Home-made Wedding Stationery by Cheryl Gabiola Galvez

   Designing and printing your own greeting cards has become more accessible to many individuals who own a personal computer. With the advent of sub-$1000 computers and the relatively inexpensive peripherals and software that compliment the hardware, it's a piece of wedding cake! In fact, to help deflate what has already ballooned into a large wedding budget, consider designing and printing your own wedding invitations. All you need is a computer, greeting card software or drawing application, quality card stock paper and a printer. There are many advantages to designing and printing your own wedding invitations which include your choice of a wide variety of quality yet inexpensive paper and your right to exercise creative freedom.

   Begin by selecting quality card stock paper. The card stock should be thicker than notebook or printer paper. Christine Seebold, owner of C&J Papers, sells 65 pound paper and higher. "This is excellent quality paper, and looks great, and does not feel cheap." By shopping around, you'll find a generous selection of blank and embossed card stock which are ideal for home-made wedding invitations. Choose from other types of paper to accent your invitations. According to Christine, "Vellum paper is the most popular, that is a translucent paper that has become very popular in the past couple of years." By simply overlaying the invitation with vellum paper and tying the set with a colored ribbon, you can create a unique and classic look.

   Designing and printing your own wedding invitations can also prove cost effective. Since some vendors purchase directly from the manufacturers, the middleman is removed and the savings are passed on to the customers. "We provide the same exact paper that you see in those expensive wedding books. We buy the paper from the same exact paper converters. They charge $135 for 100 invitations, we charge $65 for the same exact invitation (but you get lined envelopes from us, their price is for unlined envelopes) will also give you tissue, printing instructions and wording for the invitation the response card and the reception card (wording that is)," says Christine.

   Designing your own wedding invitations also affords you creative freedom. Using images provided by your drawing application in addition to incorporating a stylistic font, the look of your stationery can help set the formality of your wedding. "You can add a picture to your invitation. You can use your own fonts and choose your own colors for your typing. You can use rubber stamps and do your own embossing. Let's put it this way, the only thing that you cannot do is raised printing, other than that it looks the same as if it came from a professional printer," explains Christine. Your only limit is your imagination.

   Finally, you are not limited to designing just wedding invitations. Using the same set of tools and creativity, you can design and print your own thank you cards, table place cards, and wedding programs. "I realized that with everyone having their own printers, it would just be a matter of time before this would become popular. The consumer gets the same exact paper at an unbelievable price. It is nice getting that phone call, 'You can't tell the difference, my friends are so very impressed, we saved so much money.' This makes me feel wonderful!"

SOURCES:

C&J Papers
http://www.cjpaper.com