Breaking Down the DIY Invite Costs

I’ve never been much of a math whiz, but I muddled through. I managed to get through high school math (algebra 1 and 2, geometry and statistics) and haven’t even thought about taking a math class since. Well, maybe I should! I was just trying to price out whether it would be cheaper to buy the invitation kits from Cards and Pockets or to buy the pieces separately. Surprisingly, it looks like it may be cheaper to buy everything individually. But what tripped me up was the enclosures. For some reason, I could not wrap my head around how everything would be printed and subsequently cut out. I had to actually pull out a ruler to figure it all out.

What the DIY kits seem to offer is avoiding all the math that screwed me up. They ask how many enclosures do you want and then tell you how much to buy for that. The kit offers the pocketfold invitation, the mat behind the actual invitation, the paper for the invite itself and enclosures, plus the envelope and RSVP envelope. When you factor in the color and type of papers I want, each invitation would end up costing $2.04. For 150 invites, which is how many I’m estimating I’ll need, that’ll end up costing us $306.

Now, $306 for an entire invitation suite isn’t too bad. Before discovering the Project Wedding website and finding Cards and Pockets, I was looking at ordering through one of the online sellers. At one site, for example, I would have to select a motif they’d already designed, a custom design would cost more. To get 150 of the invitations ($148.50), plus 150 RSVP cards ($142.50), plus two enclosures each, for accommodations or directions ($321) would put me back a whopping $723. Now, I think that includes envelopes, but I’m not sure. Admittedly, getting this would include all the printing and cutting, but I’m so restricted in the visual presentation of the invitations. I’m not sure how much printing will ultimately cost us. I haven’t priced that out yet, but I’m confident it won’t be an extra $400+!

Even so, if I buy the parts of the invitations separately (if my math is correct), I can cut my per invite cost down to $1.78 per invite, with extra paper to print enclosures in case of any problems.  So, all the supplies would end up costing $266.50. Sure, I’m only saving $40, but why not save $40? Either way, I’d still have to print my invitations and put them together myself.

One of the things that jacks up invitation prices so much is the style of printing. If you want embossed or letter-pressed text, it’ll cost you extra. With the fancy printing methods, you’re usually restricted to one, maybe two colors, in addition to black. But by having our invitations printed with a digital color printer, we can really print as many colors as we want, because we’re not trying to do anything fancy.

Especially since I can do fancy on my own. A bride on Wedding Wire was showing off her DIY invitation. She had put her pocketfold flap through a Cuttlebug, which embossed a really pretty pattern on it. Through conversations with her and a little research, I found out just how easy embossing is.

All I really need to add some creative embossing to my invites is an embossing heat tool, embossing powder, ink and a rubber stamp. I found this great blog, which breaks down how embossing works. All I really need is a rubber stamp in the shape I want and I can really personalize each and every invite. Now that’s DIY! Is it going to take a long time? Yeah, probably, but I have a long time. As of today, my wedding is 400 days away. I think I can get it done sometime in the next 400 days!

The ideas behind the DIY invites have really changed since we first started thinking about it. Originally, I had purchased the leaf punchers that I was going to glue onto to invites. I think those may have gone out the window, at least for the invitations. What I am thinking about doing is putting an Alchemy request on Etsy for an image of a tree. I kind of want a tree bordering one side of the invitation, probably in two or three colors, with maybe a leaf or two falling off. The problem with the punchers I bought is that the proportions are completely off.

The other thing I’m still trying to figure out is the fonts. I did a mock up to show Paul, my dad and my sister, Julie, and all three said that they liked the idea, but really hated the font. I’ve done some searches, but haven’t really found any I like. On DaFont, you can put in words and see it written in multiple fonts. It’s pretty fun and helpful to see how the words and ampersand would look. I think it’s especially exciting to learn that there are, in fact, fonts that have the heart above the I built in.

Invitation Beginnings!

So, we’re hoping to build our invitations on our own to save a bunch cash. Like significant amounts of cash.. Like close to $500. Anyway, I’ve mentioned before my love for the website Cards and Pockets. They have a really great DIY invitation kit including pocket folds, mats and everything else you need. I bought a sample kit and some samples and I’ve been playing around with it. And then I found this website: Marvy.com and they sell paper punches. So, I bought these!

