I wanted simple invites I could do myself that looked nice, I just couldn’t see spending $3 per invite, so this is what I landed on.

They looked nice, but were simple enough that I wasn’t cursing myself on invite number 60.

Front Paper:  Staples coverstock 67 lb. in Ivory
I chose this paper because it was the thickest I could get through my color laser printer well, and even then I did have to dry iron the pages flat.

Backer Paper: Colormate Textures Ribbon Cardstock 105 lb. in Navy
This was the perfect solution to add texture and beef up my 67 lb. paper. The 105 lb. gave it some bulk.

Envelopes:  Staples Easy Close Invitation Envelopes in Ivory
These were more see through than I hoped, but the self stick was awesome. In the end the envelope lasts about 15 seconds with recipient, so I wasn’t too worried. To jazz them up I embossed the flap with our monogram.

Font: Contribute
Contribute is a free font, the free version doesn’t have numbers or symbols so I swapped those for a different font.

Embosser:
My smartest wedding investment by far. I used this throughout and I can still use it moving forward.Wedding wise our embossed monogram made an appearance on the envelope, invitation, cocktail napkins, and goodie bags.

Adhesive: Scotch Advanced Tape Glider
My trusty scrapbooking tool didn’t fail me, this strong adhesive and comfortable tool made sure all my invites arrived intact.

The price breakdown without the embosser or toner:

Front Paper	$0.02878
Back Paper	$0.2054
RSVP Insert	$0.02878
Envelope	$0.08795
Total w/o postage	$0.3509

Layout Tips:

I built my invites to minimize cuts. The backer paper is a 8.5x11 sheet cut in half, the front paper is .5” smaller, so I printed them in the bottom left corner of the page so I only had to make two cuts. Play with how you layout your invite to print and do lots of experimenting.

Other Tips:
If using a laser printer, flatten your print outs by ironing with a dry iron printed size down over parchment paper, they’ll flatten out quickly, do this before you cut.

So I found this set of 48 Martha Stewart Wedding Invitations at Marshalls on clearance for $3, I was looking for graduation announcements at the time, and they didn't look too weddingy so I decided for $3 to try them.  After all one of the important things Dr.C taught me was the art of bootstrapping...

Here's the "wedding look"

Graduation-fide
 

The whole suite laid out.

I created the design in photoshop. The drawings of Belmont were created with by tweaking the Akvis drawing plugin.

I used the reply card to include a little blurb about my time at Belmont and a line and pen of the Belmont Mansion.

Since only my and Andrew's family were able to attend I opted to send my announcements after graduation so I could include a photo from graduation. I used a sticker on the back to let people know who the photo was with.

The paper was pretty thin so I used cardstock in Belmont colors to beef the response card, since I wanted to use the belly band I couldn't back the main announcement.The envelopes they came with were very nice which was awesome, nice envelopes are pricey. The DIY wasn't so bad since I was only making 30. I printed these on the Samsung CLP-310 Color Laser I got as a graduation present from my parents, which worked pretty well.  So how did my announcements compare to Josten's $2 a piece ones... well I saved a $1.79 each and spent under $10!! (Not including postage of course.)

Item	Cost	/quan	Cost per
Invitation Suite	$3.00	48	$0.0625
Card Stock	$3.99	48	$0.083125
Printing	0	0	0
Photos (2 per 4x6)	$2.60	40	$.065
Totals	$9.59		$0.210625

(Notes: Not including toner expense since I'm on the starters still, postage isn't apart of the savings so I left it out, can you tell I'm an business person?!)

So take another look at those super clearance wedding invites and use them as invitations, it's a huge step up from an e-vite!