DIY invitation question

I met with a very nice lady today who makes invitations and is an authorized envelopments retailer. I really just wanted to see a few colours in person since online they can be so different. I am glad I did, I found a new colour I really liked and the size I had thought I wanted, was really way too big.

I need 75 invites, got the quote without assembling the one piece that needed to be affixed to the inside of the envelopment. Her prices seemed reasonable to me as she does not charge for logos, graphic set up, but a flat $1.50 per invite for printing... so whatever inserts you have, they are included.

This is my dilemna... I am fully capable of doing these all myself, but should I? The designing, the setup, the creativity, all of it, but I find myself getting more frustrated trying to do this for myself! When someone says, draw me this, or this is kind of what I want... I can do it for others...

I don't know why I am having such a hard time doing this for my own wedding! I have so many ideas, bookmarks, saved pictures... I have created some monograms/logos for our own wedding as well, but am not crazy about them.

I sat down with her and gave her some ideas and I feel like she now knows better what I want better than me

Some had said it is very tedious, but are glad they did them themselves.

Some say it is worth the savings.

Any advice?

(Sorry I rambled...)

Paula-

First off, envelopment products are great! The colors and quality are awesome. I used the 5x5 pocketfold in willow for our invites, and I will be using the 5x5 pocket in rubelite (with sunstone cardstock accents) for our AHR invites.

I did all the designing, printing, assembling, etc. with the help of a friend. It was a lot of work (we had 150 invites to do...and will have 200+ for the AHR). So, if you do take on the project yourself, I would definitely recommend enlisting a trustworthy friend to help with all the assembling. Envelopment products are not cheap, so I really didn't want to spend more money to pay someone else to do the work. Even though it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed the design process. Most of all it feels GREAT when I get so many compliments on the invites, and I can say "I did them myself". Anyway, if it's something you enjoy doing, I definitely say go for it. All the work you put it won't seem so bad when you see your end result and you can say, you did it yourself.

On the other hand, if it's not fun for you, and you have it in your budget, then it's not worth the stress. Let someone else do it!

Not the greatest pics, but you get the idea:

My gosh.. I wish I would have thought about doing my own more thorough

Paula, I can't imagine making 75 invites. I wanted them to be over once I got to 20. Lucky me I only needed 25 But still mine were so simple but still so time consuming. I can't even count how many mistakes I made and had to scrap it because I wanted them perfect.

I do love the idea of home made invites BUT you don't want them to look like they were assembled in a quick manner. Do you know what I mean?

Paula for that price I really think it's better to have them made.. I like DIY things but for the invitations I just couldn't do it (we sent 300)..

The design of both STDs and formal invitations was my IDEA but I really needed help putting all together.. I felt like you 'cause I can totally do stuff for other people but I couldn't put my ideas together for the invitations and the designer was a success 'cause he sent me the Adobe Illustrator files and I changed some things but having it all set was easier..

I have a similar number of invitatoins to send out and I went the "let someone else do it" route. As much as I wanted to make them myself and have that satisfaction, it was more important to me that they be perfect. For me, perfect = driving myself crazy! I know I would toss half of them and get frustrated, defeating the purpose of the project.

My vote is that you be active in the design like Anny, and then let someone else do the hard work

I made 103 invitations, inserts & envelopes on my own. It seemed like a good idea at the time.... if I could have afforded it I would have paid someone else to do it! Though, now that they're done, it was more a labor of love....I think! But I did save A TON of money!!! That makes me happy!

I printed the invites on 52 pieces of cardstock I um borrowed from work; 52 pieces of green paper I borrowed from work; printed on laser color jet printer that I um borrowed from work (I did this all AFTER work hours though!!!); I borrowed the paper cutter from work for 2 nights....all I paid for was envelopes ($30), $43.26 postage for outside envelope & $26.78 postage for RSVP post cards. My costs added up to $100.04 ($0.97 each)! Wow, now I feel better about doing them myself! HA!

Thank you all for your help!

I have shown her my designs- which she will build from, some invitations we like, what we don't like... I think I will make sure some of my designs is used, but let her do it! Thanks Anny and Galit!

Susan, I remember your beautiful invites and some of the pains you mentioned, so I wasn't sure which way to go. I even copied your directions to try an do them myself, but it made my head spin a little . I really did like the envelopments when I saw them in person.

Meliss, I do know what you mean, I may let them get sloppy after putting together a few

For this lady to print them (and design, no charge) it will cost $112.50 ... cheap in the grand scheme of things!

thats such a good price Paula! do you have a picture of them?

It sounds like you have found a great resource at a reasonable price. I made my own invites (I think I ended up with around 40) and although I loved being able to say I made them, because they turned out fantastic, they were still expensive and very time consuming. If you have found a designer that can work within your budget and give you the look you're going for, why not? Especially if she's going off a design you've picked, you still have your hand in it, just not all the hassle. I guess it just depends on how much you like projects. I wanted to DIY as much as possible, and although it's not always cheaper it was rewarding for me to do it...

sorry thread hijack but Sarah I think you really have an eye for DIY projects. I know it's been said before but all your projects turned out so good. And now I see you making your siggys. I think you have a creative outlet - have you ever thought of doing some stuff on the side?

Quote:

Originally Posted by NurseSarah It sounds like you have found a great resource at a reasonable price. I made my own invites (I think I ended up with around 40) and although I loved being able to say I made them, because they turned out fantastic, they were still expensive and very time consuming. If you have found a designer that can work within your budget and give you the look you're going for, why not? Especially if she's going off a design you've picked, you still have your hand in it, just not all the hassle. I guess it just depends on how much you like projects. I wanted to DIY as much as possible, and although it's not always cheaper it was rewarding for me to do it...