This week for Wedding Wednesdays we are featuring ideas on wedding invitations and stationary! There are so many great ways to get beautiful wedding stationary without breaking the bank. Here are some of our best ideas:
Invitations
First of all, you have to decide whether or not raised print on your invitations is a priority or not. If it isn’t, you have a much wider range of options when it comes to wedding invitations. Here are some of the best ones:
1. VistaPrint. I know, we beat this into the ground on this site. But you can find some beautiful invitations that are often free, and pay only the cost of shipping! Here are some of my favorites from their site, from traditional to more contemporary designs. With the plain invitations, you can always embellish with a ribbon matching your wedding color to dress it up!
2. Print your invitations yourself. Target sells beautiful invitation kits for a very reasonable price that you can print on your own printer. You can also find similar sets at Michaels (40% off coupon, anyone?)
Here are some of my favorite sets from Target:
All of these sets run from $24.99 to $39.99 for 50 invitations, which is a huge discount off of custom stationary prices!
If you still want the raised print look of more expensive stationary, your best bet is often to look on-line. By keeping a sharp eye out you can often find promotional sales on websites offering discounts based on the number of invitations that you order.
Calligraphy and Embossing
It is always up to each bride whether or not she wants to spend part of her budget on having a professional address wedding invitations- for me it wasn’t a priority, but for others it might be.
Other good alternative are having a friend who is able to do it help out for a reduced fee, or testing your printer’s settings- I’ve seen some surprisingly beautiful cursive fonts that turn out beautifully on envelopes- you’ll want to have a few extra on hand to test out the spacing though! Getting creative on this area can save you a nice sum of money, so it is always worth the thought!
If you’ve never seen an embossed return address on a wedding invitation, here is what it generally looks like:
You can spend upwards of a few hundred on having your envelopes embossed with a return address. It is beautiful and elegant, but very costly! If you want the look but hate the price, here is an excellent suggestion from my friend Emily- purchase your own embosser, and do them yourself! Not only will you save tons of cash, you’ll have beautiful envelopes as well as an embosser to use for yourself in the future!
Embossers can vary in cost, depending on the style you want. I prefer these stylish ones from expressionary.com:
They cost $75 each, which in itself isn’t a terrible price compared to paying someone to do it, but this deal makes it even better- right now you can get 40% off at expressionary.com by using code USWJAN at checkout- that means the embosser will only be $45 + shipping! You can also use this code towards personal stationary or thank you notes. Better yet, purchase a beautiful monogrammed embosser and use it at the top of your wedding invitations to give it a classic look. The offer code is valid through March 31, 2010.
Finally, this was an idea that I just had to share- it’s a great DIY idea to make your invitations one of a kind. My friend Kelly had the most fantastic invitations that she actually placed within a fabric envelope. It had a great Anthropologie-esque feel to it, and really stuck in my mind! Kelly printed the invitations on her home computer, and her mother sewed the pouches together. Such a stylish way to get invitations on a budget!
Consider doing something similar for your own invitations by buying fabric on etsy in a color or pattern that complements the look of your wedding- your guests will love it!
To see more Wedding Wednesday posts go here. Please continue to send us any wedding ideas you may have and leave us a comment letting us know what you think!
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I will be helping my daughter pick out invitations one day *sniff* Since I hope it will be SEVERAL years before that happens, there's just no telling what the options will be by then!Very informative post!
Great ideas for the budget minded bride.For my 2007 wedding, I went the Target route and bought 100 invitations on clearence,(2 boxes of 50 marked down $6.24 each) printed them, added velum sheets, ribbon and silver medalion with Monogram (Michael's $7.00 after 40% coupon). I received multiple compliments regarding the beautiful invitations. I also sealed each envelope with sealing wax and fleur de lis embosser (also bought at Michael's with 40% off coupons).I used my computer and a downloaded Calligraphy font to print out my envelopes. Worked like a charm, hard to tell they were not hand printed.
Thanks for linking up to Thrifty Thursday this week!Hugs,LeighTales from Bloggeritavillewww.lbratina.blogspot.com
Great ideas! I'll have to share this with my friend who will be getting married soon! Thanks for linking to Creative Cats!
Love the fabric envelopes! Thanks for sharing with Made it Monday! Jules
Interesting!