My Super DIY Wedding Invitations.
Okay, so since I like to write about anything that’s going on in my life, and since I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the wedding lately, I figured I’d blog the latest awesomeness that we finally finished last week.
I preface this with a few things:
- I am not a professional designer
- I’m no wedding expert
- I am not the craftiest person in the world
- I am no invitation expert
- We saved money on invitations fo’sho’
- These took FOR.EV.ER.
But, I did learn a lot along the way. AND, I am really happy with the way they turned out.
Here’s the skinny on how they went and what I used and how much they cost.
Materials Used:
- 1 ream of 120lb white OfficeMax brand card stock – $15
- 1 package of white Avery print and tear envelopes – $18
- 1 package of white Avery print and tear postcards – $18
- White size A-9 envelopes – $20
- 10″ square paper doilies – $24 (eBay)
- 100 yards of navy blue twine – $5 (Save-On-Crafts.com)
- 100 yards of sangria purple twine – $5 (Save-On-Crafts.com)
- Custom photo stamps – Stamps.com ($115 with a coupon code)
- Custom return address stamp – $40 (Sweet Papery)
- Quatrefoil stamp – $5 – etsy
- Last minute George Washington $.20 cent stamps (more on this later) – $30
Total cost (INCLUDING POSTAGE): $290
Now, for 150 invitations, I’d say that’s not bad.
Obviously the photo stamps and custom return address stamps were splurge items, but I justified the custom stamp because we can keep that for a long time… and, well, I really wanted the photo stamps. Creative googling gave me the coupon code so I saved money on them. WOOT!
For the invitations themselves:
1. I designed all three printed elements in Adobe Photoshop.
- I took inspiration from The Wedding Chicks Mason Jar printables but I didn’t want them to be exactly like the other wedding invitations out there.
- We really wanted the invitations to feel like us – both of us. The mason jars really go with our country theme (cowboy boots, FTW) and everyone that knows me knows I love quatrefoils. So we wanted all of those things to be incorporated.
- I searched and found free fonts on DaFont.comthat I loved and used those
- The script font is LaPointe’s Road
- The regular font is Promised Freedom
2. I cut the edge of all the business cards, RSVP info cards (we went green and are doing web / email RSVPs), and invitations with Fiskars Paper Edgers – since I printed all of these invitations on a home printer on the 8.5×11″ card stock (which was a HUGE pain in itself and is not something to be taken lightly) this was really the best way to cut away unwanted white space away from the edges after cutting the 8.5×11″ card stock sheet in half.
If you are going to go this route, I HIGHLY recommend having something mindless to watch on TV whilst printing and cutting. Seriously. I’m not kidding.
3. After all the pieces were done being printed and cut I got the paper doilies out and laid the pieces in order on the doilie
4. To make the paper doilie envelope, I just centered the invitations on the diagonal doilie and folded the sides tightly over and then folded the bottom tightly up towards the center. After those parts were tight, I folded the top down over the middle to cover the side and bottom corners. (I hope all that made sense)
John was a really good doilie folder. He will hate that I am posting this picture. Teehee 🙂
5. To finish securing the envelope, we cut the two-color twine into 2/3 yard and tied it around in a bow.
Look at my dad and Bonnie go with the twine cutting!
Ta da!
6. Then after stamping, addressing (my sister is AWESOME for helping hand write addresses), and stamping again the regular envelopes, we put the finished product in and VOILA! DONE!
Here are the envelopes:
I love our stamp!
Yeah, I sealed the envelope with a quatrefoil. Sue me.
Also, you will notice the nice George Washington stamp. No, we did not plan that. We stopped at the post office before mailing them to make sure we had enough postage only to learn that the twine, yes the twine, adds $.20 cents an envelope because that means they can’t put them through the machine. GAH. Any ribbons, anything that makes the envelope bumpy jacks the price up. SO, it’s a good thing I checked or else we would have been in deep bull-poo. Yeah, I said bull-poo.
Anywho.
These things were DEFINITELY a labor or love but in the end we are really happy with how they turned out. Considering invitations, especially 150+ invitations can cost hundreds even THOUSANDS of dollars, we saved money and they had a personal touch. If you decide to do your own, just be prepared that saving money doesn’t always save headache.
What do you think? Yay? Nay?
Did you do your own invitations? Would YOU do your own invitations?
YAY! Now, to collect RSVPs.
Love the look!
It was really nice to see creative self developed wedding invitations. I used to develop it for group of friends but in more professional way :p.
