+THE PERFECT CHALKBOARD SAVE THE DATE CARD (for me)

Our wedding is a mere 8 months away. I can't really wrap my head around it because it seems so far away, but I know this next semester will fly by and I'll be freaking out because it's almost the new year which means almost my wedding.

We have picked the date, picked the venue, and booked the day-of wedding coordinator, but I still haven't told anyone yet. I've been taking forever to choose a save the date card. I would find one that I liked, then realize the price, then back out. Then I'd scour the internet for more and the cycle would continue.

Every night while watching tv, I'd be on my laptop with JT looking over my shoulder saying "just pick one babe, they all look good". That might be true, but good wasn't enough for me. I wanted the perfect mix of typography, matte finish, thick cardstock, photo, and style. Not to mention I decided a long time ago that I wanted a chalkboard style save the date.

Our venue has a lot of chalkboard painted walls and has artists on staff that will draw up anything your heart desires. Seating list? Yep. Menu? Yes ma'am. "This way to the taco bar"? You bet. So I knew I wanted to stick with that fun theme on my save the dates. It'll give our guests an idea of what our overall feel of the wedding will be.

So the hunt began (and lasted forever) for the perfect chalkboard wedding save the date.

First I started at Minted.com


This was a favorite: Charming Chalkboard Save the Date


Chalked Save the date

And even though this isn't chalkboard, I just loved it: Cottage Garden

Although I loved everything about Minted.com, the cards were just too pricey for me. I couldn't justify spending $250+ on 150 or so cards. So I moved on.

I decided to give Etsy.com a try and see what independent artists had to offer. In comes the king of all chalkboard wedding suites. As soon as I saw these I said to myself that I didn't care the price, I had to have these. BUT of course, when I clicked on the link the shop said it was "on vacation" and wasn't taking any new orders anymore. I was so bummed and tried for days, to find a duplicate somewhere. But I couldn't.


Yours is the Earth

I then went on a rampage and visited all of these wedding invitation websites to try and find my save the dates:
Invitations by Dawn
Zazzle
WeddingPaperDivas
Pear Tree Greetings
Papela
Love vs Design
Paper-Source
Ann's Bridal Bargains
David's Bridal

And I still came up empty handed. What a hassle this has become. All because I couldn't make up my mind and also because I'm so cheap.

But alas, my prayers were answered this week when I stumbled across Simply To Impress. Not sure why I hadn't seen this site before, but for whatever reason it never made it across my radar until Monday.

I ended up purchasing these chalkboard save the dates:

Chalkboard Date

I upgraded and did the premium cardstock and was able to add photos to the back of the card. This site is cool too because I was able to edit all of the fonts (except the "save the date"), so I enlarged the date and switched up the wording a little bit. Here's how mine turned out on the front:


They were having a 25% off your entire order deal so instead of $1.29/card I got them for .97 each. My total order for 150 cards was $145. A steal compared to the other websites I tried. You get free envelopes in the color of your choice as well. On the back is a photo of us with a little blurb about how excited we are to celebrate with everyone.

Since I saved money on the save the dates, I opted to get a little fancy and order some skinny address labels. Here are the ones I went with from Minted.com

Winter Flourish
I got 150 of these for $40 because I had a $20 gift card that Minted.com had sent me. So this is what happened. I originally started looking at Minted.com for invitations and ordered their free wedding sample pack. It's awesome and let's you feel and touch all of the different papers and envelopes they offer. Well I never went back and ordered anything after that, so they emailed me and offered me a $20 gift card for orders over $50 because they "missed me".
Just so happens 150 of these address labels were $62 originally so you bet I used that gift card and got hooked up. A little piece of advice for all you brides looking for a small discount...order the free sample pack and in a few weeks they might send you a nice little gift card :)

I also liked these address labels, but Justin preferred the one with our names so I went with the Winter Flourish.

Modern Classic

I'm SO freaking happy this part of the decision making is over...now I just have to get everyone's address and mail these babies out. Hoping the quality of the save the dates I ordered is good. Fingers crossed and I'll let you know how it turns out!