Wedding Invitation Suite Cost Breakdown

Today I'm breaking down the final costs of our Invitation Suite. While crunching the numbers, I got a little stressed out all over again! Man...planning and budgeting weddings is TOUGH!

Below you can access the four previous parts of the Wedding Invitation Suite.

 

Total: $181.88

 

Total: $263.98

 

Total: $314.43

Total: $224.37

Groupon for Vistaprint ($25 for $100 worth of product) x 4 = $100

Total: $1,084.66 (Including Postage & Guestbook)

Now, if I went with my first choice from Wedding Paper Divas, getting everything the same (buying their gold envelopes, postcards for RSVP's, etc) and using their 25% OFF coupon* my total would be: $1230.92 + $312.50 for postage.

* 25% OFF your total order was the best coupon I could find.  

 So, here it is! We saved $458.76. Now, keep in mind that when I say DIY I mean using Etsy, using our own printing sources, friends, etc. Looking back I could have easily done this for much cheaper by ordering fewer quantities, going with "free options" like designing them myself, printing them myself or using free templates offered by sites like Wedding Chicks.

Hope everyone has safe travels, and a wonderful Christmas! Jesus is the reason for the season!
 

Wedding Invitation Suite: Respondez, s'il vous plait

Oh, the RSVP. It's a love/hate relationship with them and the world. Some people are wonderful at it, some (my family) are horrible! Since my wedding, I've made a vow with myself to never forget one again. Since I'm not a super organized human being, I'm sure I'll miss one again....or maybe, just maybe I'll concur my ongoing goal/resolution of becoming more organized. (I think the most I've ever accomplished was organizing my Pinterest boards two years ago!)

I had two RSVPs. If it were up to me, I would have only had one. But my mom insisted on having a few traditional ones for those who we knew wouldn't quite get it. If there was one thing that fit my personality the most about my wedding, it would be this RSVP card. Seriously....it's sassy, sarcastic and hilarious. I think they let our guests know that we're not taking ourselves too seriously, that we'd have fun, dance, eat, drink and enjoy our friends and family.

                              

Design: Keith designed this postcard for us, based on an RSVP I saw on Minted. I had him tweak a few words and he made it fit my design idea. My cousin used the song recommendation on her RSVPs and I thought it was an awesome idea!  It was actually really fun getting them back and seeing what songs people would suggest, or which box they would check; it made one of the more drab parts of wedding planning enjoyable. However, not everyone has my sense of humor. A few people didn't check any boxes; some wrote out why they wouldn't make it and the rest just wrote "No" on the front by their names. Oh well!

Design: These came with our invitation from He Saw Sparks. We sent these out to those we assumed wouldn't "get" the funnier RSVP. I fought my mom big time on this. I basically said "If they don't "get it" then they shouldn't come!" Bridezilla anyone? :) It's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm blogging post wedding. All of my crazy emotions have been sorted out, and I can think back and be glad we chose to do two. Obviously, I should have sent out more traditional ones! :) 

                              

I created this envelope on Vistaprint for the traditional RSVP.

We included this Accommodations card to those who would be traveling out of town for our wedding. Nothing too exciting here...just wanted to show off more of Keith's talent :) 


Cost Break Down:

Design: Funny RSVP - $33 by Keith
             Traditional RSVP - "free" since it was included in the invitation design
             Accommodation Card - $33 by Keith

Printing: $159.43 - We had run out of our Groupons by this time, and we were cutting it close. But I 
                                 did WAY over order! I could have easily knocked down my quantities.
               Qty - Funny RSVP - 250
                        Traditional RSVP + Envelopes - 50
                        Accommodation - 150 

Postage: $89 for both types of stamps. 

Total: $314.43

Like I said, I could have gotten fewer total quantities of each RSVP, plus I could have gotten more Groupons for Vistaprint, which would have made it cheaper as well. 

Next I'll share with you our programs and the final budget breakdown!



             
                               

Addressing Envelopes

So my first big DIY wedding task was addressing my Save the Date envelopes.

I know what you're thinking....not exactly a "DIY". Well, for those of us who can't figure out the whole "mailings" part of Microsoft Word, tune on it!

First off, lets start with my inspiration. Hashtag shocker....it's from Pinterest. Typography is everywhere on there. From basic stationary to wedding signage to gift tags. I'm obsessed! Here are just some of my faves...

{http://www.etsy.com/listing/111335192/the-julia-dashingly-chic-calligraphy?ref=shop_home_feat}

Whew! My heart swoons for this envelope! This is from Etsy. I SO wish it was in my budget to have this done. I wish even more that I could do this myself!!

{http://www.stylemepretty.com/2012/12/04/tulsa-oklahoma-ranch-wedding-from-imago-vita-photography/#}

This is from the Style Me Pretty site. Could you imagine how AH-MA-ZING your pictures would be if you had this bad boy behind you?

{http://www.stylemepretty.com/living/2012/09/14/diy-vanilla-sugar-favors-from-kimbry-studios-photography/}

Also from SMP. Adding a simple tag like this adds so much to a favor.

I love to see different fonts put together. It gives it a very modern touch and personalizes the most basic aspects. OK, I got off track there for a little bit...

Here are my STD...

My friend Keith designed them for us. He's pretty awesome. 

And our envelopes! I ordered them through Vistaprint.com. I had our return address printed on them, which was pretty awesome and a time saver.

What I did was downloaded an A2 and A7 template from this site: {http://www.archiversonline.com/pages/templates.} They have a lot of different templates that you should check out as well. 

Then you open up the file and since my envelope had a pre-determined box, I had to play with my layout for a little bit. And if you're anything like me, you have a 1,000 different downloaded fonts that you have to choose from! I get a lot from kevinandamanda.com. They have a lot of fun ones that look like handwriting. I tend to go for the less formal calligraphy fonts. Picking a font took about an hour...I had to go through and see what different "Ms" looked like, and find one that the numbers were fun also. I MAY have a tendency to over think these things :) 

This is time consuming. I'm not going to lie.... But I created a folder with individual files of each person's address. It makes this a one time process and when it comes to addressing envelopes for the actual invites and thank you notes it will be ready to go for you. Just plop down in front of your newest netflix addiction and take off! 

I can't even tell you how excited I am that I have figured this out. I realize that this may only be cool for me....but man I am excited!! 

My next wish is for a font/template that would help you create an envelope like the first one I showed you. If I could guess it will probably be all over Pinterest the day after I get married....Classic! 

Hope this helps those who are challenged in this area. And sorry I got so distracted...but hey, I just like sharing pretty things that I find :) 

-Mal