Marauder’s Map Wedding Invitations

The Marauder’s Map design from the Harry Potter films was a natural choice for our wedding invitations, and not surprisingly, we weren’t the first to use it this way. We were lucky enough to see many beautiful and fun examples already abounding on Pinterest and Google, used both for wedding and Harry Potter themed birthday parties. The idea seems to be growing in popularity by the day, since a few months later, an image search already yields so many more versions than before!

Invitation Envelope

Unlike the Save-The-Date magnets, which were small and could do with a relatively plain envelope, I knew we needed something a bit more fun and ornate for the invitation envelopes. However, the professional printing costs were stacking up, so I wanted to do something at home and save some money. I bought plain, cream colored 8 3/4″ x 5 3/4″ (22.22cm x 14.6cm) envelopes from a stationary store. Since I would be using my home printer, I needed a design that didn’t go riiight to the edge, since that’s the major downfall of cheap printers. I settled on a fantabulous, old British propaganda envelope design. This wasn’t Harry Potter-esque per se, but it did have a great Victorian/vintage vibe to it. This design also featured images from what I’m guessing is the Guiness Book of World Records, such as people of extreme heights. So when you examine the envelope, there’s just enough weirdness there to remind you of wizardly eccentricity!

But the star of the show became the writing, thanks to the amazingly gorgeous Jellyka Delicious Cake font, which I highly recommend! I created a .psd template, then typed out each set of names and addresses, then printed the envelopes on their side. I’m including the envelope .psd template at the bottom of the page, complete with printer settings for the 8.75″ x 5.75″ envelopes.

We sealed these with red wax seals as well, just like we did with the Save The Dates. It just gives that old world vibe that goes so well with the Harry Potter world!

envelope design front and back
The completed envelope from front and back.

RSVP Envelope

Continuing my desire to stay very traditional (as inspired by Miss Manners), I also created an RSVP envelope design. I included RSVP envelopes in the invitation (pre-stamped, of course!), along with RSVP cards to go inside. More on those later. Something I realized later was that pre-stamping the envelopes only works for invitations being sent within your country! For invitations being sent out to other countries, you would need to include stamps from that country. Stamps from your country won’t work over there. I couldn’t reasonably figure out how to obtain such stamps, so I left international envelopes un-stamped. I figured it’s better that the person see the blank envelope and realize they need a stamp, than accidentally assuming the envelope will send, only to have it returned a week later.

For the RSVP envelope, I modified a simple wreath design which, like the propaganda design, didn’t need to go right to the edge, and could easily be printed at home. If you’re using this template, make sure to change the month and year on the bottom to the date of your wedding! I found the best way to print these little 5 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ envelopes was to feed them in backwards, with the flap open. This way they loaded smoothly, and the top could be inscribed as well. I sent the first few out without a “From:…” spot for people to write their names. This proved to be a huge mistake, as we ended up getting a bunch of RSVP cards that had neither names on them, nor on their envelopes. Once I added the little “From:” slot, everyone else kindly filled in their names and there was no issue =)

Invitation envelope, invitation and RSVP card
The full monty: An invitation package being opened, revealing the invitation and RSVP envelope.
RSVP card & RSVP envelope
The RSVP card which was meant to be sent back, along with its pre-stamped envelope

The Invitation

And now onto the shining star: the Marauder’s Map Invitation! =D
The current online examples were a bit plain for our liking, and we knew we wanted to include a few more moving parts, to stay truer to the original map. Thusly, our invitation is composed of three separate parts:

1. The outer shell ~ made of 1 legal sized sheet
2. The inner fold out ~ made of a vertical 1/2 slice of a letter sized sheet
3. The RSVP card ~ a 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ square card

marauder's map invitation in full
The complete Marauder’s Map inspired wedding invitation, in all of its splendor!

