Brides Say No to DIY Invitations

For today, I would like to have the bride’s speak for themselves.  These are comments from real brides either given to me or taken from online forums.  I didn’t make this up – DIY invites are much more difficult to deal with and expensive than they look!  To order invitations from Agape Weddings visit our invitations site and receive 10% off!  www.agapeweddings.cceasy.com

“So I printed my DIY invites and inserts, and unfortunately I messed the inserts up…I did not leave enough space in between them for them to be cut properly and somehow the size that I had them set to print at was incorrect. I was quite sure that I had everything right cuz when I printed out test sheet it was OK, but I guess you its trial & error so now I have to return to cardsandpockets.com to reorder some card stock, but this time I think that I am going to just order the pre-cut inserts to be on the safe side. Good things i that I dot have to do the invites over they turned out fine and were able to be cut correctly.”

“My mother decided we were going to “print” the invites for my wedding ourselves… she got an AMAZING deal on ebay and bought them so I jumped on her wagon and went along with it. Since then when she bought them in January “we” have not done anything it has more been ME and it has been the BIGGEST pain in my rear end… First her computer and printer wouldn’t work (3 times), then we had no ink for another printer I was going to use… then we couldn’t figure out how to get the mail merge to work (we never did, I ended up importing over 120 SEPARATE names and addresses individually)… then the envelopes would get jammed… then the response cards wouldn’t print and I had to try a completely different computer… WHAT a hassle.
Needless to say… today every single one of the invites have been put in the mail!!! They are not fancy or done up but they get the point across and THEY ARE DONE!!!
Just wanted to share!!!”

“I have to say I share the pain, frustration and excitement at the same time right along with you. We also started in Jan, we looked and looked at brochures, and we wouldn’t find anything we wanted nor loved. Until I saw exactly what I wanted and called one of the companies up to only find out they wanted to charge me a little bit over $500 I told them your nuts… mind you there were only 70 invitations being mailed out. So I did them myself… got an awesome deal on all the materials that I needed. Told my Fiance we are doing these, she said oh yes no prob i’ll help you… that’s what she said LOL… and of course the pain started, the printer jammed on me, then the ink finished, then the pc wanted to act up … until 3 months later all the invitations were finally complete. All invitations went out mid April. (and she only helped to put them in there envelopes and put stamps on them LOL… “

“I don’t think I’d recommend invitations that you print yourself to my worst enemy! The problem with them is that all the computer companies that make the printers must think it’s just so darn funny when we actually try to USE any paper size besides 8.5 x 11! For my ‘photo’ printer, I’ve read the manual, as has my finace and my computer guru cousin. No dice; there’s always a paper size ‘bink’ noise, or it comes out crooked. Our parents tried printing them. Several guests have as well. This has become a NIGHTMARE! I’ve got all these pretty blank invites…what am I to do, hand-write every bloody one of them???  My dad was finally able to get his printer to obey, so they’re printed. Then came stuffing the envelopes. I discovered that the paper used to make the envelopes is so thin that you can read the invitation right through it! And the day after stuffing the envelopes, it was discovered that the glue on them is so poor of quality that only bits stuck, so the flaps are HIDEOUSLY wrinkeld.  DON’T buy invites from Gartner Studios!”

“My sister DIY’d and it was a time consuming nightmare.  She did it because she wanted soy based ink and recycled paper or some hippie thing like that, but it took three people all weekend to get them together.  And it’s not like anyone noticed.  If you’re doing it for cost reasons and you’re prepared for the work, that’s awesome.  If not, forget it!  I really don’t think people remember much about invites anyway.”

“I got a pretty great deal on my invitations. The cost, time, and effort that would have gone into making them just wouldn’t have been worth it. It also depends on how many invitations you need and how many people you have to help you get it done. Most times, if you are ordering 150 invitations, it only costs a little more than ordering only 50. So, when ordering more, each one costs less. However, if you make your own, most likely, each one will cost the same and it will take a long time. When planning your wedding, you have to pick and choose what is important to you. Keep in mind, invitations eventually end up in the trash. Some things aren’t worth the time and effort. A wedding can very quickly and easily become a huge source of stress, but it shouldn’t be.”

“My printer will not print on the card stock for my DIY invitation, my printer will feed the card halfway thru, and then the card gets stuck, and I get an error message. I have tried to change the paper type, but nothing seems to be working.”

“Yes, I didn’t realize how expensive DIYing our invites would end up costing us. In the end we could have spent almost the same amount and gone with the ones I originally wanted, but thought were too expensive and probably been much happier. Ours turned out alright I guess, but certainly nothing impressive and they didn’t exactly fit with our color scheme either. Oh well, at least I can say they were totally unique and most people probably just threw them out anyway. *sigh*”

“Ouch! I messed up on my invites a bunch. I printed out about 5 or so and then I realized that I forgot to include the year of the date, printed out a few more after that without specifying AM or PM for the reception time, printed out some with “We you invite you” instead of just “We invite you”, and then printed out a couple without giving out the venue information. After about 15 or so, I finally started getting the hang of it.”

“I thought it would be all easy but then I had to print them out and one computer worked for set up but the printer wouldnt at all, so I e-mailed the file. Bad idea. The file wouldnt convert correctly. Finally got that to work and found out I couldnt get the RSVP cards to print because the paper was too small, so I go to yet another computer, that computer doesnt have the same fonts so I have to get as close as I can and WA-LA, RSVP cards done, but wait a tic. That printer doesnt like the invite paper, Soooooooo. Back to computer number 2 to print the invites. After printing all 90 invites and RSVP cards ONE BY ONE, Im done. Took what felt like forever and trying not to curse in front of my mother was most likely the hardest part. LOL”

So, maybe printing your own invites is not the time and money saving option you thought it was!

By Heather Brandon of Agape Weddings in Bakersfield, CA