Assembling preordered invites- worth the savings?

weddingbells2010

Hi ladies,

I just got back from ordering my invitations... or should I say, half ordering them.  She is holding onto the order until I make up my mind about assembly.  The particular company that we chose had very nice invites at much more reasonable prices than some of the pricer ones, but the hitch is that they do not come pre-assembled.  They do all the printing and then send me the pieces to assemble with little glue dots.

Part of me thinks that it's totally worth the savings- it's a $300 price difference to have them assemble them.  However, I'm not completely sold on the idea.  I could also pay $1.75 per invite ( x 150 invites) to have them pre-print the addresses on the envelops in a matching font.  I was going to look for a calligrapher, but I'm hearing that it might actually be MORE than having this company pre-print.

I don't think I can afford to do BOTH.  Which would you choose? Have any of you pre-assembled before? Is it easy, or a total nightmare?

Thanks!

squirrly

I'm doing my own.  We did our STDs, and it was easy.  The cutting is the harder part.  If that's done for you, assembly is typically the lighter load.  Do you have a really, really complex invite design?

brookeaconaway

Assembling is not that hard or time consuming.  Just devote a night and they should be completed soon.  You can even enlist in some help.

Printing on envelopes is time consuming and sometimes printing on your own computer can be difficult (margins, print quality, ink smudges, etc.) 

Calligraphy can also be expensive.

If I had to choose, I would assemble and have the envelopes pre-printed.

Good Luck & have fun!

weddingbells2010

Thanks, ladies.

Squirrly- they are not TOO complicated.  It is a pocket design, probably about the length and width of a letter sized envelope, and it folds in first on the right, then the left. The right fold is the pocket.  The center has three layers of colored paper as the main part of the invite, all glued on top of each other.  There is also a small cardstock seal that will be glued to the left flap after it is closed (also 2 layers of paper).

I think I made it sound more complicated than it really is, lol.

I think I may go for assembling it on my own! Wish me luck...

squirrly

Yours sound very similar to mine, actually.  Assembly shouldn't be that bad.  If it is - wine will make it better. 

As for printing on the envelopes - it depends on your printer.  If you're handy with the mail merge feature on word/excel, it can be EASY.  If you've never printed on an envelope before, try the wizard.  If that doesn't work, email me with the size of your envelopes, and a mockup in word of what you want the layout to be.  I'll see if I can help you get started.  squirrly103 at gmail dot com.

weddingbells2010

Thanks! You're the best.  I won't have them in for awhile (we just ordered today) but I may take you up on that when the time comes.  I'm going to practice sending my bills out with printed envelopes until then...  

squirrly

Ha!  Good plan! 

I printed directly on the envelopes for our STDs and it was a breeze.  I'm doing wrap-around labels for the invites, though, because the envelopes are black.  (The black made FI happy.  It's his favorite color.  Whatever.)

cjohnsen2010

I'm really shocked at $1.75 per envelope for the return address!
Check out etsy or somone who does computer calligraphy if you don't want to attempt it yourself.  I know the lady I'm using charges a flat fee for printing the return address, and it's like $10 for the whole order, so it's certainly worth checking in your area.

$300 to assemble them?  Definitely do it yourself.  You might be able to use a glue stick instead of those little dots.

aerinpegadrak

Assembly's easy.  I usually do my wedding crafts while sitting on the couch watching Mythbusters.  Nice and relaxing.