I was a massive DIY Bride. I was ambitious but at the same time, my craft skills aren’t that much better than that of a five year old. I still however, managed to make my own save the dates, invitations, menus, programs and favors. Win for me!
So here’s my save the dates – I found a few different styles that I liked, Hubs and I both liked the idea of magnets, so I did the postcard/magnet combo:
We printed out magnets – using engagement pictures that a pal of mine had taken the previous spring in Boston shortly after we got engaged.
Each packet of magnets – available at Michael’s or AC Moore – had about 30 in there. We chose to only send save the dates to out of town guests, so we sent out about 50 save the dates.
We lined the envelopes with chartreuse paper (thank you Paper Source) using A2 (i think) envelopes – you can get envelope lining guides from Paper Source for about $9 and they come with any size envelope you could possibly need.
Envelopes and liner paper from Paper Source.
Finally, we used Luxe White A2 paper from Paper Source printed our names, the date, and “formal invitation to follow” which was incredibly easy and once we got everything just so, took only about 15 minutes to print (probably less than that but these were created a year ago so forgive me for my lack of firm details) .
Cost of Save the dates:
Envelopes: $21
Postcards: $13
magnets: $15
tape: $5
sticky tack: $2
ribbon: $3
liners: $21
(before postage) total cost: $80 (roughly)
I’m fairly certain we sent out about 50 of them, so for posterity’s sake we’ll say 50. That’s $1.60 per save the date, with postage you’re still at just about $2/card. It took us probably two nights to fully finish them with the lining of the envelopes being the most time consuming. I used MS Publisher to create the magnets and MS Word to create the post cards – so for all of you who are like me and are incredibly intimidated by Adobe…fret not. Hubs used labels we had at home to address them.
All in all, a total win for me.
Did you make your own save the dates? Did you order them?





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I have a magnet saved with magnetstreet.com. I’m waiting to have everything sorted so we can finally send it out. It’s going to come out a tad more than yours, but I SO don’t have the patience to do it all myself!
I’ll post the pics here once I decide on a final design
Very cute!!! I plan on making all of my stuff. I would like to make them for cheaper than I could order anywhere, if possible. So I am guessing that would be around a buck a piece…so we’ll see!
Just ordered my save the dates today! We designed them ourselves and we’re having them printed at 4by6.com.