I can show you my sample of wedding Invitations which I used to say Royal wedding invitations. In India, We spend a huge chunk on these wedding cards. You and Your readers can see it at wedding Invitation Hub
Thanks for artile
You did such an awesome job!!! These are beautiful invitations!!! I want to do something with a mason jar as well, but I was thinking more of a die cut instead of a printed mason jar. But I am having a hard time figuring out how to do that, so I may just have to print them. May I ask what type of printer you used for this job? I want to figure in the cost of ink along if I print at home. Also I love your RSVP idea and I plan to do the same (Web/email). What was the exact wording on your RSVP cards? Anyways, thanks for your help and thanks for posting this! It’s was so helpful!!!
Oh! And thanks so much for that bit about the extra cost for postage because of twine! I would have found that part out the hard way. 🙂
When my brother got married we made a hand drawn portrait of them and then sanned the image and printed that with the script font like yours but a lot more generic. We used twine and a dried sunflower to secure the envelope. I like yours better to be honest. It looks alot less like romance fairy barfed allover it. It still fun and the stamp still adds romance to it.
As always, great post!
wow that sounds awesome and so personal – i bet it looked awesome!
Thanks for posting all this. i was all about vintage, rustic, tea cups, mason jar, lace, doilie, prints such as damask, fleur de lys, quatrefoil and houndstooth and anything DIY for my sister’s bridal shower. Although it’s over a year away, i’ve been looking through pinterest, google and etsy for ideas and slowly making a theme and buying items for it. I don’t like to just do things last minute therefore making me just result into buying things. Thanks for posting where you got all the items and how much it all was. The invitation is very creative, look aesthetically pleasing and I love it 🙂
anytime, joanne!!! thank you for the sweet comment!
Can you please tell me what information you have on the small card shown included with your invitations? These are adorable.
hey holly, on the small, business-sized card included was our guest accommodations (where they could stay and how to get here, etc) AND where we were registered.
Hi, I love these invites and am making them for my brothers wedding 🙂 I am not too great on my computer though and I have no clue how you changed or deleted the saying that already comes on the template. I actually want to keep it on the invite but want to use the same template for the program. Help 🙂
thank you so much, vanessa!! i actually designed them myself in photoshop so i didn’t use a template 🙁 🙁 sadly
love your invitations, however, wondering what information is on the small card included, which is about the size of a business card.
hey kimberly, on the small, business-sized card included was our guest accommodations (where they could stay and how to get here, etc) AND where we were registered.
Thank you so much for posting this Wedding invite DIY! I am looking for a cost effective yet unique idea for the invitations.
I had to comment, however, because of your George Washington stamp story. THE SAME THING happened to me with my Save the Dates. I wrapped the magnets in pretty string and it added, just like you said, the extra .20 cents. I was not planning on this, especially since I custom ordered wedding stamps and weighed the magnets for the correct postage prior to getting to the post office. Long story short, my fiance had to drop off an apology note to the post master the following day, haha.
Thanks for sharing both the DIY and George Washington vignette. It makes me feel good to know there are other brides like me out there!
thank you for reading and commenting, kayla!! and that is HILARIOUS. yeah – who knew george washington shows up on so many wedding invites? lol!! you are totally not the only one 🙂
AWW these are Adorable!!! LOVE them!!
Helen
Blue Eyed Beauty Blog
thank you so much, helen!
LOVE the invites! I just sent out mine and it’s hilarious because I had them hand stamp them (bc of twine) and had to add a 20 cent stamp to my adorable cute invites that already had the love stamp. I had the option of George Washington…only. UHHH! Oh well. 🙂
thank you so much, julie!! yeah i wish i had known ahead of time about the postage deal… lol
DIY reminds me of thesis theme haha
on a serious note.
loved it.
thank you!
So, I was googling around, trying to find a stencil or stamp of a quatrefoil to decorate the walls of sewing/craft closet/”studio”. Your blog came up, i was skimming through looking for this quatrefoil stamp, and see the invite (love it hardcore) and say ahh, we have a newhope church up the road! wait… on fayetteville rd, what the… Sup, yo, from Cary! Congratulations on the wedding, such a fun time!
and if you come across a reasonably price large quatrefoil stencil, send it my way?
The best part about this wedding invitation…..it was every bit YOU!! Can’t wait to see what crafty details you come up with for your wedding. LOVE YOU!!!
thanks audra!!! love you!! xoxoxox