AJMayde

DIY Wedding Invitations

Making your own invitations can be a great way to get a custom look and save a decent bit of money. HOWEVER, it is definitely a labor-intensive project!

I ended up choosing to make my own invitations, mostly because I had a lot of ideas on how I wanted the invitations to look. The money saved (about $500) was an added bonus.

I spent about 10 hours designing the invitations, between researching materials, sizing the pieces and laying out text. If I'd chosen to do a simpler design, that time could have been cut down significantly. Printing and assembly probably took another 6 hours, but I had the advantages of a high quality printer, an electronic paper cutter and 2 sets of helping hands.

Envelope & Closed Pocketfold.
Pretty sweet monogram, amirite?

Unless you're truly enjoying yourself, I don't recommend breaking your back making the invitations. It can be a nice detail, but it's not nearly as memorable as the details on your actual wedding day. If you want to keep the process simple, I'd recommend checking out the invitation kits at Cards & Pockets. They also have other pre-cut pieces to mix and match if you want to make something a little different. Now if you want to know how I made these bad boys, please read on! My wedding color scheme was forest green, cream and gray/silver, so I stuck with that palette for the invitations.

Materials

Patterned accent strip
(back of pocketfold)

Forest Green Pocketfolds // I thought a pocketfold layout would be the best option to organize all the information I included, such as an itinerary, an RSVP postcard and a breakfast invitation. Or if you wanna get super cray, you can even make your own pocketfolds, which can get a little tricky depending on your sizing and layout.
Embossed Invitation Paper // To add a high-quality feel, I decided to use embossed paper for the actual wedding invitation text.
Cream Cardstock // For the information cards and outer monogram, I used regular old cream cardstock to match the color of the invitation paper.
Powder Green Swirl-Patterned Paper // I wanted to add a bit more color and flair, so I ordered this awesome custom patterned paper, which I used for the monogram backing, accent strip and RSVP postcard. Another nice way to incorporate patterns is with an envelope liner.
Silver Envelopes // The invitations ended up being mostly green and cream, with black and gray text. I thought silver envelopes were a nice compliment to the green while tying in with the text colors and overall color scheme.

Be sure to order paper samples to make sure all the pieces and colors will work together! You'll also want to sketch up your invitations (include dimensions) and try making a prototype to check that your sizing works.

Once you've decided on your layout, it's time to format the text for each piece. I used two different fonts: an eccentric script for major headings and an elegant but fairly normal font for body text. I won't bore you with all of my sizing, formatting and cutting details, but I'll take you on a brief photo tour of the pieces I assembled to create the final product: