It’s no shock that weddings are costly. However what would possibly shock you is simply how a lot they really price. In 2021, the common couple spent practically $30k (or $34,000 if you count the engagement ring) on their nuptials, with over $500 of that going towards marriage ceremony invites.
And whereas a few of these prices (notably selecting an excellent venue), may be completely price including to the price range. Nonetheless different bills, like the flowery bits of gold-embossed paper your friends find yourself tossing out (or hopefully recycling), are positively questionable.
So in case you’re a kind of savvy {couples} who’d reasonably save the price range for an epic and low cost honeymoon, hold studying. We’ve received the main points on how one can lower your expenses in your huge day, by getting artful along with your marriage ceremony invites.
DIY Wedding ceremony Invites
In the case of DIY marriage ceremony invites, there are two primary choices to think about.
The primary is to buy a template (extra on these under) that you just fill in, print and embellish your self. Alternatively, there are additionally digital-only templates you should purchase and use for e-invites which is able to prevent some cash on printing prices and postage.
The opposite choice is to do all the things your self from scratch. That is finest for artsy-craftsy varieties preferring printed invitations reasonably than digital ones. For this selection, you’d be chargeable for creating the design, then printing, reducing and packaging the invites your self.
Earlier than deciding precisely how DIY you wish to go along with your invitations, perform some research and take into consideration how a lot time you realistically must put into your invites. Do you take pleasure in crafting? Or are you simply attempting to avoid wasting a little bit cash?
When you’re able to make the leap, we’ve received a number of low cost and free marriage ceremony invitation templates right here that will help you get began.
Free & Low cost Wedding ceremony Invitation Templates
The best choice for DIY marriage ceremony invites is to make use of digital solely or print-it-yourself marriage ceremony invitation templates.
They’re plentiful on-line— and lots of are even free. You’ll merely add your particulars, obtain the template (often as a PDF) after which e-mail or print the invites at residence or a neighborhood copy heart.
Listed below are a few of our prime locations for scoring superb DIY marriage ceremony invite templates:
- Etsy: Hundreds of print-it-yourself marriage ceremony invitation templates to select from, beginning at $10.
- Download & Print: Limitless entry to all of their templates for $25 per 12 months.
- Greenvelope: Digital-only customizable marriage ceremony invitations, beginning at $39 for 40 friends.
- Tempoola: Free, downloadable marriage ceremony invitation templates that you would be able to customise and print in Microsoft Phrase.
- Canva: Customise and obtain these free marriage ceremony templates, then use them as digital invitations or print them your self.
- Shutterfly: You may need already used them for vacation playing cards, now try their marriage ceremony invitation templates.
- Wedding Chicks, Greetings Island and Paper Source: Dozens of free templates to select from.
For these desirous about paper invites, an alternative choice is to easily order a personalized marriage ceremony stamp with all of the pertinent particulars on it. Somewhat than printing the invitation, you’ll simply stamp the information onto a pleasant piece of paper.
Need to see what they appear to be? Right here’s an Etsy store that sells partially hand-lettered marriage ceremony invitation stamps for $80 and up.
Designing Your DIY Wedding ceremony Invites
For those who’re a graphic designer or calligraphy artist then you definitely would possibly simply wish to take your DIY marriage ceremony invites one step additional by absolutely customizing them from scratch.
First issues first: The phrases are crucial half, so be sure to get a second pair of eyes to proofread!
Then, to create the essential structure of your invitation, you need to use a free trial of Adobe InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator; a free on-line program like Canva or PicMonkey; or a word-processing software like Phrase or Pages.
Vital design components to think about if you find yourself designing your personal marriage ceremony invitation embrace fonts, line spacing, alignment, colours and theme.
In the case of fonts, you possibly can obtain them free of charge at DaFont. Or, you should purchase them. Listed below are a number of recommended font pairings for DIY marriage ceremony invites.
As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t combine greater than three fonts, and plan on staying constant all through the invitation suite (together with different inserts like RSVP playing cards or maps).
