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Since we all know I’m trying to save money for our wedding, I initially thought I’d DIY my invites. This idea went over well with Mr. Kiwi, until we realized we’ll be needing one tiny thing to make that happen- a better printer. Hmmm. Okay… no problem. Then we weighed our options: Option one: spending a couple hundred dollars on a printer, plus all the paper and stampy goodness (no idea how expensive that would be). Option two: just buy some semi-cheap invites and possibly add our own little details.
Unlike a lot of other brides, I don’t really care about the invitations. To me it’s just something to say, “Hey, come join us.” In my family, while classy and elaborate invitations are appreciated, they aren’t a necessary expense. (whew!)
So, I set about finding ecru invitations that were affordable but not cheap. My favorite place to search was The American Wedding Album, where they have many ways to search for the invites: themes, colors, styles etc. Here are a few of my favorites found by searching for the style “Ecru.”
This one is an Ecru invite (AV3163 “Ecru Pearl”) 5 1/2 x 7 3/4, $76.95 per 100 invitations, $19.00 per every extra 25 invitations. $44.95 for 100 response cards.
Another Ecru favorite (”Social Graces” AV150 avail. in Ecru or White Vellum) Can be two sizes: 5 1/8 x 7 or 5 x 6 1/2. Smaller invites are $57.95 for 100 invitations, $45.95 per 100 response cards. The larger ones are $59.95 per 100. For an additional $14.50 you can get more invitations in increments of 25. (shown here in white)
A third Ecru invitation, more fitting for my Fall themed wedding, (”Lovely Leaves in Ecru” AV3294) 7″ x 7″ $79.95 per 100 invitations, an additional $19.00 for every 25 invitations. $45.95 per 100 response cards.
These are a few of the Ecru invitations I found that I liked. Since they are already embellished, that is one less expense I’d have to buy. Sure, they’re not letter-pressed or anything fancy like that, but I like them and it won’t break our bank or budget. There are plenty more invitation choices in many other colors and paper types, fitting all types of weddings. At American Wedding Album, you can find Save the Dates that match the invites as well.
The above invites come with two envelopes (inner and outer) and tissue. The response cards are with printed envelopes. Sounds pretty good to me. 
I don’t know how you feel about them, but seal-and-send invites are very affordable and still great! Costco has affordable invites, too, and there is thermography and glitter and other things to make them look “spendier.”
Finally, Invitations by Dawn are nice and affordable.
I, like you, am totally in the DIY versus “just buy” debate! The time, energy adn resources is killer…although I ave yet to hear a bride say “I wish I hadn’t spent the time.” All seem really pleased with the results!
We did diy invites.
We got them from a website on weddingbee actually! Uniquity invitations. We actually ended up printing one copy exactly how we wanted it at home, took it to staples and got colored copies on cardstock. You got two invitations per page, so we only needed about 75 copies and staples cut them all out for us for $3!
You can add your own imbellishments like a different color cardstock backing, studs, stamps, etc.
We got several compliments on ours. And it was so easy.
Emily, that was my first choice at first, but the idea of printing all of that at home killed me.. So I really like the way you did it! What did you print it on- cardstock? What did you do about RSVP cards?
miss raspberry is starting her own business of coutre invitations, beautiful work and great to work with, check it out!
keep in mind that the larger square invites will cost more to mail. I’m not sure how much, but for some reason I’m thinking $.62 each. I love the look of the square invites, but I couldn’t justify the additional cost for myself.
I like the third one! =D
Miss Kiwi, check out http://pal.einvite.com/?Cobrand=PAL&Site=PAL&vk=2099864917 (affiliated w/costco) where they have thermography for similar prices to what you posted!
Have you looked at Carlson Craft? There are a lot of nice invites that won’t break the bank.
The ones we were going to use (http://www.carlson-craft-outlet.com/?frm=gaw) were $150 per 100 and were thermographed.
I second the good prices (at least 25% off) to be found on costco.com, where I have had an excellent experience ordering personalized stationery, but not wedding invites.
my FI and i picked invitations from the same site, americanwedding.com, and i agree, they have great prices and decent invitations, we are thrilled with our invites. they also have a fairly fast turn around time of 2 or so weeks. we don’t really care too much about the invites, and altho DIY is cool, we are already printing the addresses etc, so it makes it more effort on that part too. also, stamps are going to be over $100 (for square envelope, extra postage, plus 39 cents for rsvp card), we spent $160 on 100 invites and rsvp cards.
