Invitations...

FLGatorGal88

I am just curious how many of you are DIYing your invitations? If you are where are you planning on getting the paper from? Also are you printing them at home or sending them off to the printer? For those of you who are not DIYing your invites where are you purchasing your from?

Danny&Mel2003

I will probably go the professional route

I am DIY for the favors lol nothing to big though Michael's had a lot of great ideas!!!

melb2013

Not DIYing the invites- I am buying them from a local shop in my hometown.

FLGatorGal88

I looked at the ones at Michael's and I wasn't a fan of any of them... I am thinking of DIYing mine but going through cards and pockets for the card stock and envelopes and I have a really nice printer at home and work so worse case scenario I can print some at home and work during my free time... I am in no rush to start these... I was just curious because of the recent post that asked what do we have done... I noticed a few of the girls said they have their invitations already... ( I know... they aren't printed )

SSaltzman87

I'm creating mine on Vistaprint and plan to get a couple LivingSocial deals to use on them :-)

This is what I have so far:

SRRL18

I had bought a DIY card set awhile ago but then I fell in love with a set I seen on Vistaprint. I have a few LivingSocial deals that I plan on using to pay for it.

Danny&Mel2003

there so many different web sites, when I start my STD's I wil also be doing the invitations ther!

hisbabygirl76

I am not overly concerened and found some pretty basice white invitation kits at AC Moore and Im probably going to go that route and print them off at home.

rswans

I'm pretty sure I'm going to DIY them, but I haven't figured out how yet. I'm either going to have my mom design them (she's an artist and former graphic designer) or I'm going to go the vistaprint type route.

kristinathenina

I'm getting mine from 123print.com, I got 3 free samples and fell in love with one of the beach samples, for 100 invites, less than $80, and shipping is free.

RebCappon

I was planning on DIYing them but my moms friend works at a printing company and has offered to do invites and save the dates for free for us. 

To tie in our wishing tree and outdoor theme I like these ones.

I also like these as well. 

RebCappon

My mom found this on Pinterest which we thought was kind of cute for the response cards instead of yes and no.

LB&SF

My aunt is in the stationary business.  So if we went anywhere but to her, she would be offended and greatly upset.  But why would we go else where?  She will prob be charging us cost.  And she has amazing books.

Kacin+Daniel

I'm DIYing ours- kinda. I agree that the Michael's print-at-home selection didn't do it for me, but they do have another stationary section where you can get blank cards in lots of colors. Our colors are burgundy and gold. I chose a pack of 10 plain 5x7 cards with matching envelopes in "brick" color, then bought a few decorative stamps and some shiny gold stamp ink and played around until I came up with a design we liked. Then I added a strip of gold ribbon and a gold wax seal with an "M" on it for my FI's last name (which also happens to be my last inital currently. The seal materials can be found in the wedding aisle.) I printed our wording from my printer at home and added the stamping, ribbon and seal to create a sample, and then sent it to a friend of the family who is a professional printer. He is going to print either just the words on the blank cards, or the words as well as the border I stamped on the sample, and then send them back to me so I can add the ribbons and wax seals.

Here are the materials I'm using, and purchasing enough of each to complete 80 invitations (for a guest list of 140ish). I'm estimating, but here is the price run-down:

Set of 10 cards+envelopes: $5 

Spool of Ribbon: $3

Stamps: $8

Ink Pad: $8

Seal Wax: $4 for 4 sticks

"M" Seal Press: $4

Plus the cost of printing.

We have had the luxury of a long engagement (20 months) so I had lots of time to sit around and let the creative juices flow to come up with my design. I don't recommend this route if you're short on time, but if you, like me, find yourself with too much time to daydream, this can be very fun and theraputic! Go to Michael's or some other fun craft store and give yourself time to browse the whole store and brainstorm. Get a few materials that inspire you (and match your wedding colors or theme), and then play until you love what you're looking at. Don't worry about the logistics until you've created your design. Then you can adjust it so you can have it mass-printed if you need to. Good luck and have fun!