Wedding stationary: make our own or get someone to make them for us?

I havent got to invites yet, but have looked at them online.

personally I think you need a lot of patience and creativity to make them from scratch. Which i do not have!

If you want to do both, then look at pure invitation as they cut everything out do the printing and you just stick it together basically.

Hi Rach

Making your own can be great fun, and a wonderful personal touch, but you need to consider the following:

Have you got the right equipment for your needs - a good printer that will print onto the type of card/paper you want to use?

A guillotine/paper trimmer?

Time and patience!

Experience in paper crafts (or whatever style you are looking for!)

By the time you have invested in tools (if needed) and your time etc, it can often work out better/as economical to have them professionally made. Alternatively there are lots of websites where you can buy really good kits where everything is done ready for you to assemble.

Have a look at some of the very talented HIBs on here; these are all well established, excellent designers. Most of us can easily adapt styles to suit you and also offer bespoke design if you have your own ideas.

My website (currently being rebuilt, loads more on FB as 'Millie and Me) www.millieandme.net

www.prettywild.co.uk

www.bunnydelicious.co.uk

www.weddingparaphernalia.co.uk

www.xoxo-wedding.co.uk

www.twenty-seven.co.uk

Also have a look at 'Not on the High Street' 'Etsy' 'Folksy' and places like 'Hello Lucky' for inspiration.

Hope that helps!

Nicky x

I was going to make my own to save money. After helping my SIL make her invites & not enjoying it at all, the thought of it didn't excite me & I asked the woman I bought my save the date magnets off for a quote. My Sister wasn't thrilled by the thought of making them either & as the quote was very reasonable. she offered to pay for them.

I think if you are crafty, enjoy making things & have the time, go for it. If not, get someone else to do it! I can highly recommend this lady www.designbymichelle.co.uk I didn't have anything off her website, we designed my invites between us & I had lots of comments on how nice they were. She also ended up making my table number cards, an Order of the Day poster & table plan hearts to match.

I got mine off a women on ebay, paperrain is her seller name. They are pocket fold invites and she sends you a kit and you print them yourself! I can still put my own personal touches on without doing it from scratch! She sends you a template so you just have to type your invite in the box and print!

I discovered the stamps in my signature for sale which were targeted towards arts and crafts. Having met the person who crafts them I decided to use it for my own wedding and then made a business out of it for others to use as their wedding invites.

It can work out loads cheaper (you only need 1 stamp and 1 inkpad which makes it less than 70p an invite if your doing 60) and it is really nice to do, I love the personal touch for invites but understand why it's not for everyone!

I made my Save the Dates and Invitations myself ;-)

These were my save the dates...

They were really simple to make using kraft luggage tags which you can buy super cheap off eBay.

And these are my invitations...

I designed them using Microsoft Publisher and got my OH to print them out at work [he works at a printers ;-)]

If you wanted to go down this route you would be able to get them printed using Vista Print, if you add something to your basket on the website and then leave it there a few days they will bombard you with emails with some good offers so you should be able to get a decent price!

You can get some really nice clip arts from Etsy that you can download instantly for just a few $ and you can get some great free fonts from www.dafont.com.

We used vistaprint - vintage style etc and very cheap ; )

Hiya

There re pro's and con's to both really.

It can be fun if you are crafty already however it can be daunting and a MAJOR headache if you've done nothing like it before. It does give you a great sense of achievement once they are complete but it does take time, patience and dedication. You can end up spending way over budget if you don't get the design right first time. You can get GREAT professional invitations at a descent price and take the stress out of it all OR there is a middle ground. You can get DIY kits which takes all of the hassle out of the design and finding all of the materials. It also saves on the cost of the tools which can really add up.

We offer DIY kits on all of our designs and we even offer a free, no obligation design service so that you can get the design you want. Kits are fractionally cheaper than fully made and you can choose as little or as much as you want to make up the kit.

Nat

Thank you to everyone!
That was my first ever post on this website and I was overwhelmed with the support! I will take a look at everything suggested

Looking forward to having your ideas and support.

Rachel

We did a compromise- used a free template from wedding chicks (check them out, they're amazing), and printed using freebies on vistaprint. They got so many compliments and were so inexpensive, I would highly recommend.

I made ours ... It was effort ! ( will try and upload pics but it's a killer on my I phone )

and probably cost more because I underestimated how much ribbon I would need !

Although i do love them ( even though I'm sort of sick of the sight of them and don't like them as much as I thought I would lol ) x

Again, I can only illiterate what the other stationery suppliers have said...

Making your own stationery is a huge task - no matter how big or small the wedding is.

Factor in the time it'll take you to make. As an average, 50 invites for myself take around 8 hours and I know what I'm doing!But then don't forget it doesn't just end with invites. As you get closer to the day you need to work on Table Plans, Table Numbers, Place Settings/Favour Boxes, Menu and Order of Service/Day.

There are so many stationery companies around to help you, so I'm sure that someone will help you if you decided to let someone else create the magic.

Jen x

I think it depends how complex or how simple you want and what are your skills when it comes to creativity/handwork.

For me, it was a no brainer. I've designed them on Photoshop and will have it professionally printed.

Rather than that, there is no much needing doing to it, apart from writing chosen menu on placename cards.

So all pretty simple, if you know what you're doing

We started out with good intentions, bought all the gear to make our own, got round to making a sample invite which we liked and then thought it's the RSVP's and evening invitations, order of service etc and we just did not have the time or energy to make our own so ordered them with Confetti. In theory it would have been lovely but due to us not committing time wise, didn't work out.