DIY: Fancy Invitations on a Budget
As if it wasn’t exciting enough when my sister-in-law announced her pregnancy, my mother-in-law asked me to help her host the baby shower!
I’m a lover of paper projects, so I jumped at the opportunity to tackle the invitations first. The only requests were that they announce the baby’s gender, and not be “too fancy”. Which I read into as “fancy, but not too fancy“. That, I can do!
The first step was deciding how to even make them. I had purchased and printed invitations from Etsy before, but I couldn’t find baby shower versions that fit the aesthetic I wanted with a completely customizable message. I also liked the idea of being able to chose the fonts and positioning myself. SO I started to search online for card builders with those features.
Enter Greeting Island. com
This is an awesome website with a variety of options and “vibes“ for every occasion. All the writing is fully customizable, including placement, font, and color.
You can make flat or folded cards, and purchase the final image (jpeg or PDF) without a watermark for a flat fee of $6.99. Such great deal! Below you can see the option I created if they had been having a girl, and a handful of the available options.
Greeting Island Indigo Flowers template with “Ardeco” and “Be Bright” fonts.
I chose to get all the paper supplies at Paper Source,
a one stop shop for any party planning occasion.
I went with the Superfine White 5x7 flat card and matching envelopes. I chose the same paper for the details card, and after printing four per sheet used a paper cutter to trim. I’m so happy with how they came out!
I also decided to take advantage of the vintage stamp collection I saw at Paper Source to give the invitations a more sentimental flair. Vintage postage costs more than its face value, but it was worth the splurge.
My German Shepherd, Draper, sat with me by the window in the dining room while I assembled invitations and caught up on podcasts. Overall, the project took a few hours over a couple days, and was much more cost efficient than ordering pre-made shower invitations. See my budget below.
For the shower I’ll be doing all the flowers myself from wholesale bulk orders, so stay tuned for me next party planning DIY adventure!
Invitation Budget
Greeting Island Invitation Template: $6.99
Greeting Island Details Card Template: $6.99
Paper Source Superfine White A7 Flat Cards x 2 (25 per): $11.00
Paper Source Superfine White A7 Envelopes x 5 (10 per): $24.75
Paper Source Superfine White 8.5x11 Paper x 2 (10 per): $5.90
Paper Source Vintage Love Stamps x 10 (5 per): $ 35.40
