DIY: Invitations, Wedding Map

By now we've all seen wedding maps.  There are so many options to choose from.  I've seen some that don't really convey directions, but highlight important landmarks special to the couple.  And then there are straight and to the point maps that will help you find your way.  Some are in black and white, while others are painted in watercolors.  Not only are they cute, but we have a ton of people coming from out of town, so they're functional too...yay!  I'm definitely not willing to spend a lot of money on one though.

There are a lot of great artists out there that will create custom maps for you, but I'm just as artsy and know my way around Powerpoint pretty well, so I decided to make my own using Mrs. Ballet Flat's tutorial on Weddingbee.  If you haven't seen it already, I would definitely go check it out.  I followed it step-by-step and this is what I came up with.

(click to enlarge)

I blurred out my home address for the sake of posting it online.

I made sure to add the addresses for the important locations so the guests would be able to Mapquest them beforehand if they needed to.  The only thing I didn't include on here was the hotels, because I'm sure we will have guests staying at many different ones around town.  I may consider adding the hotel we blocked though and then if most people stay there, like I'm hoping, they'll be able to see where they're at in relation to the event locations.

I've heard so many people say it took them hours and hours and lots of fidgeting and correcting to get their maps the way they want.  But honestly, this took me maybe half an hour?  I tend to be a perfectionist too, so some of that time was spent reworking some of the lines and details.  Personally I thought it was pretty easy though.  And I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. 

I don't actually have Powerpoint, and some of the first drafts I attempted on Word or Microsoft Digital Image Suite turned out so bad I'm not even going to share them with you.  But my lovely school's library has all those programs so I was able to create this there and copy it over to Photoshop to be saved as a .jpg file that I emailed to myself.  I would definitely recommend taking advantage of school or public libraries if you don't have the resources yourself.

Is anybody else including a map in their invitations?  If so, how long did it take for you to make it?