Our Wedding Invitations

So, today... I'm sharing the process of making our invitations! (Since, I think, most guests have received their's by now!)

We did this all from scratch, completely DIY. I had been browsing invitation websites for forever (seriously, nearly 14 months) looking for the perfect design, and after finding this one, I REALLY loved it, but kept looking around. From the get-go, my dad's bff had offered up his graphic design services as a gift to us, so I gave him a few samples of what I liked, and after months and month (and months) of me changing my mind, we finally decided on going off of the original design that caught my eye! I'm really amazed that he recreated it so well for us!

(As soon as the wedding is over, I'll post a full photo of the invite, but until then, here's a few snapshots)

After Jeff designed them, he emailed me a file of it, I put it on a flash drive and took it to Staples to be printed. I was a little nervous to print them through Staples, but it was MEGA cheap, so I went for it.

We printed 100 invitations (2 could print per page), at $1 per print. After being printed, he cut them down to size, for $2 per cut (since they can cut 100 pages at a time, he only had to make 5 cuts). The total cost came out to be $65, which, seriously - that is cheap when it comes to invitations!
When I got to my mom's house to start making all of the other elements, we then realized the guy didn't actually cut them down to the 5x7 size that we needed to fit the envelope, so.. my mom had to go through and cut them down again.

For the extra little elements that went inside the envelope, we included a card that had all the RSVP/wedding website information, a card that had all the information guests need to know about dinner (we are having dinner prior to the ceremony!), a little slip of paper with a hashtag for our wedding (totally jumped on that bandwagon), and a heart cut from different patterned papers (my mom's idea!). It was all tied up with grey and white twine, too!
I "designed" all of the extra info papers myself (I use the term design loosely, just FYI!), and we printed them on kraft paper from Hobby Lobby (so stinking easy!).

I got together with one of my bridesmaids (thank you, Morgan!!), to put these together, and it took maybe 2 hours tops to put them together and stick them in the envelopes. It was easy as pie!
Also! Instead of using the ugly "love/wedding" stamps USPS has to offer, we used these pretty floral ones. They matched perfectly!

*image via @alissaclaire

In the end, they turned out exactly as I had hoped they would. I'm very proud of them!
If you are planning a wedding and are at all hesitant to do DIY invites, I say go for it! Seriously, it was so easy, and nearly stress free. That, and we spent a fraction of the cost that we would have paid ordering through an actual invitation company. Win-win, am I right?

Thanks for looking!
Haley