You can save hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars on your wedding invitations by making them yourself! Not only that but having your own DIY wedding invitation seems to be quickly gaining popularity with brides and grooms everywhere. In addition to saving money, people want to be creative with their wedding invites and offer their guests a personalized and interesting wedding invitation. Add to the mix the huge increase in recent years of amazing designers who make DIY wedding invitations and use places like Etsy to sell their wares and Pinterest to help us all find their invitation designs and you can find, buy and create gorgeous DIY wedding invitations that match the highest end store bought collections.
The Basic DIY Wedding Invitation Process
Despite the name, when we talk about creating a DIY wedding invitation, we aren’t suggesting that you start from scratch designing and making everything yourself. The idea is to order the wedding invitation design from a talented designer (more on that further down). That design will almost always be customized with your information and then emailed to you. You are then responsible for printing wedding invitations yourself. Then purchase the pocket-folders, invitation mats, and envelopes to assemble your dream wedding invitation and send them out.
Do It Yourself (DIY) Wedding Invitation – When to Order
Although the thought of making your own invitations seems like a great way to save money and add your own creative touch to your wedding, many brides are overwhelmed with the project when they find out how much time is involved. It is no different than ordering normal invitations, so if you are considering creating your own invitations you might want to start 3 – 4 months before you plan to send them out so that you have plenty of time and don’t feel pressured. Trying to balance work schedules, school, writing bridal shower thank you notes, planning your wedding and still having a social life can be difficult as it is without adding another project to your hectic schedule.
DIY Wedding Invitation – What You Need
Always start by purchasing the minimum amount or about 25 invitations so that you can experiment first without spending very much money and to find out if this is something you really want to do. Many DIY wedding invitations offer optional ribbon or bows, charms, stick on crystals or pearls as well as colorful backings to create a layered look as well as matching “pockets” to create your own “Pocket Wedding Invitations”.
It’s a good idea to purchase some heavier white paper and have it cut down to the size of your invitations so that you can do a test run to make sure the printing is straight and the font is the right size and very legible. If you are using a darker colored invitations, black ink might not show up very well and most often metallic silver or gold ink is recommended for dark cards. Always allow your invitations to thoroughly dry for 24 hours before trying to add any embellishments.
Once you have successfully printed and assembled your invitations it’s a great idea to send a few invitations out in the mail to yourself to see how they will look once your guest receives one. Some metallic papers, pearlized papers or even cotton papers do not take ink very well and when you open your experimental invitation you will see small black streaks from the ink on your invitations and insert cards, If you are not happy with the way it looks you might want to consider using a different type of paper or ink. You could also try taking them to a local printer for a more professional looking job.
Invitations printed in thermography (raised ink) are produced by using a heating process and this type of ink will never smear and looks very professional and formal. After spending so much time on making invitations, you don’t want your guests to receive messy looking invitations that look homemade.
DIY Wedding Invitations on Etsy. A Goldmine Of Ideas.
There are many online invitation companies that offer custom printed invitations at amazing discounts. Most of these traditional companies also have DIY wedding invitation sections on their websites that you should check out. You can always add your own accents to these to dress them up and give them a personal touch to create your perfect wedding invitations, so don’t be afraid that everything is basic, there really is tremendous choice.
Perhaps the most fun place to find DIY wedding invitations is Etsy. There are just so many creative and talented people selling their creations, you will have no trouble finding a unique wedding invitation. Typically, it works the same we described above. You can order the main design on Etsy and then do all the other work yourself, or you can have the seller customize the invitations with your information and then email them to you. You are then responsible for printing wedding invitations. Most sellers also sell pocket-folders, invitation mats, envelopes and other things you need to assemble your dream wedding invitation! This is such a great way to get cheap wedding invitations while making them DIY and keeping the quality high.
Scribble Wedding Invitation – DIY Printable Invitation below is handmade and unique, effortless designs that will leave you smitten.
The Painted Stripes Collection below is both elegant and modern, and would as suitable for a classy wedding reception as it would for a homespun backyard wedding. The seller designed this collection to be totally adaptable – any four colors can be used to match these pieces to your event perfectly – and to feel artisan-made.
