Invites: the most important piece if you want people to show up.
Also, something super not on my radar or high on my priorities list.
Don’t get me wrong, I drool over beautiful, heartfelt invitation suites that fit the couple perfectly and make the most amazing flat lay. But you know how you’re supposed to focus on the things that are important and save your money for things that count?? Invitations were just not that for me.
So a few weeks ago when Ashley says okay it’s time to really get serious! We had two choices: either choose a design from Minted or create a design and print them ourselves.
If you’ll remember, we used Minted for our save the dates and they were perfect! We loved designing in their little design studio and they were affordable and turned out super cute. So we gave them a shot and looked through their designs. The great part about Minted is the designs are cute and simple and they have a ton of paper choices! Also foiling and embossing, linen papers, heavier weight. All that kind of stuff!
After we searched through those we decided we wanted something cheaper and more uniquely us! That is something that’s been important throughout this whole process. Especially after we created our perfect wedding logo, that definitely had to be created.
So we told Ashley we were gonna make our own invites and print through Cards and Pockets! YAY!
Then AJ, sweet amazing AJ who only wants the best for me and knows me better than I know myself. He said, are you sure you want to do this because this seems like something that will really stress you out.
And I was like yeah totally but it’s okay. Cut to three weeks later and I’m having a breakdown over Illustrator like WHY is that so much less intuitive than photoshop or indesign adobe?? Fix that please.
Anyway! We are past that and they got created but boy was it a doozy. If you are an ambitiously creative bride who is wanting to save money and have your name on a part of your wedding:
Hear me out.
I can’t show you the invites yet because I’m still in the proofing process (and behind) but they did turn out super cute! I’m really happy with them and happy with how much they’ll save us 🙂 But short and sweet, here are my pros and cons to DIY-ing your own invites.
Pros to DIY:
- Save you a good chunk of money that can go towards something higher on your priority list. For us that would be our beautiful dessert table that’s going to be so dreamy!
- You have total creative control. I don’t consider myself too much of a control freak but it was nice being able to have the final say on exactly how things will look.
- Because we wanted a simple design, it really wasn’t that hard. If you have a good understanding of adobe Indesign or Illustrator (I only have one of those things!) you’ll be set. I should note that obviously you’re set if you want a simple design.
Cons to DIY:
- Not being able to hire any of the amazing vendors that we call friends and ones that we’ve found. This is a general con with so many parts of our wedding! We know so many amazing talented people and I honestly wish we could hire them all. It feels sort of wrong DIY-ing something when I know so many people who could do it so much better!
- Sort of going off the first con – anything DIY is going to be adding something else to your plate. This is a big one to add. Scouring inspiration, creating, designing, printing proofs, finalizing wording – it’s A LOT y’all! And that’s just on one piece of stationary, there’s a whole SUITE! Yeesh. Long story short, the con is that it’s stressful.
- Going off of the last pro, my last con is that you have to be really good at designing. I have some basic design knowledge from college but I am certainly not a designer!! So while yes you get total creative control….you have total creative control. The whole fate of your invitation suite lies on your shoulders!
I want to be super clear: I’m really happy with the way our suite is (going to) turn out!! It’s very us, very cute and colorful, and has our logo on it (score!!). But would I recommend DIY-ing or do it all over again if I had the chance. Probably not.
If I could go back I would have scrounged up the extra money – which honestly I’m not even sure how much it is? I know designs can be around 500-800 but with printing we could end up spending thousands of dollars. But I would have probably hired a designer to create the invites and then did the printing DIY. That’s the route I would recommend if you’re trying to save and invites aren’t super important to you!
Want to catch up on our wedding planning plans?
Our mood board, theme and color scheme
