Since last August, we have been planning on using Golden Rectangle Press for our invitations. This is an amazing company based out of Brooklyn that specializes in letterpress invitations. I adore them. I adore all letterpress invitations. For me, letterpress invitations ooze old fashioned charm. It makes sense then that the design we chose was titled Vintage Postcard.
Photo from Golden Rectangle Press Etsy Shop
They are classy and I like to think of myself as a classy gal and part of a classy couple. Plus, Golden Rectangle Press even has a same-sex wedding invite on their etsy shop homepage, which I think is huge. A lot of people are LGBT friendly but aren’t that keen to advertise the fact.
Are they expensive? Well, yes. Letterpress is hella expensive, but this company was more reasonably priced than the giant wedding invitation websites. The invitations with RSVP cards and envelopes (with letterpress return addresses) were under $10.00 per invite, which I couldn’t find anywhere else online. And they were so gosh darn pretty. Excessive? Probably. We rationalized that since we were about $500 under our dress budget we could re-allocate the money to the inivtation section of our budget. You have to understand that my love of letterpress undermined any rational thinking about just re-allocating the extra money into our savings account.
And then life went ahead and smacked us on the head and deemed it appropriate that all that money go elsewhere. Apparently, Deborah’s youthful years as a gymnast have caused some early on-set arthritis in her lower back– but that’s another story. The point is that a major casualty of the medical bill onslaught is the money we set aside for invitations.
With my letterpress dreams dashed, I fell back on my type-A functionality and made a list of necessities for the invitations.
1. Under $500 total! This has to include the invites, response cards, both sets of envelopes and possibly info cards. Double-high-five-bonus if it also includes postage ($.64 is the current average per invitation, plus $.44 return postage for response).
2. I need to be able to edit the wording on invitations and response cards to make it more personable.
3. Very. Little. Assembly.
So, with a few deal breakers in mind, I started googling and searching etsy again. So far, I’ve found some nice designs on Wedding Paper Divas and Minted. I like Minted because of the super editable wording and eco-friendly paper options. They also have a really great search option where you can look by certain colors and prices all at once. Their designs are really great, but none of the them in our price range really seemed appropriate.
We can get these invites and RSVPs for just over $400. These are in the top 5 right now, but we aren't super crazy about the color. (Photo from Minted.Com)
Wedding Paper Divas definitely wins as far as price and selection go. Their invites are relatively editable, but my computer kept going on the fritz when I would try to move past basic form changes. They have some great designs that are under $2.00 an invite too!
This is our top choice right now! I can get 100 invites and response cards for under $300. Double-Hive-Five-Bonus for the Budget. Photo from Wedding Paper Divas
I also found some great DIY websites like E.M. paper where you pay for the template, and then print at home.
This invitation template is free (and gorgeous!). You can also buy the entire correspondence set for $40.00. Photo from E.M. Paper
It looks like I can buy A7 cards and envelopes (these are the standard size for wedding invites) for under $100! Maybe DIY home printing is the way to go! I just worry that my printer won’t be nice enough to produce the results I really want.
So many choices and decisions! The perfectionist in me really wants these invites to be super awesome, but the voice in my head (Deborah) is telling me that people are just going to throw them away after a while. It is difficult for me to find a balance between the idea of invitations in my head and what we are actually willing to spend on them.
I am also super in love with letterpress invitations. So pretty! So tactile! But Ginger, being the voice of reason, and my own sticker shock, got us to look at doing them ourselves. We are planning to use Printable Press, another place where you can buy the template edited with your own wording and print at home. I’m planning to buy the thickest, nicest cotton or recycled paper I can find and screen print them at home on my gocco.
Another idea if you can’t find what you are looking for: Design your own. Find a graphic you like or design your own (if you’re not artistically inclined surely you have a friend who is!), Use Microsoft Word or Paint or Photoshop or any number of programs to design the layout and then find the card stock in a color you want. For example, I designed the invite on my blog using a program pretty much every PC comes with–Paint :)
Mmmm… I lusted after those very same invitations from Golden Rectangle… and then could not afford them. We ended up designing and printing our own – which was not as fancy but was a lot more fun! I love love LOVE your “top choice” with the bicycle on it!