Creating Wedding Invites - Help!

luckystraw

So, my fiance and I are having a Steampunk themed wedding this November. We aren't going full on, just dressing up and having candles as the centerpieces, and the catering display will be on Victorian-like platters (my friend is doing the catering for us, and his wife is one of my bridesmaids, and she is ahead of me on decoration, haha!). Long story short, we have almost everything planned and booked, except for our invitations.

My fiance LOVES octopuses; they're his favorite sea animal. I found this really neat Steampunk themed octopus picture, which is below (in case any of my fellow brides were looking for some neat octopus ideas!)

My issue is that we'd like to use this image on our invitations, with the information on the back, and this picture seems to be 7" by 5", instead of 5" by 7". And every single online invitation creator I've come across will not allow me to fit the image onto it and have it fit and look nice! Even if we use it at the top half of the front and have some basic information on the bottom, I would just like any suggestions on creators or even programs that will allow me to use it. I'm not that tech savvy and I'm bad at creating images, so the simpler instructions the better.

Any advice would be super helpful! Thanks guys!

Knottie63190512

I made save the dates on vistaprint and ran into this problem. The picture I wanted to use was oriented the opposite way from every template on their site. I ended up just using their blank template and made the save the date sideways. They had an option to rotate text, so everything I did was sideways (like, I had to turn my laptop 90 degrees to see what it would actually look like). As long as everything is oriented the same way, it doesn't matter if it seems rotated on the screen. No one will know once they are printed. Hope that makes some sense.

BrinkyDink16

I would also recommend Vistaprint's blank template.  We ran into issues with our original design and it was a total lifesaver and we only ended up spending $40 more than we had originally planned.

CJandRyan

Can you design them yourself and have them printed at Kinkos/UPS/local print shop? I used Microsoft Publisher to create ours and had a local print shop print and cut them. It was cheaper and I was able to make them any size/orientation with any graphics and fonts I wanted.

PS - I love the octopus picture!! 

luckystraw

I'll definitely give the blank Vistaprint template a try; didn't even think of that when looking at stuff online. I'll also see if I can design them myself, but I'm not very tech savvy, which was why I was looking for a template (try to get me to match stuff up right, and I bet you it'll look like a high schooler did it on MS Paint). If I design it with a Vistaprint template, maybe I can find someone to print it for a decent price. 

Thank you all for the advice! And thanks, CJandRyan; found it on Pinterest!

CMGragain

Here is something similar from Zazzle:  http://www.zazzle.com/vintage_octopi_and_hearts_invitation-161041103870664056

I found this on Etsy:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/73850706/octopus-lovers-custom-valentines-day?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=wedding octopus&ref=sr_gallery_35

AuroraRose41

I am using InkScape to design our Save the Dates and Invitation Suite. It has a bit of a learning curve, but it is basically an open source (read: legally free) version of Photoshop/Illustrator. There are a lot of tutorials on how to make invitations online that were extremely helpful for me. InkScape will turn the image into what is called a vector, which will allow you to resize it without losing the integrity of the image. Basically, it won't be pixelated or blurry when you resize it. 

This tutorial helped me get the basics down if you are interested: Making Invitations with InkScape