Those are leaf shaped paper punches! And those are the multiple different papers I punched leaves out of as soon as I opened it! Yay crafty stuff!

Then I ran out of good paper to punch and really get a sense of how it would actually look like, so my fabulous fiance bought me this!

Yes, that’s construction paper. So, once I got some leaves punched out of the construction paper, Paul decided to play around with branch images. Here is what we’ve come up with for our invitations. Obviously, we haven’t printed any of the actual invitation, so no text, but here’s the what it might look like. The tab on the front would have our monogram on it. And I’m probably going to defy tradition and put Paul’s initial first, because then we get P+S, which is totally cute! Without further ado…

The three cards on the side will probably have the headers ‘Destination: Hudson Valley’ which will have accommodation and local stuff to do on it, ‘Directions’ and ‘RSVP’ with the envelope.

Thoughts?

To DIY or Not to DIY

Living in New York City, putting together a wedding is expensive. There are venues in the city that, while not too expensive to book the facility, have very expensive mandatory vendors. My brother hoped to host his wedding in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, but found it was too expensive, given that the caterer required by the facility would cost more than the budget they had decided on in the first place. While there are plenty of blogs out there about hosting an inexpensive, indie wedding in NYC, there is always some sort of compromise. Mostly, these wedding are very small, just close friends and family. But the other way to save money? Do-It-Yourself projects.

Theoretically, one could put together a wedding that is entirely DIY. Throw it in your backyard, cook all the food by yourself, bake your own cake. You could make your own dress, maybe the bridesmaids’ as well. Print out your invitations and glue everything together. Have a friend or family member become an officiant and marry you and your fiance. Is it possible? Absolutely. But is it a good idea? Probably not.

A lot of times, DIY projects can save couples a lot of money by investing their time instead of their cash. But when it comes to planning a wedding, time is valuable. And sometimes, the better, and possibly more affordable, optiong is to let someone else do it.

When it comes to invitations, I say do it yourself. Whether you’re inviting thirty people or three hundred of your closest friends, if you have the time to put together invitations on your own, you can save hundreds of dollar. Based on my preliminary research, invitations are expensive. RIdiculously expensive. Think about what goes into an invitation? Obviously, there’s the invite itself and unless you’re trying to save trees, you’ll probably have an RSVP card as well. You’ll need an envelope to mail each invite out, plus an envelope for the RSVP, not to mention any other enclosure you may want to include. Then there’s also the printing itself. Do you want your invites letter-pressed or engraved? That’ll cost more. You want more than one color on your invites? Even more money. Some places will even charge you for the font you use! And if you think you may want to design your own invites and have them professionally printed? You must be nutty, because that’ll cost you EVEN MORE!

On all of the invite websites I’ve looked at have quoted me roughly $800 to let me print my information on designs that countless of other people have already used. Additionally, the invites I’ve seen are single sheet, with the inserts loose in the envelope.

I think most people hear DIY and think it means cheap looking invitations. In reality, there are so many websites out there designed to help you put together really nice, professional looking invitations for a fraction of the cost. The website Cards and Pockets can really help you design invitations that are as simple or as fancy as you like. On that site, they sell just card stock, which can be printed and cut in any way, but they also sell pocket folds. The best part, their invitation kits. What you get is a a pocket fold, a mat background and the invitation, plus card stock for the enclosures and an envelope. You can add an RSVP envelope for a little extra. These kits start at $1.04. Yes, $1.04! What that means is that invitations for a 200 person wedding could be less than $300.

And yes, you’ll still have do your own printing, but when you think about it, printing on an inkjet printer allows you so much more choice in aesthetic. While fancier printing methods only allow one color at a time, meaning it’s more expensive with every pass, inkjet printing allows you to print pretty much anything you want for the cost of printing a single color sheet of paper. I would say though, don’t print at home. It may seem like an easy way to save money, but don’t do it. Your printer sucks. Sad, but true. No matter how good your printer is, you’re going to get spots and streaks and you run out of ink halfway through. Let them do it at the local copy center. It’s not going to put you back all that much cash.

