A Guide to DIY Wedding Invitations
The cost of the entire wedding invitation suite can easily add up. Most couples settle for elegant letterpress invites and save the date cards but soon enough, they realize that printing is a costly affair. Regardless of the specific budget, most couples soon start considering budget-friendly alternatives.
DIY wedding invitations, much like DIY weddings in general, have become quite popular. It has to do with 2020 when most couples had to scale down on their nuptials and rethink just about everything related to planning the big day. Putting together smaller weddings allows you to handle several aspects yourself.
Working on your wedding invites allows you to take full control over them but at the same time, you'll still want to go about it sensibly. Before getting your crafts supplies out, it's worth noting that DIYing is not for everyone.
Why Should You DIY Your Wedding Invitations?
There are certainly lists of talented stationers who can work on your wedding invitation suite. However, it becomes quite costly getting a graphic designer to create a custom motif and then commissioning a stationer to imprint the design on your preferred type of paper. In the end, you don't really have full creative control over the process.
A great go-between is designing the template or printing the invites yourself. However, you can take on the entire task from design to printing and mailing. Several sites like PicMonkey allow you to create downloadable templates that work for your specific wedding theme. Most also allow you to customize the invites to your liking before printing them.
Yet another option is to send the invites to your indoor or outdoor event digitally instead of printing the template you've designed online. In general, these are some of the compelling reasons that support your decision to DIY your wedding invitations.
The cost factor
Bringing down the overall cost is undoubtedly the biggest benefit of working on your wedding invites. In most cases, you will end up paying a fraction of the cost because you'll essentially eliminate the fees related to hiring a graphics designer and stationer.
On the other hand, some money will still go towards buying the necessary tools and craft supplies. Even if you have a commercial-grade printer at your disposal; you'll most likely still need to purchase the right paper and ink. There are also costs related to buying embellishments like belly bands, envelopes, and postage.
You want to specially customize the invites
Perhaps you and your spouse-to-be are artists and you'd like to specially personalize each invite. That's a compelling enough reason to personally take up the challenge. It could mean sketching, painting, or sculpting, and whatever the case, it's a lovely gesture.
If your wedding has a guest count of fewer than 30 people then this is a completely viable option. However, if you are expecting a large party of 50-plus guests then it might prove tasking to handle specialized invites in between planning the big day and going about your daily life.
You are a graphics designer or stationer
The biggest reason that backs up the decision to work on your wedding invites is if you or your better half have experience in the field. Maybe you are a graphics designer or stationery by profession.
It could also be that you have a relative or friend who runs one or the other business and offers these services as a wedding gift. You'll still want to keep the timeframe in mind. If it ends up being an in-house job, it's important to understand that it will still take money out of your pockets.
What you Should Have in Mind About DIYing your Wedding Invitations
If you are still set on working on your wedding invitations, there are plenty of things to have in mind as you embark on the project.
You'll have to buy in bulk
Several of the items you'll need to craft your wedding invites are sold in bulk packages. That includes the paper, envelopes, address stickers, belly bands, decorative paper clips, and address stickers. It often means buying more than you need, and in most cases, you'll only end up using these items once.
You'll be limited by your budget and creativity
DIY projects, in general, are constrained by your budget and creativity. You can create works of art with the bare minimum. However, if you don't quite have the creative spark then you'll feel limited by your budget. You are also restricted in terms of industry knowledge and most of the time you won't have insider insight about where to buy various materials affordably.
You'll spend a lot of time on the project
DIY projects are time-consuming and you'll eventually feel like you are pressed for time. Even with enough leeway leading up to the big day; it will start feeling like a tedious process. The load lessens if you have extra hands working on the project but it will still end up being a tedious process.
You'll need to practice a couple of times to get it right
Practice makes perfect and the same applies to working on DIY invites. There will be misspellings, mishaps with ink or glue, mismeasurements, and printing errors. All these things are what make it a tedious process but once you get it right, it will be well worth the effort.
The quality might fall short
While you have more control over certain aspects when you are DIYing, the end result will always fall short in certain regards. Professional print jobs will always look better compared to homemade prints. However, DIY invites exude a charm that makes every guest feel even more appreciated given the effort that went into crafting them.
You might decide to semi-DIY
Somewhere along the way, you might decide to semi-DIY your wedding invitations. Perhaps you'll feel crunched for time or realize that it's way more work than you had anticipated. It's perfectly fine to outsource certain parts of the task, and that's why you still need to have a decent budget in place for the wedding invitations.
DIY Wedding Invitations And Thank You Cards
If you haven’t tried PicMonkey yet you should. They’re a free photo editing, collaging, and design site with lots of gorgeous collateral to use in your creations. Chevron backgrounds, lovebirds, doodle hearts and snowflakes – they’ve got it all!
I’ve used using their Facebook cover photo layout before (it’s so awesome for your business page) and loved how easy it was so when PicMonkey invited me to try out some of their graphic design tutorials for weddings, I couldn’t resist!
For this first save the date card I tried out their Vintage Blooms designs tutorial, followed it to a T just to see if it was difficult or not and simply fell in love with it.
To create this look:
1. Use the ‘Design’ button on PicMonkey’s homepage to create a black canvas
2. Color code for this delicious dark blue is #202E48
3. Under ‘Overlays’ choose Vintage Blooms
4. Stretch them big and arrange however you like
5. Also under ‘Overlays’ look for Labels – there are basic styles and some with a more Victorian look.
6. Use the same color code as the background
7. For the stripe around it use the color dropper tool to scroll over one of the blue hues in the flowers and pick a tone.
8. Add text saying whatever you like with Playfair and Quicksand fonts
9. Save to your computer and print however many you like!
It’s so simple and so easy to carry over your design into all of your wedding needs – from engagement parties to thank you notes to invitations.
I decided to also make some matching thank you cards using PicMonkey’s custom size option under ‘Design’ on the homepage and think they came out quite lovely!
I fell so in love with those darling vintage blooms I wanted to try out some of the other colors available and whipped up this cute engagement party invitation. (ahem – yes those are Jane Austen references).
For this one I followed the same style as I did for the Save The Date but with a few variations:
Background Color Code: #464646
Font Color Code: #FFFCBA
Font Styles: Geo Sans Light & Great Vibes
Credits: PicMonkey