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Printing your own invites?

aloisk57aloisk57
First Comment
in Michigan-Detroit

Now that I've got all of my vendors booked, I'm stressing out about the invitations.  Trying to stay under budget, I have been looking at the DIY invites at places like Michael's, Joann's, etc.  My question is, we only have a normal ol' printer....will I be able to print my invites?  I have heard that you need some fancy printer for them, and if so, I will have to go the professional route.

ALSO on a completely unrelated route:

We have decided to do a thumbprint tree for our "guestbook."  At the last wedding, the bride had a friend directing people how to do it, where to put your thumbprint, etc.  I wanted to buy a nicer one (hand drawn instead of printed on a poster) but I'm afraid of people messing it up!  Do you think I need to have someone directing the process, or do you think some instructions in a frame would suffice?  We were going to put our thumbprints on it first so they could see what the idea is, but I just don't want it to be dumb looking if we drop $$ on a really nice one.  We're having adults only so it's not like a 5 year old will be able to mess it up, but I'm still afraid some random jokester will put their thumbprint someplace completely random.  Advice/experience?

And yes, I know I'm completely neurotic!  It's gotten worse with the wedding, I swear!

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Re: Printing your own invites?

  • MMRoberts11MMRoberts11 member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    For printing, you can use a normal ol' printer for those invite packs I think your talking about.  

    As far as the guestbook, I think if you have a sheet of paper saying something like "Leaf a print to show you were here" (I've seen that done before) people can figure it out.  Plus, by the two of you do yours before the reception they'll have an example of what to do and should be good.
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  • annerenee07annerenee07
    First Comment First Anniversary
    You can definitely print your own invitations. I just printed mine from Michaels and they turned out GREAT!! You just need to adjust the printer for the correct paper sizes. And if you go to Michaels be sure to print off the coupons (the 40% off ones) and have a couple of people go with you to buy them because only one coupon per purchase. Good Luck!
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  • heysupnatalieheysupnatalie
    First Comment
    If you are really worried about it Rocket Print in downtown Royal Oak offered me some decent prices on printing. 200 invites on 5x7 cardstock for about $90. Everything I've seen so far is more than that and I just don't feel like paying out the wahzoo for it.
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  • aloisk57aloisk57
    First Comment
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_printing-your-own-invites?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:88Discussion:e2306c93-0a6c-4f0f-880c-c35325b4a234Post:8c2743ec-951d-481c-a509-4b96b666bf2e">Re: Printing your own invites?</a>:
    [QUOTE]If you are really worried about it Rocket Print in downtown Royal Oak offered me some decent prices on printing. 200 invites on 5x7 cardstock for about $90. Everything I've seen so far is more than that and I just don't feel like paying out the wahzoo for it.
    Posted by heysupnatalie[/QUOTE]

    Thanks! I will have to check them out!
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  • baileyleevbaileyleev member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited April 2012
    We did the guest book tree. We just put the picture frame out saying to "leaf a thumbprint and sign your name". Everyone pretty much got the idea. Also make sure you leave out wipes!!!!


    ETA: I had my parents/close family do their thumprints before the wedding so that there were more there to serve as an example, and so they didn't have to worry about it day-of
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  • Sue-n-KevinSue-n-Kevin member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer First Comment
    You can definitely print on a regular old printer. I did my invites, RSVP cards, RSVP self-addressed envelopes, menus, programs, inserts for coaster favors.........all had different types, sizes & thickness of paper, still worked.

    I'd recommend getting really familiar with Microsoft Word: how to format for different sized paper, how to change the paper feed size........I just practiced with plain 8 x 11 printer paper until I got the print where I wanted it, then held it up to the item I was printing on to make sure before putting the final paper in.

    If you think you are going to want a weird type of script, they sell Wedding CD's at Hobby Lobby (maybe elsewhere) that have "non-standard" script for Microsoft Word. I bought it when it was 50% off wedding items, I think it was about $5 or so.

    If you are getting kits from the craft stores, make sure you get enough to have a few extra in case you mess up, or the printer jams, or whatever else can happen.

    I don't know anything about the thumb print tree, but I think the suggestions above are good.
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  • missy41222missy41222 member
    First Anniversary First Comment

    By a "normal ol' printer," I'm guessing you mean a standard ink jet printer. I was a little worried about using a standard printer so used a few different laser jet printers.

    One of the laser jet printers left ink speckles on some of the invites. Another caused the ink to smude off very easily. It took quite a bit of time to resolve these issues and get the formatting right. In the end, I think it was worth it, and I saved a lot of money.

    Maybe a standard ink jet printer would have worked better. Good luck!

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