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DIY Difficulties
Q: I’m trying to make my own invitations but I am having a very hard time finding stationery that’s nice but not too expensive. I’m in the Montreal area. Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thank you in advance.
A: Your best bet is to hit an arts and crafts store. Independent stationery stores tend to be very expensive because they offer more selective and higher-end papers. In your area, try places like Michaels.
Tags: budget, diy, invitations, montreal, stationery
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I was going to go to Michael’s, but a woman there recommended a local scrapbooking store, and I managed to get it for significantly cheaper.
A great store in Montreal is Essence du Papier http://essencedupapier.com/ they carrier a lot of the same product as mountain Cow, Also you can buy the supplies and DIY or they will put it together for you. They also have locations in Toronto.
I made mine from scratch using supplies I found at Michael’s. My mother-in-law lent me a bunch of old invitations she had collected, which I used for inspiration. I used my imagination and let my creativity run with it. The scrapbooking section is a great place to start and Michael’s is now carrying a line called “Brides” and it seems to have some very nice coordinating sets.
I found a great website for stationary…it’s http://www.mountaincow.com it’s from the states, but I ordered samples from the site to see them first (they don’t charge you shipping on samples..bonus) and they have a huge selection at reasonable prices. They also have a wedding invitation software to help with formating and designing what you want with different fonts, images, etc. It is only 29.99 USD but I think it will be good as well..the nicest part is that you can import your guest list into the software and it will print your envelopes. Check it out!!
I actually bought two boxes of 50 invitations (response cards and envelopes included) from Office Depot’s clearance rack for $15 each (so, $30). These were very simple white invitations with a shiny ivory border. I then drew roses growing up each border (I was afraid that printing on the shiny surface would smear)… which took forever, but they look lovely, are more personal, and incorporated our theme (roses). My total cost was the $30 and a bit extra for special permanent art-pens. Much less than ordering invitations, and I like them better than any that I had seen.
I know office depot doesn’t sound very romantic, but if you are going to be touching up the stationary anyway, they do have some good deals.
I found Craftster.org’s wedding forum a good place for tons of DIY invitation ideas: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index….
I saw this invitation – http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/04/27/... – and we decided to buy our paper online from Cards & Pockets in the US as well: http://www.cardsandpocketsstore.com/ We were very satisfied – you can pick the colours of the envelopes, mats, etc. yourself, they were very prompt, they can cut paper to size for you, and with the low exchange difference at the time it was very reasonable! Then we used our home printer to print out the wording and addresses, and bought stamps & stuff from Michaels to decorate them.
I also liked Michaels for their good selection of blank invitation & RSVP card sets. Our friends got some neat sage-green flower print ones there. Don’t forget to wander thru the scrapbooking section too!
I bought my invitations in a box at Staples. It was about $35 for 50 invitations, 50 envelopes, 50 matching reply cards and 50 reply envelopes. It was the whole package. They were simple, but very nice and elegant. I just chose a nice font and printed them off the computer. It was easy and inexpensive.
I bought my stationary at Michaels for $35 for 200 invations, I still have to buy response and thank you cards but they are very simple and you can add all the fancy stuff like boards and ribs and stuff yourself or through the printing process. Print a fake invite on your own on plan paper first, see the lay out and play with it it will help in your selection. I also looked through coutless amount of invites at stores, bridal shows etc to see what I liked and went from there…..I hope this helps you.