Show me your DIY Invites and STDs!

[Mandarine]

Hi girls,

I''ve been trying to get some ideas for the invitations and Save-the-Dates. I am most likely doing it myself (to save $ and also because I like doing crafty things!), but want to see what you guys have done! (since I know there are many creative girls here!!!. Show us

- Pictures

And if you want, tell us:

- What sources you used,
- What instructions you followed (if any)
- If you don''t mind sharing, how much you spent (on each)
- Any advice or words of wisdom!

Thanks!!

M~

 

[njc]

I only DIYed my STDs. I bought card stock from Staples in cream and printed directly on that and I also got matching cream envelopes and printed address directly on them as well. For $20 I got 250 sheets of paper and 100 envelopes, but at best only used 25 sheets and 50 envelopes (2 STDs per page). Two years later I still have a ton of both! The one thing I don’t have pictures of is the separate card I put all the hotel information on. It was slightly smaller than the STD. Size is roughly 8.5" x 5.5"

 

[Mandarine]

Those are so cute! Is the design just printed on it? or did the paper have it?

M~

 

[labbielove]

We went the magnet route, and they were fairly informal. We just sent them out this week and people are loving them

Magnet details:
We took the photo ourselves (our dog is a very good sport) and FI designed the magnet in photoshop.
We ordered the magnets from www.savethedateoriginals.com
She came highly recommended on the knot boards and we had a great experience.
About $50 for 100 magnets, but you can order less than $100 if you purchase cards from her as well (she will even pre-print them for you),
we ordered 100 and did the cards ourselves since we weren't sure what we wanted

Card details:
We purchased perforated 8.5x11 paper online (but Staples has), makes 2 cards per sheet
We used a horizontal orientation so that the magnet was on the front (photo corners from Michaels)
and when they opened it it was all the data inside (using a word template)
Very simple. FI used the laser printer at work. It worked out to about $0.40 each for card & envelope, plust $0.50 each per magnet, then $0.39 each for postage
$1.29 each, grand total.

Of course our out of pocket was more becuase we ordered more of everything than we really needed.

 

[labbielove]

Sorry the pics are so big, but here is the inside of the card.
We didn''t inlcude directions and all that, but FI made a very informative website that we''re referring them too
and we''ll include directions in the invites.

 

[Mandarine]

awwww your dog is TOO cute!!!!. I love how those turned out too!....very creative!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

M~

 

[So_happy]

I don''t have pics yet because I''ve been a lazy DIYer lately and just can''t get into the mind set again lol. I am sending them out the end of June so I still have 2 months to work on them and I plan on starting after finals are finished. THEN I will have pics

Anyhoo....we bought all of our supplies from Papersource.com and we plan to make a 2-layer square invite with a similar but smaller rsvp card. Our one embellishment will consist of an embossed ink-stamped cherry blossom branch. We will be doing the stamping and embossign ourselves.

 

[robbie3982]

Here are mine!

I used photoshop and vistaprint.com (i love this company!). I spent $10 ($5 image upload fee and $5 shipping) for 100 postcards, so they were $0.10 each. If you want to go with Vistaprint, don''t be fooled by their "one day only" sales. They have the same ones almost every week. I did mine during a 100 postcards for free sale. Also, I didn''t use envelopes and as far as I know there were no problems, but my cousin also did postcards sans envelopes and when we got hers in the mail it was kinda mangled. I''d say go for envelopes.

 

[Mandarine]

haha Robbie, those are cute!!!!!!!!!!!! Love them too!!!!!!!

You guys are so creative!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

M~

 

[njc]

I created the design using Illustrator I believe... the paper was plain. Its pretty easy.

I have to say I do like the photo ones that both Labbie and Robbie did. I was just trying to get ours done and out to those that needed it since we were trying to do everything in 7 months.

 

[luckystar112]

Robbie, your STD''s are so cute! You have great taste. I''ve loved everything you''ve posted on here so far.

And I must say...your FI''s shirt CRACKS ME UP. I could totally see my boyfriend wearing something like that!

 

[Mandarine]

*bump*

Anyone else?

