Hummingbird Wedding Invitations
This tutorial is based on a Save the Date card we created earlier, so if you missed it and want to give these invitations a try, just hop on over to that post and put that card together first.
As always, if you get stuck, see if you can find help in my Illustrator tips or by doing a quick review of the Illustrator toolbar.
Turning your Hummingbird Save the Date card into a wedding invitation is so easy! This is how I did it:
1. Open the Save the Date card you created earlier.
2. Go to File – Save As and save it as Hummingbird Invite (or whatever you want to call it).
3. In your Hummingbird Invite document, go to File – Document Setup and in the dimension windows, put 5 for width and 7 for height (if you want to go the traditional route).
4. Unlock the bottom layer, click on your 5×5 background color square and in your Transform palette, put in 5 for the width and 7 for the height. If you don’t see the Transform palette, just go to Window – Transform and it will pop right up. Align your box with your document. Lock this layer.
5. I happened to like both where the illustration ended up by chance and the size of it on the invite, but you can obviously resize it and move it any way you want. If you want to do it my way, just leave it where it is and make sure that layer is locked too.
6. Go to your text layer and change your text.
That’s it!
If you want to keep the invite square, that’s obviously even easier. All I would do then is just make the illustration a little bit smaller and change the text. You may have to space it a little bit differently than I did on the 5×7 invite to make it fit, or change the wording slightly. Be creative and play around with the layout until it looks good to you.
Filed under Design, Illustrator, Tutorial, Unique Invitations, Wedding Invitation | Comments (2)Text Layout Ideas For Your Printable Wedding Invitations
If you decide to print your own invitations, layout is going to be a task worth spending some time on. Whether you decide to go the traditional route (script font, centered on the card) or try something a bit different, you can expect to spend a good amount on time at your computer. Microsoft Word works for a lot of different layouts, but if you’re up for learning a new program, I highly recommend Adobe Illustrator. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, there are no limits to what you can make. You’ll easily be able to recreate any design you see online, as well as invent new ones yourself. The layouts below were all made in Illustrator and saved as jpgs, but the text portion can easily be created in Word as well (and printed on a card which already has a design on it)
1. 
For a square card, a cute, contemporary idea is to make the text aligned in a square in the middle. Type your names and the word “Wedding” (or anything else you want to highlight) in larger letters, and maybe with a different color (your theme color for the wedding?). I like using all caps for this layout and here, I used Times at 12 and 18 pts.
2. Another option that works nicely on “regular” 5×7 cards is to type your names in a script font, larger (and perhaps in a different color, matching the design on the card) and the rest of the text in small caps. For this card, I used Zapfino at 13pts for the names, and Myriad Pro at 12pts for the text.
3. For something very informal, use a whimsical font (I used Papyrus at 12 and 20 pts for the invitation below). You can of course vary the font for the names, pick a different layout, anything you want. Just have fun with it, and let your invitation set the tone for the whole event.