DIY Invites

Written by StacylikesSparkles » January 25th, 2012, 10:15 am:Good Morning!

I am in a bit of a strange situation. My SO and I are not yet engaged, but are planning our wedding for September of this year. We are not making any official announcements until we're engaged, but by getting started on planning things out, I'm hoping to eliminate stress.

I'd love to make a lot of diy things for our wedding to make it more personal. While I am not always the craft-y gal, I need some help! Has anyone here done their own inviations, without a kit? If so, where do you get started? I'm hoping to save money and keep it more personalized by doing them myself. Please help! I really need to find a simple method with a step by step format. I'm not really interested in the diy invite kits and I would really like to do it all myself, if possible.

Thanks in advance! I promise to post tons of pictures, once I get started!

Hi Stacy! we DIYed all of our invites without a kit...just bought paper and started. What style of invitations do you want? We bought our paper from paper source (mostly because there is one local to us so we could see what things would look like) and they have a lot of 'inspiration books' that you can browse through. They also have a lot of invitation samples online (or you could just try googling...I'm sure you will find lots!) Another thing that may be helpful is their DIY printing templates...sometimes we used these and sometimes we did not. You can also download your own free fonts at websites like dafont.com

Anyway, I think other online places (like cards and pockets) have the paper for less $$, so you could check into that. I believe they will send you samples of the colors for not too much $$.

For our invitation we used one of those enclosure folders (this one)
http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/color/A7-folder-invitation-enclosure/2505.040/845.html

and then we glued the invitation to the back part and tucked the response card/info card in the little pocket. We finished the folder cards with a paper sash (I cut these from 8 1/2 x 11 paper using a paper cutter, folded them with a bone folder, and then secured them with adhesive) and then tied on a ribbon (there are videos on the web of how to do this so the ribbon looks nice!)

Gluing the invitation on is easy if you have a roller
http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/Memory-Tape-Runner-Permanent-XL/2903.016/462720.html

I can post pics of our invitations tonight...and let me know if you have any more questions! I can also post pics of the 'tools' that we used. Personally I liked making our own invitations although it was a lot of work because of the reasons you mentioned...saving a lot of $$ and you can really customize them.

How many invitations do you have?

Check out the DIY thread. My DIY invites are there, as well as a ton of other projects fellow PSers have done. Good luck! One tip - before printing, have someone who has never viewed them look them over for any mistakes. A fresh pair of eyes may pick up on something you missed.

Hi Stacey,
Paper source is a good resource and also try Envelopments:
http://www.envelopments.com/

They offer templates and you can print yourself and put together.

I came across a really awesome solution for non-graphic designers that want to put together their own invites but look super professional:
http://www.printablepress.com/

I plan on designing my own invites (I'm a graphic designer). But, I would totally use printable papers or envelopments. Really cool ideas!!

Another one here who did DIY invites without a kit. Given, I did have a graphic designer friend to help me deal with the software and formatting, but I think I could have achieved the same without her help. Just not as fast...

Link to my thread:
http://www.pricescope.com/forum/bride-world-wide-grooms-grooves/clairitek-s-diy-pocketfold-invitations-t115326.html

I echo the suggestion to the check out the DIY thread! On the first post I think I linked a ton of DIY invite project up to that point in time (I started the thread back in early 2009 when I was planning).

http://www.pricescope.com/forum/bride-world-wide-grooms-grooves/the-big-diy-thread-t106303.html

Stacy-here are some pics of our DIY invites.

I am DIY-ing two sets of invites, the first batch for the ceremony (only 20 invites) will be done with a Cricut and an envelope template. I just picked out the image I wanted, chose colors for the 'shadow' and the 'top' and let the Cricut cut them all out. I haven't quite gotten there yet, but I will be printing out the text on cream cards after I have spent way too much time over at urban fonts choosing the lettering and rubber cementing the Cricut creations in place. I am actually really excited about the dimensional aspect of layering the colors! Then fun paper, rubber cement and an exacto blade for the envelopes. I don't know yet if this will actually save me any money- some very pretty kits are only about $1.00 per invite and inlcude the response cards and everything and that's going to be hard to beat, I think.

The invites for the much larger, much much much less formal reception I designed in Photoshop and will just send over to my local print shop to have them printed up.

I also did a kit for my sister's wedding and they were lovely, easy, customizable with fonts and we sealed them with sealing wax, and they were about $1.50 per set, not inlcuding postage.

Ladies, I apologize for the delay in reposnse. My Grandmother has been in the hospital and that has been my main concern since I posted this!

I really appreciate all of the responses! I'm looking for about 200 invites with a vintage/rustic look. I would be happy with something like SLG's (thanks for the pics by the way!) I just want to have something fun, which I can always spice up with stamps or something.

Stacy - I am recently engaged and have no idea how much wedding invites are supposed to cost, but I found this woman on etsy who makes wedding invitations and I think they are like 3.50 per invite and they have a ton of stuff in them.

This is the sample, and for the sample it's $5, but I swear a couple of weeks ago she had 10 for $35 listed: http://www.etsy.com/listing/84832684/sample-damask-pocket-fold-invitations

She's really nice and it's possible she would be willing to work with you on price if you order a bunch. And she does a lot of custom work...I know this because I found her because I wanted to send "will you be my bridesmaid?" cards to my future bridesmaids.

cards: http://www.etsy.com/listing/85089187/will-you-be-my-bridesmaid-card The second picture down is of the actual cards she made for me - they were ADORABLE and the girls were thrilled with them.

Anyway, just a thought, because if you really could get them at like 3.50 a pop, made uniquely to your specifications, that might not be significantly more than if you had made them yourself (plus you would save a ton of time). But I just wanted to share just in case it could help .

ETA: I hope your grandmother gets better soon!

Sorry to hear about your grandmother.

I"m doing DIY with a Gartner brand kit that I got in Office Depot. However, it is just a Word template with paper sized to fit the template and some fancy envelopes and stickers, so you could easily do the same thing and just print on your own paper, then trim it to size. I do recommend the Gartner kits though - mine were a "marketing correspondence kit" or something rather than wedding invitations, and they were $10 per pack of 20. They look just as nice as the invite kits.

I'm buying an image from istockphoto.com to include so it's not just plain text.

I also got some cool free fonts from here: http://www.fontspace.com/..

And that's all I'm doing to DIY!