Inspiration for the Invitations

I.  LOVE.  PAPER.  Seriously.  Paper products are somewhat of an obsession of mine.  Notepads, stationary, and all kinds of paper embellishments are always at the top of my Christmas list.  We Atlantans are fortunate enough to have a Paper Source here and, well, they know me.  Every time I walk in, some employee says, "You again?  But you were just here!"  Much like this:

"Have you got anything new?" "Not since yesterday!"

It's funny though; as much as I love paper, the invitation category in our budget was pretty small.  We figured that we could save money and still have something beautiful if we went the DIY route, like we did for our Save the Dates.  Sister Lioness offered to design something fabulous and we planned to print it at home using our own office printer.  This took letterpress out of the picture.  But let's drool over some letterpress for a moment anyway, shall we?

Mrs. Fro Yo's invites via Weddingbee

Mrs. Paisley's invites via Weddingbee

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Swoon.

Anyway, I knew that I wanted something with a garden motif.  We're getting married in a garden, and our wedding will take place during the spring time.  I also really loved the idea of including a tree in the design.  As Meerkat posted, the symbolism associated with trees is just beautiful.

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I found myself drawn to invitations with some kind of green bottom border, like grass or leaves.  The contrast with the rest of the design gave some nice contrast.

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And, of course, I needed to incorporate some whimsy!

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Love the fonts on this one!

So, how in the world did we incorporate all of those ideas into one design?  Stay tuned!

How did you find inspiration for your invitations?  What themes did you find yourself drawn to?