you’re cordially invited…to save some pennies

for something that few people pay a second thought to, let alone keep for posterity, people spend a lot of time and money fussing over invitations. while i would love to drop down the coinage needed to have my hands on some of the wonderful and amazing letterpress eye candy, i know there’s no way i’d be able to squeeze those into the budget. not if i want a photographer and a cake.

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of course, there are those people who swear they don’t have a creative bone in their body [or extra money to put into buying all the supplies to make their own fabulous invitations on the cheap] but thankfully there are fantastic options for those who shiver at the thought of gluing paper. let’s just say we’ve come a long way from the days of at home printing with a choice between the interlocking hearts and swirls.

the new generation of diy invitations are both beautiful and wallet friendly. and the best part? available at the local target and/or michael’s. and if it’s at michael’s then you can get them even cheaper with those ubiquitous 40% off coupons that float around every week. i know there’s a similar line at wal-mart done by martha stewart but honestly, i haven’t seen much that i’ve been impressed with.

target’s impress invitations:

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michael’s brides collection:

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i can’t attest to the paper for the brides collection at michael’s but the paper for the impress [the first set] collection at target is quite heavy and texturized. they don’t skimp!

if a boxed invitation set isn’t up your alley, you can always use invitation templates. we used uniquity for jacki’s wedding  and for $36 [back in 2006/07] she got the rights to download the template and add whatever words she wanted for however many pieces. this is a fantastic option if you want to pick out the type of paper you want to use.

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sweet penelope’s wildflower

of course, there are a crazy amount of talented designers just waiting to help you out on the ever popular etsy. now that i’ve been looking around myself, maybe i should just use one of them instead of my own design. hmm. i’m seriously considering it. remember, just because you did them yourself doesn’t mean they have to look homemade.