Weddingbee Blog

Once the pockets were finished it was time to put together the innards. As you saw in my last post, our invitation suite included a formal invite, RSVP card, and ceremony/reception info card. To save on paper and printing trickery, I decided it would be best to print them off on one page and trim them post-print (and as you may notice, I abandoned my YUDU ).

With iPod in ear, I got to work, singing while I sliced…

After a couple of hours of insanity, I was finally finished and was left with the fun task of emboss-punching the corners of all the goods (including the pockets). Mr. L helped with this task by karate chopping the punch as I inserted a fresh corner. YAY teamwork!!

Another crucial part of the assembly was the RSVP envelopes. I hand addressed each and every one of them in gold ink and added a little fun to their insides.

No, I am not cool and I didn’t think of this idea on my own…I found it a while back over at The Perpetual Party Planner’s blog. I started off using my Elmer’s spray adhesive, but for some reason it just didn’t like to stick to the metallic paper. After some trial and error, I turned to my extra-strength glue stick along with some serious weighted pressing, and it did the trick. These liners weren’t peeling off!

Once all the envelopes were lined, addressed, and stamped, I went through and assembled all the pieces together and stuffed them into their respective pockets.

With innards and pockets assembled, I added one last detail that really upped the pretty. A lovely rich purple ribbon band and a gold wax seal with the letter “G” for our future married name.

To prevent any damage to the invite, I placed a piece of paper under each sealing attempt…eventually I learned that using the metallic paper I had on hand made it much easier to peel off the wax from the paper.

I used gold drip wax and a “G” monogram seal that I purchased in the wedding section at Michael’s to seal our ribbon bands. In my opinion it wasn’t too difficult; just very time consuming and mildly hazardous. (I have a few burns to prove it.) Not every seal was perfect, but I think it looked good and made them appear more authentic/vintage.

I really want to reveal the final look to you right now, but I am a meany and am going to make you wait it out. In the meantime, let’s go over the cost breakdown.

The Lockets’ Invitations Cost Breakdown:

Paper Goods: (ordered from envelopemall.com)

• Stardream Sheets in Quartz 8-1/2 x 11″ (105 lb. Cover) 100 pack x 2 @$21.95/pk—Total Cost $43.90
• Stardream Metallic in Ruby 3-5/8 x 5-1/8″ (4Bar) Envelope 100 pack @$11.95/pk—Total Cost $11.95
• Stardream Metallic in Ruby 5-1/4 x 7-1/4″ ( A-7) Envelope 100 pack @$16.95/pk—Total Cost $16.95

Total for Paper + Shipping Costs = $72.80 + $9.47 (S&H)= $82.27

Other Goods: (purchased at Michael’s)

• Gold Drip Wax, 4 pack—$5
• “G” Monogram Seal—$5.99
• Purple Ribbon 9ft roll x10 @ $1 each—Total Cost $10.00
• Gold Fine Tipped Paint Pen—$4
• White Doilies Various Sizes x 4 @ $1.99 each—Total Cost $8.00 (Note: I didn’t end up lining all of the envelopes.)

**I am also not including the costs of the trimmer, the punch, glue, scissors, etc. since I had some of these items pre-invite prep and others were planned purchases for future crafting.

Total for Other Goods = $33.00

Total Cost of Paper and Other Goods = $115.27 (had enough for 100 invites, but only prepped 80)

Cost per invite (pre-postage) = $1.44

Postage for 80 Invites/RSVPs: $0.61 x 80 + $0.44 x 80 = $84

Final Cost per invite (w/ postage) = $2.49

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the cost breakdown and do think I saved some money going the DIY route. And nothing beats the great sense of pride and accomplishment that I felt once I packed these pretties up and shipped them out. I can’t wait to show them off to you and hope our guests will be impressed.

Did you DIY? Was the cost worth the effort?