Wedding Invitations: Need DIY ideas/advice

What supplies do you have? I take you have a printer?

Are you making them from scratch; buying the paper and cutting it down to size. Are you thinking of buying a kit to run through the printer and you just have to fold and separate?

Are you looking for patterns, designs, etc.?

Do you have a cutting machine?

Do you have a scoring board and bone folder?

Sorry, lots of questions.

Honestly we found it cheaper to order our invites from Zazzle or Vistaprint vs. making them ourselves. It takes a ridiculous amount of time, paper, and printer ink. The ink alone would've cost more than the invites. Yesterday Zazzle had a 75% off sale so we could've got almost $500 worth of invites for around $180 which isn't bad at all.

Echoing Kudos2jen and Jaklyn comments and questions...was totally on board with DIY (and I am a graphic design student so I already had all the materials, cutting mats/machines, ink, printer, etc) and ended up using envelopes.com because it was cheaper and more convenient.

If you are going to do it, you have to have a printer that will work with thicker paper (Cardstock or otherwise) and plenty of patience. If you're willing to be patient and DIY I'd look up tutorials on Pinterest or youtube.

Or you could buy a digitally done invite off of Etsy for around $35 and then print them all yourself. That way someone else designs it and then you just print on the cards.

@ JaKLyn. If I decide not to make them, then I will definitely make sure I wait until I get a good coupon. I didn't factor that in when thinking of the total price. One of the reasons I'm toying with the idea of making them myself is because I want layers and embellishments that you can only really get from handmade invitations.

@ kudos2jen. I have a printer. Thats it. lol. I was thinking about ordering stock cards, velum paper, envelopes and a roll of lace in bulk online. Then I can design the invitation, get them printed at Staples or something and then add the embellishments. I don't know if this is the best way to go so any advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I have a cutting machine which will print and cut around the print area. I've made a mock up invite and a mock up pocket fold. No pick of the pocket fold though.

Most of my time is spent designing and getting everything to match, which took me months till i had something i liked. It's also taking me a lot longer to figure out the working on the card inserts too.

@Dani, I'm looking through envelopes.com now. Thanks

I am designing my own invitations (I did mine in Photoshop, but it isn't required) I'm going to print them through Vistaprint, and then add some little details to add some extra personal touches. I have some silver cording that i'm going to bundle the invitation packets with, and some other little details.

@ kudos2jen- I love your invitations. At the end of it all, do you feel that doing them DIY was worth the time, effort and cost? One of the reasons I'm considering DIY is because I want to put my own personal stamp on our wedding so I don't mind putting in time and work. I just don't want them to come out more expensive than regular invitations

@Shairys - I honestly don't know what to tell you. For me, it was a long process but i'm really picky when i craft. Some people have a knack for this stuff and can accomplish a lot right away and some are like me, it takes a long time to get going.

My advice, go purchase enough materiel to create at least 2 invites and then make the decision based on how they look, how long it took you and whether you want to do all of them that way. You will want to see the invites completed before you start the process of making all of them.

I calculated the cost before i came up with the final product/decision so that wasn't much of an issue. It's less than a dollar per invite (minus the postage).

I love crafting and i looooove my cutting machine. I've been making greeting cards for Christmas and little favor purses with treats with a personalized tag for my coworkers. So doing the invites is actually fun for me.

I'm also making my own wedding favor boxes.

My mock up..

@ Kudos2Jen- Thats a great idea. I hadn't thought of making a few before making a decision. I will do just that.

Make etsy your best friend. i opted to not pay $$$$ for paper that 75% of people will throw away. but i didn't want to diy them either (im not that patient lol). etsy has samples of graphics you can use and they cost like 2-5$ depending on the graphic they also have free templates you can use and theyre so beautiful and dont look like theyll cheapen the finished invite. also alot of etsy shops are ALOT cheaper than going to a paperie. i need 75 invites including all addressing (guest as well) all cards all envelopes even postage for less than $600 and for invites that are gorgeous not just typical print outs.. take a look!

I got pocket folds from cardsandpockets.com for like $.69 each and I designed my own in microsoft publisher. I printed them at fedex and my work actually had an awesome discount on printing with them so all my invites printed were $38.. grand total with postage is about $1.30 each which is the cheapest I found.

OH I bought cardstock on sale at michaels for $2 for 100 sheets so it worked out awesome and I used the paper cutter we had at work

I'm telling you… Send and seal invitations are the way to go! No envelopes needed no separate RSVP cards no separate reception cards like all the other ones… Everything comes in one and you don't have to pay the extra money for all the extra stationary. I got 175 invitations for $181 shipping and tax included! And they're beautiful, from Ann's bridal bargains.com. They always have little savings that you can easily Google if you search for coupons or sale codes. Also if you get a sample mailed to you they give you a 15% off coupon. All I have to do now is buy the stamps,everything else was included in the order, even the stickers to steal them closed! The only thing I'm doing myself is getting some pretty gold card stock and printing out the information for my block booked hotels.

@Bethany- Wow, $181?!?! Thats an amazing price. I'll check them out

I designed everything on canva.com or picmonkey.com and then uploaded to vistaprint and printed. Loved it all and great prices! Make sure to get the big sale deals when possible.

Thank you ladies so much for the feedback and detailed advice! I'm not yet whether I will make my own or buy it at Anne Bridal bargains ( Thanks Bethany) but I feel like I now have all the info I need. What I will do is take Kudos2Jen 's advice and make a few sample ones first. If I like how they turn out, I'll make them, if not, I'll order from Annes Bridal Bargains.

Has anyone ever ordered from annsbridalbargain.com for invites?

Hi, just wanted to give an update. We decided to go semi- DIY. We went over budget but got exactly what we wanted for cheaper than they would cost at wedding paper divas, minted, that type of place. My sisters boyfriend designed the graphics (he's a graphic design student), I did the wording and had them printed at thikit.com. They use really thick paper stock (we went with the 27pt. which is thick. Its more like a card than paper). We then went to Envelopper to get the envelopes printed. Grand total for 100 invitations- about $650. Thats including everything- ceremony card, reception card, rsvp card and printed rsvp envelope, a card pocket to hold it all and printed envelopes. I'll post pics as soon as I get a chance.