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: Save the Dates

One of my favorite things in the whole world is paper....thank you notes, stationary, planners, letterpress, gold foil, birthday cards, scrapbooks and especially invitations! I'm pretty sure that is mostly what my Insta feed is filled with.

 I truly believe that an invitation sets the scene for your guests as to what they should expect from your wedding. I spent HOURS online searching and looking and pricing different invitations from countless resources. I ended up using several different sources for my Invitation Suite, from Etsy and a talented friend.

After adding up everything (design, printing & postage), I still came out cheaper than if I went with one of the (swoon worthy) more expensive sites (ie, Minted or Wedding Paper Divas).

In this Invitation Suite series, I'll talk about what I chose, how much it cost, what I would change (both cost and design) and compare to what I would have gone with at one of the fancier sites.

First, I'll be tackling Save the Dates.

Design:

 front (picture by Julian Mancha Photography)

back

Envelopes, created on Vistaprint

These were designed by my friend Keith, who I have previously bragged about great of a gift giver he is, and this Dr Who Terrarium I made him. I told him the wording I liked and the design we were looking for and he brought these back! He's awesome. The wording was from a Save the Date I saw on Minted. Hilarious. I really wanted to set a fun tone for our wedding, and what better way then this super cute saying?

Cost:

Design: Keith technically did these for us for free, but we compensated him a little for his work. So, with what we paid him, plus printing* and postage, we paid $181.88.
Design - $33
*Printing + Envelopes - $33.88
Postage -  $115

Postage is insane. Seriously. I mulled around using a site like Paperlesspost for all my invitation needs, but in the long run its hard to beat good ol postage - it's just expensive as all get out! This would be an easy cost cutting area though.

*We bought a few groupons for Vistaprint that we used. At the end of this series, I'll do a total cost break down and what coupons we used.

Our Save the Dates were perfect. I seriously wouldn't change a thing about them! If I were to choose a different one, it would for sure have gold foil. Like this one from Wedding Paper Divas.

 

One thing to keep in mind when shopping for invitations, save the dates, Christmas cards, etc. is to try not to focus too much on the picture that is in the sample. Although, I'm pretty sure if I were to use this card I would recreate the picture used. I mean...Edison light bulbs in a tree? Are you kidding?!? Nothing could be more perfect. Anyways, I'll find myself drawn to a design (or worse, deterred from a design) because of the picture used. You have to remember that it will be your picture in the space, making the card yours, and perfect. 

On a budget? Wedding Chicks (ya know...that awesome site that featured OUR WEDDING?) offers a ton of freebies! These save the dates are adorable. Hello, watercolor!

That way you would only be out for printing and postage. I do want to learn how to print my own invitations and still have them look professional. I just need to break down and buy a really nice printer....one day. 

That's a wrap for our Save the Dates! Next I'll do a breakdown on our main invitation. 

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