While you may not be the craft goddess or god, you can certainly make your own wedding invitations. Many couples look into this option because they think that it will be cheaper than the regular printed invitations, but this is not necessarily true. The pricing may be the same depending on the materials that you use.

What is more special about home made invitations is the heart that goes into them.

Getting the materials

Going to your local arts and crafts store can be a truly wonderful time, but only if you have a little bit of an idea of what you need. Where a lot of expense comes in is when you're wandering around aimlessly looking at things to buy. You end up purchasing things that you'll never use.

Here's the way to shop smart (even if you don't have a plan). First, know how many invitations that you need to make. This will help you to choose materials that won't cost a lot if you have to make a lot of invites. Know a few colors that you think you'd like to see in your invites. And if there's a theme that you're considering, then think about that too.

Go through the aisles of the store and pick up things that you think might work for an invitation. Right now, you'll only be buying enough to make a sample of your invitation. You want to see if you can make something before you buy a whole bunch of materials.

When you get home

Now that you have a little bag of crafts, start making your sample invitations. You don't need to worry about the words just yet (these can be printed by a computer), so just make the rest of the invite. A lot of the time, what you plan to do doesn't quite work out, or it takes too much time and materials. Just try a bunch of things, and when you find something that looks great, write down everything that you used to make it.

This will be your list for when you go back to the store.

Making the actual wedding invitations doesn't need to be any more complicated than using a scissors and some glue. Try different colored ribbons and shells even. Use thick card stock paper for a background color and place a white sheet of paper where the wording will go.

And don't worry so much about being perfect. Although you want to make your invitations looks great, you also want them to still seem like you made them. Don't get too worried if something is slightly askew.