pinterest and find design inspiration. Use a lot of descriptive words when searching to find examples that are really close to what you want. Once you have a collection of inspiration photos, write out what you like about each. Is it the colors? The use of blank space? The fonts? The type of paper? Once you have this list made you can start searching for your own fonts, colors and design embellishments.

For today’s example, I am making a modern, minimal wedding invite suite. I love the use of lines, organic materials like leaves, orange slices and natural unstained woods in my full wedding day aesthetic. This is important to note because the colors and materials I use in my wedding day decor choices need to compliment what I do in my signage. My searches would include words like: modern, minimal, organic, neutral, simple, luxury, etc. You can see what I pinned here.

Taking Inspiration

Now that I have a pin board made with a variety of options, it’s time to nail down my own colors, fonts and embellishments. Looking through all that I have pinned I really love the neutral colors. Particularly the white, cream and grey mix that uses vellum (the clear paper) and embossing (the indented designs). I want to decide on specific colors and find their hex codes because that will keep all my designs cohesive. There are two tools that I love: coolors.co and the color picker chrome extension. Coolors is a site where you can automate the color pallet process. If you aren’t finding a pallet on Pinterest that you love, this is a great way to easily make one from scratch. Now let’s say you did find a pallet you love on Pinterest but don’t know the hex codes, the color picker chrome extension will give you the hex code by hovering your mouse on the desired color. This has been a life saver for me as I have built my various brands from scratch.

I am looking for a neutral pallet with one pop of green since I plan on having a lot of greenery in my wedding florals. I really like the colors that I am seeing in the designs I pinned on Pinterest so I will use the color picker to pull the various neutrals into coolors. Then I will use coolors to find a complimentary green.

The above pallet is what I have created (feel free to use it if you like it). Now it’s time to nail down my fonts! I personally love the fonts included in Canva pro. There are plenty of options there, but if you want a wider variety of fonts to choose from, go to creativemarket.com and search the same words you used for your invites but add font at the end. I would search: modern font. For this example, I will use the fonts already included in Canva pro. Searching in canva for fonts isn’t quite as functional. There aren’t filtering searches for fonts in Canva, but you can search for a “modern invite” template and it will probably come up with fonts that fall in the category already in that template. Otherwise, you’ll have to scroll and search within your design. For the sake of this tutorial, I chose Versailles as my singular font. I chose only one font because honestly, it’s hard to match multiple fonts. I’d much rather use the same font and get creative with sizing to separate headings from paragraphs.

Creating Your Wedding Invite in Canva

Finally, we have our modern, minimal wedding invite inspiration solidified. Fonts – check. Color – check. Embellishments – check. Now let’s get creating. The full tutorial is available on @oliveandoath instagram under IGTV.

1. Open Canva
2. Search for (descriptive word) invite templates in the search bar
3. Open one that you like the general layout (it doesn’t have to be exactly what you want!)
4. Start by changing all the fonts and colors to match your wedding aesthetic.
5. Remove any extra embellishments that don’t fit what you want.
6. Begin playing with the design sizing (space between each letter or line).
7. Once you have something you’re satisfied with decide how you want it printed.

Where to print it?

The last part to creating a DIY invite suite that doesn’t feel DIYd is the embellishments and printing choices. Most professional invite suites have more than a simple paper and envelope. They include: invite, RSVP card and envelope, wax seal, decorative paper, matching stamps, calligraphy, etc. While you don’t have to go wild with the embellishments, I suggest choosing one that you can keep throughout all your designs. For me, I love embossing and vellum but I don’t want to pay for vellum on every invite I send (it adds up quickly). Instead, I would order a custom embosser from Etsy that has our names on it and a custom wax seal with our new last name initial. These are a one time purchase that I can use for years to come. The initialed wax seal stamp can make a beautiful way to send thank yous, future Christmas cards, announcements, etc. The embosser adds a texture to the paper that brings a level of sophistication to the total suite.

Knowing that I will use embossing and the wax seal to add a level of sophistication to the suite, it’s time to decide how I will print them. When looking at my final design, I really want the Laura and Mark part to be embossed. To do this, I will remove it in the printed version and order an embosser that is sized to fit on my design. Since I chose lines to frame the names, I need to measure before I buy my embosser.

Now for print options…

1. CANVA: The easiest print option is to print directly through Canva. The quality and speed is fantastic but there aren’t many options for paper types. I personally like the deluxe paper with the uncoated finish.
2. UNIVERSITY PRINT SHOPS: If you want your design on a nicer paper and are still in school (master programs count!) you can try your university’s print shop. I printed all 150 of my wedding invites for $23 from my school.
3. STAPLES, KINKOS, OFFICE MAX, ETC.: Any of the big chain office supply stores have printing but usually these are not the most affordable option. Most of these orders can be easily made online and picked up or shipped.
4. PRINT AT HOME: If you have a printer, this is easily the most customizable option but will require the biggest effort. Buying nicer paper in bulk and printing on it at home will be the cheapest option, BUT you’ll need to know how to work your printer. If you’re anything like me, printers are the most confusing machines out there and a tutorial is needed. What’s nice about printing at home is you can choose different, more high quality papers for each piece of the invite suite.

Overall, Canva is an incredible resource for the everyday person to create beautiful designs for their wedding day. I hope that you found some inspiration from this DIY modern, minimal wedding invite tutorial. Take what you’ve learned and I know your wedding designs will make people stop and ask “who made these?!”

editor’s to note:

• Postage can get expensive if your invite suite is thicker than the average letter because it has to be ‘hand cancelled’ (and you may even want it to be hand cancelled). Check out this blog by Pinkin Paper Company about sending your invite suite with care.
• If you use vintage stamps, you’ll need more because they don’t equate the same value as the current postage costs.
• If you don’t have hand writing that wows, get a custom address stamp for your return address and print the sending address with the same font that you use on the envelope.
• This process does take TIME. When DIYing you are often trading time for money. If this entire process feels like more of a hassle than needed, simply hire a calligrapher or don’t go all out with the invites. This is your wedding and no way is the RIGHT way. Do what makes sense for you.