Making Your Diy Invitations Shine
If you can believe it, so far weve only covered the basics of DIY wedding invitations. Once youve designed and printed them, there are countless ways to make your invites shine.
You could add embellishments like:
- Or whatever else tickles your fancy!
For example, Nathey used a combination of hole punches, buttons, lace, ribbon and twine to embellish her rustic wedding invitations.
We spent roughly $150 on our wedding invitations, with a big chunk of our budget going towards the craft supplies to create the embellishments, she says.
The skys the limit here. Dont be afraid to browse the internet for inspiration and let your imagination run wild.
Design Tips For Diy Wedding Invitations
Now that youve covered how youll be printing or creating your invite, lets talk about how youll put your information together in a pretty way.
Designing Your Own: If youre choosing to design your own DIY wedding invitations, you probably have a good idea of what youre hoping it will look like. You might even have a grasp of some of the skills youll be bringing to the table to make that vision a reality. Or, youre hoping to learn a little more about the process and designing in general. Or maybe you just want to get a little crafty. All of these reasons, and more, are good reasons to do your own invites. Weve got a whole bunch of extra tutorials, in case you want to brush up on a few skills before you put proverbial pen to paper.
Buying/Finding A Design: If you dont have design experience, and youre not fond of pushing images and text around on pages , youre going to need to find someone to design your DIY wedding invitations for you. Fear not! Thanks to the Internet , there are tons of places to get an invitation design. Some are even our sponsors! Heres a short list of places to check out.
Choosing Paper For Your Diy Wedding Invitations
Although it might seem unimportant, dont skimp on the paper it can make or break your invitation.
You should try to buy cardstock thats at least 65-pound, though 80-pound is even better.
I would recommend printing on the heaviest cardstock paper you can find and afford,writes Nathey. The thicker the invitation, the better it will look and feel. For her invitations, she used 110-pound heavy cardstock, which resists both bending and bleeding.
If youre printing from home , she says you should make sure your printer can handle whatever cardstock you choose. You can find this information in your printers manual, or by searching online for your printers max paper weight.
You can also choose different finishes for your paper for wedding invitations, popular finishes include cotton or linen, which are beautiful but more expensive.
For her golden snitch invites, Yates used premium linen cardstock. She felt it really added that something special to the wedding invitations, making them look elegant and sophisticated as opposed to normal card paper.
Alternatively, recycled paper is also a popular option especially for rustic or boho invites.
You can order cardstock online at or specialty shops like LCI Paper, Paper and More, Paper Source and Paper Presentation. Or you can go to your local Jo-Anns, Walmart or office-supply store.
That being said, one easy way to keep costs down is to forgo the RSVP card.
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Customize Wedding Invites With Greenvelope
At Greenvelope, our high-quality wedding invite templates are hand-selected by an in-house team of designers. The invitation kits are made by stationers, illustrators, calligraphers, and artists who craft stunning designs for all occasions. Be sure to browse through our ever-growing selection of invitations for your big day. And dont forget our other cant-miss designs for the bridal shower, bachelorette party, and rehearsal dinner.
Design Your Dream Day With Personalized Wedding Invitations
Congratulations! Your wedding vision is taking shape, and now you can give your guests a glimpse into what awaits with custom wedding invitations. We have options for every wedding theme, from rustic to elegant, each customizable to include your preferred colors, language and even finishing touches. Just start by exploring our wedding invitation templates. Find a design you love, then personalize with names, wedding date, address and more. Once everythingâs looking perfect, place your order and let us take care of the rest. With our collection of RSVP cards, enclosures and envelopes, you can even put together a gorgeous invitation suite . Once the suiteâs complete, weâll professionally print, package and deliver everything to your home. Your creations will arrive looking gorgeous and ready to get friends and family excited for your big day.
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Supplies To Assemble The Invites:
Instead of messy glue sticks, I used this amazing product: the Scotch Tape Runner. I purchased it in the crafting section at Walmart, but you can also order it on . I got one of these and 2 refills. They cost around $5-7 for the dispenser, but the refills are a little less. These little runners were so easy to use and work great, so I cannot recommend them enough.
Create Wedding Invitations With Custom Details
It is never too early after the engagement for you to start getting all of the finer details taken care of. Think about the you have from special moments that you’ve shared with your significant other, or look through engagement pictures to start picking out your favorites. Use those ideas to get your creative juices going so you can design your wedding invites the way you want. Every detail that graces the cover of your invitations should make news of your engagement shine. Your wedding cards and invites should show everyone how beautiful and unique your love is to get them excited about the upcoming wedding ceremony. From stunning photo collages of your favorite images to elegant personalized foil, its easy to make your own wedding invitations with Shutterfly. Even if your ceremony is an elopement with just a few friends and family members, you can still plan the celebration with custom wedding invitations designed by you.
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Add Your Personality To Your Wedding Invitation Design
One of the best benefits of designing your own wedding invitations is that you can add your own personality to them. So, when someone receives your wedding invitation, they can sense your personality through the styles and the design you chose.
For example, lets say you love gardening and people know you love growing your own flowers. You could place dried flower petals from your garden inside your wedding invitations.
There are so many personal touches you can add to make your personality shine through your invitations.
Paper Choices For Diy Wedding Invitations
Theres enough variety in paper types, weights, and finishes to make your head spin and keep you busy for weeks. Heres the basics on what you need to know for choosing what paper youll print your DIY wedding invitations on.
