For those that did DIY Invitations

I have two questions:

1. Is it really cheaper than ordering invitations? Even with the printing and the paper?

2. Is there a website or a book that gives you a step-by-step process from buying the paper to printing them and aligning your printer, etc.?

I just keep looking at prices of invitations and I really feel like I can do better just doing it myself. Thanks in advance ladies!! Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

I did my own invites. Check my review for info on how I did it, and pics. It was over $1000 cheaper in my case! I had letterpress done. Let me know if you have any questions!

MIne were much cheaper as well.
Probably about 800 bucks cheaper.
I used this web site and the knot for info on how to put them together. I have a huge instruction sheet. FM for more info.

Thanks ladies! I think I'm going to start pricing some cardstock and really figure all of this out. LeslieMike, I looked at your review and went to the website for letterpress and even that is cheaper than ordering the invites!

Thanks again!

ETA: Where is the best place to go for cardstock?

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Posted by MIssBridalBliss

MIne were much cheaper as well.
Probably about 800 bucks cheaper.
I used this web site and the knot for info on how to put them together. I have a huge instruction sheet. FM for more info.

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You have FM

HI Girls

It is long, but not as bad as it looks. Feel free to contact me with any questions and take a peak at my album for my mock ups.

Here are the instructions for the pocketfold invitations. Although we did just about everything ourselves, there are also web sites like www.cardsandpockets.com and www.paperandmore.com that sell the pocketfolds already assembled (in a million styles and colors). If you are crafty, you may want to do it yourself and save the money- I know we did! I have attached a copy of my mock up template with the measurements. (It is color coded, because I am a crazy person.) I have to say it is no where near as complicated as it looks.

My pocketfolds are 6”x6”. A pic is in my album They can be done in any dimension, just make sure you are able to find outer mailing envelopes in a corresponding size!

My outer mailing envelopes were 6.5”x 6.5”. We got them at www.actionenvelope.com Usually a half inch larger in length and width is sufficient for the outer envelope.

I bought black linen paper (12.5” x19”), from Neenah Paper- (www.neenahpaper.com ) I got 110 sheets of paper for free (it was considered a sample since I didn’t buy in bulk)- but shipping was $45. (The paper is great texture and easy to work with. It also folds nicely, without tearing. I do have a ton of linen paper leftover and I will use that for placecards and programs) We cut the linen paper into the size 6'x19'. We got two invites per page with a ½ inch strip left over that we used later.

With the 6x19” piece we took an exacto knife and cut an inverted triangle at the bottom, no more than 2 inches at the largest point. This created that ‘v’ shape on the pocket. I happened to like the ‘v’ shape but you can keep it square or even use a scallop scissor to change the detail-it is up to you. Then with the exacto we lightly skimmed the linen paper exactly at the creases where we wanted it folded (we had a 4 inch panel that had the v shape and will later become the pocket, a 6 inch panel that would also be part of the pocket, another 6 inch panel (where the invite was mounted) and a 3 inch panel which was the outer fold.). We then measured where we would want the ribbon to be and cut 2 slits in the back.

This part might be confusing, .We took the ½ inch scrap strip and cut it into 2 inch segments lengthwise. Once cut into the 2 inch segments, we took the exacto knife and folded them in half. We used this small piece as a connector and glued this small folded piece to the 6x6 panel (in the bottom corners) and then folded the 4 inch v flap over and glued it to the small folded piece. This forms the pocket. We did this instead of just folding the v shape over and glueing it. I felt it created a nicer pocket with more movement, again personal preference... We cut off any exposed edges with the exacto.

I bought light yellow-ivory ribbon at Michaels and threaded the ribbon through the holes.

We bought the yellow card stock at Michaels, cut it (5 1/2' x 5 1/2') and mounted it on the black linen paper over the ribbon.

We went to a Printer who did Black ink on white paper in a 5x5 size. I designed the invite in MS Publisher and emailed it to her. Although it took her a couple of times to get it right, she let me keep the extras. We mounted that card onto the yellow cardstock. This was probably cheaper than cutting regular paper and buying ink! I also know quite a few people who just buy the invitation card or announcement card and paste this on the pocketfold as well.

Part 2...

