Bar Mitzvah Invitations

This week my husband and I printed up the invitations and response cards I had designed. We've still got the envelopes to go, but we're almost there.

Michael's and Office Depot sell wedding invitation kits meant for use with an inkjet printer. I bought mine at Michael's (with coupons, of course). They sell the kits, which include 50 invitations and envelopes, and 50 response cards and more envelopes, for about $30. I bought two boxes, one with a 50% off coupon and the other 40%... They're a nice weight card stock, and I chose a simple pearl color with a border. If designed well, there's no reason anyone would even think wedding invitation.

I found nice "Jewish art" online. In general, two of my favorite places to go are MorgueFile for photos and Microsoft for photos, clip art, etc. I found mine on the Microsoft site. When taking material off the internet for printing, always be sure what you take is royalty free and copyright free and that it is meant to be copied and used. Otherwise, it's stealing. Also, make sure it's high resolution. Printing requires at least 200 dpi; a monitor only needs 72 dpi.

I picked a beautiful font (FlairRoman) for the body of the invitation and another (Blair) for putting my son's name inside the star. I then "eyedropped" a brown from the picture so that the font color would complement the art. I think it looks nice--hope others will agree.

It's also nice that it doesn't weigh too much. That is, I doublechecked--the two envelopes, invitation and response card--and a small card from the hotel--together weigh less than 41 cents, so I won't need extra postage. (By the way, postage goes up on May 12--it's time to stock up on Forever stamps!). I actually designed two versions of the invitation and the response card, as out-of-towners and family are also invited to dinner Friday and Saturday nights. I considered buying additional insert cards for the additional meals (many people use different inserts when not everyone is invited to everything), but decided that the advantage of printing it all myself meant that I could prepare custom invitations. (Actually, for my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah and my wedding three years ago (yes, all in one weekend!), I created four different versions!).

I asked the Bar Mitzvah boy to look at the Post Office website and pick out the stamp he preferred. Must say it's much easier for girls (more choices than for boys, I think). He chose the somewhat generic, but always happy, Celebrate.

All in all, the invitations cost me around $35 (without postage and without ink)--so much better than the hundreds most printers charge! They're not difficult to do--the kit even comes with design and wording suggestions--and it's an easy way to save money....Anyway, they should go out before the end of the week. Yea!