by Karen Shaw Suriner

Created on: February 22, 2009   Last Updated: February 26, 2009

Your wedding invitations are crucial. They create your wedding's first impression to family and friends and set the tone for the festivities to come. They should reflect your wedding's theme and level of formality. Ideally, they impress and intrigue, and kept in a scrapbook or album can continue to do so for many years.

Start at your local craft store. You'll find tons of ways to express your chosen colors and motifs. Wedding invitation kits are widely available and will save you the time of buying components separately. If you wish to choose your own elements, check out the specialty paper selection - elegant invitation papers include vellum, linen paper, mulberry paper, and parchment. For card-style invitations, pick a heavy weight paper like cardstock for the outside and a thin paper in a light complementary color for your inserts. Be sure that whatever you plan to print on will work with your printer's ink type and fit in the feed tray. Buy more than enough sheets to complete your project, inevitably you'll have to trash a few. And don't forget the envelopes!

Another option is to have your designs printed and cut for you at your local copy shop. You can print your design on a sheet of white paper (called a "proof") for copying, or you can burn it onto a data CD as an Adobe file (.pdf) and have it printed digitally for better clarity. Visit the copy shop before you start designing to familiarize yourself with their paper options and find out about prices, completion times, and any guidelines concerning your chosen format. Keep in mind that color copies are more expensive than having a black-and-white design printed on specialty paper which you can take home and customize with stamps, punches, and cutters.

Paper punches, stencils, and rubber stamps can be used on invitations, RSVP cards, and envelopes, re-used for matching programs, placecards and favors, then re-used again after the wedding to make photo albums. Choose two or three that compliment your theme and each other, including one for edges and borders.Be advised that these wear out, some more quickly than others. If you find something that you must have on all 75 invitations, 200 programs, 200 placecards etc, it's a good idea to buy several, especially if they're inexpensive. Inkpads, paint, and fabric paint are available in a dazzling array of colors and finishes. If you plan to reuse rubber stamps, pick up some stamp cleaner too.

A paper trimmer makes quick work of multiple cuts and can be fitted

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