Weddingbee boards

I made 50 invitations myself for around $60. It is very labor intensive, but it was a really fun project and I was very proud of myself when all was said and done.

Ok, here's my two cents...  I'm sure I could have gotten invitations cheeper than what I paid for my DIY ones. *However* I could not have gotten the pocket fold/multi-insert invitations that we had if I'd paid someone else to do them. If you think you'll enjoy designing them and assembling them and you're organized enough to get them done in a timely manner so that you're not up all night for a week straight trying to get them finished up, then I say absolutely go for it! DIY'ing our invites was one of the most fun projects I did for our wedding. An additional advantage to doing them yourself is that it's a lot easier to make the programs and other printed material match/complement.

As far as printing vs. having them printed, I'm a little bias because I printed them myself on a approx. $120 HP photo printer and wouldn't have done it any other way. I'm very picky and redesigned a couple of times after I saw it printed out. Also I was able to control the color better with my own printer. But then again, I use my printer on a very regular basis and wouldn't trade it for the world! Good luck and have fun!

it can be cheaper, but that's assuming that everything goes perfectly and you don't have unexpected costs. I would only DIY mine again because I prefer my style, otherwise, the headache and $ that went into them was SO not worth it! :P

I am in the midst of DIYing 80 pocketfold invites with 3 inserts. I liked the DIY option because I able to get the exact paper I wanted (I used 2 different companies), I was also able to customize the size and design of the pockefold, and added in my own personal touches in terms of design add-ons (cut-outs and outer ribbon). I also personalized all the RSVP cards for each individual guest.

That being said it was (and continues to be) VERY labour intensive - all the cutting, printing and gluing, also it was not exactally cheap. It was definitly cheaper than having someone else make the exact same invitation, but because I was making it myself and "saving" money I probably ended up adding in things that I wouldn't have otherwise.

If you like to DIY and design then I say go for it! Just make sure you have lots of time alloted! Good luck!

My DH and I made our own pocketfolds because there wasn't really any premade ones in the orientation that we needed.  I needed a pocket and two sides for the invitation since I needed both English and Chinese and most things you can buy online only have one side for the invite.  The only invitation place that I found that did pocketfolds like the ones we wanted, wanted to charge an arm and a leg for them.  That's why we decided to make them ourselves. 

There is no doubt that it was really really labor intensive.  However, I loved it because it did allow me to get the exact color I wanted as well as the exact design/fonts that I wanted.  I definitely saved a bundle by making them myself and I got tons of compliments on them.  I even had some people refusing to return the RSVP cards because they didn't want to mess up the set and wanted to keep the invite. 

I agree w/the girl above.  If you have the time and won't procrastinate and enjoy craft projects, I say go for it!

Mine had a strip of nice japanese paper on the outside and then a small diamond piece of paper with the Chinese double happiness character glued to it.  So there wasn't anything that really held the invite closed.  I can send you a pic if you want to see it. 

If possible, I would make the ribbon slide off instead of tie as tying would create a bump and it may not make it through the post office machines without it being all mangled.  And I know there have been many stories on this board about post offices making a bride pay more because they had some bump or something that didn't allow the invite to go through the machines.