STD's: They're What I want.

Okay, so it's not the best wedding acronym out there. Anyways, because my wedding is in August and we are inviting a lot of people from afar, we knew our STDs had to be mailed out earlier than most weddings. After searching on the Googs, I read that they are usually mailed around the 6 month mark. Well, considering ours are almost done and ready to mail and we have 8 months to go, we're not going with the grain.

I will get into more detail about Korean weddings in another post, but I will say that save-the-dates are not used here. Invitations are usually simple, one sided cards that a local printing shop similar to Kinkos will print for you. Instead of individually labeling each one, Koreans simply give one invitation to each "group" of acquaintances. For example, when a teacher is getting married, they tack an invitation to the information board in the teachers room. Anyone can come and invite whoever they please. You're right, there's no formal guest list. More on that later!

Because they don't offer a lot of creative outlets for stationary, we immediately knew we'd have to go the DIY route. We spent months hashing out ideas on scraps of paper at coffee shops and whenever we had a free moment. Our final plan for the STD was actually Matt's idea (I know, right????) and major kudos to him because they came out GREAT.

While we were going to go entirely DIY, our good friend here in Korea happens to be a graphic designer and she was delighted to help make our idea a little more streamlined and professional.

While I can't share the finished product yet, here are some teaser photos of the process:

Cutting the white paper down to size for printing

origami cranes

One of the work stations, all ready to go

We decided that we wanted a scrapbooky feel to our STDs without skimping on professionalism. It was Matt's idea to incorporate some cool cut outs and we also decided to print out pictures and attach them instead of printing the picture directly onto the paper.

They'll be sent out soon, so once some people get them all the way from Korea I will post the final product, as well as a step by step for those who are interested in adding some crafty touches to their own STDs and/or invites.

To conclude, here are some tips about making your own STDs/invites from abroad:

1. Search high and low in every art store you can and write down all materials that are easily available.

2. If you can't find something you need (for us it was the blue card stock), order it from home and have a trusted family member ship it. Thank goodness for mommys!

3. If you don't have the necessary materials to DIY and print your own, then find someone that you can easily work with online to do the dirty work for you. When they're ready for printing, you can have one sent to you before you go ahead and send to everyone. We fortunately have our own printer so this wasn't neccessary.

4. I've said it before and I'll say it again: friends and family! Find someone who is either into the design field, good with computer programs or who is just downright crafty. Utilize whoever you can! Most people are more than happy to help and LOVE talking wedding :)


We just got our invitations designed as well and I'm SUPER excited to share those in a few months when they're ready to be made! I can't wait! :)