I will be stuffing and licking envelopes this July 4th weekend because my wedding invitations finally arrived from the printer! Here’s a sneak peak:

My DIY Polaroid Wedding Invitations

My DIY Wedding Invitation RSVP Postcard

In keeping theme with my save the dates, I also designed my invitations to be a series of Polaroids. Each invitation set is comprised of four pieces: three Polaroids containing various information about the wedding and one RSVP postcard.  My greatest accomplishment in this entire project was that I was able to get 200 invitation sets printed for $100.  That’s right – ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS only.  This is how I did it.

My first step didn’t start with the design or verbiage…it began with the envelope.  I had a box of 5.75″ by 4.5″ white envelopes leftover from a previous project, so those dimensions were my starting point.  I’d always look into the envelopes first because you don’t want to create the invitation design and realize they don’t fit in standard envelopes.  In this situation, you’re stuck either ordering custom-made envelopes or redoing your design.  The size of your envelopes will also determine your postage cost – expect to pay more for larger, irregular sized, or square envelopes.

My envelopes were actually perfect because they fit the standard Polaroids and my RSVP postcard.  I thought making my RSVP a postcard was ingenious because I saved on postage and envelopes while the return address label allowed for easy guest tracking when we get the RSVPs back in the mail.  No manual numbering or special markers and black lights!

I wasn’t picky about the paper stock so I opted for a 100 lb gloss cover printed on digital press.  I didn’t think it was necessary to buy specialty stock (ie, hand woven, textured, linen, etc.) because most people don’t pay close attention to this stuff anyways.  What they really care about is the who, what, where and when on the invitations.  As jigg mentioned, many wedding invitations end up in the recycling bin.

The original printing quote was $200, but because I had a relationship with the printer, she gave me a 50% discount – so my entire printing cost came up to only $100! My total postage cost was $132 (go $.29 postcard stamps!).  My entire project, along with other miscellaneous expenses came up to $275.