I'm SO not a designer...

So back here I wrote about my plan to use my Cricut for alllll of my papery wedding goodness. And how that plan failed. So, instead of having beautiful paper-cut invites, I opted to search Etsy for a vendor that could give me what I wanted. Because I'm not hard to please or anything...

Source

I prefer Little Miss Selective thankyouverymuch!

In my Etsy search I found beeeeeeeautiful things. Amaaaaaazing things. Invites that were perfect... for someone else. While I loved everything I found, there was just something not quite right about each one of them for our wedding.

LOVE the modern take on a script font! From Etsy seller shineinvitations

Bold colors, a mix of fonts, and a touch of whimsy? Yes, please! From Etsy seller archangelgraphics

You know right away who this wedding is for! From Etsy seller He Saw Sparks

 
Now, I know that I could have any vendor design me exactly what I wanted, but I figured it couldn't be that hard to design an invite myself.

I figured wrong.

It was bad before I blurred it... trust me.

See? Plain and blah! Not impressive.

I thought maybe it needed more of a pattern around the edges. So, I played around with that, too.

Still not impressed... I wanted something more modern looking. Cleaner lines and fun fonts...


I spent day after day perfecting my next draft, and genuinely believed it would be my final. I showed it off proudly to my sister, boasting of my accomplishments! I'm a design pro! This is soooo easy! I should do this for a living!

She didn't quite agree.

She was supportive, but definitely did not like the design I chose. Now, I was prepared for people not to like it, but I just brushed it off  because of their "design ignorance." They don't know what's modern and trendy like I do. They have more traditional taste. Gah... I'm such a design snob, and I didn't even know it!

But really... it was bad. I'm almost embarrassed to show it. But in the interest of full disclosure:

It's a 4x9, and I love the shape, but all the words are too squished together.I think there are too many fonts going on, and the swirly flourishes bug me now. I guess it was an OK start, but I'm much happier with the finished product, which I'll reveal soon :)

Were you underwhelmed at a wedding task you decided to tackle yourself? What did you do about it?