What is the most cost-effective way to create and send out wedding invitations?

When you do them yourself you are in control and you know right away how they will look, know there is no mistakes and they are ready on time. You can get kits at any office supply like Office Depot or Office Max. We actually found my daughters on the clearance rack at Target.

Buy some plain white blank card with envelopes (50 per package for $10.00 at Michaels) Then just embelish the card with some 59cent material ribbon in your colours and print the wording either directly on the card, or on vellum and use spray adhesive to stick it on (vellum costs a but more). Or buy some card stock/bristol board in your wedding colours and cut out the shape of your flower with the wording on the flower. It will look really pretty and creative without spending a fortune. You can also buy a stamp with your initials, or in a shape that would suit your wedding, and stamp each card to make it fancier. Good luck!

Hi. I made mine and they were pretty inexpensive especially to mail... here's what I did.

1) I used MS Publisher and created 2 invites per page. The paper was bought at the Paper Source (they have an online store as well). I created a simple motif with a fleur di lis graphic and our names beneath it and our wedding date... I used this motif throughout the invitation and programmes, etc...

2) Using a paper cutter cut the sheet into 2 pieces.... I made them 5X7...

3) RSVP cards -- I used card stock from the Paper source as well... the motif on the top and the typical acccept /regret and rsvp before XXX.... on the other side I printed my parents address -- so they are postcard rsvp cards... very easy to make and easy for the guests to check off and send back. They also cost about half the cost of a regular stamp to send.... I made 4 per page...

4) Direction cards -- same as the RSVP cards but in a different color card stock...

5) I had both an interior and exterior envelope but if I had to do it over again I'd skip the interior one... I did a mass mailing print for both the interior and exterior envelopes

6) Exterior Envelope -- I got them and the interior ones at the Paper Source --- I included our "motif" on the front of the envelope, return address on the top left and their address in the center... (I made them using Mail Merge)...

7) The invite, rsvp card, direction card, interior envelope and exterior envelope all cost one regular stamp to mail. I bought cute heart stamps and sent them all out...

Using a ordinary "Card" sized w/o any frills and also postcard rsvp cards saved me tons....

I got married in 1995 and we did them by hand - it was very inexpensive. The only expense was a ream of nice cardstock we had cut, and envelopes. But it was a lot of work, and we sent out around 100.

But if I was getting married today I would go the route of buying one of those kits from Staples or Michaels and print them out on my own printer. They are supposed to be very reasonable in price.

Technically, you could probably save money by hand-writing them all (we did calligraphy) but it does take a LONG time.

Depending upon how fancy you want to make them either make them yourself or buy the do-it-yourself kits from the craft store, target or wal mart.

If you don't need anything super-fancy, I say make them yourself at home on more ordinary paper. Fancy up the edges with corner punches. You could even add a stamped design in color to the top of the paper.

My future stepmum made the invitations for her and my dads wedding. Which was a really cheap option if you want to go for that.

They were really nice and she's now really got into card making. She even has a website now www.cardscards.co.uk

the lady that did mine is super cheap. she does anything paper related for a wedding. invites, thank yous, favors, address labels, candy wrappers....

i can send you her info for a quote.

as for a cheap way to send them out...

keep them as light weight as you can... lighter weight card stock.

use post cards for rsvps

hand deliver some to local guests.

but still put a stamp on the rsvp.

the is a website www.evite.com, sign up and you can swnd out all kinds of invitations for free, even wedding invites and just have them RSVP to your email.

Send your close friend and family online invitations. Evite.com is free when you sign up.

If you are creative and artsy them make your own. Or just create one and take it to a few local printers to see what the price to duplicate it would be.

There are kits you can buy at Target and then you can print them off on your printer. That's probably the least expensive way to go.