The Invitations

Let's start from the outside, shall we?

Envelopes:

I love, love, love Kraft paper. 

I think it is so very chic and can be dressed up or down. 

Casually elegant, so to speak ;) 

The font used for the printing of the addresses is called "Jane Austen" and I downloaded it from dafont.com. 

I wanted the look of handwritten calligraphy, but I don't have the handwriting for it and obviously wasn't going to pay someone to do it. Did you know people still do that? 

Yea. And the cost is outrageous.  

Postage:

I took an invitation to the post office a couple weeks before I mailed them out to pick out my postage. 

It was actually kind of fun, the lady at the counter got really excited about helping me pick out my wedding postage. 

I ended up paying $.04 more an invitation to mail them out just so that I didn't have to put a George Washington stamp on my envelopes :)We ended up with two "Wedding stamps" with white roses and "herb" postcard stamps for the response envelopes. I think the "herb" stamps look really beautiful with the Kraft paper.

Pocketfold:

I decided to go with a pocketfold style invitation because I just didn't like the look of a bunch of inserts stacked on top of each other and shoved into an envelope. 

I used this tutorial to make my own pocketfolds out of the Kraft cardstock. It was actually super simple and I loved that this particular tutorial only called for one sheet of cardstock per pocketfold. 

I tied the yellow/white bakers twine around the pocketfold to keep it closed. I decided to have this be the only color in the invitation after a vistaprint fiasco when my first invitation design arrived at my doorstep looking brown rather than grey. 

Inserts:

I printed the actual invitation and all of the inserts from my printer at home and designed them in powerpoint. 

The font used throughout the invitations is called "Traveling Typewriter" and is used throughout all of our wedding stationary (programs, favor tags, etc). I made the map on the back of the direction card using this technique and Word. It was kind of tedious, and it didn't turn out perfect, but I'm happy with it.

RSVP:

Our RSVP card was actually a shipping tag. Shipping tags are a big wedding trend right now and I have chosen to use them in several other areas of our wedding decor/stationary as well. I printed these on our home computer too. There was lots of trial and error involved in getting them to print straight. Some of the printing was actually kind of crooked, but I think it adds a little charm. 

That's all folks. My labor of love. I hope everyone liked them, and that they give my guests a little taste of what the feel/theme of our wedding will be.

...

And just because I'm always curious,

The Cost Breakdown : 

Envelopes via Envelope Mall: $ 23.25

Kraft cardstock via Hobby Lobby : $3.99

White cardstock via Staples : $14.99

Twine via The Twinery : $14.20

Wooden hearts via Joann Fabrics : $10 (estimate)

Paper cutter via Joann Fabrics : $12

Shipping tags via Staples : $5

Glue : $15 (estimate)

 Postage : $ 46.80

Total:  $145.23

Overall, I don't think the cost was too bad, especially considering some people spend hundreds on invitations. 

But, it also goes to show that DIY isn't always the cheapest way to go either. We could have definitely spent a lot less if we had bought a kit or ordered from somewhere like vistaprint.com, but our invitations are one of a kind and 100% custom - can't beat that. Plus, the cardstock, envelopes, paper cutter, and twine were used for multiple projects - so I got even more bang for my buck.