Invitation Frustration

People need to know about this big, fat, expensive party we're throwing, right? Invitations are definitely something you can't do without. While my practical, wanting to be green self would love to send out an evite, I am pretty sure that is frowned upon. So, the search began. Ohhh Letterpress, how I love thee. In my perfect world with unlimited funds, you would announce the pending nuptuals. Letterpress, pockets, and layers!

Project Wedding

I also completely lusted over the detail on these beauties- the envelopes, the bellyband- LOVE IT:

Hammerpress

I also thought these were cute, especially with the vellum map.

Project Wedding

I love the simplicity of these two. They make me imagine a very contemporary wedding and the second feels really industrial.

Source via Source Project Wedding

But these babies are all pretty pricey. I realize that my invitation will hang on a refrigerator for eight months at best and then be unceremoniously dropped into the trash by everyone but my mom and me. I can't justify $3.50 plus postage per invite. So, I gave myself a limit $1 per invitation plus postage, and I do not want to spend more than $.44 per invitation. That kind of thing adds up! I thought I would use some serious DIY here. We live really close to Archiver's, so I got a ton of ideas from them. This was my favorite because it looked easy, but still nice. All it takes is two types of cardstock, an inkjet printer, and a stamp.

In the end, though, Andrew convinced me that it would be WAAYYYY too frustrating and I would hate myself for it. So, the search continued. In all of my research (and there has been a lot!), I found that The American Wedding is probably the best value for your money. We ordered from them, had a minor issue, and are working at getting it resolved with only having to pay a minimal additional fee (we had to pay to mail something back to them, but it was less than $5). They provide samples, have good customer service, and are really affordable! I'm not ready to divulge my choice just yet, but here are the invites that almost were, courtesy of Wedding Paper Divas (also affordable, but I didn't love the lack of customization, and the invites were just plain printing, whereas TAW invites had raised printing).

There are so many options! What was your ideal invitation price? Where did you end up finding that piece of stationary that can set the tone for your whole wedding?