DIY Wedding Invitations With Paper Roses

by Sally
(Cambridge, UK)

My Red Rose DIY Wedding Invitation

I wanted to make my own wedding invitations as they're really expensive in the shops and I knew I could create invites that are just as pretty.

I'm getting married in July and I'm having a red and white theme. My bouquet is mainly made up of red roses (I really like red roses). So I decided to carry this on to my wedding invitations as well.

I went to my local craft shop to get some inspiration. They had loads of bits and bobs to make cards with and a great selection of little fabric flowers with wire stalks, including roses in my red colour. I figured that I could make a very simple, elegant wedding invitation using these little roses.

I bought a packet of 12 roses and some blank cards and then experimented a bit at home. I had several different ideas, but the one I used in the end is in the picture as it was my favourite. Here's how I did it...

1. First of all I set up the card in Microsoft Word and typed in 'Wedding Invitation'. I positioned this where I wanted it on the card and then printed out it. This was my base.

2. Next, I made the rose bouquet. This was a bit tricky and took a bit of practice, but once I'd mastered it, I made all 40 of them quite easily! To make them, I did as follows:

- I took 7 roses and arranged them to look like a bouquet. I did this whilst I was holding them.

- I then took one of the wires and twisted it around the others to secure them in place. I then had my basic bouquet.

- Then, I cut a piece of wide red ribbon. The ribbon was about 15mm wide and it was 5cm in length.

- Along one of the long edges of the ribbon, I put some glue. I used a glue roller as they're really easy to use.

- Then I placed the bouquet at the non-glue end and started to roll the ribbon around the wire stalks. The glue end then stuck down when I had finished.

- I turned the seam of the ribbon to the back of the bouquet, so it was a nice clean satiny bit at the front.

- I then positioned my pretty bouquet on the invite and stuck it down with UHU glue. It dries clear and is very secure. I needed to weigh it down though with a book to make sure it dried properly to the invite.

- Inside I put a plain white insert which I created on my home computer in Microsoft Word. It was really easy. I secured it with a bit of glue.

Voila! My DIY wedding invitation was done! The invites cost me about 80p each, which I think is a bargain.

Total cost of my wedding invitations: £36

Saving: Loads!