Cutting the cost but not the quality...

As I mentioned in previous posts, with H2B about to finish his final year of uni, we are getting married on a budget. And I think even if he was in full time work I still wouldn't want to be spending much more than we are on the Big Day. We would both much rather put that sort of money towards a house deposit.

So today's post is about stationary on a budget or rather making your own stationary. We're quite lucky in that I've always been 'arty farty' and 'creative' all through school and it's a hobby I've continued with by making cards & scrapbooking so I really am in my element at the moment with designing and creating our very own wedding stationary!! : )

I'm going to share with you exactly how much we've spent on every aspect of our wedding stationary and the suppliers we've used. And I'm going to treat you all to a sneaky peak at what I've created so far to show you just how much you can do with a relatively small amount of money!


The Costs...
Star Charms x 800                              £6.18
Silver/black ribbon x 30m                  £2.99
Black 5mm 0rganza ribbon x 60m     £2.58
Silver 25mm ribbon x 10m                 £2.38
Large star charms x 75                      £1.99
All of our ribbons & charms came from ebay - some suppliers in the UK and some from China. Admittedly they take a little bit longer to arrive from China but the money you save is worth the wait!

Black A4 card x 200                           £19.00
Silver A4 pearl paper x 100               £7.00
White card x 100                                FREE!
Pearl A4 paper for inserts                £27.81
Again, our black card & silver came from UK suppliers on ebay, the pearl paper for our inserts came from craft creations and the white A4 card came from H2B's mum (a retired teacher who was clearing out her cupboards at school ; ) handy!)

Order of Service blanks x 50            £11.60
Menu blanks x 15                              £2.00
Thank You blanks x 50                     £5.60
Place card blanks x 50                      £3.60
Invite blanks x 70                              £23.01
Thank You envelopes                        £3.20
Invite envelopes                                £5.90
Wording/star peel offs                      £15.61
All of the above came from Craft Creations and included all the little silver star stickers, the 'Order of Service', 'Wedding Invitation', 'Evening Invitation', 'Menu', 'Save the Date' and 'Thank You' wording stickers.

Perhaps the biggest 'extravagance' were the car photos, we needed LOTS and these cost us £40.00 in total. The 'Save the Date' lollipops came from a sweet shop on ebay and cost £6.99 for 50.

All in, our wedding stationary has cost us £187.44!

And this is what I've designed and created (with a bit of help from the other half!)...

My other half is car mad (currently finishing his degree in Motorsport Engineering) so it only seemed appropriate to use the car theme for our stationary. These are the only range of cards etc I've made that I've actually really loved! What do you think?

I've also made a lot of the decorations for our reception too; the bunting is to go along the front of the top table, our initials are to go on the top table...

We've carried our colour theme of black, white & silver stars right through our stationary & decorations and also continued the car theme through to our tables.

Our tables have all been named after retro film cars...I agreed as long as I could have 'Herbie' - I love old VW's! The table planner isn't finished yet...waiting for a frame to arrive and want to add some more bits to it - will post another pic once it's complete.

So there you have it, our range of 'budget' stationary! Making your own really is easy and doesn't have to cost a fortune. And, perhaps the best bit of all, if you do it together it's actually good fun!

Would love to hear any comments you have! xx