Saturday, August 11, 2012

DIY Budget Invites

Posted this a little late, but had to do it because I think they are so cute :)

For the Bridal Shower for Daniela, she has a lot of family that lives pretty local and A LOT of friends. 

The first thing I started on was the invites.  Since I figured everyone throws invitations away I wanted to keep the cost on the invites as low as possible.  And at 100+ people invited, I need to get creative!

If you purchase invites from the store you are paying $1.00+ an invite, plus postage, plus envelopes, plus labeling.  And not only that, but its really just not as fun.

Thank goodness I have a good friend Stacy over at www.leafletlady.blogspot.com that designs all types of marketing/invitations/cards etc. for SUPER CHEAP!

I told her what I wanted, and gave her all the information and for $10-$20 (design fee) she can come up with a design for the invitation!



It was cheaper for me to print the design myself (instead of sending it to a print shop) and print it on photo paper.  I made them 5''x7" so I could fit two per page, and cut them myself.  I got the photo paper at Staples for $14.99 for 50 pages (remember 2 per page).  You can get glossy or matte finish, and I would recommend glossy, it just looks richer to me.

The next thing was the envelopes.  I really wanted orange envelopes, but since specialty envelopes are pricier than normal ones, I just got regular ivory envelopes Staples brand for $13.98 for 100 envelopes. But they were SOOO boring looking and I wanted to spice them up so I went on a mission to find some spice.



I found it at Target where I picked up a pack of 4 specialty designed tapes in my colors (orange/yellow) for a whopping $2.08 for the pack of four (on clearance of course)!  I trimmed the bottom of the envelopes with the tape as well as the middle of the back of the envelopes.



Then I used Avery labels that I already had to address the invitations and to also make the return address label.




So break down:

Design: $10, www.leafletlady.blogspot.com (I got the trade for services discount at $0) - Total $0
Paper/Printing: Photo Paper Staples Brand - Total $16.15
Envelopes: 50 Basic envelopes Staples Brand - $6.98 x 2 Total $13.98
Envelopes: Tape to trim envelopes with - Total $2.08
Labels: Avery (already had) - Total $0
Postage: 75 stamps (I passed out invites to people I would see in person) - Total $33

So for 100 invites, I invested 3 1/2 hours of my own time, and finished and mailed the invitations out at A Total of $65.21 or $0.65/invitation including postage!!!

Shout out to Stacy, she does ANY kind of invitation, wedding announcement, Christmas Cards, Senior Announcement, Baby Announcement, Flyers, and anything you can think of for only $10-$20 a design!!!!!!!! You can see her work on her blog!