For the "Do-It-Yourselfer"
Hello everyone! I've recently had the pleasure of helping my best friend with a bunch of designs for her wedding. It was so much ... and so inexpensive- and I thought I would pass these helpful hints onto all of you! Whether you're planning a wedding, bridal or baby shower, or just want to save money- a DIY project is a perfect way to "I care" without breaking the bank.
Here is the save-the-date I designed for my wedding. They were book marks. I designed it for free (since it was for myself lol) and made several copies on an 8x10 photosheet. I had it printed from walgreens.com on 8x10 sheets and cut them out myself. It took a couple of tries, mainly because walgreens is not a professional quality printing company. I learned my lesson- believe me! They are great for 4x6 prints, but that's about it.
These are a couple more designs I made for a Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party coming up this year. The design itself would be $60 for both and after buying paper, envelopes and stamps & printing it out on my photo-quality printer, this project totaled $75. It was super easy and fun. Michael's also has some DIY bridal invitations, but I think they are a little over priced for what you get. With my designs, you have the option to print as many copies as you want/ need because you have the picture file and can take it to any printing company. I've always had good luck with Office Depot. They give you discounts for so many things, that they make DYI printing jobs a breeze!
So the bride that ordered these did not want to over-pay by purchasing the same type of designs from the same company that made her invitations. SO she asked me to come up with a reception and response card that she could mail out along with her invitations. They needed to be in the same color family with a similar floral design. This is what I came up with. She loved them! She went to Office Depot (like I suggested) and got them all printed and cut for cheap! If you wanted to have something like this added to your expensive invitations, make sure to have the printing company print out these designs on a paper similar to the one your invitation is on- or else it won't really compliment each other. A design like this would cost you $20 for both and printing is roughly $60 for 50 copies. (But don't quote me on that hahaha)
Here is the invitation I just finished for a non-traditional bride and I've got to say- I LOVE IT! It was so much fun to make something different for a change! The design was $50 and they are planning on using Vista Print to have postcards made and sent out. That saves a LOT of money! I'm not sure how much it would save, but it's got to be a lot more than printing out invitations, response cards and reception cards---- no envelopes OR extra stamps! It's ingenious! For this design, they picked out an invitation online and sent it to me with the following requests: make it look like us! Lol, I think I succeeded.
These are a couple of invitations that I made that were sent out electronically---the cheapest form yet! I donated all these designs, but for an online or emailed design, the cost would be $50. I've got to say, nothing beats a good deal!
I hope you found this instructive or at least got your creative juices flowing! If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please leave them below or email me at MOOSEinkDESIGN@yahoo.com. Also, visit my facebook page by clicking MOOSEink and becoming a fan!
