DIY Invitation Software Programs?

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DIY Invitation Software Programs?

posted 3 years ago in Beehive

Member

149 posts

Blushing bee

angeldoc October 10, 2009 Houston, TX

I'm planning on DIY invitations, programs, etc. for the wedding, but I don't know which software program would be the best to use. Anyone have any suggestions?

3 years ago

Member

366 posts

Helper bee

bonniebelle101 March 15, 2008 Charlotte, NC

Well, it depends of if you are planning to use a Mac or a PC. I'm a Mac girl all the way. (My dad has been a freelance graphic designer since before I was born, so I grew up with his hand-me-down computers and now my husband and I own two macbook laptops.) Anyway, for anyone using a mac, the Pages software in the iWork pack is priceless! Love, love, love it! I use it on almost a daily basis and certainly did during the wedidng planning. I do cards, myspace icons, invitations... literally everything with it. And the iWork pack is only $80 (if i remember corrently), which is much better than purchasing any of the adobe softwares.

If you're strickly PC, then Photoshop would probably be the best bet. It expensive to purchase but you can download a trial. Just make sure you're going to be finished with your designs before the trial runs out or you can't print them out. Also keep in mind that if you've never used it before, there will probably be a learning curve, but there is lots of information on the web about it. That's where I learned a lot of what I know.

If Photoshop is too expensive or complicated, then I know some of the girls on here use PowerPoint. I've used it for presentations but haven't used it for doing page layout, so I can't give much insite on it.

I hope this helps! Oh and if you're going to be DIY'ing your invitations, don't be surprised if you go through a couple of massive revisions. Put something together, look at it, sleep on it, look at it again, if it doesn't give you that wow factor, then tweek it or completely revamp it and repeat the process. It took me 3 complete restarts to get the invitations we ended up with, but I love them! Good luck!

3 years ago

Member

1,490 posts

Bumble bee

Sweeney2Be Aug 23, 2008 Twin Cities Minnesota

There is a program called Mountian Cow, it has everything set and ready to go you just input your info. It's a lot more user friendly the photoshop - which I'm careful tot ell people isn't a "open it and know how to use it" kind of thing. You need to know what you're doing and that can take a long time to learn for some.

MountianCow also has a line of papers and what not that work with their stuff (though you can use anything) and is really cool. I looked into it at one point to be honest even though I'ma photoshop pro.

3 years ago

Member

149 posts

Blushing bee

angeldoc October 10, 2009 Houston, TX

Thanks for both of your suggestions! Sweeney2Be, I looked into Mountaincow but I hadn't decided if it was worth the money. I have some minimal Photoshop experience, but wanted to get suggestions. Bonniebelle101 - my fiance is the one with the Mac. I'm PC, but we're still getting married ;) Still, I could look into the Pages software. Did you find it easy to learn?

Luckily for me, I have over a year until the wedding, so I'll have a chance to play with my invites before I complete them. Thanks so much for your help!

3 years ago

Member

366 posts

Helper bee

bonniebelle101 March 15, 2008 Charlotte, NC

Wow... a house divided! How will you raise the children? hehe!

Anyway... I found the program to be very easy to learn once I stopped trying to make it work like other programs I knew and just let it work the way it works. If you get into it and have any problems just let me know! I'll be more than happy to help! Here is a DIY collage I put (in pages) together. All of these projects were done in Pages.

(click to enlarge)

3 years ago

Member

41 posts

Newbee

atank84 June 28, 2009 Connecticut

I've been making my programs and directions inserts using Powerpoint. I think they've all come out very nice and I don't have to learn a bunch of complicated stuff. Just my lazy two cents. :)