I'm really excited to be writing this piece on handmade wedding invitations, thanks so much to Etsy for having me. As someone who enjoys being crafty, I love the idea of choosing to make something over buying it. However, there are times when the scale of a project might be too much to take on - like making your own wedding invitations. In those cases you still have the option of hiring an independent "maker" to help you out instead of going to one of the big "industry" type places of business.

First off I want to stress that the invitations I'm featuring here are just a random sampling of pieces I thought were nice. Luckily Etsy has made it very easy to search various sellers, so I encourage you to search for your own favorites by doing a 'wedding invitation' tag search. Also there is so much content on Etsy - which is constantly changing - so it's probably a good idea to check in periodically to see what new sellers and items there are.

The most important consideration for most buyers is usually the budget. For this reason I thought it would be helpful to break down the categories by process. Even though prices tend to vary within each category, its safe to assume that a letterpress printed invitation is going to be more expensive than a laser printed invitation. Somewhere in between that range falls screen printed invitations (ie. silkscreen or gocco). And on the other end of the spectrum, you can have your invitations designed and delivered via email as an electronic file, by sellers who offer design services only. This is handy because you can them print yourself or take to a local offset shop, depending on how much you have to spend.

Here is some lovely work that caught my eye. In addition to invitations, I also included some great extra links to custom rubber stamp makers and calligraphers.

Screen Printed:



MWilson - Gocco

Vreelanddesign - Silkscreen




Uglykitty - Silkscreen

Laser / Inkjet Printer:



Dearestemma



Pinklilypress



Funabee



Charmingpaper

Letterpress:



Vertalee



Invited Ink



Blackbird press


These sellers offer design services:



Evapaul



Bluedogprints



BellaBella






Rubber Stamps for monograms and envelopes:



Absolutecreations



OfficialInitial



Sweetpaperie

Calligraphy:



LH Calligraphy



Customcalligraphy



2Inspire


As a lettepress printer I'm pretty stuck in my own process when it comes to invitations, so it was fun for me to look around at what other sellers are making. I hope readers will leave comments and include their favorites too, its always better to get a variety of opinions when the field is so wide-open as it is with Etsy. Thanks again, happy invitation hunting!