 

[robbie3982]

Thanks Mandarine and Luckystar!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

MORE MORE MORE!!!

 

[musey]

We''re doing magnets, too!

Here is our first draft that we just drew up yesterday (blurred personal info, of course!

) We''ll probably change the picture in the bubble, but this is the general look/vibe that we''re going for.

 

[musey]

whoa, that was bigger than I thought it was gonna be! haha

The real magnets will only be 3x2.5"


Our theme is very woodsy/natural... I'm trying my hardest to do an autumn theme with everything that we do control since we're not actually going to get any fall color (which is what I'd really like but just not possible in SoCal). I'm hoping that if the STDs, invites, flowers, linens, bridal party, etc. all say "autumn" then it won't matter that it's 70 degrees and green all around and people will still get an autumn vibe from the whole thing


ETA: Forgot to include all the info you asked for! The website we've been using thus far is freshimpressions.com. There are tons of templates that you can use, or you can send them your own artwork (which is what we'll probably end up doing, with the design I posted or something similarish).

They quote $.99/each if you order 100, less if you order more (in increments) so we'll be paying $99+shipping. There are lots of other websites that do the magnets too, but we haven't price-compared yet (we won't be ordering them until this fall). So far I like the design templates on freshimpressions best

 

[Mandarine]

those are cute too!...

There are so many options I am just SO confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Same with the invitations, I just don''t know what I want.

Would it be ok for the STDs be beachy? (since the wedding is in Miami and the OOT hotels are beach front) and the invitations be more formal? (since the wedding is not at the beach?)....or should I just stick to the Spaniard theme all along?? (wedding is the the ancient spanish monastery and I''m doing paella, flamenco, etc)...

I love the beach ideas for the STDs but I don''t know if it would look like it''s all over the place as far as themes are concerned...

What do you guys think?

M~

 

[musey]

I think you should do whatever you like! I don't see any problem with doing beachy STDs and formal invitations, it kind of makes sense for the STD to be less formal that the "formal invitation" that follows.

 

[Mandarine]

Thanks Musey, I''m just wondering if it''s just going to be a little weird...but everyone is looking forward to being on the beach for the weekend (since the wedding is on Friday and we are all hanging out at the hotels the rest of the weekend!)...

I was thinking doing something cute like a pair of flip flops with a little tag or something, but that can get a little expensive....

M~

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 5/8/2007 3:49:49 PM
Author: musey
The website we''ve been using thus far is freshimpressions.com.

It''s actually freshimpression.us in case anyone wants to look. The other site is a house cleaning site or something. lol I was like, "whaaaa???"

 

[vizsla]

we also did a magnet -- in a crystal clear envelope with all of our destination wedding information behind it - and we had the magnet printed on wood! awesome vendor.. cardsofwood.com - we will be using them for our invites as well.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Hi Miss Mandarine. Good to hear from you again!!

We did it ourselves for both the invites and the programs. I think I''ve posted them before, but I''ll do it again just for quicker reference.

I got some of the *standard* invites in white with a silver trim from Target, then I used a professional grade paper cutter from work to cut out violet paper that was the right shade of our wedding, and used tape dots to afix the purple behind the silver, to give it an extra color-coordinated kick. They looked like this:

 

[fisherofmengirly]

You didn''t ask about this part, but the programs were much more fun to make! We got assorted shades of purple paper, then made them into a trifold program, and I added velum to the front and fastened it using a teeny tiny little flower attached to a brad. They remain one of my favorite details from our wedding.

*They look a little blue in this picture, but they''re all shades of a soft violet, really.*

 

[mela lu]

Hi again,
I posted this yesterday, but (d''oh) posted the wrong pic. hehe. Anyways, in case anyone cares (hee), these are my post-wedding cocktail party invites (after our DW).

I bought the invite kit at Michael''s - Ivory with pearl trim, printed them on my lazer printer, hand cut and pasted the floral japanese paper, and on our actual wedding invites, we did the same thing but with a pretty pink ribbon glued to the left side. Enjoy!

Total cost to do 100 invites (not including postage) = $95 Canadian dollars!