I'll be the first to admit that I don't care about wedding invitations, or honestly invitations in general. I know that they are technically the introduction to a party or event and set the tone, but they just aren't something I've put a lot of thought into. I apologize but if you've sent me an invitation in the last five years, I can't tell you what it looked like. So I surprised even myself when I came across laser cut invitations and decided I wanted to have them for my wedding. Something about them just fit in well with our '20's theme and they were fun and different. However when I started researching I realized the cheapest price for one laser cut invitation that I could find was $4. That didn't even include all of the inserts. That's about 3x my budget. So in true Grace and Maura style, I decided that I could do it for less. Of course I had no idea how, but I knew there was a way. So here it is, my version, for under $1.50! This post may contain affiliate links. These links help to offset the cost of running this blog and provide you convenient access to products I recommend at no additional cost to you! I should let you know before you read any farther that I have a Silhouette machine that I bought a few years ago and that's what I used to make all of the pieces for this. You could also use a Circuit machine or if you were super skilled I suppose you could do it by hand, though I'm not sure how. Aside from the Silhouette and printed inserts, I got all my materials at Michaels. For supplies you will need:
Ok so let's make the invitation. It's not hard to make, it just requires a lot of pieces, some of which are tedious. To start, you need the base of the invitation, the actual laser cut part. I used this template from Etsy. It did require some adjusting and my one tip would be to test it with different weights of paper because it really does make a difference. I used the Silhouette to do the laser cuts and then used this tool to "weed" it which is a fancy term for taking out all the little pieces that didn't get cut by the machine. I then used my Silhouette to cut out gold 4 x 6 rectangles and glued the rectangle to the laser cut piece. Next, I cut out the actual worded part of the invitation that I designed on Photoshop and glued it on top of the gold, allowing a gold border to show. From here I placed all of the "inserts" in. I had directions and hotel information, RSVP, and website information. I got all of this printed at Staples. Again, I designed it on Photoshop and put several on one page. I then had Staples print it on heavy glossy paper. This saved me a ton of money. After I placed all the inserts in, I put another gold rectangle on top. I then closed the flaps of the laser cut part. To keep it all together I used the "wrap" that came with the invitation template. I chose to cut it on gold foil paper as well. I used hot glue to seal it. Now that the the invitation is packed I used hot glue to glue a feather and a gem stone to the center of the circle. I placed all of this against the RSVP envelope and in the larger black envelope. That's it! All together I spent less than $1.50 on each invitation. I also like that I can make more if needed. Are they perfect? No. Can you tell they are homemade? Yes. Does it matter to me? No. They achieved the aesthetic I wanted and honestly? I loved the challenge of making them myself. Would I do it again? Maybe if I had a lot of wine. This was definitely incredibly time consuming and would not be worth it, it took me hours (plural) to get these done. In the end though, I'm glad that I was able to get what I wanted within my budget, and that is the beauty of DIY!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2021
Categories
All
|