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I did mine all on my own. Bought cardstock, ribbons, envelopes, and vellum. And all the stamps...total cost was only about $170. I had them printed and cut at Kinkos and Office Depot. The cost for printing and cutting was $15. Since I priced invitations at $250 for only 100, and I needed a few over 100, I figured it was worth saving myself the HUNDREDS of dollars. They weren't that laborious, either. I did simple #10 envelope shaped ones (cheaper postage), printed two per sheet, and had my 'maids assemble them for me. I supplied food and margaritas, so I guess tack another $30 on for that....and i'm STILL under $200 for all my invitations....savings of about $300. So, totally worth it in my mind. JUust cuz they're homemade doesn't mean they LOOK homemade. There are TONS of ideas out here.
I didn't DIY my invites. I ordered them from Carlson Crafts. I went through a local printer and it turns out that the local places can give you up to 20% off the catalog price! So it actually saves to go through a local printer instead of just online (plus if you go though a printer they can customize lots of features- the colors, papers, text, etc).
I wound up getting my invitation suite for $2 an invite (it included the invite, lined outer envelope with return address, inner envelope, RSVP card, RSVP envelope with return address, and extra of everything).
I just bought the YUDU and am excited to make them myself. I know it will take months before it pays for itself, so my invitations are going to be more expensive than if i buy them professionally. However, I am looking forward to saying I made my invitations and they are unique. Also, it's a fun experience you can share with your friends or fiance.
Kix
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I did pocketfolds and printed them myself on my canon printer. I got the pockets and paper supplies from paper and more. It ended up costing about $4.00 per invite, including postage for the invite and the rsvp.
I used a green pocketfold with a blue backing for the main panel invite. My invite and pocket inserts were white. I had three inserts plus the rsvp and rsvp envelope. Paperandmore has great prices for samples and we really great to deal with. I had them do all the cutting except for the rsvp card. It was too small for them.
I could have done it for cheaper as I ended up with a bunch extra pocketfolds and paper. But I am going to use the extra paper for programs, escort and donations (in lieu of favor anouncement). The extra paper is included in the above cost.
I designed everything on Apple Pages. It's a great simple layout program. Plus I didn't even use a full container of ink. I was able to personalize groups of invites which was nice. ( like inviting certain people to the rehearsal dinner, without adding an extra sheet)
I bought pcket folders, then designed and printed the invites and inserts myself. I am still in the process of cutting and assembling them all and let me tell you I wish I had just paid extra to buy invites all printed and cut already. I have four inserts and trying to cut 4 x 80 inserts is taking me soooo long. If you diy, have patience and give yourself plenty of time.
i made our invites. i got 2 invitation kits from michaels - each kit had 40 invitations (smaller wedding) for around $60. i constructed them and printed them on my home computer. it was definitely cheaper than the invitations i was considering online BUT the amount of time and energy it took to put them together, stuff, and address the envelopes wasn't worth it to me. if i could do it over, i would probably pay for the convenience of having them shipped to me, ready to go.
A cool alternative that puts you somwehere in between is printablepress.com. The concept is that you pay for a design (about $70) and have the wording put in. They then email you a copy and you print and cut the invites yourself. Especially cost effective for people with a large number of invites b/c you only pay once for the design. You can even pay a little extra to get some customizations done.
I think it's amazing. You don't have to do the work of designing graphics/fonts/colours/layout but you still get cost benifits of printing on your own paper. I peronsally think that the designs are gorgeous and contemporary and look totally custom.
Check it out, maybe it'll work for you! http://www.printablepress.com/
I think it depends on your volume too. If you're inviting fewer than a hundred guests, then DIY is often cheaper just because you don't get much in the way of volume discounts. Don't forget to consider your time as an expense too! Unless you'll personally really really enjoy doing an elaborate multi-piece invitation package, you should consider the time spent/labour as part of the "cost" of DIY....not everyone loves this sorta stuff but did it anyway and is glad it's over (**raises hand**)
I also am a huge fan of printable press. The designs are so gorgeous, and she provides lots of instructions on how to print as well as some rough estimates of what the entire suite willl cost with paper and ink, etc.
