Invitation Design

Today marks the day we said our vows at ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’. 7 years later, my love for my husband and my love for all things Disney has not faded!

I was quite shocked when my husband-to-be agreed to the whole idea of a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding, but I am so happy he did. It was the perfect intimate venue and I was able to incorporate small touches of Mickey Mouse throughout. Can you spot the hidden mickey in my bouquet?

For my invites I wanted something clean and modern. I wanted it to say Disney without looking kiddy or cartoonish so I ended up settling on this subtle mouse ear graphic. Luckily I only had a dozen or so invites to make, so I printed, cut and assembled all the different elements all on my own.

Because it was a destination wedding and we sent the invites so far ahead of time, I also included save-the-date fridge magnets with our wedding website address.

Did you know you can “invite” Mickey and Minnie to your wedding or birthday and they will mail you back a photo and a pin? The address is:

Mickey Mouse
P.O. Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-00100

And I just made the happy discovery today that July 17 is also the anniversary date of Disneyland opening which makes our anniversary date all that much more magical. We were married in the year where every other couple seemed to be getting married on 07/07/07, so our date always seemed a little dull. Happy 59th Anniversary Disneyland!

Thankfully our wedding was planned long before the days of Pinterest, and before I became really interested in party planning. I know if I was planning today I would be making a lot more work for myself via DIY projects. It was truly an amazing day and looking back there are very few things I would change about our special day.

One other fun element I did work on for the wedding was the program fans. It was a pain to hand cut all the Mickey silhouettes, but I loved the way they turned out in the end.

Thank you to my wonderful husband who continues to work hard to make all our dreams come true. I love looking back at our wedding and trip photos and can’t wait to start planning for our 10 year anniversary trip to Disney World in 2017!

Confession: I have never read Harry Potter. I vaguely remember watching the first movie, but that was way back when it first came out and I couldn’t remember any of the details now if I tried. The second closest I have come to having anything to do with Harry Potter was a small exhibit we happened upon in the Marseilles train station on our Europe trip in 2009. Displayed within the different train cars were some cool props and memorabilia from the movie, but knowing very little about the series it was not much for me to get excited about.

When my brother brought up the idea of helping plan a couple’s wedding shower for his bride-to-be and hinted that she would like a Harry Potter theme, I admit I was a little daunted and less then excited. Then my Pinterest search skills took over and I quickly learned there was a lot that could be done with the theme – hello butterbeer, chocolate frogs, and a Honeydukes themed candy buffet! I could go on, but I don’t want to spoil too many of the ideas I have in store for the happy couple.

My original thought for the invite was to do something with owls, but in my Pinterest searches I came across these adorable quidditch mugs from TooLegitTooKnit on Etsy and knew right away it would work perfectly for the front of the invite.

Borrowing the idea, I split my invite down the middle and put “He’s Found a Catch” on one side with the complimentary “She’s Found a Keeper” on the other half. To add interest, I incorporated an overlapping lightening bolt down the middle which both mimicked Harry’s birth mark and served as a way to close up the invitations. They was a bit of a pain to individually cut and score with my exacto knife, but luckily I only had 14 of them to make up!

The lightening bolt closure opened up to the party details printed inside on clean white cardstock.

For the envelopes I was able to find some “Owlgram” graphics online that I printed onto the front and backs of the envelopes. I had to print addresses on anyway, so this really didn’t take much extra effort and gave it that special touch. I went with a rustic Kraft type envelope to match the paper of the invite inside.

The maid of honor also suggested we do something with a wax seal and began to hunt high and low for a wax seal kit. I did a quick search and came across Just Another Day in Paradise‘s post for her Harry Potter Birthday invitations and was excited to see she was able to get the wax seal look easily with clay. I ended up finding an owl pendant at Michael’s and used it to imprint into some purple Fimo clay. I ended up baking my clay medallions and then hot gluing onto each envelope to make sure they survived the trip through the mail.

I love the way these turned out and am excited to get going on all the other party details, even if I am a bit of a dummy when it comes to Harry Potter.

I can appreciate the magic and wonder that comes with Harry Potter and I do hope to one day eventually read the books and watch all the movies with my kids. I know many adults love the series so I can imagine it is that much better when experiencing it together through the eyes of a child!

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There have been a few requests for the artwork files for these invites so I am providing them here for your use. You can download the main cover artwork pdf here: HP Shower Invite Artwork_DolledUpDesign

I have laid it out on a legal (8.5″x14″) sized piece of paper and it is designed to be folded and fit neatly in a 5.625″ x 4.375″ envelope.

The inside details can be added to this high resolution jpeg:

Final size should be 5″x3.75″ to fit neatly inside the above cover.

The fonts I used are:

Lumos from dafont.com
Magic School from dafont.com
ParryHotter from 1001fonts.com
Witches Magic from dafont.com

And, finally, here are a few owl post seals to use on the envelopes:

I appreciate all the positive feedback on the invitations and I hope this can help some of you create your very own! Don’t forget to check out all my other Harry Potter party posts for other great food and decoration ideas.