The front looks like the classic Marauder’s Map front. The name of the venue replaces the “Hogwarts” on the flag on the castle drawing. At the top we have the cheeseball opening: “Messers and Mesdames, Star-Crossed Lovers: [name] & [name] are proud to present:” and then it says “The Wedding Invitation” in place of the title. It opens in the center, but first, you may peruse the sides. Under the right-flap, there is a diagram of the city, pointing out the airport, wedding venue and downtown hotel location. I also indicated the rapid transit route that links the airport to the hotel. I doubt anyone will actually use this map though, haha.

Under the left flap, is a guide to telling your guests how to dress to a Harry Potter inspired wedding.

The very back is mostly blank, continuing the parchment paper texture, with the little “Mischief Managed” symbol swirling in elaborate, vintage flag designs.

Invitation viewed from the back
The invitation as viewed from the back. On the left, you can just see the map insert.

The process of unfolding the invitation from the middle goes like this:

Invitation when first opened revealing middle.
1. The two front flaps are pulled aside, to reveal the “The Honour of Your Presence is Requested” insert. Under that lies a map of the venue which I drew in Photoshop. If you’re curious, lifting or pulling down these middle tabs (as opposed to pulling them open to reveal the middle) reveals a duplication of the map below, so details could be made out, without ripping off this entire insert.
2. RSVP card nestled inside middle of invitation
2. The middle insert is pulled apart vertically, revealing the RSVP card nestled inside.
center of invitation describing the wedding details
3. Under the card we reveal the actual bulk of the invitation text, detailing the date, time, venue and hotel details.

Free PSD Templates for Download

These templates use the Wizard Hand and Parchment Print fonts, which can be purchased as part of the Wizardings Package over at Crazy Diamond Design. This company re-creates fonts from ancient scriptures, and these were the real fonts used in the Harry Potter Movies!!!  If you can’t afford the package, Times New Roman is a decent substitute for Parchment Print.

Download all of your Marauder’s Map Invitation PSD Template needs right here:

Invitation-front

Invitation Back and Envelope

Invitation Middle Insert

RSVP Card and Envelope

Optional JPG only templates (not recommended)

If you are not able to open PSD files, here are the stripped JPG versions (not recommended because they are missing the text placement, transparency, layers, and bleed indicators). Please note there is 1 inch of bleed on the sides of all documents (300 pixels).

JPG Invitation Files

Instructions

1. Print the Invitation Front & Back on the same Legal sized sheet. You will probably want a professional printer for this, as the design goes right to the edge!
2. Fold out the two outer flaps first. Then, fold them into each other, so that the second set of folds aligns with the outer edges. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect.. The whole thing is supposed to have a rustic, vintage appeal ;)
3. Print the Invitation Middle Insert on a regular, Letter sized sheet. Each sheet will produce two inserts. Cut the page vertically down the middle.
4. Fold the insert much like step 2, just vertically: outer folds out, then folding down so the new folds align with outer edges.
5. Glue the insert vertically into the middle of the outer portion.
6. Print the RSVP card on 3.5″x3.5″ cardstock and place it inside the folded middle.
7. Print out the Invitation Envelope (customized for each wedding guest), and RSVP envelope (with your address).
8. Place a return stamps on the RSVP envelope, and sending stamp on the invitation envelope. Place the folded invitation, complete with RSVP card inside, and the RSVP envelope, all into the larger invitation envelope.
Voilà!

Written by Ola Potter~Wedding

Hi, My name is Ola and I got married to my wonderful husband in 2013. We both love Harry Potter so we decided to make it our wedding theme! It went off beautifully and I want to share our hard work with all you lovely people! I also run the dress up games website, Doll Divine ~

This article has 87 comments

  1. Taylor Reply

    Why is the invitation front “insert invitation front here” layer oranged out? Is there supposed to be an additional download for the front flap? The ““Messers and Mesdames, Star-Crossed Lovers: [name] & [name] are proud to present” part?

  2. michelle Reply

    I have tried to download the invitations from the links that you have and they wont open. Is there anywhere else where i can find these? i really love them and want them for my invitations

    • olarogula Reply

      You need an unzipping program, and then Photoshop. I haven’t posted them anywhere else.. just here. What imaging format are you used to working with?

