subject: Diy Invitations Follow-up [print this page] Well, I promised you a follow-up post on our DIY Invitations and a follow-up post you shall have! I apologize for the delay, but Im just getting over something that I was fighting during the latter part of last week. This is a testament to the necessity of taking your vitamins and getting your beauty sleep while planning your wedding. Otherwise, you may end up wasting valuable DIY time by watching hours of Olympics without much energy to do anything else. I digress.
I should preface this post with our original budget amount so that you know what my creative restraints were - I wanted to create 100 invitations for under $500, including cards, envelopes, labels and all postage. This, of course, meant no letterpress - but gave me a little wiggle room. In this post, Ill cover a few tips and tricks about printing/designing your own invitations, how to tie that pesky-yet-lovely square knot, where I got some of the fun graphics, and how I ultimately was able to come in under budget.
I Heart Bleeds!
I had originally thought that bleeds were simply put in place to accommodate to-the-edge printing. This marks only the beginning of my misunderstanding of the printing world. I soon discovered that bleeds are the saving grace of all things creatively printed. Not all printers, trimmers and precision cutters are all that accurate. Therefore, its not super helpful to spend many hours trying to get your artwork aligned to the nearest pixel - to be honest, it wont matter. Instead, make sure to extend your artwork out by .125 inches to alleviate any discrepancies when printing and cutting out your pieces.
Shop Around!
After having such an amazing experience with Kinkos during my DIY Save the Dates adventure, I had assumed that this would be where my DIY cheap wedding invitations would be completed. However, the prices were ghastly! The simple cost of printing the cards would nearly put me over budget - add cutting, scoring, hole-punching, and face trimming to the mix and I was at nearly twice my original budget. After shopping around, I found them to be at the pricier end of things. I lucked out by pulling a few strings with some business contacts and was able to get all of the work done for well-below Kinkos original estimate. Im glad I spent the time searching for the right printer.
Proof It!
When I discovered Cat Print, I thought I had struck printing gold! But - once I received the proofs I ordered (two copies for $10), I knew it wasnt meant to be. I am a true paper snob and was unhappy with the paper they offered (I wanted uncoated cardstock). Im glad I only wasted $10 on my proofs and not hundreds to see my mistake - even if it did take 5 days to receive them in the mail. Plan ahead - so that you can print as many proofs as it takes!
Those Pesky-Yet-Lovely Square Knots
Marmite Pom informed me that the Square Knot is an old Girl Scout trick. Having never been a Scout myself, I trusted her expertise. All in all, theyre very simple - the rule is, left over right, right over left!
