While hand-calligraphed save-the-dates and letterpress wedding invitations are undeniably elegant, they have one key drawback: These custom paper elements are undeniably expensive. We'll never say that outsourcing your big-day paper to a professional isn't worth it; choose an expert who knows what he or she is doing and your investment will pay off in spades. That being said, a budget is a budget—and if you're searching for ways to cut costs (and potentially make room for wedding details you consider top priority, like an open bar or a live band), forgoing the professional stationery route might be one of them. That's where DIY wedding invitations come in.
Meet the Expert
Printing your own wedding invitations at home is a budget-friendly alternative for couples who aren’t afraid of a little DIY work. Not sure where to start? You've come to the right place: Here, our experts walk you through the benefits of handling this pre-wedding task (which is often a breeze, since so many downloadable templates are available for minimal costs online!), what you need to know before you get started, and key printing tips (most of which involve choosing the correct paper and alignment).
DIY Wedding Invitation Benefits
There are plenty of talented stationers and graphic designers who will deliver downloadable files that can be customized and printed at home. For a fraction of the cost of a custom invitation suite and printing services, you can get a semi-custom invitation that will match your wedding's style and theme. "Cost is definitely the biggest benefit," says Kate Weber, owner and designer of West + Pine, a paper company focused on designing invitation templates for weddings and other special events. "This way you're not having to pay someone else to do the printing service."
According to Weber, printing your own invitations from a downloadable template gives you the option of finding an invitation design that suits your style, customizing it to fit your specific wedding information, and then quickly printing invitations on your own and shipping them off. "You could easily do it in an afternoon with the right planning," she says.
If this sounds like something you can handle, we've put together a guide to help you navigate the DIY wedding invitation route. Read on for 13 steps to consider, along with tips and tricks from the pros.
Planning a wedding on a budget requires creativity to ensure that you save money as much as possible, while still achieving a beautiful wedding. One area for potential savings is with your invitations. Professionally printed invitations can cost you at least $3 each plus postage, but you can make your own DIY wedding invitations for a fraction of the cost!
Here are some of our best tips for saving money when making your own wedding invitations.
Start by looking at pictures of wedding invitations online for inspiration. When I did this, I found that one of my favorite styles was layering, with multiple colored papers stacked and glued together. This style of invitation can be costly to purchase, usually at prices of $3 per invitation or more. However, this look is simple to create on a tight budget if you’re willing to DIY.
Craft stores and other retail outlets should have a variety of specialized cardstock that will suit your needs. Try shopping online for your papers, you can find really great deals and online coupons that might not be available in store. Purchase colored card stock in the color you want for the back of your invitation and cut it to a size that fits in the envelopes you want to use for the invitations.
A good paper cutter can really help if you’re planning to make DIY wedding invitations. If you don’t have one, you can usually find them available for use at copy shops. Additionally, you could consider purchasing one at your local craft store– just don’t forget your coupon! If you need to order it, be sure to check shipping quotes so that your overall cost still fits into your budget.
Format the text of your invitation to fit on a page ½-1″ smaller than your large pieces of card stock. (For example, your cardstock pieces might be 5″ x 7″ and your smaller paper might be 4″ x 6″.) Once you have the layout completed, print a test invitation and cut it down to size. You’ll want to get an idea of exactly how the finished product will look. Consider using a pre-created invitation template or design them yourself in Canva.
Unless you’re doing some sort of foldable design, you’ll need to purchase wedding envelopes. Whether you want a classic square flap design, a euro-flap envelope, or envelopes with gold foil edging, there are many options for where to buy envelopes for your wedding invitations. Check out this post with some of our favorite websites to buy wedding envelopes.
You can easily print your DIY wedding invitations at home using a basic inkjet or laser printer. Just make sure you have plenty of ink! If you’d rather have your stationery professionally printed, we recommend using Overnight Prints to print your wedding invitations.
Pro Tip: Flat Printed Invitations will be more affordable than other methods of printing.
Many couples include RSVP cards in their invitations, but this is an added cost because of the cards and envelopes, especially if you pre-stamp the envelopes. One alternative is setting up a free wedding website where guests can RSVP online. Just say “RSVP at www.weddingwebsite.com” on your reception card. Alternately, give an RSVP phone number or email address.
If your wedding and reception are taking place at different locations, you may need to create a reception card as well. This card is usually about half the size of your invitation and is printed on coordinating paper. It should include information such as where the reception is taking place. If there is room, you can also include hotel information or a wedding website on the reception card.
The last step is to create an assembly line to put together your invitations. A piece of double-sided tape across the top of your page with text is the easiest way to hold it to the colored card stock. Another idea is to punch two holes through both layers of the invitation, near the top, thread a piece of ribbon through and tie it in a bow on the front. Stuff your envelopes, stamp and address them, and you are ready to go!
If you aren’t hand-addressing your invitations, you could consider printing the addresses onto your envelopes. You will need to start by making a spreadsheet of your guest list addresses. Then you can use Microsoft Word or InDesign to do a mail merge to export your guest addresses into single file format. Then, you can print your addresses onto your envelopes, or onto sticker labels to adhere to your envelopes.
One final consideration before digging in on your project is the cost of mailing your invitations. Before finalizing the paper, envelopes, and contents of your homemade invitations, take a completed test invitation to the post office to see how much it will cost to mail. If your invitation weighs more than one ounce, you will have to pay an extra 20 cents in postage to mail each one. While 66 cents in postage doesn’t seem like a lot, it can quickly add up, particularly if you’re planning a big wedding.