  3. Lordy Reply

    Love these invites. Just wondered did you print colour background or print the designs on to partchment/plain card?

    • olarogula Reply

      I printed the colour background because I wanted it juuust right, but you can definitely print on parchment. I think the way the design is though, you’d have a tough time separating the paper texture from the drawings, so I’d recommend just printing the entire design on white paper or card stock.

  4. Cindy Reply

    I am planning my HP wedding right now and I just want to say THANK YOU so much for these and the save the dates! they are absolutely amazing! I know you’ve only made two posts on this site but if you ever have pictures of your finished wedding they would be such a delight to see!

    ps. congratulations!

    • olarogula Reply

      Thank you!!!
      Pictures are coming soon! I had to wait before posting because a magazine wanted to be the first to publish them =D

  5. Blake knight Reply

    Hey
    Is this a product you can produce and we pay for as I don’t want to have to assemble all this myself?
    But me and my fiancé are huge Harry potter fans and really want this idea to be a reality for us?
    Email me back whenever you can, thank you.

    • olarogula Reply

      I’m not able to, but a good printing company would probably be willing to fold them for you after printing them, with a surcharge, naturally. I’m pretty sure my printing company would have if I asked ~

  6. Jessy Reply

    THANK YOU!!! Seriously thank you for creating this and making it a free download!!! This is absolutely brilliant!

  7. Marie Reply

    Wow! These look really great :)
    How can I write on them, e.g. to change the names or the adress?

    Best regards

    Marie

    • olarogula Reply

      If you open the files in Photoshop, you should be able to select and change all the text. If there’s tiny areas of text on the image itself, you might have to get artsy, colour over the text in the paper colour, then type or draw stuff in by hand =)

  8. Diana Reply

    Hi there, would you be able to send me the files in something other than photoshop? I could only open two of them through paint shop pro.

  9. Maria Reply

    Hello! I have downloaded all of your files and they all work and are beautiful except for the front of the invitation. It is saved as a RAR file and my Photoshop cannot open it because it says that it isn’t “the correct type of file”. Could you please email me the correct file so that I can download it as well. Thank you! :)

    Maria Robin – [email protected]

  10. Katrina Reply

    Hi! This might sound like a silly question but I just want to be certain. Would I print the Invitation cover and the invitation front on the same piece of paper? Because they downloaded on two different files and I can’t figure out how to merge them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE your design and I cannot wait to get them printed up!

      • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

        Sounds like you’ve figured it out, but it’s understandably complicated =)
        To make sure:
        invitation-cover-toInsert gets filled out, flattened, split into two, then pasted into invitation-FRONT.

        invitation-FRONT and invitation-BACK are printed on the same sheet =)

        • Ash-lee Reply

          Hi, I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to split and paste the front insert. I’m a photoshop newbie, any help would be great. Also, does the back side of the invitation attach for dual side printing, or does it need the front printed, then manual flip the paper and print the back side?

          • Ola Potter~Wedding

            Since they’re separate files, the back and front get printed separately, and yeah, you have to manually flip the paper in between. Try a few test runs with crappy paper first to make sure the tops/bottoms are facing the same way etc.

          • Ola Potter~Wedding

            For the front insert:
            Select everything (Ctrl+A) and go Edit -> Copy Merged
            Go into the FRONT file, Edit -> Paste
            (look for the newly pasted content in the Layers window)
            Set that layer to 50% transparency, and drag it so the left half matches up with the guide below. Zoom in for better accuracy.
            Once it’s in place, select the right half, and drag that content to the right side, matching it up with the guide on the right (it might be better to copy/delete/paste the right half onto a new layer before moving so that they’re on separate layers).

  11. Vanessa Reply

    Hello I was wondering how you got the map of Vancouver done? I would like to do a map of where our venue will take place

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Good question. I did a lot of googling of old maps of Vancouver. I think in the end I just took a regular map, and traced out the outlines on a new layer in photoshop, then added the labels, and drew all the cross hatches for the water, and pasted some sea creatures from other antique maps.

