One of my favorite things about blogging is all the amazing things I come across that I likely never would have had I not been trying to put a post together. What I found the other day while searching for burlap inspiration is the most perfect example of amazing finds as it gets. I knew instantly it was too incredible to just put a little picture in an inspiration board and so I emailed the owner of this brilliant idea. Let me introduce you to Jodi of Jodi Miller Photography- you may know her already as her incredible work has been featured on various blogs. I should add that she has a business partner- her new hubby, Kurt- that is just as much deserving of the accolades I am giving and will continue to give throughout this post. Anyway this Virginia based duo was recently married, on October 15th in fact, (sound familiar? Same day as our wedding!) and decided to tackle their own wedding invitations. You might remember that I made my own invitations and you might also remember that I told you that you should NEVER DIY invitations because it is a major pain. What they made proves me wrong times 10. While I crafted my own to save money, they crafted their own because they are super creative and wanted something unique. So perhaps it was just my motivation that was hindering my performance. Anyway, their invitations were truly a labor of love and they were both involved in the process. They blended a few of my favorite things: Burlap, doilies, and cameos. I really had no choice but to love them and I know you will too!
I asked Jodi to give her insight on the process, take it away Jodi!
When we got engaged we knew we wanted to do something entirely different for our invitations…we were determined to do something that we had never seen before. Being in the wedding industry, we see so many different ideas, but we also see very similar things, so we brainstormed for several months and came up with this invitation. We also made sure our invitation reflected the type of wedding we were envisioning, so once our guests saw the invite they could picture a little bit of our wedding. (Love that!)
My husband created the base of our invitations, made out of a thick board we found at Michaels and burlap. We had scrapped so many ideas over several months, since my original idea was so complicated and didn’t exactly look too nice. I also found those little cameos on etsy and knew I had to use them some way on our invitations (we also used them in our wedding as our napkin rings).
For the inserts, we wanted to keep them simple and straight to the point, since our invitation already had a lot going on, so I purchased some paper from the Paper Source and printed the inserts myself. Our original inserts were tea-stained, but they looked a little too rustic and definitely hand-made 
Our invitations took so many trial runs and experimentation to really come up with this exact invite.
The Maps were designed by Kurt’s brother and a friend helped the couple with the wording on the actual invitation. They used blue envelopes with the flaps cut off to hold all the inserts. Jodi decided to add a doily to the inside to enhance the design. As incredible as these are, if possible they get better. The couple added a stop-motion DVD.
As far as the stop-motion goes…we wanted to somehow incorporate our passion of photography into the invite, since that’s our career and our wedding would have some photographic elements in the details. So, we included the stop-motion film to give our guests something personalized and also a visual into our wedding. Like the physical invitation, our stop-motion ideas were ambitious. We had to do so many outtakes, since we were challenged with so many different variables. Everything we incorporated into our stop-motion film was incorporated into our wedding, like the pie in the beginning, the chalkboard signs, the twine…even the backdrop we used. The stop-motion film included in the invitation took us a full week to complete. We actually took all of the photos ourselves using a tripod and wireless remote…so every picture you see was taken by us, which also means every single movement we made we had to take a shot of…sooo ridiculously challenging! All in all, the film had about 600 images in total.(SO worth it though- Just wait til you watch!)
Go right now, well after you finish this post, and watch the video.a slice of invite from Jodi Miller on Vimeo.
Since we had invited about 120 guests, we made about 75 invitations (one per family). So we made the exact amount, since it was a lot of work to have left overs! We also tried to hand deliver as many as we could to cut down the cost of postage, since the ones we did have to mail had about 5-6 stamps on them!
Absolutely incredible, no? I take back everything I said about DIY invitations. If you have the time and ingenuity to create something this wonderful, do it! They thought of every last detail- even the address labels were hand punched to create that lovely edge. Seriously, even the stamps are adorable. If you received that in the mail wouldn’t you be absolutely stoked to go to the wedding as you know surely if the invitation was that awesome, the wedding was guaranteed to be amazing? I can not wait to see pictures of their wedding!
Jodi and Kurt are extraordinary photographers as well. If I were to get married again I might just move to Virginia just so they could take the photos! Go see their “A Year in Pictures” post for a sampling of their astounding work. I also saw some photos of Jodi’s bridal shower which she helped style which was gorgeous. Is there anything you two can’t do?
Thank you so much Jodi for letting me feature your impressive invitations and for taking the time to tell me the story of their creation!
