Should I Make My Own Wedding Invitations?

Should I make my own wedding invitations, or should I buy them?  If you are thinking this, you are not alone.   There are many reasons why you should consider making your own wedding invitations.

Planning your wedding can be the most exciting time in your life. With so much to plan it can also become a little overwhelming and stressful at times.

Deciding if you should make your own wedding invitations is a question many couples consider.

There are many areas you need to consider when deciding if you should make your own wedding invitations or buy them.

• Total cost.
• The time it will take.
• The tools you will need.

Planning a wedding is not cheap and one popular way to save money is by making your own wedding invitations.

The cost of making your own wedding invitations depends on the following:

• The materials you use.
• The style of your wedding invitation (gatefold, postcard, single fold).
• The number of invitations needed.

Terri and I decided to make our own wedding invitations for our wedding and it was the best decision we made. 

We had so much fun putting our creative ideas into our wedding invitations.  They were tailored to our style which was important for us.

So, the question is should you make your own wedding invitations?

Is It Worth Making Your Own Wedding Invitations?

Yes! It is absolutely worth it.  Not only can you design them exactly how you want them to be but in most cases, they will be cheaper to make your own.

Your wedding invitations will play a big role in your wedding.  The importance of getting them exactly how you want them to be is just as important as choosing your  

• Wedding dress
• Rings
• Cake
• Location of wedding etc.

You want the person receiving your DIY wedding invitation to feel your personality in your wedding invitation without you even being there.

Let’s look at some reasons why you should consider making your own wedding invitations.

Unlimited Customization Of Your Wedding Invitations

Making your own wedding invitations at home gives you full customization to design them to look exactly how you want them to look.   

For instance, let’s say you want pink dove’s on the bottom right corner of your invitations, all you need to do is attach them, as simple as that.  However, this option might not be available if you were to buy them.

Making your own wedding invitations gives you the option to customize absolutely anything, the only limitation is your imagination.

More Variety Of Designs Available For Your Budget

You can design your own wedding invitation based on your budget, however, if you were to buy them your options could be limited by your budget.

For example, let’s say your budget is $150 for your wedding invitations and you need 50 invitations in the gatefold style using an ivory linen card. 

From a shop, this might cost $300. If this were the case you would have no choice but to choose a different style that matched your budget of $150, meaning you could not go with your first choice.

But if you were to make them instead, they might only cost $130 which means you can still go with your first choice.

Add Your Personality To Your Wedding Invitation Design

One of the best benefits of designing your own wedding invitations is that you can add your own personality to them. So, when someone receives your wedding invitation, they can sense your personality through the styles and the design you chose.

For example, let’s say you love gardening and people know you love growing your own flowers.  You could place dried flower petals from your garden inside your wedding invitations. 

There are so many personal touches you can add to make your personality shine through your invitations.  

You Can Use Multiple Designs

It’s very popular to have a different design for the reception and a different design for the ceremony.

Shops are more than happy to do multiple designs for your wedding invitations at a cost however this can quickly add up.

Making your own wedding invitations will avoid any additional costs due to multiple designs.

You could use different materials for different designs or you could even just simply change the wording and keep the same design.

That’s the great thing about making your own wedding invitations, you can design them whichever way you like.

Sense Of Excitement 

I think this is our favorite reason why we chose to make our own wedding invitations. 

It was just so exciting just knowing the fact we were making our own wedding invitations with our own hands. 

Invitations that would be sent out to all our families and friends.  Watching our ideas come to life was priceless.

To help you decide if you should make your own wedding invitations or not, you need to consider certain areas before making your final decision.

Yes, the idea of making your own wedding invitations may sound fun and exciting but if you don’t cover certain areas before starting, the whole process can become stressful and very challenging.

Below are 3 areas you need to consider before you make your decision.

Consider the Cost

Before you make your final decision, you need to consider how much it will cost you to make all your wedding invitations.

Before you start you will need to know the following:

• The number of invitations you will need.
• Type of materials that you will need for example:
  • Cardstock
  • Customization (gems/ribbons/inserts etc.)
  • Envelopes size and color
  • Postage cost
  • Cost of ink for your printer.

Look around for the cheapest prices for the materials.  Don’t just buy everything from one supplier.

Even though buying all your materials online might be the cheapest option, however, it does have one major downside and that is, you can’t tell what the quality of the materials is going to be like by looking at the pictures on the website.

You’d be surprised how many materials you can find at the dollar store such as gems, ribbons, and even cardstock. So, if you are trying to save money check out shops like the dollar store.

One area that will have a huge impact on the cost of your invitations is the actual size of the invitation.  The bigger the invitation the higher the cost will be.

I know there is a lot to consider when it comes to cost but once you’ve got a set budget you can shop around to find materials to match your budget.  

Consider The Time It Will Take

I think many couples overlook how much time it will actually take them to make their wedding invitations.

This was something that we overlooked.

Keep in mind, the more complicated your design is the more time it will take.

Let’s say it takes you 10 minutes to create 1 invitation and the total number of invitations you need is 100.  As you can see, this would take you 1000minutes which is over 16 hours.

This might not seem long, but if you have other commitments such as work, family, etc. it could be difficult finding the time to sit down and make your invitations.

Sorry if it sounds like I’m trying to change your mind about making your own wedding invitations.   Seriously I’m not.

I’m just trying to give you all the facts.  

Even though there is a lot of factors to consider when making your own wedding invitations.   I would still highly recommend it to everyone.  With a little time management and budget control, anything is possible.

If you have 3, 6, 12+ months to your big day, just set aside a few hours a week and you will be surprised how smoothly creating your own wedding invitations will go.

Consider The Tools You Will Need

If you have got a creative side and love to create things, you probably already have most of the tools that you need to make your own wedding invitations.

However, if you don’t then you need to consider this cost too.

You don’t really need many tools.  It all depends on how complex your invitation design is.

The basic tools you will need are the following:

• Computer with the correct software
• Printer
• Paper cutter
• Scoring board
• Glue or double-sided sticky tape

Again, you might not even need all of the above, it all depends on your design.  But the bare minimum you will need is

• Computer.
• Printer
• Scissors

You need to have some sort of software installed on your computer to design your invitations.  

There are lots of paid software you can use to design your wedding invitation however weddings are expensive enough and free is the best policy.

There are plenty of open-source software available to download, in other words, free software you can download and use to design your wedding invitations such as GIMP (similar to Adobe Photoshop), however, if you have no experience in using this type of software, there is a steep learning curve. 

Better still, if you already have Microsoft Word installed on your computer you can even use that.

Final Thoughts

Your wedding day is one day that you will never forget.  For this reason, you want everything to look perfect and go smoothly, just how you planned it.

Every small detail counts.

Arranging your wedding is no small task and can cost more than you expect. 

So, if you can save a little here and a little there, it will eventually add up.  More money for the honeymoon budget. lol

Wedding invitations can cost hundreds of dollars if not thousands, but they don’t have to. 

If you decide to make your own wedding invitations, there are many benefits including:

• Save money
• Full control of customization  
• Use multi designs at no extra cost.
• Make your invitations unique by adding your own personality through the design you use.

As we have covered earlier in this article, you need to consider certain areas before making your final decision such as:

• Cost
• Time
• Tools

Should I make my own wedding invitations, or should I buy them?  We hope this article has helped you make your decision and we wish you all the best for your special day!

Please share in the comments if you plan to buy or make your own wedding invitations and why?

Happy Crafting!