Self printing invites

I can't tell you much about the price differences, but one concern with self printing is the thickness of paper you can use, you'll be limited if you print at home to thinner paper, and invitations are usually printed on quite thick and high quality paper, sometimes with a bit of gloss or texture to it. It's just one factor to consider when making this decision.

Yeah I was thinking of submitting to an online print shop or using a local printer after buying the PDF. I just don't have any experience in this. I definitely want quality paper

I printed mine myself on cardstock (from Michael's mostly). I think it was nice and I was happy with the quality/thickness, but it completely depends on the look you want

So I was going to print my invites. When I was going down this route my plan was to design them myself and print them at a FedEx printing center. I also considered Etsy, but the price to print at FedEx was still about $180, and on top of that I would have had to cut out all of the invites. It was going to cause a lot of stress.

However, that was a lot of work for what could have been (with my creativity) a mediocre invitation. I found Ann's Bargain Bridal while they were having a 35% off sale and bought 100 invitations for $105 dollars after shipping. It was SO much easier.

Personally I think it's easier to pay to get them printed!

I only DIY-ed a few things, including individual menus and bar menus, and I printed them on cardstock through FedEx which was still $1 per card (so $175 for my menus).

I did this.

Don't forget to budget your time

There are a few good blog posts about this:

https://apracticalwedding.com/how-to-print-your-own-wedding-invitations/

https://apracticalwedding.com/make-your-own-wedding-invitations/

If you want to go cheap I highly recommend vistaprint! They have 50% off all the time!

Hi,

It all depends on how picky you are on the final quality. I'm designing and printing them myself...and that's because I'm both picky and know the look I'm going for.

If you're not super picky, Etsy is a great place you can get digital files from and print them yourself. The type of paper will depend on the printer you have, whether it's inkjet or laser. With that said, if you have access to a paper store like Kelly Paper near you, you can literally walk in there and see for yourself the types of paper available and get information from the rep there, you can even get a sample sheets and test it out.

I used cardsandpockets.com and got them in yesterday and love them they had so many colors and there was some one there to help every step of the way to make sure everything is sized and printed properly they also have free templates you can use which I loved.

I went to Staples and printed mine off their website. For 150 I paid 123.00

We got those kits they sell at Michael's that come with the paper, and you download a template online. We used an inkjet printer. All we had to do was fill out the template, adjust the paper size and type on the printer and computer, and that was it. It took a while because thick paper prints really slowly but it came out looking really nice! Printing 80 invites and RSVP cards cost about $70-$80 and took about an hour to print at home.

If you choose to print at home - The paper you choose will depend on your printer's capabilities. Most home printers can't handle more than 80# card stock.

Thanks for the input everyone - I got kind of torn because I found an Etsy template I LOVE but I do not want to deal with cutting myself. I think going through vistaprint may be the winning strategy. I appreciate all the help!

I think it's worth the extra expense to have them printed for you. I pondered printing things myself but once I priced it out plus dealt with the added time to get it done I decided to have the invitation designer print them for me. Plus if there was any issue with the invites at least I was still only dealing with one person to get it resolved

Can you ask the Etsy designer if they offer printing and what the added cost would be? My invitation suite was from Etsy as well and she had a separate product to add in printing costs.