Talk to me about printing your own invites

theycallmelinz

Mods: This may belong on the invites and paper board, so feel free to move it if it needs to be there, I just wasn't sure.

I bought blank invitations and RSVP cards, and need 150 of each printed. Is it cheaper to have a place like OfficeMax/OfficeDepot print them for me, or for me to print them at home? If I print them at home, what's the best but least expensive printer I need to make this work and not look crummy?

emmaaa

You may get better advice on the I&P board but I'm not sure.

I made my own invitations and printed them on my printer. Brand new ink cost was $50 total (which I was out anyways), paper and enveloped was probably $60 from Staples and this yeilded 150 invitations (2 per page), RSVP postcards (4 per page), and reception cards (10 per page). I then used a regular paper cutter to cut them. It was actually pretty easy. I did it all one night after work for a few hours (made the design ahead of time).

I didn't price having a third party to print them.

theycallmelinz

What kind of printer do you have? I have just a basic printer from Walmart that will also copy and scan, but it's very senstive and I have to be nice to it for a week to get it to print with no problems. I'm wondering if it's up the job of printing our invitations lol

southernbelle0915

I'll leave it up to @lyndausvi and @MariePoppy if they want to move it.

I think it depends how patient you are and how much money you want to save. It wouldn't hurt to get it priced out at OfficeMax/Depot. Then you can decide if you want to do it yourself.

We printed about the same amount at home. We had a crappy printer and bought a nice Brother. The quality was really good - we printed ours in a super dark brown that went with our invites. We justified the printer by how much money we were saving on invites overall and then having it to keep afterwards. I still think it was worth it and would do it again.

If you do it yourself, overall: I recommend having extras (you will mess up!); extra ink cartridges; make sure you have wine and Pandora One. That is all.

theycallmelinz

southernbelle0915 said:

I'll leave it up to @lyndausvi and @MariePoppy if they want to move it.

I think it depends how patient you are and how much money you want to save. It wouldn't hurt to get it priced out at OfficeMax/Depot. Then you can decide if you want to do it yourself.

We printed about the same amount at home. We had a crappy printer and bought a nice Brother. The quality was really good - we printed ours in a super dark brown that went with our invites. We justified the printer by how much money we were saving on invites overall and then having it to keep afterwards. I still think it was worth it and would do it again.

If you do it yourself, overall: I recommend having extras (you will mess up!); extra ink cartridges; make sure you have wine and Pandora One. That is all.

You are correct in all this lol. I'm pretty patient so I could sit and work with my printer I think. I'm willing to give this a night of attention if it'll save me a good bit of money, I just don't want them to come out looking sideways or that I had a 5 year old print and cut them.

larrygaga

My friend ended up printing her own and she said she would have rather bought them all done. She had a cute little bow and all that on so we ended up working on it for hours, and it ended up being more expensive because she had to buy a new printer+ink+supplies and it was time consuming. Sometimes it's not always better to DIY

southernbelle0915

theycallmelinz said:

You are correct in all this lol. I'm pretty patient so I could sit and work with my printer I think. I'm willing to give this a night of attention if it'll save me a good bit of money, I just don't want them to come out looking sideways or that I had a 5 year old print and cut them.

Confession: we had a couple that weren't perfect... I sent those to a couple elderly guests who I know have really bad eyesight. I'm probably going to hell.

theycallmelinz

larrygaga said:

My friend ended up printing her own and she said she would have rather bought them all done. She had a cute little bow and all that on so we ended up working on it for hours, and it ended up being more expensive because she had to buy a new printer+ink+supplies and it was time consuming. Sometimes it's not always better to DIY

This is true. I don't know why the hell I bought invitations with bows. I'm considering leaving them off.

@southernbelle0915 I will probably do the same. Like my granny. She isn't even going to know what it says, much less if it's a little wonky.

emmaaa

emmaaa said:

You may get better advice on the I&P board but I'm not sure.

I made my own invitations and printed them on my printer. Brand new ink cost was $50 total (which I was out anyways), paper and enveloped was probably $60 from Staples and this yeilded 150 invitations (2 per page), RSVP postcards (4 per page), and reception cards (10 per page). I then used a regular paper cutter to cut them. It was actually pretty easy. I did it all one night after work for a few hours (made the design ahead of time).

I didn't price having a third party to print them.

It's some type of HP printer that copies and scans as well. I second @southernbelle0915, keep wine handy, make extra (because I ended up realizing I forgot a few people), and have something to entertain you. I was watching movies while I waited on mine to print and then started cutting them.

beethery

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

emmaaa

beethery said:

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

Yes! My paper cutter is one I had at work and it is amazing. It is a slide one which is much better and more accurate than the lever? (gullotine) one and had the grid pattern so you line it up correctly. 

theycallmelinz

emmaaa said:

beethery said:

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

Yes! My paper cutter is one I had at work and it is amazing. It is a slide one which is much better and more accurate than the lever? (gullotine) one and had the grid pattern so you line it up correctly. 

I have an irrational fear of paper cutters. I could be standing 10 feet away and I'm still worried about chopping a finger off. I may make kindly ask my mom if she'll handle this part.

littlemushroom

We printed our own, but it was half as many as you need. It was tedious but they came out looking great. We had to hand feed each page into the printer which is why it took so long. For the price savings, I would do it again.

