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I was going to DIY with someone else doing the graphic design and me assembling and coming up with the main concept. but then I was starting to fall behind on the planning for my invites so I ended up with finding a invitations vendor. I was referred to this girl from a friend. She has reasonable prices and we just went with her. We're getting the whole shebang and it's affordable. For the custom design, it ended up being just a little more than if we did my orginal DIY plan. We are still doing the assembly as well to save money, but it's definitely a lot easier to have someone else in charge of the creative vision and putting all the elements together and all you have to do is approve and request for edits. :-)
Plus, with the printing styles, our vendor gave us the different pricing choices so that we can see how much of it really costs..we ended up with letterpress because even though we could have saved a lot with offset printing, the letterpress actually ended up within our budget so we went for it.
Something to keep in mind with DIY is that I did my own save the dates, now while I had a budget and knew the majors costs..there were little things here and there that I forgot to account for. Like the printer ink costs and reprinting on fancy paper because I screwed up the spelling or it didn't feed into the printer correctly. Now if you have a vendor, they will eat these costs because I'm sure it's priced already within your quote. But if you DIY, just make sure you allot for error and take EVERYTHING into account.
Good luck..I hope this helps!
I picked designing and printing myself, but it's not exactly accurtate. I am designing with my aunt and she will gather paper options/create proofs, and then will print...and I will assemble. Total team effort.
Part of its is that invites are not a big budget item for us, part of it is that my aunt is really good at this stuff and enjoys it, and part of it is that I like the personal touch. We will not have anything nearly as involved as some of the incredible blogging bees, though (Miss Snapdragon, for example).
We're doing it all... cuz we're crazy like that. We haven't printed yet, so I can't vouch for the final product, but we're going for it!
I am not yet sure what we will do. I was thinking about buying them, but the DIY ones turn out so nice. Creativity is always a plus 
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DIY is great for those people who:
- have time
- are creative
- are under a budget
- patient & meticulous with the craft (otherwise with all the mess and error, DIY ends up more expensive and labor-intensive)
For the rest of the pack ... sometimes alloting a little more is worth it.
I'm not sure that what we're doing fits under any of those headings. We bought the invitation kits from Target, then figured out the wording/spacing/coloring ourselves, and printed on my mom's work printer. It's been very cheap, I'm not sure we could have even bought all the paper and ribbon seperately for how little it cost in the kit, and printing at work meant we only had to reimburse the church (where she works) for the cost of the ink, instead of paying someone to print them. I LOVE how they turned out. Nothing fancy, but they still look really really good. It's been a great compromise!
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I decided to DIY the invitations. I couldn't afford to have invitations designed elsewhere, and I wasn't happy with the kits I found. So I ended up going to a paper store in town and buying all the paper already cut to the right card-size dimensions and designed the graphics myself by downloading free fonts, etc.
I ended up spending about $80 Canadian for 45 invitations, plus a few extras for mistakes, testing, etc. I think if I lived in a bigger city or had time to source cheaper paper on the internet (or could buy things in the states without paying extra fees) it could have been much cheaper, but I'm still really happy with how everything turned out!
Because we are a LD couple & we've spent a good portion of our relationship on American Airlines 767's.... we've decided to have a little bit of travel/plane influence (I won't say "theme" because its cheesy!) So we are going to send out boarding pass invitations. I've designed them myself & each guest will be receiving 3 separate cards. 1: Invitation 2: Reception Card 3: Final Boarding card (Response card). I've only finished the mockup... holy labour-intensive! Thankfully I only need 25-35 sets. My cost (paper, perforating cutter, new exacto & envelopes) is about $36
As for our STDs, I used these gorgeous postcards w/ sights from around Vancouver (where the wedding will be held). I designed the back of the invite on comp, printed each one off (addressed & ready to go- woo!) used my Xyron machine to adhere the invite to the back of the postcards... c'est fini! My out of pocket cost (not including postage or materials at home) was: $12.50
I've tossed every STD I've ever received.... so I really didn't want to sink too much time, energy or money into mine.
Basically each set of invites, including STD is costing me $1.63/invite & gives me a task to do when watching TV. I called myself the RecessionistaBride because, well this recession has now made saving trendy. Recession or not, I'd still be looking to save a buck lol. That doesn't mean you have to sacrifice quality or what you want- you just have to get a little bit more creative! So far, neither my fiance or I were directly hurt by the recession, yet who knows what the future brings? It's never a bad idea to save where you can!
I'm very artistic so I'm going to put my stamp on every little bit of this day- I actually think my invites are better than anything I've seen online (boy am I humble or what? lol) Some of the best weddings I've been too have been intimate, personalized weddings! I'd much rather spend 10K on an intimate, elegant wedding with 40 of my closest friends & family than a 50k wedding with 250 guests. But thats just me... make sure your wedding is a reflection of you and your fiance! Don't ever feel pressured to have to spend extra just because thats what the industry has told you to do! Get creative & stretch your money :)
I voted completely DIY.
I had a great time designing the layout and the enclosures, especially the map/ directions/ accomodations card. I got a little frustrated with my envelope liners, but it all came together.
DIY took a LOT of time but was completely worth it for me. I spent $40, including reusable supplies like a papercutter, and the inexpensive invitations I was considering would not have looked as good.
