A fellow bride who I’ve been in close contact with since getting engaged sent me this E-mail a few months ago:
“I found some invites that I really like from Jean M. They are way over what I wanted to spend but I feel like I should do what I like instead of settling for cheap. My mom offered to pay for the invites but I just feel like I have more freedom to pick them out if I foot the bill. I don’t think my mom would go for $321 invites. Now that I type that number, I don’t know if I want to spend that much either.”
Here’s what she wanted:
“Kim” By Jean M - 100 Invitations $321, 100 Response Cards and Envelopes $66. Total: $387
My thrifty side kicked in, and I told her that we should replicate those invitations with my Gocco Machine. Gocco is a fun little home screenprinter that I bought a little while back, and did my own invitations on. She was hesitant at first, but then I told her that we could probably do custom invites for around $100, she pretty much threw her Jean M dreams out of the window.
Months passed, and we scrapped the “replication” idea for a more “custom” look. She had found some clipart that she liked and together we designed a nifty little invitation set for her.
Earlier this week, we turned all her ideas into a reality! Michelle brought the pizza and supplies, Mrs. Lemon brought her Gocco, Miss Penguin supplied the venue and ANOTHER Gocco (why have 1 when you can have 2?) and we all settled in for a long night of flashing and printing.
Here’s Michelle’s Budget Breakdown for 100 invitation sets (all materials purchased from Paper Source, except envelopes from EnvelopeMall.com) :
5 packs (125) of pure white pointed flap enclosure (5.5×8.5) cards: $27.50
2 packs (100) of pure white (RSVP) postcards: $16
Deep blue Gocco ink: $3.75
Silver ink: $3.75
Screens: $15.85
Bulbs: $15.85
Blocking material: $3.30
Outer Envelopes: $55
5.5 hours of goccing fun: PRICELESS!!!
Total: $141
Michelle didn’t think we’d actually make her do all the work…but we did



Oh No We Di’-int! 2 Goccos at once? Madness. Pure madness.

Mrs. Lemon accidentally put the blue screen in front of the print screen and broke my blue screen! Doh! Oddly enough, I happened to have a bunch of Rosco Color Correction Filters on hand, so we cut a blue one up. Worked like a charm! YES SO LUCKY.

Modified Blue Screen in action:

Here are the finished products. They turned out lovely, and so custom!
Invites:
And, of course, crafty-as ever Mrs. Lemon brought me a present celebrating my Bee-hood. It’s a felt beanbag, and it might possibly be the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen!

Miss “Printing Princess” Penguin, and Mrs. “Flashbulb Fairy” Lemon, at your service!
yall rock the gocco party that rocks the body!