I’m going to walk you through the process of how I created my 3-Layer DIY Wedding Invitations myself, using my graphic design software and printing at home, as well as all of the costs involved in doing so.
The invites are 3 layers in different shades: Seaglass, Opal, and Ice Blue. The paper I purchased will yield the 3 pieces for each invite, plus a response card and map card to also go inside the envelopes. The Ice Blue layer is the only printed layer of the invite itself. I used the custom print size settings to print the design onto the top layer of the invitation before assembling the layers.
I created cutting templates so that I could take the papers to Kinko’s to get the papers cut. They charge $1 per cut.
Their industrial paper cutter can do exact measurements and cut 100s of sheets at a time. It cost me $16 plus tax to get the paper cut.
It was so worth it- imagine cutting 100s of pieces of paper and trying to do it accurately! Save yourself the headache and take your paper to Kinko’s! I cannot stress this enough.
Get the Layered Invitation Cutting Templates Here:
PRO TIP:
A Note About Cutting: Be sure to print your designs on your paper BEFORE trimming/cutting. I didn’t do this, and feeding the pre-cut papers through my printer was an absolute NIGHTMARE. Take it from me… you don’t want to do that. I highly suggest printing the designs (multiple on a page) first and then having them cut or cutting them yourself. Save yourself the agony. Trust me.
I assembled the invitations with a tape runner I purchased at Walmart. You can see the assembly process below. I just centered the layers using my best judgment and attached them with the tape runner.
In total I spent $167.85 for all the papers, but if we want to break it down to cost-per-invite, here’s the tally:
Back Layer: I got 2 pieces (5 x 7 inches) of SeaGlass per sheet
(100 sheets for $54=.54 per sheet) so that is .54/2= .27 per piece
Middle Layer: I got 2 pieces (4.5 x 6.5 inches) of Opal per sheet
(100 sheets for $21.95=.22 per sheet) which is .22/2= .11 per piece
Top Layer: I got 3 pieces (4.25 x 6.25 inches) of IceBlue per sheet
(100 sheets for $54=.54 per sheet) which is .54/3= .18 per piece
For the reply cards (3.5 x 5 inches) I got 5 pieces per IceBlue sheet which is .54/5= .11 per piece
Envelopes were .19 apiece
.27 + .11 + .18 + .11 + .19= .86 PER INVITE for the paper.
As far as printing, I printed them myself on my home printer. COST= FREE! (See some DIY printing tips here.) My printer kept telling me the ink was low, but I was able to finish the job. I printed 100s of sheets with no quality loss, so thankfully I didn’t have to replace the original cartridges.
Instead of messy glue sticks, I used this amazing product: the Scotch Tape Runner. You can find in the crafting section at Walmart, but you can also order it on Amazon. I got one of these and 2 refills. They cost around $5-7 for the dispenser, but the refills are a little less. These little runners were so easy to use and work great, so I cannot recommend them enough.
If you factor in the cost of the paper, cutting, and other supplies, it adds up like this:
$16 for cutting + around $15 for the tape runners= $31.
Divided by 125 invites= an added .25 per invite.
So… add that to the .86 and that’s about $1.11 total, with assembly costs.
That’s it, folks!!! And they are under the weight limit you won’t have to pay extra postage!
Plus, I still had tons of paper left over to use on other crafts like Menu Cards, Signage for the wedding, etc. I was so thrilled with my savvy accomplishments… I can’t even tell you.
I’ve gotten lots of questions about my DIY Wedding Invitations so I decided to share them here as a bit of an FAQ. Please feel free to ask additional questions in the comments:
I scanned in the swirly ornament from a stamp I had and then repeated it to make the pattern. If you aren’t a professional designer, there are plenty of great Printable Wedding Invitations from our friends at Download & Print. I also created several Free Printable Wedding Invitations for you to use!
I laid out the invite in Adobe InDesign, which is professional design software. You can get a free 30-day trial here, or sign up for a subscription.
I started knowing that I wanted a layered invitation. I created boxes in InDesign in 3 different sizes in my colors to make the 3 layers, then I centered them to see how they would look once printed.
To make the cutting templates, I just created a box the size of the layer I needed cut. So for instance, the backing layer was 5×7. I created a new file and placed as many 5×7 boxes that could fit on a standard sheet of paper. That number ended up being two for the 5×7 size. For the smaller pieces like the RSVP, I was able to fit up to four per page.
The font for the monogram is Delouisville, which I found a free download on Dafont.com, a great site for free fonts. The other two fonts are MrsEaves and Bickham Script Pro. If you’re looking for premium wedding fonts that are inexpensive, you could browse Creative Market!
You don’t need a fancy professional printer, I just used a basic home inkjet printer. My current favorite is the Canon MG 7720. Depending on the type of finish of the paper you use, you may be better off using a laser printer.
I wish I could tell you some magical trick, but honestly, I eyeballed it. One key factor was the precise cuts by Kinkos. Those perfectly squared cuts made it much easier. If you’re worried about this aspect, I definitely suggest getting your paper cut professionally.
Thankfully, I was able to print to the edge of the pieces on the top layer of the invite. However, printing on custom-sized paper was a challenge. It took a long time and lots of scrap paper to figure out the perfect printer settings. It was more of a headache than it was worth. I recommend printing your designs on standard letter size, and then getting them cut to size.
If you’re willing to invest the time and energy into DIYing your wedding invites, you can save money!