It’s increasingly common for people to want DIY elements in their weddings, or at least features that are in a DIY style. While some people do DIY wedding invitations or similar things to save money and stick to a budget, others simply want to personalise their big day. DIY wedding invitation kits and tutorials are extremely popular online and in stores as people look for ways to infuse their big day with love. There’s something special about things that take time and attention: it’s almost like they contain a tiny part of the person who spent time on it.
DIY Wedding Invitation Kits
DIY wedding invitation kits are available to help brides-to-be put together their own DIY invites without needing to think too much about the logistics. These might just include paper and ink, pre-cut paper stock and embellishments, or pre-printed cards that just need to be folded or personalised with a ribbon tied around them or something similar.
DIY Wedding Invitations Ideas
Some themes and styles lend themselves extremely well to DIY wedding invitations, so it makes sense to stick to one of them. Some of the best include:
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DIY Rustic wedding invitations
- DIY Floral wedding invitations
- DIY Lace wedding invitations
- DIY Watercolour wedding invites
- DIY Vintage wedding invites
These themes are perfect for DIY stationery since they tend to be more simple, creative and open to slight imperfections.
DIY Wedding Programs, Save the Dates & Other Cards
If you’re going for DIY wedding stationery, don’t just stop at wedding invitations. Think about every piece of stationery and how you can add a DIY touch. You should consider every card you might need, including:
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DIY engagement announcements
- DIY engagement party invitations
- DIY save the dates
- DIY wedding invitations
- DIY RSVP cards
- DIY wishing well cards
- DIY information cards
- DIY hens party invitations
- DIY bachelorette party invitations
- DIY bucks party invitations
- DIY wedding programs
- DIY menu cards
- DIY place cards
- DIY table numbers
- DIY thank you cards
Sit down and think about exactly which cards you will be creating, which ones you will DIY and which ones you can do without. Take your DIY project as a whole so you can plan properly and know exactly what you’re getting into!
Pros & Cons of DIY Wedding Stationery
DIY wedding stationery is great because it:
- Adds something personal from you
DIY wedding stationery adds a personal touch from you to the very first peek your guests get of the big day. It makes people feel like you spent time and attention on their invitation, thinking specifically of them as you did so.
Your wedding guests should hold the diy wedding invitation in their hands and feel it’s from you. It should reflect your personal style and vibe and give a hint of what is instore on the wedding day in terms of styling and décor.
- Gives you full control
If you’re DIY-ing your own wedding stationery, everything is up to you and you can make things exactly the way you want them. You can experiment with different things to see what works and what looks good. You can change your mind as you go along, and you can even personalise invitations for the guest they are addressed to. When you are doing it yourself, you are completely responsible for it yourself.
- Can help you keep in your budget
Done well and with good planning, DIY wedding invites can help keep you within your budget. If you have enough free time and the skills required to create your own invites with budget-friendly materials, DIYs can save you money.
We highly recommend you have a practice run with scrap materials before you start adding your personal DIY touches to your actual wedding invitations. This will help keep your diy wedding invitations UK costs down considerably because almost nobody gets it perfect first time with DIY projects.
There are downsides to DIY wedding stationery though. It:
- Takes a lot of time
When people decide to include DIY elements in their wedding, they often think of their invitations first without realising just how time-intensive this can be! You might have 150 guests, and a standard wedding invitation suite includes around six cards: save the dates, the invitations, RSVP cards, wishing well cards, information cards and thank you cards. Add in things like place cards, menus and orders of service and you end up with nine different cards per guest: that’s 1,350 individual cards! It might sound easy to DIY your wedding invites, but when you repeat an action that many times it is more difficult than you might think worth it for the payoff.
- Requires ability and skill
Even the simplest action, like folding your own wedding cards or hot-gluing something to your invites, can be difficult to do well, especially many times over. If you’re not naturally crafty it can be frustrating to try and translate what’s in your mind into reality. Ribbon glued to your invitations might look flawless in your imagination, but a few stray strings of glue can leave it looking cheap and nasty fast.
When you are creating your wedding invitations you also need consider how well they will travel. If pieces come loose in the post your invitation could arrive looking like a hot mess. For DIY wedding invitations UK or DIY wedding invitations destined for overseas locations you need to make sure your work is sturdy and long lasting.
- Isn’t always cheaper
Sometimes it’s confronting to see the full price for something laid up front, so DIY can seem like a cost-saving measure. Once you start adding up the costs, though, you’ll often find the saving isn’t as significant as you might have thought. Professionals usually have access to deep discounts on supplies and are experts at getting things done without any extra waste or unfortunate mishap. At the end of the day, there’s a chance you won’t be saving as much money as you might have hoped. If any saving is important to you, great! Go for it! But if you’d prefer professional premium invites delivered straight to your door, make sure you don’t scrimp if you didn’t need to.
What is a Faux DIY Wedding Card?
A Faux DIY wedding card looks like it has been made by hand, but it actually hasn’t been. It might have been printed with a DIY design or put together for you by the company. At Paperlust, for example, we print DIY wedding invitation designs that have been hand drawn by our designers and illustrators, and complete the DIY look with carefully-cut envelope liners or other envelope inserts and belly bands to hold everything together.
A faux DIY wedding card is perfect if you are going to be incorporating other DIY elements into your day, making the stationery match that vibe without all the stress involved in actually doing it yourself.
Also, on a side note you can check out our tutorial on making DIY Origami Flowers, DIY Origami Cake Toppers, and DIY Origami Hearts for Valentines day.
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