The adventures of doing my own invitations...

Like many other brides and grooms to be, once Jman and I were engaged, we did a budget. Also like many couples who are engaged, we had the discussion "What's more important... spending money on the wedding or spending money on the house.." It was very important to Jman (and I) to stay on budget because anything over budget was cutting into our house fund and in our opinion, a nice house is more important than an extravagant wedding. So we went the DIY route for many of the wedding projects.

As Jman and I shopped around for wedding invitations, we went to a few places that did invitations like hallmark and we also looked online. These places cost out the A** for cute invitations. So we were faced with the decision, DIY or go over budget. Once that decision was made, we also had to make the decision computer or gocco. Now before I tell you what we decided.. let me rewind about 8 months.

My very crafty sister (and maid of honor) also decided to do her invitations. She had done a lot of research and brought a "Gocoo" Machine. This is how it works: "The system works using flash bulbs, a carbon-based image or photocopy and an emulsion-coated screen. When the bulbs are manually flashed, the carbon in the drawing or photocopy burns the screen into a stencil. Several colors of Ink can then be applied at one time and multiples can be stamped out, as many as 100 before re-inking is needed." (See savegocco.com for more information). So we stamped out all of my sister's invites. (and in true little sister fashion.. i swore up and down that I would never do this for my invitations because it was way to much work).

So anyway..long story short... the Gocoo Machine was the way to go. Here is the rest of the story in pictures...

Day 1: Stamping Envelopes.. Estimated time.. 4 hours

Day 2: Invitations and response cards.. Estimated time..8 hours

Crafty sister helped stamp ALL day

 Day 3: Calligraphy and Stuffing and Stamping...

Kitty tried to help...but proved useless..

A few beers helped keep us on task.. 

My very talented future husband took on the job of the calligrapher.. He did an AWESOME job... (much better than I could ever do). 

All finished and ready to go out the next morning!!

You can't tell from this picture.. but this is the driveway covered with ice... not letting us get out to take the invites to the post office!! (OH NO!!)

Luckily, my crafty sister/maid of honor was here to save the day!! We walked the invites to the bottom of the drive way where she picked them up and took them to the post office for us!! YAY

I learned a few things from this experience.. 

    1. What you save in money you will spend in time.. Overall, I would say we spent 16 hours doing these invitations (just to save $200). 

    2. If you are not a crafty person (like I am not) you have to over compensate with patience (also an area I lack). 

    3. You can't do everything by yourself. Thank God I have great people in my life to help me and support me..especially my lovely fiancé, crafty sister and patient mother. 

Would I "DIY" my wedding invites if I could go back in time? Yes I would still have made the same decision. Why? Because my invites are original, different and I LOVE THEM!! 

Would I recommend others to DIY? Only if you have a crafty sister..