It's Finally Time: Invitation Reveal!

Now that I've built up so much suspense for this I hope our invites don't disappoint! :) If you've been reading my blog for quite some time you might remember that I originally planned to completely DIY our invitations. Yea, I think I somehow forgot that that meant I would be designing/constructing them during the last couple months of my last semester of college. Not going to happen. 

One night David and I were at Wal-Mart and I wandered down the wedding aisle like I always do. These happened to catch my eye:

source
(I apologize for the crappy quality - It's the best picture I could find)

They were strikingly similar to the design of the invitations I had planned to design and it was only $25 for 20 of them. We bought all of the boxes we needed and went on our way.

A couple of months later (before we had printed any of the invitations) I was in TJ Maxx and found their wedding section full of Brides brand stuff. They had a style of invitation kits that was absolutely perfect and they were $10 for 30! I picked up the 4 in the store and decided to look at the stores at home to find another box or two. Well, because things can't ever be easy, I wasn't ever able to find anymore boxes.

I realize that the smart thing to do would've been to return the 4 boxes since there weren't enough for all of our guests. But I loved them. And they were such a good deal! I just couldn't do it. I decided we'd figure something out and went ahead and printed the inserts. And I'm so glad I did. I looove them:

(Just pretend the labels are all one color and not edited)

(Ugh, the editing ruins it. Who needs privacy..)

(I got tired of blurring things out, and I honestly really wouldn't mind if any of my blog friends crashed our reception!)

And THAT is our invitation. Pretty, right? So I'm sure you're wondering what we did about the rest of the invitations. Well, I'll show you: 

Yep, that's right, we used two different styles. I was really worried about it at first, but then I realized people will only be receiving one of the two and they'll never know the other design existed (unless of course they're reading this right now) and a lot of the people we're sending invitations to couldn't care less what they look like. A large majority of our guest list is our college aged guy friends from high school, David's reffing friends, and David's coworkers. I can almost guarantee none of them will look at the invitation for more than a couple minutes. So is it really a big deal in the grand scheme of things? I/we obviously decided it's not.

I'm honestly really happy with both of the styles and I'm even more happy that they're finally done and sent! It was such a relief to get them in the mail, and on my deadline even! I've heard from a couple people that they received theirs yesterday so they rest should be arriving within the next couple days, and I can't wait to hear our guests' reactions.

Here's the cost breakdown (not including postage):

Invitation kits: $80 + tax

Ribbon and tape: $8 + tax

Label sheets for wrap around labels: $10 + tax 

Total cost: ~$110

Cost per invitation: $0.65

That number makes me SO happy! It's way cheaper than I could've done it by making them entirely by myself and I'm insanely happy with them. They were definitely a labor of love, but I had the help of some people I reeeally love putting them together - David, BM M, and my friend Kari! They made things so much better, and they were there to celebrate with me when we FINALLY finished! Love you all!

Our set-up for the final step of the production process and a sneak peek into our *very messy* new house!

So, what do you think? And were your invitations a labor of love?