Hey fellow Blogger Brides! Please accept my apology for being slightly absent the past couple of weeks. I haven’t forgotten about you and still check the site daily to read all of the new posts! I have a lot to juggle right now (including a big project in the works, thanks to my life changing experience of wedding planning) and haven’t had time to sit and write a quality full-length blog before now…
Today I’m finally getting the chance to reveal our wedding invitations, the project that has been a DIY work in progress over the past several months. I was shocked (yet impressed!) to learn that our St. Louis guests had already started receiving their invites on Monday, only 3 days after having mailed them out from Tampa, FL. Hopefully by the time this blog is posted, our guests will all have gotten a first hand glimpse at the invitations and I’m not ruining the surprise for anyone.
Let me start out by saying that this was one massive undertaking. I love hand making all types of things; I take pride in being crafty and putting a personal touch on anything I can, especially when it comes to our wedding. But even with tons of help from my fiance, creating our own stationery was a huge challenge, and if I could do it all over again, I’m not sure I would go the homemade route. I’ll explain why.
Joe and I are both very picky and detail-oriented. To call us both perfectionists would not be a far stretch. So when we began the search for what would become our invitations, we started out like any other engaged couple would. We scoured the internet and browsed catalog after catalog, looking for the perfect invitation style to match our personality. But even after all of our research, the only thing that even came close to being exactly what we were looking for was $4.50 per invitation/response card set. Seeing as how we needed 60 total (without accounting for a few extra to have on-hand), that put the cost for just the invitation and RSVP to $270. Not bad, right? The only issue was, we KNEW we could create something similar to – if not better than – that same invitation for a fraction of the cost. All it would take was a little patience and determination. (Or a lot of it, as we would come to find out.)
From my experience, the most challenging aspect of invitation creation was finding all the supplies we needed. I had a very specific vision in mind and wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect, no matter what obstacles stood in our way. We’d decided to use metallic pink, brown, and pearlescent ivory papers in the exact shades of our color scheme, which proved to be very difficult to find. We also needed the paper to be a certain thickness to ensure that each invitation would not be flimsy once we glued all three layer together. Eventually we did find exactly what we were looking for at Michael’s craft store, only to discover that the “special” pink paper had been imported from Italy and was being discontinued. We then began researching online paper suppliers and ordered numerous samples until we finally came across a paper similar enough to the ones we’d originally selected in the store. Fortunately the same supplier also stocked the brown and ivory paper we needed, so we were able to order it all at one time. Total spent on ALL wedding stationery, including the invitations, RSVP and directions cards, menu cards, programs, escort cards, and envelopes for 90 guests? A mere $150.
It was planned for each invitation to also be embellished with glitzy crystals and pink-tinted glitter to add a touch of eye-catching detail. We purchased two bottles of Stickles Fruit Punch glitter for a just few bucks, and I found all the Mark Richards crystal stickers we needed for a low bargain price on ebay. The glue we used to fasten the layers together was a tricky trial-and-error process, but we eventually settled on a simple stick of crafting glue found at Joann’s craft store. Since my scrapbooking paper cutter was pretty old and dull, we also invested $15 on buying a brand new one from Target. Total cost for all additional supplies? $25.
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