Fancy Wedding Invitations on the (relatively) cheap.

My fiancee and I were shopping for invitations and were shocked at the prices we were quoted. Especially for the elaborate invite we wanted for our wedding. So, we decided to go the DIY route, I mean if Hallmark can do this why can't we. In the end we made these at about a fifth the cost of the professional route and with a unique design that no one else has.

Here's what you'll need:

Minimum
- Scissors
- 3 different paper colors (2 card stocks for the backing & components and a 3rd that matches your wedding colors for the trim)
- Printer (or Kinko's)
- Glue (strong and dries clear)
- Ruler
- String (we used hemp for that natural look)
- Hole puncher (that matches the diameter of your string)
- Self adhesive rhinestones for accents

Additional tools that will make your life easier
- Paper cutter
- Thin double sided tape and/or thin roll-on glue (not a glue stick)
- Razor blade (for cleaning up the edges)
- Photo corners (typically used in scrap books or photo albums)
- Friends for the assembly line.

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Step 1: Design your invite

We decided to make the invite using common sized paper goods like an A6 envelope (6.5 x 4.75 in) and 8.5 x 11 inch card stock. We also decided to use a postcard for the rsvp to save on expenses. With this in mind:

Theme
Pick something relevant to your wedding whether it's the place you got married or something you enjoy together. We're getting married at the zoo and love animals so we went with animal silhouettes. Get inspiration off the internet we pulled together a lot of different invite ideas to make something just right for us.

Colors
We went with a natural color palette of cream on brown with hemp string to tie it together we used plum paper for our accents to tie the invite in with our wedding colors.

Creating the components
We used GIMP a free photoshop alternative but use whatever your comfortable with.

Dimensions
Make each part to the specified sizes and arrange them on an 8.5 x 11 inch image.
Remember to take the margins of your printer into account. Leave a light grey line around each piece to guide your scissors.

The Invitation
5.5 x 4.25 (sheet of paper split 4 ways)
4 per sheet

The RSVP
3.5 x 5 (smallest allowed by the USPS)
4 per sheet

The Reception Card
2 x 3.5 (standard business card sized.
12 per sheet arranged 3 x 4

The Backing
6.25 x 8.25 (you lose a quarter inch of length to the margin.
1 per sheet