Introducing-the-Bridesmaids Cards

It was really important to me that my bridesmaids were able to get in touch with each other.

I mean how else will they plan the bachelorette party! LOL. Just (sorta) kidding! We aren’t exactly a big group of friends that hang out all the time. Some of them know each other, others don’t know each other at all. They are a fantastic bunch that I have met all throughout my lifetime and I wanted them to feel comfortable the day of the wedding.

So how would I introduce them to each other? I asked some of them to be bridesmaids through my own “Will You Be My Bridesmaid” cards, and I had a really fun time making them. I thought it might be a really great excuse to do another paper craft.

Initially I played around with making an accordion booklet with their names, phone numbers and email addresses. It worked well but it wasn’t very exciting.

Then I remembered a card featured on Martha Stewart that was of a woman in silhouette.

Aha! I had an idea: I would make a silhouette of each lady! Like her very own cameo! Then I would put the contact info on the back and fold it in an accordion style so you would just see the beautiful silhouettes from the front. And when they would turn them over…viola…functional info!

My first step was going to A.C. Moore and getting the right paper. I had a very specific vision. It needed to be in my wedding colors. Cameo light pinky peach and a dusty deep rose! With reddish-pink and black calligraphy (just like I saw in Betsy Johnson’s journal)! This step was the easiest. The second not so much!

The second step was figuring out how large I could make the silhouettes and how I could make the folds even. The craft paper I bought was actually scrapbooking paper and in an almost square…almost! I cut an oversized piece of white paper and did a number of trials. Finally I figured out how it would open so every silhouette would be facing front, how the asymmetrical paper would be spaced evenly, and how I could make the most out of the surface area so I could make the largest silhouette possible! Phew!!

And the third step was really the most time consuming! I decided to make each lady different–with their silhouette based on their features. I thought this would be easy enough because I would just draw one out and stack the paper on top of each other. So it would be just like I had to do one for each girl.

Oh how wrong I was! The black paper I had was very bad quality. You can’t do multiple without the paper tearing. With 5 girls per card this equaled 25 individually created silhouettes. Ouch!!

The last part was the funnest but required the most attention to detail. I used rubber cement to glue the silhouettes to the paper and used calligraphy markers to write down the names and contact info of the ladies. What if I did all this then wrote down the wrong name, misspelled an email address, got a wrong? All my hard work would be out the window–I couldn’t erase it! And let me tell you…it happened. I put one name twice! But I got through it, and it was totally worth it. I love how they turned out.

How Big Is Your Wedding Party?

Mr. Cali Girl and I decided on our wedding party pretty easily. With somewhat disregard for the traditional number of attendants we should have.

Image from Katee's Wedding.

So, yeah, it was pretty easy deciding on who. My advice is to stick with your instincts.

I wanted to represent each stage of my life–from little kid to high school to college to present. My sister is my “Maid of Honor” and represents the little me, while my other bridesmaids represent high school college. I decided to have Mr. Cali Girl’s sister and nieces in the wedding, and they will represent the current stage of my life–my life in New Jersey! Mr. Cali Girl’s sister will be a bridesmaid but called “sister of the groom.” I just couldn’t make her another “Maid of Honor” thinking that would take away from my sister (and best friend). Mr. Cali Girl’s 3 nieces (my mini-BFFs!) are junior bridesmaids. While the other 2 nieces will be flower girls. And to top it off my nephew will be the ringbearer.

Mr. Cali Girl knew from the get-go that he wanted to include his longtime friends to be his groomsmen. He asked all six of them all the day he told them we were engaged. Only now (11 months later) he having second thoughts about not including some of his other family members in the wedding. Should he have instead included his half brother? Brother-in-law? My brother-in-law? I say keep with what his gut told him, but we will see if the wedding party grows!

But should we invite more groomsmen to equal out the girls?

So currently our count is 6 groomsmen, 1 ringbearer, 5 bridesmaids, 3 junior bridesmaids, 2 flowergirls. And a total of 17 in the wedding party and less than 100 guests. They say 2-4 attendants per 50 guests, and we have about three times this for a wedding roughly the same size!

I think I may need to invite more people! Hmm…

So Sweet DIY Bridesmaid Cards

These are the most adorable “Will You Be My Bridesmaid?” Cards. I recently completed my very own paper project (more on that later) and these served as one of my sources of inspiration. So I thought I would share them with you! They are just too fun ‘n sweet to keep to myself. By the way, Once Wed has recently been putting out a lot of posts with step-by-step instructions on how to do some wonderful things. I love personalized things. And crafts projects! Try them out or make something your own!

Image from Once Wed.

How Did You Invite Your Bridesmaids?

I planned to send each bridesmaid a cute “Will You Be My Bridesmaid Card”. However, my grandmother got critically ill in May and I forgot my “plan” while out to dinner with my bridesmaid visiting from Chicago. At Rosa Mexicana, a hip NYC restaurant we went to because as Southern California girls we always miss Mexican food, I asked her in a stumbling manner if she would be my bridesmaid. When we got back from dinner the two of us were talking about wedding stuff and even my fiance was like, “You asked her already?” surprised that I didn’t stick with my plan. Well as a best friend and former roommate, she understood. But a few months later I got back on board with what I was planning, organized my thoughts and translated them into little mementos.

Here are a few pictures of how my other two “Will You Be My Bridesmaid” cards turned out: