Wedding Wednesday - Save the Date Caricature Coasters & a Love to Create Stamp #giveaway

Well before we were engaged, I already had a vision of what I wanted for our save the dates and luckily, Gabe was on board. I always wanted to do a caricature save the date. This goes back nearly 10 years ago when my friend Aryn had a New Years Eve party and sent out a caricature of herself and her dog as the invite. I thought it was brilliant and hung onto the invite for years.

I thought this idea was so unique and different and had not seen it done since. I started googling caricature artists and quickly learned a lot of couples have gone this route for save the dates, even invitations.....all thanks to Fergie and Josh Duhmal who made this popular with their wedding invites!

Well then.....I guess my super unique idea wasn't so original after all and it even went Hollywood. I didn't care and was still set on this idea. I consulted an artist who has done a ton of work for me in the past. He gave me an amazing deal to create a custom caricature of us. We wanted the setting to be in front of Jackson Square, New Orleans, where we're saying I Do. While Boo-Kitty will not be present at the wedding, I still wanted to include our fur child in the image. We went very detailed on what the image was to include. It was only fitting for me to be holding a glass of wine, wearing a striped dress. 

After going back and forth quite a few times (it took 4 times for Boo to be fat enough), we ended up with our final image and couldn't have been happier. While magnets are the popular go to choice for save the dates, we wanted something different. It hit me one night drinking a glass of wine - save the date coasters! 

I researched so many different DIY coasters and consulted Gabes Father Tim who works at a print shop.We were originally going to do the save the dates on a tile coaster, using the modge podge method but shipping worried me (both cost and concern of the tile breaking in transit). Tim mentioned that they recently got a new machine in that does heat transfer printing and we could do a rubber coaster, similar to a mouse pad. 

We had to flip the color of the street sign from black to white because once printed, you could not see the date. Tim also changed the background to yellow vs. blue due to color issues.

While the coaster has all of the information needed (date, location and wedding website), I feared some people wouldn't understand. So I created a post card on Vista Print, with a message on the back from the two of us explaining why we were getting married in New Orleans (the million dollar question). I also stated that the save the dates were coasters, in the chance people didn't understand what this piece of felt rubber was.

This was the first time we got to use our new address stamp by Love to Create Stamp, which I was very impressed with. I stamped over 100 envelopes and not once time did it smear, smudge or stamp uneven.

Love to Create  is giving one custom self inking stamp to my readers! There are so many different options to choose from. Visit Love to Create's Etsy store and let me know which style you like best in a comment below. Don't forget to use the rafflecopter widget as that is how I select the winner.

Now off to the post office I go!

a Rafflecopter giveaway