The Clownfish Invitations: Full Reveal!

Oh how excited I am to be sharing the full reveal of our wedding invitations today! RSVP's have started to come in, which makes this whole wedding thing seem to much more real. Wait, you mean the wedding I've been planning for the past year and a half is really happening?

So, without further ado...the Clownfish wedding invitations!

My very best friend and MOH Schmo hand addressed ALL of my invitations, for which I will be forever grateful. We spent several hours putting these bad boys together, and there may have been some blood (from the countless paper cuts), sweat (when we decided it would be a great idea to work on these outside during a humid summer night), and tears (when the envelopes ran out after too many address mistakes were made) involved, but I couldn't be happier with the final outcome...

Like I've said in my previous invitations posts, I really wanted to keep our invitation suite simple. I feel like there's a huge pressure on brides to design/put-together the most lavish invitation suites, just because it's what's expected (thanks Pinterest!). While I could have gone a hundred different directions with our invitations, and spent hundreds of dollars on countless pieces of paper, fancy envelopes, and professional calligraphy...I'm so happy I kept it simple. 

As for the actual construction of the invitations, I'll start from the inside out. The invitations and RSVP card were printed at my college's printing room, and cost me a whopping $22. When it came to envelopes, I knew I wanted to choose an envelope color that complimented the invitations. After searching online for weeks, I was seriously bummed to find that most companies only offered envelopes in quantities of 50. Since we expected to only be mailing out 60 invitations, I didn't want to pay for the extra 40ish envelopes, only to have them left over after the wedding. If this was the case, I knew I'd be mailing Mr. C and I's Christmas cards out in pastel pink envelopes for years to come. Because I didn't think he'd be a fan of that particular option, I opted to find a way to buy my envelopes from a brick-and-mortar store. 

I ventured to Wal-Mart, Target, and finally, Staples, before finding the right envelope for our invites. Staples had the best selection of pretty pastel pink envelopes, sold in packs of 10. I took a copy of our invitation along, just to make sure they were the right shade of pink, and picked up 6 packs of envelopes that very day. Each pack of 10 was $4.99, so we ended up spending $30 on our envelopes. While I may have been able to find them cheaper online, we didn't have to pay for any shipping, and if too many mistakes were made and extra envelopes were needed (um, guilty.), I just had to run by a Staples and pick up an extra pack. 

The paper doily envelope liners were an abstract idea born from a generous wedding hand-me-down. Bridesmaid Cat used paper doilies on her own wedding invites a few summer's ago, and had hundreds of these pretty doilies left over. She offered them to me, and, being the frugal bride that I am, I started searching for ways to use them in our own wedding invitation suite. I tried wrapping the doilies around the invites (nope), cutting them and using them as a sort of belly-band (ever worse), and finally, finagling them into an envelope liner. Ahh...just right! While they may look pretty and simple enough to DIY, do not be fooled. These little demon envelope liners are a serious pain in the ass to work with. They're incredible fragile. So many ended up ripped, puckered, and torn...and that was before I attempted to get them inside of the envelope! Thankfully the final look was worth the hours of annoyance and sticky, glue-covered fingers.

The stamps were purchased at my local post office, and look so incredibly lovely with our wedding invites. I was able to get all of my invites hand-cancelled, and while I wasn't able to see this process happen, I've seen enough Snapchats of our invites to know that they turned out well. Not seen: the return addressed hand-written on the back flap of the envelope. 

Invitation cost breakdown:

60 printed invitations and RSVPS: $22
Envelopes: $35
Stamps: $15
Paper doilies: free
Glue: $3
Pen: $2

Total invitation cost: $77
Cost per invitation (60): $1.28

Overall, I would say our simple DIY wedding invitations were a success! I absolutely love how they turned out, and even Mr. C is a big fan. For any bride that wants to design their own invitations and have a hand in the construction process, I say go for it. The money saved is so worth it in the end, even if minor little frustrations pop up along the way.

Were your wedding invitations a major priority for you? Did you design your own?