Okay so, my mother is getting married on September 26th. It isn't going to be a huge wedding. Its going to be in my soon-to-be step-father's backyard (lives in the country). Anyway, I told my mom I would essentially make her invitations. Her colors are pink, black and white and her flowers are going to be gerbera daisies. Now I've never made stationary but I've been browsing the web and found some things I like. Anyone have tips or advice?

When I did my invitations, I just went to walmart and bought premade blank wedding invitations (I think it was $15 for 100?) I then designed them on the computer and printed them out with my printer.

A friend of mine got married a year ago and she made GORGEOUS invitations. You would never guess that she made them; they didn't have a home-made look at all. The invitation was a card, but it was encased in a parchmenty-thing that was then tied with a ribbon. It came in a really nice envelope, too. I don't remember where she said she got them but I sent her an email asking, so I'll post back if/when she replies. They were the prettiest things I've ever seen and she did the printing herself.

I made my invitations for my wedding and I wouldn't recommend it... it's very time consuming and labor intensive. I think I made like 50 invitations and even that was hard.. I had to get my sister and soon to be husband to help me because it was so much work.

If you are going to do it, I would keep it as simple as possible. A single card in an envelope with as few tiny details as possible. A white card with black print with a gerber daisy sticker on the back of the envelope.

You could probably get pretty creative with Paintshop Pro or Photoshop.

Windchime Yes! Please do let me know what your friend tells you, that would be great!

Here is the design I drew. Its a very rough draft and the colors on the flowers are all different because I'm trying to decide which looks best. I'm leaning toward the flower with the petals outlined in pink, but with a black center. What do you all think?

I think it looks very nice and appropriate for a simple wedding. I would suggest you make the centres black so the flowers look more like daisies and less like trees.

Your design is adorable! I like the solid pink petals personally, but I think a black center would be good.

I do my own invitiations and announcements online all the time-for baby announcements, birthday parties, weddings, etc. I have always gotten great results, and lots of compliments when I do them.

Yes, it is a bit time consuming...but...if you check the prices on having someone do them for you, you will save a bundle. I am a firm believer in doing a lot of the work to save money. My first wedding came in at around $5,000...but it would have been $12,000 easy if it had not been for my former MIL and I sewing the dresses, hiring a friend (who had taken Wilton courses) to make the cake instead of a bakery, and me making all of the floral arrangements, wedding flowers, invitations, and programs.

If you have the ability-go for it!

My friend made her own, and although they came out beautifuly it was very time consuming, though hers involved lost of glueing so maybe your design could be made quicker. I love your "very rough draft" looks great as it is, I would go for the pink with black outline for the flowers.

i also did my own with a kit on the computer. it was a bit of work, but i liked them. they did however look- home made on the computer. maybe it was my skill ability- or not having a good printer.

Your design is very cute- I'm with you I like the one with the black center outlined in pink. I do think they look a bit more tree-ish then flower-ish but I like it.

If you're willing to put the time into it - it'll be fun and a nice thing to do for your mom. I'd suggest that whatever amount of time you've allotted to it- give it about twice that amount of time. you'll need it!

Aphil Where did you get the paper to do your invitations? I'm find I'm having a hard time trying to find the right look or else it seems really expensive.

I didn't make my own, but I used weddingpaperdivas.com. It was relatively inexpensive and easy.

I made my own wedding invitations. I got the paper from Paper and More (do a google search for them). They have vellum, metallics, cardstock, envelopes - everything you could want. They also let you order samples of everything, so you can try a bunch of different things and find what works best. I had a very DIY wedding, and ordering paper, etc. from them saved me a LOT of money on the invitations.

Good luck!!

OK, now I know that the cool kind of see-thru stuff is called "velum". I talked to my friend; she got her invitation stuff at a store called ACMoore. We don't have them out west (at least I don't think we do), but their website looks like normal "nice craft store" stuff, so you might check at your local craft store. She did tell me that she was able to use a laser printer at work, so that may have helped make them look so professional.