Ode to Invitations

Wedding invitations are expensive little pieces of paper.  Soooo expensive.  When all is said and done, many people spend well over a thousand dollars on the invites, envelopes, RSVPs, save the dates, and postage for all of the above.  I have to admit, I have gotten little caught up in all of the glamorous wedding invitations out there. 

I have heavily debated having pocketfold wedding invitations.  They are aesthetically pleasing and hold each invitation item oh-so-perfectly. 

But they are EXPENSIVE.  I thought if I made the pocketfolds myself, I might save a bit of money.  Sadly, it would still be fairly expensive for the large sizes of card stock and the number of pieces of paper required.  Also, pocketfolds are frequently overweight and need extra postage. 

I went back and forth, but I decided pocketfolds are not worth the time with the number of invitations I need to make.  I'd rather spend my time making much less monotonous wedding DIY projects.  Plus, there is too much room for variation in the final product: an uneven fold/cut, pockets that won't stay glued down, or inserts that get stuck in the pocket tape or glue. 

So as of now, no pocketfolds.  However, there is still room for changing my mind if I fall in love with them all over again.  :)

Instead of pocketfolds, I am leaning toward a much simpler approach: a simple black and white 5x7 invitation on white shimmer paper, with the inserts and the invitation tied together using a turquoise ribbon.

Here are some of my inspiration examples:

Love how classy this invitation set is!  I'm in love.  :)

Above is an example of a thin ribbon tying the invitation pieces together. 

I also found this image, and I could imagine a thicker turquoise ribbon surrounding the invitations (horizontally, not vertically) with a small square of card stock with our monogram hiding the ribbon ends.  I also like the damask surrounding the monogram. 

No matter what invitation ideas I end up using, I for sure will be addressing the invitations with wraparound address sticker labels.  I have found a few DIY tutorials on the web for these, and I am so excited to make my own labels!  I think they look great and are a good way to quickly and easily address envelopes.