We then bought white cardstock paper at Michaels to print the insert cards (Directions/Maps, Accomodations, Reception, RSVP). However, I did not like the thickness of the cardstock, (it was white and seemed a little flimsy and transparent) so we went to Staples and bought this 'fine textured cardstock' 65lbs from a brand titled Southington (They sell a lot of resume paper) Office Max and Staples both carried it.

The insert cards were easy to design but hard to size. We made the directions insert card 5.75”L x 5.5”W. I designed it in publisher using clip art, same for the Accomodations 5”L x 5.5”W, Reception 4.25”L x 5.5”W and RSVP 3.5 x5” cards. We usually got more than one insert card per page (I hate to waste paper). This was probably the hardest part. With aligning the margins, trying to get more than one on a page and having the front and back align just so, it took DAYS-super frustrating, it probably would have been eaiser getting one card per page. …My fiancé has both a Dell and an HP printer and we found the HP to work better. We actually ended up designing the cards in MS Publisher and copying it into MS Word. We printed from Word-it was easier by far. My fiancé cut the cards using a paper cutter.

I bought the RSVP envelopes at www.actionenvelope.com (They were so easy to deal with! You can order samples from them for like a $1 and test them out at home) We printed them in the HP printer. (Just remember to coordinate your RSVP card to the size of your RSVP envelope or it can be a resizing nightmare! J)


We took a jpeg image of one of our favorite paintings (the bride and groom dancing on water) and printed it on tracing paper at Michael's (l love that 40% coupon every week)

The outer envelopes printed best on my laser jet printer at work even though they were ink jet compaticble. We designed those in MS Publisher and copied it to Word. Many people use photoshop.

We worked on it a little bit each week. My fiancé helped quite a bit so it wasn’t too bad. I used www.LIweddings.com and www.theknot.com for a lot of my ideas. Also, if you google ‘pocketfold invitations’ you will find a ton of web sites that sell them. I drew my inspiration from their ideas as well. I also downloaded free fonts from www.1001fonts.com and www.freefonts.com .

I hope that helps and that I did not confuse you! Feel free to contact me with any questions!
Enjoy it, it goes by quickly
Kristen

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Posted by Espo22

originally i had ordered invites but the lady i ordered from was behind and wasnt going to have my invites ready in time...so i made them myself and duplicated the exact invites i was going to get from her. It came out to $600 less than what i was going to pay her for the same thing

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Wow! That is a lot of money to save! That seems to be the trend which makes me feel more confident about doing it. At first I was finding excuse s not to (the headache, my technical capabilities) but if it's going to save that much money, it's time to suck it up and do it!

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Posted by justustwo48

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Posted by Espo22

originally i had ordered invites but the lady i ordered from was behind and wasnt going to have my invites ready in time...so i made them myself and duplicated the exact invites i was going to get from her. It came out to $600 less than what i was going to pay her for the same thing

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Wow! That is a lot of money to save! That seems to be the trend which makes me feel more confident about doing it. At first I was finding excuse s not to (the headache, my technical capabilities) but if it's going to save that much money, it's time to suck it up and do it!

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depending on the invitation you can really save money...for example if its pocketfolds or something similar then it definitely will come out to less...an invitation company is going to charge for supplies but of course they also want to make a profit bc they dont want to do the work for free so it will always come out to a bit more...its not always cheap though making it yourself but should be less

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by justustwo48

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Posted by Espo22

originally i had ordered invites but the lady i ordered from was behind and wasnt going to have my invites ready in time...so i made them myself and duplicated the exact invites i was going to get from her. It came out to $600 less than what i was going to pay her for the same thing

---

Wow! That is a lot of money to save! That seems to be the trend which makes me feel more confident about doing it. At first I was finding excuse s not to (the headache, my technical capabilities) but if it's going to save that much money, it's time to suck it up and do it!

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depending on the invitation you can really save money...for example if its pocketfolds or something similar then it definitely will come out to less...an invitation company is going to charge for supplies but of course they also want to make a profit bc they dont want to do the work for free so it will always come out to a bit more...its not always cheap though making it yourself but should be less

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Yeah the pocketfolds is where I see it the most which is what I really want. But even if I can get a simple invitation come out to be less expensive I'll be happy (and my parents too). Do you think it's worth it though for 200+ invites?