I did something simple but still added a personal touch .. you can do something similar if you want to not do it ALL yourself.
See my post: http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/semi-diy-invitations-simple-yet-elegant-4
DIY is worth if if you have time, don't get easily stressed, aren't too much of a perfectionist and have some extra help!
I have to admit I'm a perfectionist who stresses easily, but I still DIYed my invitations and loved every minute of it, including the final result. I wouldn't have done it any other way!
You can see my invitations here:
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/my-diy-pocketfolds-brown-and-green
and my DIY tutorial(s) here:
http://latteloveleavinghome.blogspot.com
Mine were cheap! I paid less than $3 each, including postage for 100 invitations
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My invites were DIY and it ended up costing me about $1.50 per invite. That included the RSVP postcard, invitation, envelope and stamp. I bought my cardstock, ribbon and vellum from Michael's, my ivory paper at Office Depot, my postcards from Quill and my envelopes online from paperworks.com. I was lucky in the respect that I had a lot of free time at work and was able to assemble in my free time there. I think it depends on your spare time and how patient you are with doing them yourself. I made up about 120, which probably took me about a week all together.
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I agree with Latte. Definitely make sure you give yourself plenty of time if you go the DIY route. I know that I put a good number of hours into the layout and design of all of my pieces, and then again when it came to cutting and assembling it all (with FI's help).
It was so worth it to me, though. My main reason for doing it was purely selfish, in that I love this kind of stuff. I'm sure that at $5.10 a piece (including postage), I saved quite a bit compared to paying someone to do it for me. I could have saved a lot more by printing them at home, but I really wanted the look of flat print. You can see them here.
Anyway, there are so many options. You should check out the other bees' DIY invites, especially the Gocco ones. Unbelievable beautiful!
I ordered the paper for my invitations from http://www.invitationkitsdirect.com/. They have a large selection of paper that comes with matching response cards. The quality is great and I am very happy with my choice!
I made my own pocketfolds. I DID NOT save money and I could've paid the same amount for some really nice letterpress invites. I just ended up spending a lot of money, time, and energy when I could have paid someone else to do that!
If you're not that crafty, I say go for PRO invites with a nice letterpress designer on Etsy. They'll look SO much better and you won't have to lift a finger!
We DIY the invites, we actually had fun making them FH helped me a lot. I took it as a great way to spend time together.
I did my own invites and now I'm actually designing invites using the same concept as the site CBGG mentioned.
I only charge $50 (or less) and you can see some of my designs here: www.nkm-designs.blogpsot.com
I'm not that crafty but love a beautiful invite. I know if I totally DIY'd it myself, it would probably end up costing the same or more because I'd mess it up. Just being honest.
I'm going to check out printable press. I do love some designers on Etsy (HeatherCollins85 and Decadent Designs) and Carciofi Designs (not Etsy).
I might probably try to DIY the STD or some printing aspects, like an OOT welcome packet..
o i think its SO worth it. it was by far the hardest thing for me as far as wedding planning goes. i was so stressed out and it tool so much work. but i got so many compliments that it was the best they ever saw...when compared to some of yours they arent that great...but i absolutely love them!
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Pretty much what LatteLove said. If DIY is totally your thing, and you don't mind hunting for a bargain on the materials, then it will be so worth it for you. If you're the type that likes it for a while and then gets fed up with long projects, or if you're just generally not into it, then it's probably more worthwhile to order them...DIY invitations can come out looking great though!
I bought an invitation set from Target and printed them at home. I purchased some embellishments to give the invites a little flair. I estimate that we saved about $200.00. I have gotten tons of compliments on our invitations.
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I think DIY invites are totally worth it both for personal satisfaction and cost consideration. I am going really simple for our invites. My FI is going to design a bamboo graphic for the invite. I plan on buying parchment or linen style cardstock with matching or complementary envelopes. We will print them at home using a calligraphy style font. I'm going to round the edges to add just a little touch.
