Weddingbee boards

I am really not artistic in the slightest, however am having mad thoughts about DIYing our invite suite.

When I say not artistic, I mean, not done an art class since I was 14, have never designed anything before, have no experience of using design software such as Illustrator. Nada, nowt, not an arty bone in my body.

The problem I have is that I am picky. I want everything to coordinate. I have in my head that I want some sort of graphic image that is printed on everything. From the invitation envelopes, to the place cards at the table. All of it needs to coordinate. I am picky about details. It has to be the right paper, with the right corners and all those other little details. When I add them up they equal lots of money. Especially when I consider that I am in the UK where most wedding stationery is either very expensive or has "wedding invitation" stamped across it (errr--- no sh!t!).

I have thought about getting shipped over from the USA, but when you add on S&H, customs charges and the fact that I want so many items making, it all adds up.

Even though I am not arty at all, I keep looking at your Gocco printed stationery and keep thinking "could I do that?". I;ve also seen the Quickutz Letterpress that is coming out soon, and keep thinking, "could I do that". I could buy some cool fonts, buy some cool illustrations from istockphoto, play around with some design software, and voila, have cool invites.

So my questions are-

1. How hard is it to do DIY invites?
2. How much of an arty bone in my body do I need?
3. Is the design process difficult?
4. Is Gocco'ing something that can go truly and horribley wrong, leaving me with an expensive mess and a rush job to a commercial printers?
5. Is the Quickcutz machine easy to use and should I hold off for their letterpress plates?

So many questions to be answered!!!

I DIYed my invites but I do graphics for a living - but maybe it's not that hard for someone without a ton of experience... if you already know kinda what you want. I did mine beacuse I was also really picky and I knew if I did them myself I'd get exactly what I wanted.

It's not that "hard" to do your own if you have some time (for designing AND assembling), a good program (I used Illustrator) and examples of suites you like. It's also good to pick a few fonts (one script and one block) and a universal graphic. Dover books are always good for flower/orante artwork or you could try istockphoto for some vector (editable) graphic.

If you have something to go off of and you know what pieces you need it's probably doable. How are you printing them (I used a really nice home printer) and assembling them. Are you buying extra pieces like U-folds or enclosures? I don't know much about Gocco but I think supplies are limited now - other people have said something about Gocco going away? Dunno. You could also design all the pieces and send them out for printing, I know of a letterpress guy in Utah who's pretty cheap - Mandate Press.

This was mine - good luck!

Tessabella76- Thanks for the superquick reply!

I was thinking of being sensible and printing on to one piece of card/ paper and not even doing the layered look! Less margin for mistakes that way!

Thanks Tee- the problem that I have is that I am in the UK, so shipping from Utah would be mucho expensive.Similarly, it is difficult to get hold of things like pocketfolds etc in the UK.

To be honest, my main thought of printing was Gocco- it would cost about £120 to get one shipped to England. We have a crummy HP photosmart printer which isn't good enough, although there are plenty of print shops in the area. I am sure if I gave them PDFs and the required paper/ card, they could print it for me, although I am not sure if they could print on napkins, or how much it would all cost.

Goccos are awesome, but I'd be wary of relying on them as a primary DIY printer at this point as supplies are running low and there's lots of supply hoarding on eBay.

Designing your own stationery can be a rewarding process, but can also be very frustrating - it might cost less, but there is still a pretty substantial monetary investment involved (time, programs, typography). I think maybe the least stressful way to go is to purchase all the designs digitally from Etsy or from a designer, outsource the printing (assuming you are printing on white or light-coloured paper, digital printing is fairly cost-effective) and then assemble them yourself.

For napkins, you could have a custom rubber stamp made with your design or monogram and then stamp plain napkins - just be sure to use permanent ink (I've heard that Staz-On is good) so that it won't come off on your guests!

The wedding isn't til next year and I was thinking about buying a Gocco now and stocking up on inks that are in our wedding colour palette. 

I had also thought of approaching a designer on Etsy to do the design, so that we would print at home.I am aware that this is acutally going to be a huge and time consuming challenge as well!

I want to try and use a different printing technique to digital printing, such as screen printing or letterpress, just because I think they look cool and I seem to like making life difficult for myself.

You could check out the Yudu as well, which is like the Gocco. I think they have yet to come out with a screen fine enough for printing very small and delicate invitation details, but that would be less of an issue with certain designs.

I love old-fashioned printing techniques as well! These DIY poster invitations were screen printed, and are one of my favourite invitation sets ever. As an alternative, it is also possible to make a digitally printed piece look more hand-printed using Photoshop!

I'm finishing up with my diy invitation suite.  I couldn't find anything that I liked either, so I ended up finally finding the perfect color of eggplant cardstock (after searching everywhere and being sent several samples) and making my own pocketfolds from 12x12 sheets of cardstock.  I purchased a vector illustration from istockphoto.com and downloaded a couple fonts I liked and gave them to a graphic designer at FI's firm who offered to put my ideas onto paper.  I decided I liked the idea of wax seals, but couldn't find a design that I liked, so I found a place that did a design based on the vector illustration.  I've spent many, many hours researching blogs of other diy brides and taking bits and pieces of their designs to come up with my own.  I've also spent many, many hours scoring, folding, cutting, pasting, and taping everything together.  And I'm still not done yet.

There have been times I've thought that I must be crazy for doing this.  I probably am, but it's worth it because I'm getting exactly what I want, and it's very satisfying to see everything coming together.  Also, there's a little part of me that just can't wait til they all get sent out so I can (hopefully) hear about how fabulous everyone thinks they are!  :)

So, to answer your question, it can be as difficult as you want to make it.  But the pride you feel when finish something like this makes it all worth while.

Good luck!  :)

Azwinelover- thanks for the tips. It sounds like you and I are on the same wavelength! I'd love to see your pictures of what you have done!

I am having difficulty matching my imagined styling of the wedding, with the fun, whimsical bits that I like. Somebody on the blog here posted a menu that had "eat, drink, be married" on it. I thought it summed up the type of relaxed atmosphere I want for our wedding.

I am looking through istockphoto and have no idea what type of graphic I want for the invites!