Southern Belle in Training

Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle Blog || Est. 2012 || Virginia Beach, VA

June 16, 2017

Celebrating Graduation With Announcements!

     Today's post is written in collaboration with Basic Invite. All opinions are honest and my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Southern Belle in Training.    





     Calling all fellow graduates- CONGRATULATIONS! Your hard work and accomplishments have paid off, and now it's time to celebrate and be acknowledged. Today's blog post is for you!


      A little personal recap: I graduated from college in May 2016, and then graduated from broadcasting school one year later, just recently in May 2017. It still seems surreal to be completely done with higher education (as far as I know!). The only thing that is sometimes hard to think about when looking back on my graduations is how little I feel like I was able to acknowledge both of them at the time. A graduation, especially from higher education, is a BIG deal, and deserves to be celebrated! When I graduated from college, I had a serious situation going on in my personal life, and from that situation I was actually recovering from a serious concussion. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was nearly a miracle that I was able to walk with my class as planned! That experience showed me how quickly things can change in life. And for my broadcasting school graduation which was last month, there was even less to celebrate. I had begun my new job in Vermont a month prior, so I was unable to go back to Charlotte for my broadcasting school's graduation ceremony. I did get to Skype in for part of the ceremony (technology is so cool), but the day-of in reality was a totally normal work day for me, and I don't even think a lot of people knew I was a graduate again!


      In several conversations with my mom over the past few months, she kept reminding me of how even though I wasn't able to attend my most recent graduation, and even though my college graduation had been overshadowed by some bigger life events, it doesn't mean that both of those things were any less of an accomplishment, or that I should be any less proud! I think sometimes people have a chance to downplay their biggest accomplishments, for fear of coming across as cocky (because we all know a cocky person and they aren't fun to deal with!). But the more I thought about it- my mom was right! There is definitely a way to be proud of my academic accomplishments over the past year and share them with friends and family, without doing it in a boastful or annoying way. That's where the idea for graduation announcements came in!


     I am so excited to be teaming up once again with Basic Invite to show y'all the beautiful graduation announcements that I designed, and how easy the process was. Some of you might remember that I had my first experience with Basic Invite this winter, when I designed my friend Perrin's bridal shower invitations through them. The wedding shower invites turned out so wonderfully that I knew Basic Invite would be the perfect destination for graduation announcements.


     Basic Invite has tons of designs of graduation announcements to choose from! Some of them are more appropriate I think for a high school graduation, and some definitely have a more mature feel of a college (or graduate school) graduation to them. I knew that I wanted an announcement that could share the joy of both of my graduations- undergrad and broadcasting school, since I didn't do too much to announce my college graduation last year (and had gorgeous senior photos from Deeana!), I knew I wanted that to be just as much apart of the announcements as broadcasting school. So when perusing Basic Invite's website, I was especially on the hunt for multi photo option announcements!


     Below are a few screenshots to show you how easy the process of designing a photo based announcement with Basic Invite is (it's a similar process for wedding save-the-dates). The template comes on your screen with stock photos already in it, and you can just upload the photos that you want, and then play with how you want them displayed on the card! And then Basic Invite of course lets you customize the font and cardstock colors- and they have SO many choices. (There are over 180 printing color options and over 40 envelope color options for example!)




     First I changed the default text to reflect my graduations!




     Then I picked my photos to upload! Since this design had multiple photo slots, I combined my college senior photos with my radio headshots.



   
     And voila!! Love this finished product! (My last name is blurred out here for privacy- but it is printed on the actual ones. 😉)







      Basic Invite has a great option where you can order custom samples of their announcements and invitations, so that's what I decided to before making a decision about the final graduation announcement! I designed four different ones, and wanted to see them all in person to decide which style I liked. I think they all turned out so beautifully that I'm still having a hard time deciding! Which one is your favorite? 


      Thank you so much to Basic Invite for helping me to acknowledge both of my graduations this month! It's never too late to celebrate an academic accomplishment. 😊



      Wishing y'all a great weekend! Tomorrow I am working at a local charity event with my radio coworkers, and then my dad arrives as well to spend Father's Day Weekend with me here in Vermont!



     God Bless,



     xoxo Annaliese (or Charlotte XO on the radio!)



   
   




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15 comments

  1. I love how customized you can make them! I loved making them when i graduated high school! Only 2 more years then I can do it again!!

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  2. I secretly LOVE making invites haha! They're so fun and especially so when they're so customizable like these!

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  3. I love the photos you picked for them. I use online invites, cards, books all the time. Such a timesaver and everyone always loves that they are so customzoed.

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  4. They are so cute! Totally remembering them for my invites in the future.

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  5. These seem awesome!! I love how customizable they are! you look gorgeous as always <3

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  6. This looks like a great service! I'll have to keep them in mind since I'm graduating in December!

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  7. Congrats on graduating! These announcements are so cute! The pictures you chose are gorgeous.

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  8. This is so cute! Love that you can customize it.

    X Merel
    www.andathousandwords.com

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  9. Omg, loving the photos and love the invites you put together!!!

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  10. Congratulations on graduating (both times)! Such fun announcements!

    Molly // Miss Molly Moon

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  11. Omg these are the cutest graduation announcements!

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  12. I never sent out graduation announcements when I graduated college, and I wish I had!

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  13. These invitations are so cute! I love finding sites that I can create custom invitations.

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  14. how cute are these invites?? and belated congrats on graduation bb xx

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  15. When sending your graduation invitation make sure you clearly state that it is an 'open house' so guests know they can come and go on a more relaxed schedule. https://medium.com/@sarajones888

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