Selfmade Wedding Invites? 2828 Responses

Last post: 1 year, 9 months ago | Thread started: Feb 21, 10, 4:15 p.m.

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• dirtydesign

  Debating designing/making my own wedding invites. Just wondering if anyone here has done it.
  Does it save any money doing them yourself?
  Seems like it has potential to be a headache. Invites, rsvp cards, rsvp envelopes, etc...

  Feb 21, 10, 4:15 p.m. – Permalink

• ismith

  Huge headache potential. Have someone else do it unless you have a very clear vision and you don't give a shit about what your wife's grandmother's cousin likes. I do not speak from experience.

  • Besides, I'm sure it will probably be one of the cheaper parts of the wedding...– ismith

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 4:24 p.m. – Permalink

• PunchDouble

  im doing mines right now
  it is a headache as in you have to be very satisfied with your own work and it's a lot of work

  but its definitely saving us money

  • How much time & effort is going into to your invites? How is it saving money?– utopian1/3

    Unless your hourly rate is $6.50 per hour– utopian2/3

    i have the ability to print them at work. and i spent my nights/weekends working on them– PunchDouble3/3

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 4:32 p.m. – Permalink

• MrNibs

  If you have the time I'd say try and tackle it yourself. You'll be happier with the results. Yes it saves money but you can also figure out what you want to print professionally and what you can do on your own. I spent a little money on the letterpress cards and die cut and made everything else myself.

  If you're inviting 600 people to your wedding then you might want to reconsider comping up that much shit. But doing 150 or so is not that bad. Rent a bunch of movies and spend ur nights chopping shit up.

  My invite:
  

  

  • do you have any more pics by any chance? looks awesome– PunchDouble1/4

    Very nice– ismith2/4

    eh. that's the exciting part. the rest is a bunch of informational crap.– MrNibs3/4

    More details..please? How'd you print/cut them? I am designing my sister's now– formed4/4

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 4:37 p.m. – Permalink

• dirtydesign

  Nibs. Those are really nice.
  Thanks for the info. I guess I'll have to see how much a 'good design' will cost us. Then get a quote from my NYC printers.

  • yup. gotta run the numbers and call in favors. ask printers if there is anything that can cut the cost down and find creative ways to get around the expensive solutions.– MrNibs1/2

    get around the expensive solutions.– MrNibs2/2

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 4:53 p.m. – Permalink

• utopian

  I am still try figure out how it saves money by designing the invites? Your hourly rates must be below minimum wage, and you must not have any billable work that could be done.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 5:15 p.m. – Permalink

• dirtydesign

  by saving money i mean... if an invitation designer is gonna charge us 3 grand, maybe i could design them and print them for 500.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 5:44 p.m. – Permalink

• dirtydesign

  Nibs. How much did you end up spending?

  • $1200 total all the little stuff ads up. But still way cheaper.
    – MrNibs1/2

    I guess I should say that included the party favors, table signage and a poster– MrNibs2/2

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 5:44 p.m. – Permalink

• formed

  How much are people spending here? I've seen most come in at a few hundred (DIY) with higher end ones with nice printing at a few grand.

  I am designing some now but need to keep the costs down (sister's wedding).

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 5:59 p.m. – Permalink

• monospaced

  I've done a few wedding invites. Definitely a money-saver. They're on my site.

  • Thanks! Had those bookmarked from another thread, great stuff! Were those letter press or self printed?– formed1/2

    Letterpress and/or offset litho– monospaced2/2

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 7:04 p.m. – Permalink

• ali

  Suggestions:
  - For cheaper printing; use standard sizes not custom ie. postcard, DL etc
  - Make your own lino cut design (and paper) and stamp yourself,
  make it something beautiful your guests would love to keep or frame.
  - Use classic black and white, add colour with stickers, beads, ribbon etc

  • << good suggestions– MrNibs

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 7:25 p.m. – Permalink

• jurassica

  I designed my own. The paper merchant we generally use gave me the paper for free (always worth checking out if they have any sheets that aren't selling at the end of a run). I had a friend who is an offset printer. I designed his wedding invitations for him, so he printed mine for free as long as i supplied the stock. Kept it simple on an ivory vellum printed in black. It looked beautiful. Cost me about $70 all up.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 8:30 p.m. – Permalink

• MrNibs

  - I spent money on professional printed letterpress cards but I printed guides to do the die cutting my self. (the back card had some notches that would have added a die charge to the process)
  - Picked the letterpress paper to match envelopes that I got online for cheap.
  - Found a chocolate brown envelope enclosure that I built a custom die to alter the opening and just spent several nights cutting those out.
  - For $30 bucks you can get embossing stamps that I used everywhere to make shit feel like it was professionally done. (FYI hand embossing dies are not the greatest, the table mounted ones work much better)
  - Also did a lot of laser b/w printing for addressing, labeling, and table numbers.
  - Used a label machine that applies adhesive to any kind of paper so I could use the paper I wanted.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 21, 10, 10:42 p.m. – Permalink

• calculator

  I did my own invites, menus, order of service etc. I did it at the weekend in my spare time. I spent a long time on it, getting the design right and hand finishing everything. I'm glad I did it. You could argue that if I'd billed myself at my daily rate it would have cost a fortune, but that's not how it works.

  Cost me about £100 in materials / printing. I wouldn't have been happy with anyone else doing it.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 2:38 a.m. – Permalink

• miesvan

  what MrNibs says
  my advice is that you must do.
  It's a good commission, you know the target, and drive the budget.
  What more could you want? What everyone likes?
  It is the first serious brown in your new life. To handle it.
  About 200€, last year.
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 3:17 a.m. – Permalink

• jbasnight

  

  • not sure if it's selfmade but it's pretty brillant– jbasnight1/2

    i likes a lot– calculator2/2

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 5:50 a.m. – Permalink

• Not_Just_Another

  Currently doing my own - will be very rewarding when finished, but is taking far longer than I'd have hoped.

  I couldn't imagine having anyone else do them.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 5:56 a.m. – Permalink

• ximeraLabs

  We designed our own invites and hand made them all, with and epson printer, gold string & ribbon, watercolour paint a custom stamp and a hot wax gun. It was a lot of work, but so worth it.

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 6:31 a.m. – Permalink

• iheartfun

  I did my friends and it only cost around $750. It really all depends on how much you wanna put into it

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 6:40 a.m. – Permalink

• formed

  Anyone care to share more DIY examples?

  What do people think about letter press vs. foil stamping? I've always leaned towards the latter (we thinking of getting one master page/card done, then spray mounting the detail prints in a different paper for each piece of the wedding)

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 6:47 a.m. – Permalink

• megE

  I do them for friends and family (I've really only had one 'pill' of a couple) and do them as wedding gifts - so they only pay printing costs.

  It makes me want to do my own for sure - I do think you save a ton of money!

  • same here...for frriends– monospaced

  

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  Dog-earFeb 22, 10, 7:02 a.m. – Permalink