Drowning in DIY invites

 I am starting to freak out about invites!

Amidst all the renowned and almost typical drama of weddings – like dresses, budgets and locations – I totally forgot about the process that would see my nuptials actually being attended: the invitations.

Like most brides, I assumed this would be an easy part of the planning process. I was dead-set wrong. Invitation options are far from limited, ranging from complete DIY to semi-assisted to completely made for you, ranging from silks and boxes and materials to plain old bits of card stuck in an envelope.

I assumed that invites soon get tossed  away, so I was not to keen on the flashier styles, some of which could cost in excess of $15 per invitation. If you multiply invites by my number of guests, I would be bankrupt. I figured I could get some pretty designs printed on simple cardstock that fitted in with the theme and colour scheme of my big day.

After scouting many a store both physical and online, my best option was to buy the material for the pocketfold invitation I liked online from an website (card stock, coloured papers and envelopes) and have my graphic designer cousin design and print the invites for me so I could assemble.

I thought I was being smart and simple, but when I factored in the cost of shipping, I was not as better off as I thought. My mother meanwhile, thought that it was going to render me some sort of 'too thrifty' reputation among her friends, because apparently, my simple and elegant invitations, which lack 3D bits and bobs like flowers, butterflies, crystals and the like, were somehow equated to us being poor.

Four months and three weeks shy of the big day, I'm starting to freak out. I am suddenly armed with 200 lots of various cards (invitation, wishing well, RSVP card & Laylia invitation), 200 envelopes, 200 pocketfolds and an excel spreadsheet which all of a sudden doesn't make any sense.

To brides who don't care: consider the email invitation. To brides that do: the extra cost for completely assembly is worth it in the long run if it's not going to add to any additional drama where preparations are concerned. Then again, who'd have time for cold feet if you have a whole lot of other stuff to worry about?