Invitations are probably one of the most important aspects of your wedding—and yet they often get overlooked. Think about it: it’s the first thing you guests see (other than your save-the-date) that will set the tone for you wedding’s overall feel and atmosphere. PLUS, tradition has it that typically your wedding invitation will be framed and put on display in your home. Wouldn’t you want something you can be proud to show off?
It’s not difficult to put together a great invitation for a quarter of the cost of “professional” invitations.
Take mine for example.
My wedding’s theme was butterflies with the color scheme being yellow and purple. I asked a friend of mine to draw me some butterflies. BAM! I had the background for my invitation. I’m sure you all have access to at least one artsy person out there. If not, using actual pictures of butterflies or certain clip arts you can access from different programs or the Internet work just as great.
Then, I added my text with a design program like Photoshop.
Printing can seem like the most daunting part. However, it doesn’t have to be. For the size I wanted, I actually found it to be most cost effective (and time effective) to go to a printing store like Office Depot than to print it myself. I got 50 invitations, cut to size, printed on card stock for $20.
Of course you need more than just the actual invitation. That’s where I took to Envelopes.com and requested samples of all their different shapes, sizes and shades of purple and yellow for certain envelopes and invitation sleeves/folders. They will send you samples for $1 per sample. Totally worth it!
You can get shiny, metallic colored envelopes for about $11 for 50. Then I got a matte pocket folder to hold the RSVP and information cards for about $45 for 50.
For the sake of time and money, I used a Groupon deal for Vistaprint that I received as a gift and purchased all my RSVP and information cards for about $20. Vistaprint will also send samples of their cardstock. And if you’re lucky, usually Vistaprint, Groupon, or Living Social deals run for about $15 and grant you around $50 worth of printing. The best part? You can either use a template or upload your own design, ensuring that your invitation definitely has the look and feel you desire.
To add the extra touch, I used my trusty die cutter to punch out gold butterflies which I used to decorate the pocket folder and also seal the whole invitation. I probably spent $5 on the cost of paper.
This brings the overall cost of my DIY invitation to $101 for 50 invitations. That may not sound like a lot of actual invitations, but the biggest misconception about wedding invitations is that you need more than you actually do. Remember, whole families and couples only need one invitation. If you’re inviting 200 people, chances are you only need about 75 invitations. Make sure to double check your numbers.
Compared to the $300-600 wedding stationery out there, I’d say this is definitely a special touch that doesn’t need to break the bank. And, it does look beautiful hanging on my wall.
