Pinch the Penny on Printing

Wedding Planning Goal for the Week: Print Invitations

In the early stages of wedding planning, I was able to decide pretty quickly that invitations are important to me but are not worth spending a ton of money on. A few brides have given me funny looks when I say,

"I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that will ultimately end up in the trash."

As long as my invitations are pretty and communicate important information to my guests, I'll be happy.

Being a budget bride, I've found that it really is OK to utilize resources I am familiar with using in my professional life for my wedding planning. As a teacher, I spend more time than I care to admit shopping at Staples for various supplies. Wouldn't you know it, Staples has a professional printing service! Soon after picking up my lavender card stock at Kelly Paper, I discovered that I can print my invitations (in red ink) at Staples for $0.59 a sheet + tax. Since I've formatted my invitations in Word to print two to a page, 100 invites only end up costing me about $33 in printing. Throw in the response cards and the info cards for the reception and my total cost of printing will be about $87.

Any professional copy shop should be fine. Just make sure you price compare to get the best value. I'm loyal to Staples because I am a member of their rewards program and receive a % back on what I spend in purchases and printing.

You can try to print your invitations at home if you have a high quality printer, however, the cost of replacing your ink cartridges can add up quickly depending on how many invites you need.

Some final tips on printing:
*Always ask for a proof sheet before you place your final order. The colors that you see on your computer monitor don't always print out with the same brightness or richness.
*I save my word files as .pdf files on a flash drive to preserve the fonts that I've selected and the .pdf files are what I bring to the printer.
*Open up and check your .pdf files before you walk away from the computer to proof it. Formatting can change from word to .pdf.
*Take stock of your guest list and figure out exactly how many invites you'll need to print and mail. Just because you're inviting 100 people does not mean you need to send out 100 invites. (Unfortunately, I had to learn this the hard way and have been using excess save the dates as book marks for the last few months).
*Don't forget to bring your paper!

Next Goal: Assembling the Invitations...

'til then, happy planning!
-MSJ