A Bride in Need of Help

I am considering doing my own invites, but am totally scared!!!!
I love couture invitations (if you havent checked out dochelle.com-you should, but beware their gorgeous invitations are EXPENSIVE!)
Anyway, I want to duplicate one of their designs on my own with envelopments and pay half the price.
I know it will be alot of work and alot of time-do you think it is worth it? I'm considering doing it from scratch-printing, cutting, glueing-What do you think?

here's the invite
I want to change a couple of things like add steps to the pocket on the right.

That appears to be similar to Envelopments Mendhi . They have a number of other patterns, and several colors for each pattern also. I would find an Envelopments designer near you. You can probably get everything cut to spec, which will save you a lot of work, and then just assemble it yourself. Good luck!

You know what? It might actually be more like Envelopments 'Regalia'. Check that pattern too.

ETA: OH! And it's a 5x7 Signature Side Pocketfold on the Envelopments site, fyi.

ETA2: Also, when you wrap a ribbon around the invite page like that, it doesn't need to go all the way around, so don't overestimate how much ribbon you need and waste $$ !

We are making our own pocketfolds from scratch currently, invite, inserts and all, and its looking like we wont be paying more than 100 for 100 invites total. I have seen pocketfolds that were 5-9 each, and thats a little crazy.

The rhinestone buckles can be found in NYC or through online wholesalers, and if you dont find a pocketfold premade that you like, you can get paper custom cut to make them yourself.

Another option for the pocket would be to use a stamp you like to make an image, then cut it to what you want it to be

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Posted by Ella and Ben

I'm making mine too. I found an invite on Dochelle too and got some ideas and ended up making up my own creation. It's not cheap but definitely cheaper than the prices they have. If I print my own invites it'll cost me around $1500 for 200 invites. I'm not sure how other brides made theirs for so cheap but I bought all my paper at paper presentation but then I also have rhinestones, rhinestone buckle, ribbon and personal label. I say go for it!! It'll take some time but it has been fun.

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I am making my own as well and purcahsed my paper for my samples at paper prestation ... they have everything but are not CHEAP. Try Anchorpaper.com for cheap stardream paper, get the ribbon wholesale (28-30 street btw 8-9th aves in the city or ebay) and the buckles on ebay as well

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Posted by DrWho

You know what? It might actually be more like Envelopments 'Regalia'. Check that pattern too.

ETA: OH! And it's a 5x7 Signature Side Pocketfold on the Envelopments site, fyi.

ETA2: Also, when you wrap a ribbon around the invite page like that, it doesn't need to go all the way around, so don't overestimate how much ribbon you need and waste $$ !

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Where do you buy this paper? Its so pretty but you cant get it on their website .. is it expensive?

The biggest full sheet that Envelopments has is 8x5 x11. The Regalia is the C4 price level. I found it for $1.40 per sheet HERE. . You pick what style you want (pocketfold, gatefold, regular fold, etc.), then you pick your paper, and it tells you the cost per item. So, the 5x7 Signature Side pocketfold for that pattern is $3 per pocketfold. Then you need the same pattern for the backing, so add $.80.
You're up to $3.80, you have no inserts, ribbon, seals, or envelopes yet.

Pocketfolds tend to be the expensive choice, by almost twice as much. You can accomplish pretty much the same look with a Z-fold and a ribbon to tie in your inserts.

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Posted by DrWho

The biggest full sheet that Envelopments has is 8x5 x11. The Regalia is the C4 price level. I found it for $1.40 per sheet HERE. . You pick what style you want (pocketfold, gatefold, regular fold, etc.), then you pick your paper, and it tells you the cost per item. So, the 5x7 Signature Side pocketfold for that pattern is $3 per pocketfold. Then you need the same pattern for the backing, so add $.80.
You're up to $3.80, you have no inserts, ribbon, seals, or envelopes yet.

Pocketfolds tend to be the expensive choice, by almost twice as much. You can accomplish pretty much the same look with a Z-fold and a ribbon to tie in your inserts.

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Thanks for the websites ... I got some good ideas! I acutally already have the pocketfold ... so I just need the backing which I had liked the Medhi paper backing ... I am then using the Stardream Opal as my pockefold and invite. Does it not let you purchase just plain sheets of 8.5 x 11 Medhi paper backing? I didnt see that as an option?

Well you have plenty of time, so that's in your favor.

You should check out the stores and price out what you'd need first. Paper, ribbon, rhinestone buckles, envelopes, etc. If it comes out to cheaper then go for it! So do a little research first and I think it's totally worth it.

Just start now and do a little at a time (cutting one week, printing another week, etc.) and dont leave it to the last minute or you'll be FREAKING OUT.

I was planning to make my own invitations but none of the craft stores had anything that went with my colors so I went with Tessa at evenstar paperie instead.

Also, an FYI, you can find free fonts online if you want something fancier than what you have in MS Word. Just google Free Fonts and a ton of websites come up. I did that for my favor tags and table numbers and actually found the same font that Tessa used for my invites so they'll all tie together.

Also, besides Michael's and A.C. Moore, you can go to Not Just Scrap on Middle Country Road in Centereach and she has small paper samples and she can order specific colors and paper textures in bulk for you that she doesn't have in the store.

Good luck!