Definitely space the printing process over several days so you don't get crazy frustrated, especially if you have to hand feed each page.

larrygaga

southernbelle0915 said:

theycallmelinz said:

You are correct in all this lol. I'm pretty patient so I could sit and work with my printer I think. I'm willing to give this a night of attention if it'll save me a good bit of money, I just don't want them to come out looking sideways or that I had a 5 year old print and cut them.

Confession: we had a couple that weren't perfect... I sent those to a couple elderly guests who I know have really bad eyesight. I'm probably going to hell.

You are just being resourceful

beethery

emmaaa said:

beethery said:

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

Yes! My paper cutter is one I had at work and it is amazing. It is a slide one which is much better and more accurate than the lever? (gullotine) one and had the grid pattern so you line it up correctly. 

I have this one, it's a GOOOOD deal right now (click) I paid $200 for it when I bought it later on last year.

It is THE BEST. I love it. Those chopping-arm ones get the arm warped after a while and you don't get a straight cut anymore. NEVER AGAIN.

daria24

We bought a Canon MG5300 to print our stuff. It works really well with custom sizes and two-sided printing. It's also super fast. We were lazy and bought all pre-cut flat cards/inserts so we didn't have to do much assembly. 

emmaaa

beethery said:

emmaaa said:

beethery said:

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

Yes! My paper cutter is one I had at work and it is amazing. It is a slide one which is much better and more accurate than the lever? (gullotine) one and had the grid pattern so you line it up correctly. 

I have this one, it's a GOOOOD deal right now (click) I paid $200 for it when I bought it later on last year.

It is THE BEST. I love it. Those chopping-arm ones get the arm warped after a while and you don't get a straight cut anymore. NEVER AGAIN.

This is the one I have (click) kind of. It is a 12" trimmer but looks a little different than that. 

thisismynickname2

We had our invitations printed at an Office Max. It cost around $40 or so and we printed 3 to a page. 

Their self-cutters were blunt so one of the employees used their "pro" cutters at no additional charge. Frankly, I'd rather pay and save the stress and leave it to the pros than do it myself. To each their own.  

Come to think of it, we printed our own RSVP cards using a template and they didn't turn out that well. Frankly I didn't care at all because people just mark them and send them back. I didn't care about impressing anyone.  But I think getting that done with pro help would have been better. 

l9i

We bought a kit which came with blank invites and RSVPs that we needed to print and then put together.  Printing was easy. 

I would strongly suggest looking for a laser printer versus an ink jet.  While laser printers can be more expensive (color lasers are pricey, you can find cheap black and white ones) the quality is better as is doesn't use ink that can smear.  In the long run, you'll replace the toner a lot less than what you would ink in an ink jet printer.

As for assembly... we had lots of bows to tie... about one wine night with half a dozen family and friends and we were done (about 150 invites).

Blergbot

I created a file and designed the invite myself, then I took it to a local print shop and had them print and cut. It was insanely cheap...like under $10. I'm not saying you'll luck out the way I did, but it's worth asking around!

CMGragain

Don't print until you have your text checked over at the Invitations board.

photokitty

beethery said:

emmaaa said:

beethery said:

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

Yes! My paper cutter is one I had at work and it is amazing. It is a slide one which is much better and more accurate than the lever? (gullotine) one and had the grid pattern so you line it up correctly. 

I have this one, it's a GOOOOD deal right now (click) I paid $200 for it when I bought it later on last year.

It is THE BEST. I love it. Those chopping-arm ones get the arm warped after a while and you don't get a straight cut anymore. NEVER AGAIN.

Another sliding paper cutter lover over here. I don't know how I lived before it. I love it so much I use it to trim email coupons....which is super lame, I know but IDC!!

PrettyGirlLost

I designed my invitations in Photoshop and then had them printed and cut at FedEx/Kinkos.  Well the insides or inserts.  I bought blank pockets from Cards and Pockets and matted/stuffed my own invitations.

Originally I was going to order the pre-cut, blank invitation/insert kits from Cards and Pockets and print them myself, but I decided I didn't want to dick around with feeding the pre-cut pieces into the printer and having it print them correctly.  Also, I have an ink jet printer and with the color scheme I choose to use my invitations looked better after being printed on the professional laser printer.

I think it cost us like $200-$250 bucks to have over 200 invitations plus 5 inserts each printed and cut at FedEx.  I think the pockets and envelopes from Cards and Pockets were another $100 or so.  All told, that's a hell of a lot cheaper than using Invitations by Dawn, Wedding Paper Divas, etc.

labro

emmaaa said:

beethery said:

Take them to a FedexOffice and get the printing priced out.

If you need to do cuts, they usually have REALLY awesome slide cutters over in the DIY section. They are sharp as shit, and make it really hard to fuck up cutting.

I wore them bitches out during college and I hate driving all the way out just to cut shit so I ended up splurging and buying my own. I think mine was $250 so if anyone wants recs, I'll send you a link.

Yes! My paper cutter is one I had at work and it is amazing. It is a slide one which is much better and more accurate than the lever? (gullotine) one and had the grid pattern so you line it up correctly. 

FedEx will also do the cutting for you! If I recall it was...a couple dollars per cut? Anyway...they saw me suffering over at the DIY cutter while I was cutting out programs, menus, and escort cards and told me about their service. Honestly, the $15 I spent to have them cut all that for me was 100% worth it and came out looking 100% better than my cuts. I was only able to do a few sheets at a time accurately because the paper was so thick and heavy. I would've been there for hours and hours and hours.