After several weeks of delays trying to get my DIY save-the-dates together–due to illness, too much work, printer problems, adhesive issues, illness again, freelance work, more work, etc.–I decided I don’t want to do this again with my invites. I want my invites to be perfect. They don’t have to be gorgeously engraved or letterpressed, but they do need to be flat, not lumpy, with straight edges. I had no idea that the biggest problems would be getting the paper printed and neatly cut to the correct sizes, and then affixing the trimmed paper to the backings. Yes, you can pay someone to trim it for you, but then the savings starts to trickle away. I found very attractive pocketfold invites online, in the very same card stock I used for the STDs, was going to use for the invites, and am going to use for the placecards and programs, and for only about $80 more than my money-saving DIY version. And I can still design the actual invite myself, I just won’t be printing or assembling it. So we’re going to get those! OK, the invite is one card without a backing, but we’ll survive. It’s so much less trouble. I’m worth the $80!
We didn’t do RSVP cards. Just because our wedding was very informal. Almost a come and go reception once that cake was cut.
But there are instructions on what size envelopes to purchase, and I’m sure you could get staples to cut them as well. They charge per “slice” (at least the one here) so you’d have to factor how many are per page. When I’m at my home computer, I could easily check to tell you how many. We got our invitations, extras for them, and envelopes for under $150.
And really, as pretty as the invitation may be, just about everyone will end up pitching them once the wedding has passed.
Oh, and we just used white 110lb cardstock.
If you found bulk cardstock in a specific color that Staples doesn’t carry, I’m sure you could bring that in and they’d copy it for you. They were so easy to work with.
One word the wise with uniquity. The envelopes are A7. Which are not a standard “business” envelope or greeting card for that matter. But you can get pretty envelopes in that size for a reasonable price at Envelope Mall.
And, if you go into a Staples, they have their own invitations as well. They are quite reasonable too. We almost did that.
Thank you all so much for info on affordable invites. While letterpress is gorgeous, it simply isn’t an option for me and I think many other brides. Keep the ideas for inexpensive invitations coming!!
I wanted pretty invites, but they didn’t have to be gorgeous letterpress. I found that someone in a previous invite post/comment had suggested mycandypaper.wordpress.com and I just put down my deposit with Maria! Her prices are INCREDIBLE and she is super nice — she’s recreating an invite from a book for me that I thought I couldn’t have, b/c I couldn’t find it anywhere and couldn’t afford custom work. I was actually going to DIY but with her I’m going to spend just $50 more than I would have dropped doing it myself on PaperSource materials. I can’t wait to see how they turn out…
When i chose the DIY method (using envelopments, which i love), I seriously thought I was going to have bad printer problems, and have to go out and get a laser printer, alignment issues, is it worth it? But when that old nasty 50 dollar printer ran out of ink (which I do have to say was really old, and those of you that recycle are going to hate me when I tell you this), I found a coupon for a printer at walmart, and bought a brand new printer for the same as the cost of ink for my old one! It has worked miracles for me, and I love my invites. Even if you choose not to necessarily go the whole DIY process, don’t rule out other ways to use your cheap printer at home, you don’t have to get a $300 printer to make great invitations, STD, etc.
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Mrs. Kiwi, Los Angeles Age and Occupation in 06: 27, Bookkeeper Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, P.E. Teach/Coach @ private schools in LA Engagement Date: March 31, 2006 Wedding Date: November 3, 2007 Venue: Radisson Hotel About Me: I'm a bookkeeper who failed high school algebra. I'm currently living in Los Angeles, literally a street over from where I grew up with Mr. Kiwi, my honey of three years. We have a jumbo mini-dachshund (seriously, he's huuuuge), and we're planning an autumn themed wedding on a shoestring, paid for by ourselves. The wedding date is my late grandma's birthday, I needed her there somehow, and that seemed like the best way for us. I can't believe I'm a Bee! I couldn't be more proud!
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