Weddingbee Blog

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:

Response Postcards:

Pretty, sparkly ink!

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!