      For the map of the venue (on the middle of the inside of the invitation front), I think I winged it. I googled for layouts of the building, but couldn’t find any, so I did it from memory. I cut and pasted bits of text from the original Marauder’s Map images to form walls and roads and water ~

  12. jennifer Reply

    hi! what a great design and thank you for sharing! I had the same question as someone above asking about the “orange” look on the sides of the invitation. unfortunately i can’t seem to figure out why it is like that, could you help me out with that? thanks so much, truly appreciated!

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Okay, so what you want to do is complete the invitation-cover-toInsert.psd file. Then flatten/rasterize all the writing. Then paste this into:

      invitation-front.psd
      , on a separate layer…
      and split it into two, over the orange areas ~

      Does that make sense? =)

  13. Celine Reply

    Hi Ola! Happy new year 2016! Thanks for sharing your amazing work and ideas. I am trying to figure out the exact size of the paper used for the invitation. As I live in Europe, we usually use A4 paper but it seems that maybe what you used is different or longer than the European 11.69 by 8.26 inches (21 x 29.7 cm). What is then the exact size of the paper used? Thanks a lot!

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Hi Celine!

      The middle insert is printed on “letter” sized paper, which is similar to what you described.. 8.5 x 11 inches (215.9 mm × 279.4 mm). The main invitation IS printed on longer paper though.. a “legal” sheet, 8.5 x 14 inches long =)

  14. Daisy Reply

    I am Helping my sister with her wedding planning, and these invites and such are perfect… only problem I came across is I didn’t have the parchmentprint font or Wizardhand font on my computer and i couldn’t find them anywhere online for download. Is there anyway you could also upload the fonts or direct me where to find them?

  15. Stephanie Leske. Reply

    Hello! I’m hoping to make a start to trying these today, what version of Photoshop is best to use?

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Really shouldn’t matter… The edits needed are pretty basic.. Editing text, copying, pasting.. Photoshop has been able to do these things as long as I can remember. Even if it’s a super old version, and complains about the files being newer, it could still hopefully try and open it and should work (although I haven’t tried opening in an old version so I’m not 100% sure)

  16. Jessica S Reply

    THIS IS AMAZING!! Thank you soooo much for posting this! I was looking for a template like this for ages. I ended up making another one but I wasn’t happy with it and then I came across your site and I literally squealed out loud with Joy! Thank you for sharing!

  17. Danielle Reply

    I am struggling to open the documents any time I open them it is a bunch of random letters. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I really would love to use these for my wedding, but if I can’t figure them out then I will have to go with something else that I know I will love less.

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Which point is this happening at? Are you able to unzip the files, or are they letters right from the get-go? And if you’re able to unzip them, do you have Photoshop?

  18. Danny Reply

    Is there any way you can save them in a non psd format as I’m using a different photo editor?

  19. Chris Reply

    Hi, I found your awesome work on the marauder’s Map, I was looking for a long time to it in PSD. We would love to use your marauder’s map arrangment but we would like to create menus with it. I tried to edit your psd file but it seems me impossible to change the center sentence “The wedding invitation” (As we are French, I will make others changes but the major problem is still the center). Could it be possible, please, to get a psd from previous steps where I could be able to change the english mentions that you have done ? I searched others psd but yours are the unic psd that I found in this type. Thanks in advance for your help :)

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Hi Chris,

      Unfortunately, all my source files are already flattened for the non-editable text. It’s not too hard to do though… In Photshop, you take the “Clone Stamp Tool”. Then you hold down a key (shift or alt or something) to choose a spot to want to close. Then you draw over the text you want to hide. This way, you’re copying the colours and textures of another area, so it blends in. Once you erase the text, you can simply place a text field over it and write what you would like. This would work to cover both the dark purple “The Wedding Invitation” text, as well as any text on the canvas. Just make sure to start cloning from an area that looks similar.

