Hey all
My fiance and I are planning our wedding for next summer and we are trying to keep the budget low. I was wondering if any of you out there did your own invitations and things like that and how it all worked out. Right now I am also looking for an idea on where I can find a rubber stamp that will work for a response card. Any ideas for anything involving the whole process will be more than welcome! Thanks so much.
Congrats on the upcoming wedding. The Paper Depot over in North Minneapolis. Next to where the Farmers Market is. They have all the stuff for wedding invites ( stamps, glue, paper, anything you can pretty much imagine). And their staff knows their stuff. I made the most beautiful ones from there. And had a fun time doing them. All I have to do know with them is mail them out. A little over a month for me.. Yay !!
You can buy programs at like a christian book store and take it to FedEx/Kinkos for printing.
I made my own center peices and "thank you's" for the table. We went to Walmart and got a bunch of bowls for about $1 each. For my wedding, we just put a floating candle in water and had that on a mirror - I decorated the bowl with a ribbon across the neck of the bowl and a decoration from the craft store int he middle of where the ribbon meets (rented from the hall) and put some rose pettals on the tables. My sister put river rock in her bowls and did the water and candle thing.
For the "Thank you's" I did hershey's kisses and hugs in a bag and attached a poem I foun on the internet. My friend put a couple of kisses and huggs on a plastic spoon and wrapped the top in tule and tied it with a ribbon with a poem on it. My sister went to a candy making store and boutght some sucker templates - it was a bride and groom- and we made chocolate lollypops. I think it cost like $40 or $60 to make 200 after all was said and done with the sticks, wrap, templates, and bulk chocolate....that was my favorite one to make, but it took a long time so you'll need a few days to make them all and a large fridge to store them in.
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! With our wedding last fall we were able to keep the spending pretty low. For invitations we went to Office Depot and bought some that we printed on, in the instructions it gave us a website that we could download fonts and styles from. Do you have your dress yet? If not I know a website that you can get the current season styles for up to 1/2 off!
Let me know:)
Again Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!
Stampin-up is a great resource for stamps with many ideas for weddings. I know a great demonstrator- Georgia Giguere. Her e-mail address is ____@____.com has workshops you could do and finish all your invitations with her- I think. Anyway- she would be a great person for you to check with.
I am a Banquet Manager at The Depot and there are many ways that you can save money. For invitations, you can go to any paper warehouse and find the paper and cheap envelopes. Sometimes they have an area on "clearance." You can create your invitations on MS Word or Publisher. I just created my neighbors and found that a laser printer works the best for quality. You can also use Publisher for the response cards - use the postcard kind, it will save you money on the return stamps. The stamp is a great idea. You can stamp your invitations and the response cards. Make a list of things that are most important to you, such as photography, cake, food, etc... that way you will know how/where you want to cut the corners. For example, if you are not that concerned about the cake, get a simple 2 tier for the reception and get the rest in sheet cakes. Huge money saver. For the ceremony & reception, when looking at places, see if you can get a better deal if you booked both there. Make sure you see what the Food & Beverage minimums are and check to see all the additional costs for things like a dance floor, bar, etc... Sometimes a place may look expensive, but after adding up all the little things for another place, it would make just as much sense to take the one you like for the same price. Upon finding a hall, see what they also offer for the table set - candles, mirrors, etc... You can get cheap centerpiece bowls from IKEA and other warehouses. Just shop around and since it's not until next year, take your time and find the best deals. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me anytime. Good luck!
Congratulation on your upcoming wedding!!! How exciting!
Anchor Paper has a warehouse near WestHealth (off 55 and 494) where they have lots of paper that costs less as the paper is weighed (not so many in a pack).
Also, I made a stamp for my wedding and I believe I just went to Michael's or Office Depot/Max. Sorry if it is a little scetchy - it has been 8 years and my memory of planning has dimmed some. :)
Congratulations and good luck!
