Cutting, and folding, and gluing, OH MY!
After a couple months of work, my invitations are complete. Now it's just a matter of adding postage and address labels. When determining what my invitations would look like I had
3 criteria,
1. Completely DIY with a personal touch
2. Use as little materials as possible to save on postage
3. Cost less than $40 for 100 invites (not including postage)
1. Completely DIY with a personal touch:
I've received many different types of wedding invitations over the last few years. Some have so many bows, inserts, and frilly things it stresses me out a little me. It has always been the simple/well organized ones that have caught me eye. I really like the idea of having the invitation be all in one piece with with a pocket to hold all the extra goodies. After a lot of time cutting, folding, and gluing, I got my one-of-a-kind invitations. With that being said, here they are:
I started with 12"x12" pink card stock (the pink appeared much darker online, but now that they are done I really like the color). I cut the card stock into two 12"x6" strips.
This began my folding marathon. I knew the textbook from my leadership course would come in handy again!
As a result, I got a nicely folded invitation with a pocket for the guest information and reply card. To secure the pocket I purchased round clear envelope sealers. I also glued a green backing onto the section where the actual invite would be placed.
The next step involved the actual invite. I am
extremely lucky to have a
bridesmaid who is a
very talented graphic artist. She generously offered to design our invitations, and I couldn't be happier with what she came up with. She also designed the reply card. Without giving too much away, here is the final result:
2. Use as little materials as possible to save on postage
My goal was for the invite to weigh enough to just use one stamp, so I made sure to use as little paper and glue as possible while still making them look nice. I also made the reply cards into postcards to save on postage. Total I spent about
$55 on postage, saving nearly $15 by using postcards and approximately $30 by only needing a single stamp. We're also planning on hand delivering invites when it's convenient. Hopefully we'll have stamps leftover.
3. Cost less than $40 for 100 invites (not including postage)
$17 for 50 sheets of 12"x12" pink cardstock (used all of them) =
$17.00
$11 for 250 sheets of 8.5"x11" green card stock (used about 50 sheets) =
$2.20
$9 for 500 sheets of 8.5"x11" 28lb white paper (used about 75 sheets) =
$1.35
Bottle of rubber cement given to me by my dad =
FREE
$5 for a package of 500 clear envelope sealers (used about 300 of them) =
$3.00
Vista Print return address labels and printable address labels =
$4.00
GRAND TOTAL: $27.55 for 100 invitations ($12.45 below budget)
PRICE PER INVITATION: 27.5 cents
SUCCESS! :-)
In about a month we will be putting them in them mail!
