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It really depends. For what I wanted, it was going to cost a TON more to make then to buy a kit at Michaels. We're talking $1 each just for the invite and not including envelopes, maps, rsvp cards, stamps, etc. At the end of the day I found a kit at Michaels that I really liked, that I was able to modify to make it my own, and it cost less then $1 each with stamps and all included.
However! I will say that I was on a time crunch as we only had about 5 months to actually plan. lol
The money savings is totally worth it. We bought kits from Michael's and with coupons it isn't too bad. We also personalized it to make it our own and reflect our wedding.
They turned out beautiful. The big downfall was that none of the templates for the kit worked and it was painful to do all the formatting so they would print properly. As well we have a laser printer and they smudged big time. We had to spray them with fixitive before sending them.
Everyone loves them though and this makes me happy. One person even asked me where we had them made!
If you have time and patience definitely DIY but look into all your options as you don't want them costing more.
I definitely think its worth making them yourselves especially since you have your mom who is a scrapbooker which likely means she knows how to do it and has a lot of the supplies you will need already. Pocketfolds are SOO easy to make from cardstock. They are a lot of work, but get together a group of your bridesmaids,sisters, mom or whoever and you can get them done in no time. You can easily save money by shopping around, getting 50% off coupons from Michaels and buying your paper online. Good luck!
I worked with another bee and she was EXTREMELY affordable! Working with her was actually just as cost effective as doing it ourselves -- only it saved a ton of time. She is a fabulous designer -- I sent her some images of invites I loved and she created ours from scratch. So talented!! I'd check her out!
WB username: His Lil SantosGirl
her website: http://kailey-marie.com
I highly recommend her and at the very least contacting her for more info to see if she can work with your budget!
@amw511s: I downloaded an invitation design from downloadandprint.com, and then changed the colors to match ours. Then I designed the RSVP, reception, and directions cards. All of that was free.
We aren't using pocketfolds because I didn't design my cards that way, but you can totally make them yourself! Just search around on the 'Bee for tutuorials. They're everywhere!
Here's our price breakdown:
Envelopes (100 A7 and 100 4bar) from envelope mall are $42
Paper for invite set (65lb linen from office depot) is $35
Full sheet labels for wrap around labels are $17 (not a necessity)
Envelope liner paper (5 for $1 at hobby lobby during a sale - not a necessity) for $6
Stamps (100) are $44
We're printing them out at home (so I may need to buy more ink, not sure yet), but it looks like it's going to cost us about $145 for 100 invitations to be mailed out. That's only $1.45 per invitation. I think that's pretty cheap!
Hope that helps!
i am "DIYing" using cardsandpockets! My friend is doing all the design work and then I'm using the custom print shop at C&P for the invites, inserts, monogram, etc. I'll be ordering all the various pieces myself - pocket env, belly bands, monogram, inserts, matting, envelopes, etc. I've got it at 3.50/invite for what others charge about $8++ for. So if you're looking for absolute cheapest, this isn't way to go. If you're looking for wedding stationery designer type invite for half (or less) of their pricing, go for it! PS, my version is barely DIY but shhh don't tell! I may even pay them the little extra it costs to do the labor of gluing/cutting pieces etc.
I'm sure that it's probably cheaper to DIY, but I personally couldn't bear the thought of doing mine lol. I ordered mine from wedding paper divas, and then rubber stamped the envelopes with a few decorations and a custom address stamper from etsy...and that was exhausting enough for me. :-)
You can see my semi-DIY invites in my DIY's.
I got the pocket folds and exterior envelopes from cards and pockets and got our printing done at vistaprint (included RSVP envelopes). We will be printing directions and hotel info cards ourselves to put in the pocket with the RSVP card. I made the belly bands, did all the punching and assembly myself.
If you sign up for vistaprint and build your invites, then put them in the cart, but don't buy, they will continuously sent you coupons and offers. I got some stuff for free and then paid very low prices for other parts of it.
Including the cost for the scrapbook punchers, burlap, twine and all the paper, I am at a little under $2/invite + postage.
For me it wasn't. They turned out great but it added too much stress, time and labor. Make sure you count over and over again. I had a lot left over.
It was worth it for me, but since my mom owns a craft supply store she got all the materials wholesale. Then she designed the invite so that didn't cost anything and I got all my BMs and FMILs (including step) to help us assemble them. We did invites, programs, RSVP cards and thank you cards all in one day and they are all gorgeous.
The one thing I'll stress: it's a LOT of work and it takes a LOT of organization. Even if you have a fairly simple design, it's a LOT of work. If it's going to be easier on your mental health to buy them and you can afford to do that, consider it. It really needs to be a labour of love, not just one of affordability.
Good luck!
I seriously considered doing it DIY--or at most buying a PDF template only on Etsy to do pocketfolds and getting all the supplies from the website you mentioned. Then, as it got closer to the time to actually do it, I realized that I didn't want to be bogged down with a huge project. For me, it was honestly enough work finalizing the invite list (with complete addresses), putting the stamps on, sealing the invites and addressing the envelopes. I got BEAUTIFUL invites completely made by a designer on Etsy for $2.50 (this was for a full suite--invite, RSVP, reception card, hand drawn map card) and she also made beautiful coordinating escort and table cards for a reasonable price that matched the invite suite.
However, it sounds like paper is your mom's thing so you are in good hands, and if you don't have a lot of other stuff going on that would make this project overwhelming, it would be some nice time to spend with your mom!
@amw511s:For what I wanted, it save me hundreds of dollars and came out exactly how I envisioned.
It depends on what you mean by doing all of it. Are you doing it from scratch totally or are you going to get invitation kits etc. The cost can add up really fast if your doing it all from scratch. The kits however do save time and money if you DIY
I walked into Michaels to look at invitations one day, and I got lucky, they were buy one get one half off! So I got I think 60 invitations for about 50 dollars (or something around there). They always have coupons too, so if you have time I would go in every time you have a coupon if you want to save money. My invitations had a pocket, and turned out really cute. People thought I had them perfessionally printed, but little do they know I printed them on my little printer at home!
Good luck!
Just curious - what seller did you buy your invitation suite from on Etsy?
YES!
I wanted pocketfold invitations & flip programs - so it was much less to DIY them myself, totally worth it & fun too :)
I DIYed our invites and they turned out awesome and I was really happy with them! They ended up being cheaper than most invitations that you would order from a printers... but I probably could have done them cheaper! Fancy scrapbook stuff can be expensive. If your Mom is really into it (like mine!) she likely has lots of tools so that'll help lots. But you can easily get carried away... so go for it but just be careful!
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So my mom and I are planning on making all of the paper "stuff" related to the wedding... invites, programs, placecards, etc. Is it really cheaper to do it this way? I'm thinking it will be if we shop around at the right places. My mom is an avid scrapbooker, so I know everything will look beautiful. I want pocket-type invitations and these are soooo expensive on websites like weddingpaperdivas.com. I found cardsandpockets.com which sells the pockets for a resonable price and we could do the rest for the invites.
I'm just wondering... Has anybody else done this? Was it really cost effective? We plan on starting the invites waaaay in advance. My wedding isn't until late March 2012 and we will probably start on the invites in September for mailing in late January, so we should be fine on time.
Let me know what you think! And, if you have any suggestions for good places to buy paper, etc. please reply.