Finish: Your paper finish will affect how youre able to print and how much ink your invitation will take. Glossy papers take a lot more ink and longer to dry. Linen papers and papers with more texture have a much higher tendency to bleed, and so they wont work with some at-home printers where you cant change your ink settings. If youre not interested in researching finishes because youre not a weird nerd who likes to feel on paper, a matte card stock is an easy, relatively foolproof option that will more than likely work for the printer youre using.
Weight: Paper thickness is measured by weight. The higher number you see, in pounds, on the packaging label, the thicker your paper is. This doesnt mean you have to find the thickest paper you canmost card stocks are a great weight for invitations and can hold up to being mailed.
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Print And Decorate Your Wedding Invitations
Once you have your layout designed and all the important information included, youll want to print them out and add some type of special touch to your wedding invitations. This can be as simple as tying them with some thin strips of ribbon. Conversely, it can be as labor-intensive as adhesive glitter or stickers. Some people even add a small trinket like a sparkler. Personally, I think heart sparklers are the best for this job. However, decorations are completely a matter of taste but try to keep in mind the amount of work you will need to put into each invitation as you decide what to include! If youre sending out 300 invites, you probably dont want to invest 10 minutes into each one.
Additionally, I always suggest going to a print shop for the final copies. Some people are fortunate enough to have a commercial-grade printer at home. If so, then you can certainly just use that to save even more money. However, for the rest of us, its hard to get pro quality results from a cheap inkjet printer. If care about the final product, use great paper and a great printer.
Make The Physical Objects
Canva lets you order invitations directly. You can choose the quality of paper, the finish, and quantities from 25 to 100. The price varies depending on those choicest of course, but the price is always economical.
You can also download the design as a PDF or as a graphics file. Word is, you’ll get better results if you order from Canva. The downloads are not always as crisp as you might want. On the other hand, being able to print your invitations yourself may be an important part of the plan.
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How Do I Make My Own Wedding Invitations Online
Feeling the design spirit and want to DIY your own wedding invitation set? We feel you. Sometimes what you want only exists in your brain… Read more
We love DIY invitations, and we have a big ol’ collection of inspiring posts for the crafty and artistic, 5 tips to make your DIY invitations look impressive and wedding invitation wording that won’t make you barf.
But lately, we’ve been hearing a lot from readers about online graphic tool Canva how it’s been working great for ordinary mortals DIYing their wedding invitations, not just for artists. What’s more, Canva can be a source for free wedding invitations or almost free.
We decided to check it out for ourselves, just to see if we could figure it out.
Turns out it’s as easy as we’ve been hearing!
Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to make free wedding invitations online with Canva
More Than Just Online Wedding Invitations
On your big day, theres nothing better than sharing your love story in style. Thats why we want you to take it a step further by creating a wedding slideshow thats fun and exciting. When youve tied the knot and you are done with the celebration, you want to take out the time to thank your guests with a thank you card. Smilebox is exactly what you need.
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Printing Options For Diy Wedding Invitations
Theres huge variety when it comes to the execution of DIY wedding invitations these days, so before you start buying paper or ink, you need to think about the final form of your invite: how will it look, and what process do you want to use to make it? Here are just a few options, and their pros and cons.
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Letterpress: The designer and paper lovers dream, letterpress is visually lovely and highly coveted all over Pinterest. However, it is expensive because it is a fine art that requires some heavy machinery. Letterpress is the option to use when you want to support the artists making it, not because you think you should. Thomas Printers is a great option for people looking for letterpress invites on a reasonable budget. The other option to letterpress is to build your own, but you better have a serious love for the actual craft. The majority of your guests, sadly, wont know or wont care that your invites are letterpressed.
ONLINE PRINTING: Theres a pretty wide variety when it comes printing via online companies, so always make sure you can get a proof of your invitation. With some companies, that may cost extra, but its usually not very much. Much like with at-home printing, your paper options will usually be limited to whatever the company carries, and each companys paper set is going to be slightly different. You can usually request paper samples for free. Here are a few companies Ive used with good results:
Where To Find The Best Wedding Invitation Templates
Wondering where to find editable wedding invitation templates online? You’re in luck: The internet is full of resources if you know where to look. Customizable wedding invitation templates are a great way to put your own personal spin on your wedding details. Some templates allow you to adjust everything, from positioning to font and colors. Simply follow the directions and you’ll have a personalized wedding invite ready for printing. Here are a few of our favorite sites.
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The Benefits Of Diy Wedding Invitations
There are plenty of talented stationers and graphic designers out there who are working creatively to deliver you that can be customized and printed at home. For a fraction of the cost of a custom invitation suite and printing services, you can get a semi-custom invitation that will fit your wedding to a T. “Cost is definitely the biggest benefit,” says Kate Weber, owner and designer of West + Pine, a paper company focused on designing invitation templates for weddings and other special events. “This way you’re not having to pay someone else to do the printing service.”
According to Weber, printing your own invitations from a downloadable template gives you a great option to find an invitation design that suits your style, customize it to fit your specific wedding information, and then quickly print invitations on your own and ship them off. “You could easily do it in an afternoon with the right planning,” she says.
We’ve put together a guide to help you navigate the DIY wedding invitations route. Read on for 13 steps to consider, along with tips and tricks from the pros.