Selecting Paper for Your DIY Wedding ceremony Invites
Though it may appear unimportant, don’t skimp on the paper, particularly since it could make or break your invitation.
For those who’re printing your invites at residence, purchase cardstock that’s no less than 65-pound, although 80-pound is even higher.
For those who’re printing from residence, you’ll additionally wish to be certain your printer can deal with no matter cardstock you select. Yow will discover this info in your printer’s handbook, or by looking on-line to your printer’s “max paper weight.”
Recycled paper can also be a well-liked choice — particularly for rustic or boho invitations. You’ll be able to order cardstock on-line at Amazon or specialty outlets like Cardstock Warehouse, Michaels, LCI Paper, Paper Source and Paper Presentation. Or you possibly can go to your native Jo-Ann’s, Walmart, or office-supply retailer. You can even select completely different finishes to your paper; for marriage ceremony invites, in style finishes embrace cotton or linen, that are extremely lovely (but in addition dearer).
Don’t neglect, you want one invitation per deal with — not per visitor. So don’t make the error of ordering double the paper you want!
Printing Your DIY Wedding ceremony Invites
Whether or not you’re utilizing a DIY marriage ceremony invitation template or designing the entire thing your self, you’re going to wish to print it one way or the other.
Essentially the most PNW Reader-hoarding choice? Print your invites at residence. So long as you’ve got an honest printer, and use good paper, it will in all probability work simply superb.
Each inkjet and laser printers are as much as the job; simply you should definitely choose the highest-quality print setting. To economize, use black ink solely; if you’d like a splash of colour, use coloured paper.
For those who’re apprehensive about your wonky printer messing up that costly paper, outsource the job to an expert print store. Positive, it should price you a bit extra, but it surely beats ruining your specialty paper by attempting to economize. It additionally would possibly prevent a bit of additional time and frustration, and so they can probably minimize the invites for you.
One of many best methods to maintain prices down is to maintain your paper printings to a minimal, and embrace a QR code or hyperlink to your marriage ceremony web site.
Websites like Zola and The Knot provide free marriage ceremony web site builders which is able to enable your friends to digitally RSVP, see all the main points about your huge day, and even contribute to your marriage ceremony registry. You probably have kin who don’t use the web, you possibly can embrace a small printed card of their invitations asking them to RSVP by cellphone.
Alexandra Vincent/The PNW
Making Your DIY Invites Shine
When you’ve received them designed and printed, there are numerous methods to make your invitations shine.
You possibly can add elaborations like:
Don’t Neglect the Envelopes
One remaining method to make your invites stand out? Killer envelopes.
Envelope liners are a well-liked choice; you possibly can create them with pretty paper, an engagement photo and even fabric.
As for the addresses, you possibly can rent a calligrapher, however that’ll price you a whopping $2-$5 per envelope. It’s way more inexpensive to enlist your pals that will help you, or to simply print fairly labels.
Don’t neglect to incorporate your return deal with, utilizing a label or stamp.
The following step is to go to the publish workplace to weigh your complete invitation and see how a lot postage it’ll require. (Word: Sq. envelopes price extra to mail, so except you’re actually connected to that form, rectangle is a greater choice.)
As for precise postage stamps, you should buy customized variations but it surely’ll price you greater than $1 per stamp.
When it comes time to lastly — blissfully!!! — mail out your invitations, it’s a good suggestion to bodily take them to the publish workplace.
That means, you possibly can ask the postal employee at hand cancel them (reasonably than put them via the machine and probably harm the envelopes). Some publish places of work will do that free of charge; others cost as much as 20 cents per envelope.
That’s it! You simply completed your DIY marriage ceremony invites. Now all that’s left to fret about is the band, the meals, the cake, the costume, the honeymoon …
On the lookout for much more methods to avoid wasting in your huge day? Right here’s our checklist of 90 Financial savings Suggestions from Wedding ceremony Professionals.
Contributor Larissa Runkle continuously writes on finance, actual property, and way of life matters for The PNW. Author Susan Shain contributed to this text.