This weekend we celebrated my daughter’s fifth birthday. We decided on a tea party theme with 4 of her friends. I had so much fun making the invitations and decorating for the party! It was a great birthday party theme but it would also work really well for bridal or baby showers.

The Invitation

Here is the tea cup invitation I created – the original template I used is from www.melstampz.blogspot.com.

The Table

For the decorations, I made tissue paper flowers in lime green & pink and hung them from the ceiling using fishing line. The idea and instructions for how to make the flowers came from www.weddingbycolor.com. The tissue paper flowers were so simple to make and turned out beautifully so now that the party is over I’m going to hang them in a corner of my daughters room. I dressed the table with a simple white linen table cloth paired with a hot pink runner. A teapot from the dollar store served as a vase for the arrangement of mums and tulips. For snacks we cut fruit and cheese, using cookie cutters, into flowers and stars and placed them on pretty platters. The tea (a.k.a. apple juice) was served in little green espresso cups that I found at IKEA.

Teapot with mums and tulips

Sampling the "Tea"

As an activity at the party we made these adorable bouquets of felt flowers and arranged them in a little lime green flower pot. They turned out even better than I had hoped. The original idea for the flowers came from www.americancrafts.typepad.com. You can find detailed instructions on their website. Once the girls finished their flowers we had them stick them into floral foam inside the pots and covered the top with spanish moss.

Felt Flower Craft

Felt Flower Bouquet

Saying “thank you” to your guests was never easier or less expensive! For our April promo you will receive free basic thank you cards with any invitation order.

the basic thank you card

Use the code “thankyou” in the additional comments section of the shopping cart and you will receive free basic thank you cards to coordinate with your invitations. (the number of thank you cards you receive will be equivalent to the number of invitations ordered).

If you are stumped on just what to say in all those thank you notes here are some websites we found with some great hints and tips on etiquette:

www.marthastewartweddings.com
www.thank-you-note-samples.com

There are many etiquette rules when it comes to addressing your wedding invitations and they can be quite overwhelming when you finally sit down to tackle this project. We have summarized some of the the most commonly asked questions regarding addressing that we get and included a couple of resources that can answer the rest of your questions.

Do I need double envelopes for my invitations?

Although still used, they are much less common these days. The Uncommon Bride does not offer double envelopes as an option for our invitations because to us it seems like a waste of paper and we doubt that your guests will mind!

Do I have to address my invitations by hand?

If you or a friend has really nice handwriting then addressing the envelopes by hand looks lovely. However, using your computer and some clear address labels works well too and will likely save you lots of time! You can use a font that coordinates with your invitations – just make sure it is still readable so your invitations will get delivered.

Where can I use abbreviations on my envelopes?

Abbreviations are used for titles, like Mr. or Dr., but otherwise you should write out words like “and”, “Street”, “Avenue” and the province or state.

How do I decide how to write my guests names on the envelopes?

Titles are still traditionally used for invitations. However, for a less formal feel, you may omit these in favour of the guests full names. I personally like skipping the titles because I prefer seeing my own name rather than “Mr. & Mrs. Richard Nott” on the envelope. Rather than go through all the combinations here, I will point you to a few resources that go through the guest combinations in detail!
www.frugalbride.com
www.marthastewartweddings.com

How soon should I send out my invitations?

Traditional etiquette is 6-8 weeks but these days people have very busy schedules so anywhere 2-4 months before the wedding is completely acceptable. Save-the-dates can be sent out between 6 months to a year before the wedding date and, once sent, allow you to send the formal invitation much later.

Spring cleaning around The Uncommon Bride started a little early this year. The result is that we’ve added 11 very fun petal envelopes to the bargain section of the website.

Bargain Priced Petal Envelopes

The petal envelopes are 5.5″ square, when closed, and fit into a 5.75″ square envelope. They will only be available until the existing stock is gone…so act fast.

The bargains section also has takeout containers, tins, envelopes, frosted purses and more.

I am very excited to launch the uncommon blog!

First, I would like to extend a special thanks to Sean Phillips for helping me get this blog up and running.

The blog will be used to share new designs of our wedding stationery, to give you hints and tips for using our diy invitation kits as well as for highlighting new ideas and resources for the do-it-yourself bride and groom and of course offer some special promotions for our online store.

Paige DIY Invitation Kit