My Personal Tips for Making DIY Wedding Invitations

I would like to think of myself as a creative person (naks!)  It serves as a good stress reliever and outlet whenever life and all it's craziness just seems too much to bear.

So when I got engaged (sorry, folks, just continuing the wedding mood set by my 2 previous posts J), I decided early on to make our own wedding invitations (DIY) to distract myself from the stress of preparing for the other items needed for the big day.

Sneak peek

It's not as hard as some people think.  A simple concept actualized on MS Word or Powerpoint (yes, I do not know how to use Photoshop), printed out on lovely paper (in the case of our invites, I used parchment paper for that old, worn-out feel, and some red recycled scrapbooking paper for the cover), and adorned it with some special embellishments (we used small paper roses, ribbons and dried leaves), and you have yourself one DIY-ed personalized wedding invitation.

During the course of the months it took me to accomplish this (includes the conceptualization period to actually completing the invitations themselves), I learned quite a number of things that I hope can also help you when you do decide to make your own invites (whether it is for a wedding or not.)

1. Settle on the overall concept of your wedding (or party) first.  Make sure you know and are already set on your color motif and theme (if any.)  Invitations have to reflect these and your personalities.

2.  Research, research, research!  The net is chock-full of wonderful creative ideas that you can get inspiration from to use for your own invitations.  You'll be amazed at how many there are.  Wedding (or party) shops are also good sources of inspiration.

Making your own inspiration board is also a great help to keep you going and to make sure you're still on the right track.

3. Be practical.  Being practical can be taken in a number of ways.  One is in terms of budget.  Set one (if you want to) or go all out, it is based on your preferences, of course.  We spent about Php3,000 for 80 pieces of invitations.  I know you can get it cheaper in some places, but with these invites, I'm 100% sure that they reflected our personalities to a tee.  Plus it was a really great way to de-stress after work.

Another way of being practical is based on the accessibility of your materials, which for me, was a huge concern.  Take note that you're making a number of invitations, and so an abundance of readily available materials needed should be of utmost importance.

This I learned the hard way since, for our invites, I had to scour and call 3 different National Bookstore branches in order to get the needed number of pieces of paper for my invite cover.  It was great that they had such wonderful customer service but still it was a hassle to locate everything I needed (arte ko kasi. J)

4. Make a prototype of your invitations to get an overall feel for it.  Show it to your fiancée (it's his wedding too, you know) and get the opinions of trusted family members and friends.  It will be of great help in the end so you can still prepare for changes or make improvements in your design, if any.

5. Always remember, simplicity is key.  This tip is purely subjective as I am easily distracted by a lot of borloloys (for want of a better term.)  I prefer a simple concept with touches of class (say paper roses or acrylic stones for a little shimmer.)  It makes assembling your invites so much easier, too.

6. Make time to finish your invitations.  Preparing your invitations should not feel like such a chore.  Believe me, it will reflect on the finished product.  Think of it as a labor of love.

If need be, don't be afraid to ask for help.  Contrary to popular belief, your bridesmaids and maid/s-of-honor are there, not only to look good in your wedding photos, but are also expected to help make the wedding preparations easier for the bride.  So ask for their assistance when it seems overwhelming already.

In the end, I think our inviations looked great!  I even got a few compliments and inquiries to make other designs.  Hmmm... I smell business opportunity.  J

Our DIY wedding invitations

Here's another one I did for the Bro and Sis-in-law (SIL) for their wedding.  Remember tip #5?  For a touch of class, I glued on some small acrylic stones at the center of their flower design.  Not too many, but just enough to give it a bit of shine.

DIY wedding invitation for the Bro and SIL

Here's another one I did for the Little One's baptism last year.  I was going for a baby French theme for her baptism celebration.

The Little One's baptism invitation

In this case, I decided to have just a few pieces printed on photopaper and had the file uploaded to my personal Facebook page where I disseminated the invite to friends there.

Btw, I also did her baptism favors too.  But that's for another post altogether.  J

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For a detailed list of our wedding expenses and some handy tips, please visit my Wedding Expenses: Our own Personalized Summary of Wedding Needsand Wants post at this link