Now, obviously, putting these together is time consuming. But if you have the time, why not take it? Putting your invitations together is time consuming either way. You still need to stuff and address each envelope. Now, you’ll have to do some glueing as well. There is a nifty little tool out there called a Xyron machine which takes a piece of paper and makes it into a sticker. Invest in one of those and the whole process will be much simpler. In the I end, I think these invites look a lot classier and a few more accoutrements, like a ribbon or a monogram to seal it shut and you’re gold.

On the other hand, when it comes to hosting the entire wedding at home do not do it yourself! Hosting a wedding in the backyard can seem like a really cheap and affordable alternative to renting out a venue. If you’re just looking to have a handful of people for a very casual affair, then it’s totally doable. But if you’re hosting a good number of people, you may not realize just how much everything will actually cost.

When renting out a venue, most of the time you’ll be getting the space, plus tables and chairs as well. Your caterer, as well as providing food, will generally have all the china and silverware necessary. Plus, they’ll set it all up. If you host it in your backyard, you need somewhere for all those people to sit. This means renting chairs and tables. It means setting the chairs up for a ceremony and then moving them again for the reception. It means renting enough plates and forks and spoons for everyone to eat with. And, if you’re handling the catering yourself, you’ll need enough space to cook and serve it. You’ll probably need to hire someone else to serve it anyway.

The real reason I will always recommend against trying to do everything yourself, why do you want to spend your wedding day worrying if dinner is hot enough? The beauty of hiring people to do that sort of stuff for you is that you make all the decisions ahead of time and then let the day unfold. On your wedding day, you should enjoy yourself. You shouldn’t be worrying about the food.

But when it comes to favors? Go ahead, do it yourself! Wedding favors are a tricky thing. The best favors are useful, meaningful or tasty. How many candles have you gotten at a wedding that ended up in the bottom of a drawer? Have you ever really used that bookmark? Probably not. But you enjoy the custom M&Ms. No one will ever turn down cookies. Okay, so the best favors are almost always tasty.

The biggest problem with wedding favors is that they are so cookie cutter, no pun intended (but, hey, it works!). If you go on almost any wedding favor website, you can find the same things over and over again. At The Knot Wedding Shop there is a page for unique wedding favors. Unique? If you’re buying it on The Know, it ain’t unique.

I think the key to giving out good favors is providing something that speaks to who you and fiance are. One of my favorite ideas came from the Martha Stewart Wedding site. There are tons of great DIY favor ideas over there, but I think this is my favorite. All this calls for is buying tea bags in bulk, bake (or buy) some tea cookies and pack them into boxes. The website provides step-by-step instructions. If you and your fiance are tea lovers, this is a really cute favor that everyone will enjoy.

The key here is having the time to put together the favors. If you can commit to it. Go for it. Why not?

Plus, it’s a great way to spend some time with you family or bridal party. Invite your bridesmaids over, order pizza and bake! Put together favor boxes. Make it into a fun time.

Our favor plan.. well, I’m keeping it on the down low for now, but I will say this, it has something to do with food, but is not edible. It’s also not finalized yet, so there’s that!

Another don’t do it yourself, dresses. Most of us are not ready for “Project Runway.” I have a sewing machine, but the most I can produce is an apron or a tote bag. A wedding dress is a lot more complicated than a tote bag. I think people also forgot just how expensive making your own dress can be. The kind of fabric needed for a dress of this magnitude is expensive and delicate. Wedding dresses are many layers of fabric and those yards could add up very quickly.

That’s not to say that you must spend money to buy a dress. I think largely the idea of making your own dress is oversold as a way to save money, when it’s not always the case. One thing to keep in mind, your time is money. While I recommended taking the time to put together your own invites or favors, wedding dresses take it to a whole new level. You can put your invitations together in a day. A wedding dress is going to take much longer. If you have a full-time job, can you afford to take on another? Because that’s what designing and sewing your own wedding dress is going to be.

If a friend or relative offers to make a dress, really consider some of the points I made above. Do they have the time to invest to really make it right? Can they work with delicate fabrics? What do you want out of your dress and will they be able add those the details you want? My sister-in-law’s dress was made by her aunt and it came out wonderfully, but afterwards her aunt made it very clear that she would never be sewing another wedding dress.