It's more personal and I love to craft. And I figure, why spend so much money on invitations when so many people just throw them out. I've done some reseach on cost of the supplies and I think it will cost under $150 for everything (including postage for card, response, thankyou, and paper for thankyous) for about 60-70 invites. I'm thinking of doing postcard response cards and thankyous.
Once I actually make them I'll post pictures.
I bought my invites at Michaels for $35. Best ever! They're from the Brides collection made by Gartner studios:
https://store.gartnerstudios.com/home.phtm
If I wanna be picky I add the cost of the ink but it's nothing! If you have Word and a fairly good (nothing fancy) printer you're done in a jiffy! Word even adjusts the size paper for printing so if your printer is properly installed it would give you no problems whatsoever.
I personalized them by adding crystals, a logo, and a map. The reviews so far are great, people love them and they think they're cute!
Here's an example: (is from the website and it shows blurry for copyright purposes) I won't post mine cause I have a thing with privacy.
Good luck!
P.S. They're exactly half letter size paper so I practiced the layout with halves. Until you're ready NEVER print on the original paper. They give you about 2 extras and that's all. I used the extra for invitations. They come 40 (42) a pack.
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We did semi-DIY invitations more to get something unique than to save money. (We are having a very small wedding, so the cost of the invitations was not going to be all that great even if each one was relatively pricey.) My fiancee developed the design based on our ketubah (with the permission of the artist, Amy Fagin of 20th Century Illuminations). We got the paper and had the printing and cutting done at Cards & Pockets. My fiancee then assembled them. They ended up being about $4 each, but that was because we added a whole lot of special touches (magnetic snaps, two different kinds of ribbon, photo stickers on tiny mats) to them. A picture is below.
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I got mine off of eBay for $6 per box of 40. If you go this route I have a few suggestions.
1. Definitely order more than you think you will need. I thought 80 invites would be more than enough but the first ones were not aligned properly and I only ended up with 65. Add some people initally not thought of and I had a crisis on my hands and had to quickly buy another box at retail price.
2. A laser printer will make print that does not run when wet and the job will go much easier.
3. Realize you may have to fool around to get the alignment right. While the manufacturer's printing wizard was helpful with the wording, I could not get the alignment right on the reply cards, no matter what I tried. Luckily I have a student who is much better at these sorts of things. He actually had to use little wooden blocks with the printer to get the alignment right.
However, I now have over 100 invitations for a grand total of $45 in expenses. This I like cos I am cheap, no! Make that thrifty! LOL
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My fiance and I realized that it would cost more ink and effort to print out the invitations so we decided to have them done through Costco.com. Not only are they affordable, they turned out great.
I think we'll end up spending right around $1,000 for our paper goods, which include: invites (3 pages), map (2 sided), RSVP, menus, drink menus, escort cards, programs (3 pages), cupcake toppers, thank you notes & envelopes. It seems like a hefty price tag for DIY, but I was able to get a LOT more for the money doing most of the work ourselves. We did have a local print shop do the actual printing and cutting of the invites, RSVPs & maps for us because I wanted everything to line up perfectly. I also spent extra on the paper because I wanted post-consumer recycled paper that had an eco-certification.
Feel free to check out the photos I put on my blog:
http://engaged2009.blogspot.com/2009/06/invitation-suite-preview.html
It's really hard to see the navy blue backer, but the three pages are attached to a backer with two grommets.
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I designed my invites (made a picture by hand, then tweaked it in picasa and added text), then had them printed on vistaprint when they were having a sale. I used the same motif to make RSVP cards, which I got for $5 (the cost of uploading an image) they don't have any pretty envelopes at vistaprint so I bought some from papersource and in my freaking out about how many kinds of cool paper they had I decided to do envelope liners too.
all in all, I probably spent $28 on invitations and rsvp cards, then around $20 on fancy envelopes. I bought 30 invitations.
Mygatsby.com has good prices on thermography if you're getting enough invites for a bigger party.
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Hi ladies,
I'm trying to decide if DIY wedding invites actually save you any money when it comes down to all of the details. Have any of you tried an invitation kit or done them all on your own?
I've looked at these two sites so far:
http://www.tgkdesigns.com
http://www.formal-invitations.com/
Thanks!