Invitations, Your Way

They look so pretty when they come in the mail, but wedding invitations can carry an ugly price tag for the bride who's buying them. Some 417-land brides choose to create their wedding invitations themselves, using a little good planning to bring them from drab and fab. Two brides whose weddings took place not long ago took their own approaches to getting the invitations they wanted. Together, their ideas help form a step-by-step plan you can follow to get your invitations done your way.

Match Your Ideas To Your Theme.

417 Bride Art Director Hope Brooks-Lovan knew she wanted a casual vintage wedding, so it was important to her to find invitations to match. She created the invitations herself, from concept to assembly. In the case of Logan Aguirre, GO Magazine's advertising and marketing director, the first thing she did was settle on the colors she wanted. They were pink and brown-not common choices, but Logan had a style in mind that would match.

STEP 2: Know Your Paper.

What the invitation is printed on is as important a choice as what it says. When it came to paper, Hope and Logan both purchased from Paper Source; Logan went to the company's Kansas City store, while Hope shopped online at paper-source.com. Both chose Paper Source because its selection of paper styles and colors was better than anything they could find locally. Hope says she was especially particular because of her background as a magazine art director. "I'm kind of a paper snob," she says. If you're not as exacting about your paper choice, you can purchase entire invitation kits such as the Masterpiece Studios 50-piece set for $33.95 at Office Depot.

STEP 3: Set a Timeline.

If you want your wedding invitations done on time, you have to stick to a schedule. Hope suggests giving your invitations as long as six weeks to go from idea to finished product; Logan gave about four weeks for hers, although she says hers were less complicated and were mostly assembled by friends as a favor to her. Whatever length of time you give, Hope says the worst thing you can do is overload yourself; making your own invitations can take a lot longer than it might initially appear to.

STEP 4: Look at Proofs and Samples.

Hope ordered samples of her invitation choices from Paper Source for $7.50 each, so she could decide based on what they looked and felt like. For Logan, the choice was more streamlined: She received finished proofs, three times during the design process. Both say it's important to see what your invitations look like before you receive boxes full of them in the mail.

STEP 5: Assemble!

Here comes the least exciting part, Hope warns. In her case, the 150 invitations came in the mail in 81⁄2-by-11-inch sheets. She had to cut out each invitation to size, glue matting to each one, wrap them in rice paper, tie them with gold ribbon and stuff them in envelopes along with RSVP and direction cards.

In all, Hope says it took her 30 hours to finish, working a little each night for about a month. She says she completed hers for a cost of about $350, whereas prices outside companies had quoted her were $500 or more. Logan's invitations cost her approximately $200, she says. If you're willing to trade some of your time for cost savings, you can still have the wedding invitations you want on a budget, Hope says. It's like having your wedding cake and eating it, too.