Did anyone make their own invitations?
If you find a style that she likes and doesnt think is too cheesy, go ahead and use it. just make sure you get everything you need in the kit (invites w/ inner envelopes, outer envelopes, reception card, rsvp card) and some extra costs may be the ink to print all the invites with (if it gets low) definitely get 100 since you are printing them yourselves you may have some mishaps (ink looks faded, writing is crooked, etc.) You can pick a really pretty, elegant font on the computer that would look good.
I think that you could dress any of these invites up a bit with some ribbon or embellishments from a craftstore and they would look cute. And if not, no one cares about the invites really. We may ooooh and ahhhh over them, but really expensive ones are a waste of money. I made my own invites out of scrapbook supplies, I think they cost me like $50 for 200 of them. My sister in law did the print ones from Joanns Fabric Store and then put a little ribbon bow at the top and I think they cost her all of $30 or so. Its the stamps that get you. You need two per invite – one for the return rsvp and one for the actual invite itself. I would suggest doing postcard sized rsvp return cards that they can just drop in the mail as is. I think they run something like $.31 versus the $.41 we pay for regular postage. I would also make up about 75 of them total just in case she needs a few extra or someone “doesn’t get” their first one.
I made my own invitations… I created a motif that included our names and the Fleur di Lis. That’s the motif that I’ll pretty much use on everything. Yes, there are box invitations and they are really cute. Michael’s has really cute ones and this week they have a 50% off coupon. I bought my paper/envelopes from the Paper Source. I used MS Publisher to create and print them. I just found creating my own was a lot more personal. Tho, I had to make about 200 of them. My RSVP cards were post cards (4 per page). One good thing about making them yourself is that there are no hidden costs… you can use color ink with out the extra charge, the weight of the invitation is usually less than the bulky custom made ones. And you can use postcards for the RSVP. I saved A LOT on postage. My complete invitations, including the interior envelope, direction card, RSVP card, etc was the normal postage rate. By using RSVP cards I was able to use postcard stamps which are 1/2 less than the regular stamp.
