7 Awesome & Affordable Ways To Personalize Wedding Invitations!

Want to know the trick for making custom wedding invitations work in your budget!? I have seven. Today I thought I'd share our amazing invites from In Company plus a few DIY details I totally encourage you to steal...

First, if you love fun and modern stationary you need to go check out In Company. Husband and wife team, Kristen Long and Andrew Escoto, are simply incredible. We found them through our wedding cake baker—another super talented lady that I'm obsessed with. I was scrolling through her "following" list on Instagram to see if she has any secret wedding-gem friends in the NYC area (cuz I'm a creep) and that's how I came upon Kristen's feed.
We met. We clicked. And after an awesome mind-meld of inspiration photos, watercolor swatches and paper samples, here are the invites we sent out! 

We didn't have a huge budget to spend on paper goods, so Kristen generously went over where to save on printing and even gave me some DIY ideas that I could do on my own to make the suite feel more expensive. Here's what we ended up doing...

1. Flat Printing: I love the look of letterpresses and embossed invites but they're $$$. A nicely designed invitation printed flat on high-quality paper can look just as elegant for a fraction of the price.

2. Website Card: Instead of including an RSVP card, extra envelop, hotel card and directions in the invitation suite, we kept it simple. We added one "details card" that directed guests to our wedding website, where all of that information lives. Every additional item you add equals $$$ so the less you do, the more you save. Have guests RSVP online.

3. Standard White Envelopes: Dressed up with a pretty envelope liner, they look fabulous! Skipping any colors or fancy shapes (square envelopes cost extra) keeps the budget in check.

4. Try Twine: Baker's twine comes in a zillion colors, it's lightweight and super inexpensive. Use it to dress up your invites. It takes a bit of time to tie each one but it's a great way to add a special detail without spending a lot.

5. Wax Seal: Another affordable way to make invites feel elegant. A custom stamp on Etsy runs about $30. Divide that cost among all of your invites, plus all of the letters you can stamp for the rest of your life, and you're talking pennies per card. 


6. Hand Lettering: I'm a sucker for calligraphy, who's with me? Paying someone to write out our envelopes would have been amazing but also a fortune. If you're a hardcore DIY-bride like me, you can learn calligraphy 101 online—that's what I did! I took this $75 class on Brit + Co with Lauren Essl. The price includes supplies. Too intense? Another friend of mine is hand-lettering envelopes in her normal handwriting (all caps) using a brush pen.    


7. Vintage Stamps: I set aside a little extra money to buy vintage stamps on Etsy for our invites. Small accents can make a huge impact; everyone loved our stamps! We purchased ours from Verde Studio, Art Stamped and My Vintage Post Office. Search Etsy and Ebay for unused vintage stamps. We searched from ones that were white and blue to match our color scheme and had personal meaning, New York stamps, Brooklyn stamps, nautical stamps—even a Michigan stamp!


Like anything else, a little creativity goes a long way. If you have any questions about my invites or your own, I'm happy to chime in. Leave a comment or shoot me an email—seriously, I love talking about this stuff.

P.S We're getting married exactly one week from today. Eek! xo Erin