Buy or make our own wedding invitations?

Question

Will it really save us money if we want to go the route of making them ourselves? We want to have two or three layers of cardstock, probably (I can't think of what it would be called) not folded, but just one piece that you don't have to open to read. ??? It's late, I can't think straight. lol

We are both creative and crafty and have other people around us that can help. We have looked at invitations online and have seen ones that cost around $150-$200 for 100 that we like.

Should we make our own to save money or buy some to save the effort and time (we will have time to do it ourselves)?

Answer 1

Sounds like you're looking for vellum? I think you should make your invites -- you're both creative/crafty and you have help! I made our invites and it was pricey because of my paper and ribbon selections. However, that was nothing compared to what I would have paid for someone to make the same invites -- they were EXACTLY what I wanted and very personalized.

Answer 2

I paid just over a dollar and a half an invite for simple elegant invites - 200 of them (they get cheaper the more you order). This included the invite, inner envelope, pre-printed return addresss and lined outer envelope, tissue, response cards, response envelopes (pre-printed return address).

The problem with DIY is that it takes a lot of time to get everything right, printing ink is expensive, and sometimes they look homemade. I've received several DIY invites in the past few years and both were trash. They didn't bother to use a high quality print setting, the script didn't fit on the vellum, you could barely read them because the font was so small, and one was completely blurry. I'm not saying all turn out like that, but it is a real consideration. That, and that sometimes those invites aren't all that much cheaper than a professionally done one once you factor everything in, and the kits don't always include everything that you want (like inner envelopes), for me it was just worth it to pay someone to do it and get it done exactly how I wanted.

$150-$200 for 100 invites actually isn't alot if it includes everything that you want. I looked at some invites that were over $1000 for 100-200.

Even at Target, I'm finding most nicer invites are like $40 for 25 of them. That's not saving too much money. . .

Answer 3

Absolutley you should make them. It's the biggest family event, that you want to share with the people you love most, so begin this with invitations with a personal touch, rather than a rather cold invitation that isn't your words. The best invitation i ever saw was a photograph. The person had written the details on a piece of paper, which was then placed in sand, and taken in a photo. Looks simply awesome, and so unique.
Maybe if you wanted to follow up this idea you can get something more romantic ie: red paper, or imposed over a couple photo or something similar. Even if you don't do this, your guests will appreciate the time and effort you have put into the invites, and you will save yourself money - a win win situation
Good luck.

Answer 4

I was going to make my own, spend about 200. But I found some really cool ones at a paper store and ended up spending 900 dollars on custom made ones. For a wedding gift someone framed it. It was an eye popper and totally worth the extra splurge. Nobody, I mean nobody will ever have invitations even similar to mine! My advice is to make your own if you have the time to do it. It is a lot of work, more than you think. (I had to make the church info ones and they were very very detailed, up til 4 in the morning one night!) If you do not have the money then don't go looking at the ones in the stores. You will find something you like and end up spending 900 dollars like I did!

Answer 5

The beauty of making your own wedding invitations is that you can make them exactly how you want them. We looked at both options and if we had them made we couldn't get anything close enough to what we wanted (eg we had a frangipani them and the professional invitations all had the flowers with pink paper etc but we wanted blue).

We also essentially used the same components as the wedding invitations to make our thank you cards, place cards, order of service booklet, table labels and menus. Overall, we probably spent about half of what we would have paid on getting them all made and we were able to make everything just how we wanted.

It's quite a fun process to make them and they have that personal touch. If home-made ones are done well, sometimes you can't even tell that they are not professional ones.

If you do decide to make them, I would recommend getting your hands on a guillotine to make cutting easier. If you can't borrow one of someone, you can buy them from some stationery shops. They aren't too expensive and they will save you lots of time in comparison to scissors.

Answer 6

First of all, think about how much time you will have and if you will have help. Making 100 invitations will take a lot of time and you already have so many other things to do.

Also, I looked on Ebay and found some perfect ones. They cost $125 for 150 of 'em.

Answer 7

I think home made invitations are great. Just make sure you have the time. You don't want to turn a special day into a chore. Allow friends to help. One suggestion is make sure what ever size card stock you choose is conducive to an envelope that it will fit in. Good Luck..

Answer 8

I'd say make them, you can have what you want then.

My partner and I are in the process of making ours at the moment. We spent ages looking at different styles on line, in magazines and shops but did not find one perfectly suited to us. We found 3 or 4 different invites we liked, but they were not right. So we purchased some various types and colours of paper and findings and started playing around. So far, we have spent less than $40 Aus to make 100 invitations. Something similar in the shops would have been over $600.
We will have leftovers so we are starting to plan our thank you notes and name cards for seating arrangements.

Have fun with it.

Answer 9

Making them is a lot cheaper. You just have to find the kind of paper you want them printed on and after that it is all pretty easy. We made our own and it only cost us $50 to make around 150 invitations.

Good luck!

Answer 10

If you want to buy your invitations, I would suggest Regency Thermographics http://aphroditescreations.regency.ac/ They have an extensive collection in all price ranges and, through this link, you can save 20%.

If you would prefer to make your invitations, check out Desk Top Papers for your stationary http://www.desktoppapers.com/index.html They have the best prices that I could find. Plus, check out Microsoft for a ton of wedding templates that include invitations, response cards, envelopes, programs, etc. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT010872401033.aspx

Good luck!