      If the area you’re sampling from is very small, you have to keep resampling for each letter that you want to cover. Basically, it’s how I made the template in the first place =)

  20. Chris Reply

    Hi,
    Thank you for your answer. I thought at the solution that you explain, I hoped to avoid it but no escape xD
    Thanks for your advice and for the initial template that you share, you should have spent lots of time to make it :)

  21. Adriana Reply

    I love these invitations, and was hoping to edit them to use for my wedding, but is there any way to remove the spots from the texture of the paper? I’m having a really tough time trying to edit them out :(

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      No easy, efficient way, no. It would be a lot of fiddly business, especially removing the dots right on/near the graphics. I mean, it’s technically possible, but it would be like a 20 hour job :/

  22. Anjulina Risoni Reply

    I love this design but how do I edit the names and information? It automatically opens in Pixlr, wasn’t sure if there was a program to edit that information?

  23. Ligia Reply

    Hello Ola, thanks for the template. I used it just as an example for mine and also some pictures, as I’m creating my own map from church to reception and translating it to Portuguese. My future husband and I are using only Gimp, it will be a simplier version but also very beautiful… And as someone else talked about, we did take out all the background from it to print them on a map-like paper, as a way to save money. Thank you again for the amazing help!

  24. Jona Reply

    This is by far the best looking Harry Potter wedding invitation, but I am having a little trouble with making it. When I open the files on photoshop or any preview they don’t align right, the invitation front and back I’m not sure how to align them or the image for the front that opens. I would love it if you can help me because my fiancé is looking to have these for our invitations!

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Thanks! The front and back do align, but each has one inch of “bleed” all around, so some of the edges might look mismatched. When you have the files open in Photoshop, make sure that View -> Extra has a check mark beside it. This will show you the guide lines for where the papers should end on the paper they’re printed onto..

      • Jona Reply

        awesome i found that, but how do you exactly put everything together? Meaning how to you print it out, do you put it together in photoshop? if so how do you add a back and front on one project?

        • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

          The only files you have to combine in Photoshop, is filling out the invitation-cover-toInsert.psd, flattening it, splitting it into two and inserting it into invitation-front.psd. Then you print the invitation-front.psd on one side of a paper, and the invitation-back on the back side. If you’re doing it yourself, you will get warnings about the size of the print area being bigger than the paper.. that’s expected.

  25. Laura Reply

    Hi! These files are amazing and we are having a time editing them for our wedding. Question, obviously we do not live in Vancouver and do not want the map image on the back shell. That part of the file has been flattened and so far we have been unable to remove the map to make that flap “blank”. We are learning as we go with photoshop so any help would be appreciated.

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Right, ok! So, in Photoshop, right click on the layer called “Middle” and Duplicate it. Take the new duplicated layer, and move it to the left, over the city of Vancouver. Move it down until the top edge of the Middle duplicate layer is just below the generic map bits (numbers, dashes, letters). Change the opacity of the layer to 50% so that you can see through it. Erase the bottom chunk of it so that the bottom map bits show through on the bottom (the other set of numbers/dashes/letters). This should give you a clean slate, with no city, just more of the same texture.

      • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

        To add a new city, google image a map of your city, and paste it into the document. Resize it to the relevant area. Don’t worry about the resolution or how it looks. Move the new pasted map to the bottom layer. Hide or change the opacity of the other layers, so you can see the map. Make a NEW blank layer, on top of all the other layers. Use the eye dropper tool to sample the brown colour that I had my drawing bits in. Use the paintbrush to trace over your map. Draw straight lines over land. Draw thin squiggly lines over the edges of water. Only add the information relevant to your location. Use the text tool in varying fonts and sizes to add text, in the same brown sampled colour.

        • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

          Once you’re done, you should be able to delete the pasted map from Google. Restore the visibility/opacity of the other layers. You should have a new map left :)

  26. Erik Reply

    These are freaking amazing!!! Thank you so much for posting this stuff for free!

  27. Erik Reply

    Two questions:

    1. I plan on changing the middle section of the front template to match the church we’re getting married in. What would be the easiest way to transpose the “hidden” parts from the insert onto the back of the insert flaps so they line up properly with the front?

