Ikat Crazy

Design.

Ikat (ee-kaht) designs have long been popular in interior and fashion design, but that popularity has completely spiked in the last year. And I'm absolutely loving it!!



Not to be left behind, graphic designers are employing this technique in invitation design now as well, with an effect that is so chic. And with the prevalence of this pattern in clothing and other textiles, you could easily weave them together for a fabulous event aesthetic.

Here are some of my favorite invite designs that could set the tone for your big day...

Minted


KM Calligraphy


Bow & Arrow


Red Stamp


Minted

Invitation Box

Recently a lot of people have been asking. “How do I start the party planning process?” In my experience the easiest thing to do is to find one thing that you love. It could be a color, flower, antique, pattern…really anything. If you have a focus point then it becomes a natural starting point and things start falling into place. This also helps you avoid the trap of buying a little here and there and then ending up with way to much stuff that doesn’t really present a cohesive theme.

If you have been doing a little brainstorming and that one item seems to be escaping you, then start perusing some invitations. Invitations are a great source of inspiration.

I recently opened the mailbox to find a package from InvitationBox.com that contained a colorful array of cards for all different occasions. If you have a party in your near future, this could be a great place to start!

Inexpensive Customizable Invitations

Paper.

Well I know it seems like Hip Hostess has gone paper crazy recently, but I couldn't let that stop us from showing you another amazing invitation company. We'd like to introduce our newest sponsor, RS2GURU.

RS2GURU is a line of very inexpensive invitations with so many custom color options that it's mind boggling. And the best part is that customization of color, font, and even wording is absolutely free. And to ease your mind that you've made the right changes, you'll receive a digital proof to check for any errors at no cost.

And another thing that we love about RS2GURU is that they throw in a lot of extras for their already reasonable cost. Free envelopes. Free Return Address Printing. And an extra 6% more invites added to your order free as well (because it is way too easy to mess up addressing envelopes). With all of these deals, I feel like I've run across a really fantastic sample sale..only this deal won't have long lines or end in 2 days. Amazing.

Uniquity Invitations

Paper.

Uniquity Invitations is the perfect vendor for the budget conscious bride. Where else can you find a stylish and hip invitation suite that includes invites, rsvp, place cards, favor tags, table numbers, menus and programs for $79.00? Uniquity offers a variety of template choices that range from simple and elegant to modern and bold.

This is how it works. You check out the website and choose a style, once you have purchased the design you will receive, via email, the basic template. You are then able to adjust the font, color and size of text yourself. All that is left is printing, trimming and mailing.




Let’s say you are browsing through the templates and find something you love, but the color scheme is a little off or you need an insert. If you don’t see that option, no worries, just contact Uniquity and they will be happy to add some customization. Not only is this product easy on the wallet but it can also be a stress reliever. You don’t have to worry about knowing the exact amount of invites you will need right from the start. Let’s face it sometimes cousins, great aunts and family friends you never heard of suddenly show up on someone’s list at the last minute and just hitting your print button will solve this problem without any hassle.

Fonts In Bloom

Personalized Fonts.

About a week ago I was having a conversation with a few friends and the topic of gift giving came up. I was surprised to find, out of those at the table who had recently sent wedding, bridal shower and graduation gifts, only 1 had received a thank you note.

I don’t know when exactly sending thank you notes or cards became an option? As I see it, if someone takes time out of their schedule to choose a gift, purchase it and either wrap or send it, then you can find the time to write a thank you note.

That being said, Hip Hostess has found a terrific vendor to make the art of thank you cards still personal yet much less time consuming.

Fontsinbloom.com is an automated font generation service that converts your handwriting into a high quality font in seconds! The whole process takes about 15 minutes. All you do is follow these simple steps.

1 Print the templates
2 Design your font
3 Scan it in
4 Upload to our server
5 Preview & test it
6 Buy for only $14.95 (US)
7 Download & save
8 Install & enjoy

This 15 minute process allows you to design a template for a thank you that will always be on hand. Then all you need to do is insert the personalized gift info, hit print and ta-da a personalized thank you in your own handwriting.

Wedding Paper Divas Discounts!!

Invitation deals.

We at Hip Hostess love a good deal...and we also love Wedding Paper Divas. So you can imagine how excited we are that Wedding Paper Divas has an amazing deal for our readers right now!

The William Arthur line of Letterpress and Thermography stationary is rarely included in promotions by WPD, but that all changes now. If you order 75 of any item from the William Arthur line, you receive 25 for free. Pretty amazing, right? Click here for all of the details.

Brilliant Bouquet and Vintage Swirls Letterpress Invitations.

Pristine Pinstripes & Simple Equation Thermography Invitations

ALSO...Wedding Paper Divas is offering 25% off of thank you cards when you purchase invitations and response cards from their Signature Collection. Click here for the details.

Dandelion Dream and Pop Art Poppy thank you cards.

With all of these amazing promotions, there has to be something out there for any of you brides to love!