how to create a QR code

Apparently I yet again don't know how to use autopost.  This post was supposed to be scheduled for yesterday...and this morning when I went to read it, I found out I accidentally had it set for September?  My bad.  So, I'm sorry to keep you all waiting - but without further ado, here is another Wedding Wednesday (err..Thursday) DIY.

Today we're going to talk about our wedding invites.  Like many things in our wedding, we did our invites a little different.  How so?  We included a little something special in them.

You know those square code things you see everywhere?  Those things that you can scan with your smartphone and it brings you to the website?  Well, those "square code things" are actually called QR codes and, for our wedding, we created one of our own and included it on our wedding invitations.  We did all of our RSVPing online through our wedding website, which I would HIGHLY recommend.  Yeah, it may not be the traditional route, but guess what?  It saves you a TON of time and a good chunk of money (postage on 200+ invites, as well as the paper and printing).  You don't have to ask me twice.

I could go on forever about how glad I am we decided to do all of our RSVPing online, but that's not the point of this post.  Since we did ask all of our guests to RSVP online, it was essential that our website was easy for them to get to.  Enter: QR code.  Instead of just writing our website on our invites (which we also did), we included a QR code, so people could scan it with their smartphones, and RSVP right then and there.  Plus, we like to be different, and it's not everyday you see that on a wedding invite now is it?

This is what our RSVP insert looked like:

Good ahead, knock yourself out and scan it.  It will take you right to our page.  Pretty neat, eh?  So, by now, you're probably all wondering how you go about making one of these things.  It's suuuuuuuper easy.  

Step 1:  Find a QR code generator online.  I used the website http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ and it worked perfectly.

Step 2: Enter the website that you want people to be brought to, and then click generate.

Step 3: Once your QR code has been generated, right click on the image, and click "save image as."  Save it to your computer and you are ready to put it into whatever document you want.   

To help my QR code tie into our invitations better, I brought it into photoshop and made the background blue.  Now I don't know a whole lot about the technology behind these codes, but what I do know was that I tried to turn the black parts the light blue, and have a transparent background and it didn't work.  I'm not sure if it didn't work because there is a texture on our background that my phone kept picking up, or if it didn't work because our background was dark and when I made the QR code blue, the colors were essentially inverted.  Moral of the story is, if you want to change the colors of your code, make sure you test it out to be sure it works before you print 200 copies.  

If you have any questions, please let me know!  It really is pretty straightforward and simple, but it added a fun touch to our invites that our guests just loved!  See for yourself:

The above picture shows the actual invite and our RSVP card.  

Below are the directions to the ceremony.  

This card was double sided, with the written directions on one side, and a map on the other.

Until next time!