    2. What weight (thickness) of paper do you recommend for having these printed on? I’m assuming you did not have these printed on standard 20lb paper. I did a little searching and it seems like 80lb might be a good choice for invitations.

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Hi Erik,

      Great questions!

      I did this a while back so now I can’t remember the exact grade of card stock we used. I know the paper was somewhat thick and the RSVP inserts were much thicker. Of course, there is some leeway here depending on budget. You want to go up just enough so that the writing on one side isn’t ruining the look of the back side.

      I don’t have the files on this computer, so I can’t give very good advice right now on best venue art placement. All I can say is that I’m fairly confident that most of the artwork got ignored by guests as “background noise” so don’t worry too much about it. I recommend printing a simple leaflet with the relevant addresses on it and sticking that in the package ~

  28. Rachel Reply

    Hello.

    I would really LOVE to use these invitations, but I do not know how to open them. What is a PSD file? How do I view them? Every time I try to open them I just get a lot of code and it crashes what ever app I am trying to open it with… PLEASE HELP!!

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      PSD is a Photoshop file. It really helps to have Photoshop! You can now use it by purchasing like a $20 subscription through Adobe (just remember to cancel the subscription when you’re done!). I think there might be other freeware programs that can open PSD, but they’re meant for Photoshop ~

  29. Victor Reply

    Hi Ola,

    you did a great job here which imressed me so much. This is awesome!!!

    Thank you very much for providing the PSD templates.

    Currently, I have the luch to make the invitation cards for my nice colleague, who will marry next year. THey are also Harry Potter Fans and want to make them to their motto.

    So beside the template I have a short question to you. Have you done everything on your own? I mean the inner map of the invitation you make, is not the original one. I asl because I think also for makiing an individual map. If you did this on your own a appreciate if you can share it with me.

    Thank you so much and kind regards,

    Victor

    PS:Greetings from Germay :-)

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      Hi Victor, np :)

      Yes, I made the map myself. I basically took the chunks of text in the original HP map, and moved them around in the shape of the building where we were having our wedding. I did it in Photoshop. It was a bit fiddly.. a lot of copy/pasting. If you set the layer to “multiply”, you can hide a white background which sometimes helps.

  30. hopeless_wanderer Reply

    Thank you very much for these amazing templates!!! Used them for invitations, the only trouble was to find compatible cyrillic font, otherwise, you saved me:) My friends could not believe it is possible to make the maradeur’s map, proved them wrong:))

  31. Aranza Reply

    Hi!!
    A question you printed them on plain paper or some special paper?

    • Ola Potter~Wedding Reply

      It’s plain paper, but it was a “higher stock”, in other words, a thicker paper. When you’re printing a lot of colours and a lot of black, it’s good to use a thicker paper so that the back doesn’t show through in the front etc.

  32. Betchay Reply

    I love you for this.. Im planning on a very simple Harry Potter themed wedding!!!! Thank you so much!!!

  33. Laura Reply

    I just want to say a bit THANK YOU to you and this awesome work!! This is great, and I appreciate your willingness to share it with the world so others can use it. You’re a real hero! I’m having a Harry Potter wedding in October and I have been searching for map invites for AGES!! I managed to go between Paint and Microsoft Publisher to make changes of the JPG files, since I don’t have (aka can’t afford and am clueless about) photoshop.

    Thanks again!

  34. Ramina Reply

    can’t open the template. it says “this is not a valid bitmap file” “paint cannot read this fie”. i’m preparing for my daughter and nephews’ party. i’ll make them harry, ron and hermoine, but i need to have this invitation done first. sorry! i’m not that techy. can you give me some instructions what to do? i really want the design.

  35. Adela Reply

    Hi Ola,

    I love your design on this wedding invitation..

    i’m just wanna ask you, if you don’t mind to answer it..
    on invitation middle insert front psd file, when I opened it with gimp, there are two same design, which one is writing while the other doesn’t..
    do I have to crop it or not?
    i’m sorry if I asked you a silly question..
    Thanks~

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