DIY Invitation cost breakdown

Our invitations are done and in the mail. It is now time to break down our invitation cost. More pictures to come:

Invitations supplies
100 Marquis Ecru Outer envelop 6x6 (LCI Paper) - $23.00
50 12x12 Card Stock Soft White Linen (LCI Paper)- $16.00
+ shipping (LCI Paper) $8.50
50 Paper stock nepalse paper in Brown (Nepalese Paper)-12x5.75 - free (should have been $20)*
30 yard of 3/8 inch chocolate brown (AC Moore) - $11.17
24 yards of 1/8 inch chocolate brown (AC Moore) - $2.14
Cutting paper at office max - $1.25
Total $62.06

Other
Stamps:
12.18 (heart) + 21.75 (blueridge)+ 14.85 (postcard) +23.56 (dragonfly) - $72.34
Calligraphy pen (Michael's) - $3.73
Total $76.07

Grand Total $138.13

With 78 invitation, some going to France and some going to the USA the average cost per invitation is $1.77 stamps included and $0.85 without stamps.
It should have been $2.02 with stamps if the Nepalese paper had been like ordered, 1.10 per invitation without the stamps.

I'm amazed we made them for so little, this definitely fits into our budget, and people love them.


After much searching I bought the ivory card stock with a linen effect and the square ivory envelops from LCI paper, the shipping was fast, the quality of the product excellent.
The paper was 12x12 so I brought it to office max to get it cut so it would fit in our printer: 6x6.

I wanted a paper with a texture to go around our invitations, I though about all sorts of different papers, went to Michael's, A.C. Moore, and then I found a small party store that had this beautiful nepalese paper. The shop could only sell some classic letter size paper from them, so I took the name of the company, searched it online and contacted them directly.
They sent me several paper samples in the brown shades and I selected light brown.
Now things got a bit complicated because I was making a custom order. Their nepalese paper is Lokta paper and it comes directly from Nepal.
At first I thought about ordering some 12x12 sheets, but I didn't want to waste tiny strips of paper and I also decided to save myself from the grueling cutting. So I ordered some 12x5&3/4 of an inch.
Because it was a custom order they had to ask for it directly in Nepal and it was to come with the next shipment (takes about 3 weeks). Well...
*The order was messed up and we received the wrong color, Nepalese Paper offered us to keep the paper for free because of it (it was a custom order), there was no shipping fee because we ordered other items with it.
The paper is of excellent quality, beautiful colors, and the customer service is excellent. It's a small company and they are very arranging. I talked directly with the owner chuck and when the paper came out wrong, he shipped it overnight at no extra charge so I could quickly decide whether to order the right paper or not. He is the one who offered not to charge me for the paper since 1)it was not what I asked for and 2)it's such a custom cut that he could not re-sell it.

I brought two different types of ribbons. I originally only wanted the small one, but the store only had so many left and I took them all. I ended up running out of it and had to go back to A.C. Moore. They had not been resuplied so I had to buy a larger version of the first ribbon. It was more expensive, but I don't regret it because it's very pretty too.

And finally, I wanted the names and address to be written down in a beautiful way. So I bought two calligraphy pens (I was not planning on running out of ink) at Michael's and wrote it all myself.

I'll do a post on how I made everything late on in case someone is interested.