DIY Invitations

arf3420 · March 2011

I'm planning on making my own invitations, but I'm just getting started with the designing of them. I think I'm going to order the card pockets online, then get cardstock from a craft store to cut my own inserts. I've seen several posts on here about creating your own design then having the invitations printed at Kinkos or somewhere, but I'm not really sure what to use to create the design. What program would you recommend using? Are there any that are free or that offer a free trial period?

Flowerstar1023 · March 2011

I heart Adobe Photoshop. It takes a little getting used to if you're not familiar with it, but they have a tutorial you can watch and you can find a bunch of templates online. There's a free 30 day trial of it (Search Adobe CS5).

Good luck!

Y I Oughta · March 2011

I used Adobe Illustrator, I had them printed on cardstock from UPrinting.com. 75 5x7 invitations and 75 3.5x5 rsvp cards were $65 with shipping, and were at my door within a week of placing the order.

mm4662 · March 2011

I don't know if you'd be interesting in finding a design and paying for the design but that is what I'm doing.

I wanted to DIY the whole invitation myself but I started to get frustrated.

If you go on to www.etsy.com and in the search section type in DIY printable wedding invitations, TONS of digital designs show up. They can change the color and wording for you.

This way, all I have to do is print!

gmc22 · March 2011

I designed my invites in Photoshop (PIB) and got the pages that I designed printed at Sir Speedy - I ordered my pockets from http://www.cardsandpockets.com/ and went from there! It was a long and very intensive project, but I took on a lot by creating booklets. Let me know if you have any other questions!

sarilynnep · March 2011

For all your girls who are making your own invites- do you mind letting me know how much money you think you saved on the invites? Like what do you think each invite ended up costing? I promise I'm not trying to be nosy- I just found ones online that I like a lot and don't seem to be too pricey, but if I saved a lot by doing them myself, I might just make them.

gmc22 · March 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_pennsylvania-pittsburgh_diy-invitations-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:116Discussion:c5843d80-60c4-41ee-9a18-844743926289Post:a6298fa7-be2e-4a8f-b977-fe1c19436c36">Re: DIY Invitations</a>:
[QUOTE]For all your girls who are making your own invites- do you mind letting me know how much money you think you saved on the invites? Like what do you think each invite ended up costing? I promise I'm not trying to be nosy- I just found ones online that I like a lot and don't seem to be too pricey, but if I saved a lot by doing them myself, I might just make them.
Posted by sarilynnep[/QUOTE]

Don't mind at all!!

Mine are/were a little more involved because of all the additional elements I added to them (i.e. lace, ribbon, etc), so in my case, I don't think I saved much. In fact, I KNOW I could have purchased invites for much cheaper from Etsy or the like because I have looked - I almost threw away my invites at one point and ordered new ones so I priced ones on Etsy.... making mine have been super stressful for me.

Anyway here is the approximate breakdown:

Supplies from Cards and Pockets - 220 5.5"x5.5" pockets, 220 custom cut cardstock to apply to the front, 200 bellybands, 220 mailing envelopes, 220 RSVP envelopes = ~$400

Lace - approx 60 yards of 3" white lace = ~$30

Trim - 200 white bows, 1/8" white ribbon = ~$30

Stamp - custom name/date stamp from Etsy for bellyband + ink = ~$60

Printing - 200(x2) front/back printed pages for booklet + 200 RSVP cards (all designed by me) = ~$150

Printing - 200 front and back color direction cards, 200 color brunch cards = ~$200

Stamps - stamps to post 200 envelopes at $1.05 each + 200 RSVP envelopes at .44 each = ~$300

* I did all the envelope printing myself on my home computer

Eww... so looking at this breakdown kind of makes me sick - LOL. Again, I went a bit overboard on things, so rest assured you can most definitely do it for less!

ETA: I initially thought it would save me money, but I just kept adding things and the price kept creeping up... :(

Oh and I quickly did the math and with everything (minus the stamps) the invites came out to be about $4.35/invite.

sarilynnep · March 2011

Thanks GMC! That gives me an idea of price range. Right now I am at $3.72 for each invite. That is for a square invitation that will be place in a petal holder instead of an inner envelope, with the RSVP card and envelope for that and of course my outer envelope. I may or may not do an additional enclosure card (this may be the one thing I can add myself for cheaper).

gmc22 · March 2011

Sari - that sounds really pretty! Is the $3.72 for DIY? Also, just wanted tell you to keep in mind that square envelopes lend to a postage up-charge of (I believe) around .20/envelope. FWIW in hindsight, I probably would NOT have done square! My postage ended up being so much (1.05/envelope) because they were OVERSIZED square (by 1/2 inch!) so before you buy anything I would recommend going to your local post office with the envelope dimensions and getting an estimate on the up-charge for the square envelopes! Just speaking from experience

GL!!

steelersnic314 · March 2011

we bought the pocket folds from cardandpockets and designed our own invites/inserts and printed from home. We made about 100 invites and cost it less than $1/invite. We used gimp and powerpoint to design our invites.

We also made our own bellybands, monograms, etc so we didnt have the additional cost there either.

Flowerstar1023 · March 2011

So I was going to do totally DIY invitations getting supplies from Paper Source (a great small chain with stores in/near Philly but unfortunately none in Pittsburgh - but they do have a nice website for ordering as well). I bought some stuff in their store and then proceeded to stumble across DIY invitations at Michaels (Which I had poo poo-ed before). Obviously you're a little limited with the design, but for $80 (yay coupons!) I got 90 invitations. They're pocket fold with respond cards, response envelopes, the invitation, the regular envelope, and a ribbon to tie around the pocket. So much cheaper than my original DIY idea. I made an extra insert with our website link for the sample one I put together. And, even with the pocket, envelopes, inserts, et cetera, the sample I mailed to my family yesterday (so they could see it since they're far away and I'm trying to incorporate them in the planning) just needed a regular stamp at the post office. If you're not set on a design, I would definitely recommend checking them out. You can always dress them up (I didn't think it was necessary aside from changing the font from the template but...) further with more ribbon, extra inserts/envelopes, envelope liners, vellum paper, special stamps from etsy, et cetera. And still be under $3.72 each...

DIY Invitations

Re: DIY Invitations

Choose Another Board

Search Boards