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We DIY'd our Save-the-dates... but I don't think I have the time or creativity to DIY my invites... Invitations by Dawn the whole way!!
I'm a DIY'er. Our STD's were more time consuming than the invitations will be. I really enjoy crafting and stuff like this, so I am pretty sure I would be doing them myself even if the economy was booming! I'd just like to spend my money on things other than invitations.
Were designing our invitations that are going to be pocket folds and having it all printed at Kinko's
We are DIY ing everything. I am hand making the pocket folds. I did the designing on the computer, the printing and the embossing. I also made our monogram.
Yes it is cheaper but also we enjoy being crafty and doing this stuff together. Mr. FF loves helping as long as he has direction and he doesn't have to come up with the idea himself!
I would rather go in and say, "this is what I want, make it happen" than worry about smudged ink, cutting papers, etc.
I've seen some beautiful DIY looks, but I just don't have the time or patience for that!
I have a decent budget but I still did the DIY partially. Michael's crafts store has the BRIDES line of invites and there are several designs to choose from. They range from $29.99 to $49.99 for a box of 24-48. They come with everything you need including invite and envelope, response car and envelope, direction/ accommodation card and ribbon or decor for each theme.
Keep in mind the other bees are right when they say it is time consuming. I printed all of my own and assembled them but was so pleased with the outcome and there is something that makes it better when you say you did them.
Have your bridesmaids or MIL or mom help and you will be fine.
With Michael's coupons I spent $75 for my invites, programs, table cards and thank you notes. Totally budget savvy.
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I completly DIYed everything - I designed a pocketfold template, cut out 90 pocketfolds, folded and glued them together, printed and cut the invite and 3 inserts, attached embelishments, and secured the outside with ribbon and a stamped closure. It was A LOT of work but I am so glad I did it as I got to design it all and saved a bunch of money. The only thing I regret is not sending the inserts out to be cut printed - this would have saved me my sanity :)
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I am just running out of time! I loved the idea of DIY-ing something, but there are simply not enough hours in the day to do it all.
That said, I am doing letterpress, but eagerly searching for someone to do it!
As a print major I *love* letterpress invites, but we're on a budget and we'd rather spend the money in other places. So I'm putting my art degree to great use and DIY'ing everything!
It also helps that I want something clean & simple {ie. easy-to-DIY!}.
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Just a word of caution. Do consider printing error so when you decide to DIY make sure you order extras. If you have limited time and patience, it is better to source out. You may ask the printer if they are willing to customize for you AND if they can do it within your budget. Check out their website first. If you think their products are worth looking into, send them an e-mail and ask precisely what you want so you don't waste so much time.
A friend of mine used this company before www.CraftMaterInvitations.com You may want to ask.
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We used Cards & Pockets. They printed our designs, and cut the paper to the appropriate sizes. We're then assembling them and adding things like magnetic snap closures, ribbon, and a matted photo sticker of the two of us. I really like the way they turned out.
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I've personally designed my bridesmaids t shirt and a matching card for them on zazzle. They turned out GREAT. In fact, to my sheer surprise, I sold a few of them! Enough to pay for the stamps I created on there also! So I kept on designing.
That's been my creative $ outlet. Maybe 45 bucks generated thus far! But I should get the tshirts, cards for free. I may have to buy the stamps and tote bag too.
I will DIY the STD (on my computer) and the engagement announcement. Now that I can handle.
As far as the invites go? I am fairly good, but do not honestly trust myself at doing that or the response cards and the map. I'll leave that to the pros. But I've also been shopping the cost and styles and have found AMAZING etsy designers who are inexpensive for the great quality!
We're basically running off to Las Vegas, and so with very little to tie our theme together, our invites are about it. I found them online, and they're perfect.
I really wanted to DIY, but the perfectionist in me won out! I'm doing a lot of the design, but I'm having a professional print and assemble them.
I'm sort of DIYing. I'm ordering them from Cards and Pockets. They may or may not get printed there. I haven't decided yet.
i got lucky with my FI being a Graphic Designer/Web developer and my father who has sold and been in the printing business all his life, so it will be a collection of creativity from each of us. instead of rsvp cards and spending more money on return postage, we're creating a website instead where the guest can rsvp there and also find information in case they lose their invites or have questions.
My FI and I were going to DIY our invites, but then the FI (who is so much more artistic than I am and was going to design them) got really busy... So we ended up buying them online- And I'm SO HAPPY we did! The printing is just so much cleaner than what we would have been able to do- and the ink is raised a bit. PLUS we ended up being able to get matching Thank You cards :)
We ended up with 75 z-fold invites and 50 thank you cards plus envelopes for all of them (and inner envelopes for the invites) for just over $100! And they look great! Not as fancy as what some people are looking for, but the invites, for us, weren't the highest priority.
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Hi ladies,
I'm shopping around for some info and appreciate your input.
- With the current economic crisis in our world, will you be designing/printing the STDs/menus/programs/invites yourself?
- if you are planning on having the paper goods printed, how much are you willing to spend? Per card? Total? With or without envelopes - please specify.
- What type of invitations are you interested in? Flat Card, Pocketfold, etc.
- What type of printing are you interested in? Raised, No preference, etc.
Anything else you want to add...again greatly appreciated! Thanks!