There are so many ways to make your wedding personal and save some money at the same time. The key is to decide whether you want to invest the time and energy to make it look good, to do it right. I know I’ll be embarking on plenty of DIY projects in the future, but I won’t be ashamed when I throw up my hands and hire someone else to do it for me.

Website Roundup

I think one of the first things I did when I got engaged (okay, I’ll admit it, I was looking before I got engaged), was looking at as many wedding websites as possible. And there are tons of wedding websites. But some are better than others and some are better for certain things. Here’s a couple I’ve spent time on so far:

WeddingWire.com – I started with Wedding Wire, because my sister-in-law hosted her wedding website here. WW probably has the best planning tools available to brides.

The guest list tool is comprehensive, with options to collect addresses, track RSVPs, gifts and meal choices, and create separate invite lists for other events like the bachelorette party and bridal shower. Even cooler is the seating chart option. WW allows you to set up your reception room, by adding tables of varying sizes and shapes, all customizable, and take guests from your list and drag them to each table. After you’ve seated someone, their seating assignment is automatically stored in your guest list. Awesome, right?

The budget tracker will take your total budget and break it down according to industry norms (50% to reception food, venue, etc., 10% to attire and so forth) and will allow you to redistribute funds based on your needs, track deposits and more.

And the checklist is fairly comprehensive. It definitely includes things that aren’t relevant for everyone (we’re not all going to hire a wedding planner), but that too is customizable. You can add appointments and reminders and check off tasks as they’re completed.

I also used WW to make my own wedding website. Again, the tools are really easy to use and there are a lot of options of things to add.

The other features on the site are pretty decent. I appreciate the reviews of vendors, but the vendor list is fairly limited and many of the recommendations end up being too far away.  There are lots of pictures to scroll through, but they aren’t labeled well enough to find anything easily. It’s mostly for browsing. The forums are fun though and a broad spectrum of ladies participate, which definitely helps for generating ideas and getting feedback.

TheKnot.com – If you’ve been to a wedding since the Internet came to life, you’ve heard of the The Knot. The thing I’ve appreciated about The Knot is the wealth of advice in regards to planning steps, etiquette and anything else you may not know about planning a wedding. I’ve probably gone through 99% of the articles over there and I do think it’s fairly comprehensive.

The Knot also has a much more extensive list of vendors than Wedding Wire, but does not have reviews, which I found frustrating. I also wish they would map the vendors as well. I had a very specific area I wanted to host my wedding in and I had to weed my way through a lot of different places that were broadly in the Hudson Valley, but not on the side of the river I’d hoped for.

I don’t know much about the planning tools, because I had already settled on WW, but I do know there’s no seating chart option, which was the coolest and biggest reason I went with WW.

If you’re looking to browse photos, The Knot is a good place to start. The photos are much easier to sort through and are better organized by color and type. It’s definitely a good place to go for ideas.

ProjectWedding.com – While there is a lot of information and articles on Project Wedding, I’ve mostly been using it for the DIY ideas. Under Ideas -> DIY Wedding there are tons of great step-by-step directions on how to make your own fancy invitations, budget centerpieces and how to use unexpected things to create fancy looking accoutrements for your special day.

StyleMePretty.com – Style Me Pretty is, according to the site, the “ultimate wedding blog” and it’s really hard to argue. The site features gorgeous photos of wedding from around the country and is a great place to find ideas for your own. They also have the occasional contest. I recently didn’t win six really cute clutches for my bridesmaids and I. I’ll keep checking back in hopes of winning in the future. Odds are slim though. The last contest generated over 500 comment entries!

Brooklyn Bride Online – As a Brooklyn gal myself, I started checking out this blog to get local ideas, but like Style Me Pretty, Brooklyn Bride Online posts beautiful photos of real weddings and engagement shoots. Great for getting ideas. The writer, Vané Broussard, also posts photos and interviews with area vendors that you probably won’t find on the bigger sites. The best part of the blog though is the blogroll. I’ve found tons of other great blog sites through Brooklyn Bride Online.

I think those are the top sites I’ve been clicking on so far. I know there are a ton out there, but I haven’t really spent the time to go in depth. On Wednesday night, I hit up the New York Magazine Bridal Show (which was fabulous and I’ll post more about later) and learned about a couple of new sites that I want to check out.

What sites are you clicking on for wedding news?