Need printing advice for DIY shower invites

floridabride44

I'm hosting a shower for my best friend coming up and thinking of DIY-ing invitations. I've made my own design in Photoshop but now need to find the best place to print out 5x7 flat invites on decent quality paper. Nothing crazy fancy... I realize these will end up in the trash! Looking for the most inexpensive way to do this. 

I've heard quite a few brides post here that they've DIY-ed invites or bought a design on Etsy and printed themselves.  For anyone that did that... where did you go to print? Do you remember how much it cost per card? How was the quality? Was the process pretty easy or was it a pain? Should I just suck it up and order something from Vistaprint?  

ernursej

Have you checked out your local Staples (or similar ... Don't know if they have Staples where you live)? I've printed tons of thing for work conferences from that type of store and they do a great job. 

ILoveBeachMusic

We printed menu cards at Staples. DD bought template from a vendor on Etsy.

MobKaz

Kinko's, Staples, or even consider your local library.  Our library has created an incredible state of the art "publishing/technology center" that even includes a 3D printer.

Heffalump

I bought a birthday party invitation template off Etsy and then had them printed at my local Kinkos.

OurWildKingdom

Besides the chains, look for print shops next to university campuses. Students often use them, so the prices will be reasonable.

thatgirl7

Catprint.com did our invites that i purchased from a designer on Etsy. it was affordable and fast. 

lovesclimbing

When I've DIYed shower invitations, I always just printed them on my home printer. They turned out pretty good, I thought.

thatgirl2

@floridabride44 Depending on the quantity, vista print is probably fine. I think I checked staples and it was more since vista always has coupons. If you need like 25, you can probably DIY...but it's a headache (or for me it is). You run out of ink, cards get pulled in off center, paper jams, paper is too thick for the printer causing damage, etc.

If you already have the design done yourself, order "postcards" instead of "invitations" on vista print. They mark up the invites. You don't get as many paper options, but the signature recycled matte is decent/nice paper.
$22 vs. $53 for the same paper, same qty, same size.

With my coupon, I paid $13 (plus shipping) for 50, 5x7 invites on the nicer paper. The "postcards" have a thick 115lb paper to choose from. If these are mailing like postcards, the 115lb paper would be awesome.

Note, they did run the job too close another job, so I had green lines on my card edges. They immediately offered to reprint for free. I have a paper cutter, so I trimmed them due to time constraints. They just gave me a refund.