DIY Wedding Invitations Part 3: Printing + Assembly

Hopefully by now you’ve completed Part 1: Vision and Design and Part 2: Supplies, you’ve got your design and you’re ready to put it into production! Now this is really the hard part. Even as a seasoned pro I have a production days that are frustrating. Printers are divas and this will be the day you can’t find a single pair of your scissors. Lean in to the chaos.

Preparing the File

It is absolutely necessary to get your file prepared properly and test your printing BEFORE you start a run of 100+. Trust me! For our purposes, I’m going to assume you’re using Canva, which is where our editable templates are.

Open your file(s) in Canva and give them one more look. When you’re ready, you’ll hit “share” and scroll down to “download.” In the “file type” dropdown, choose “pdf print.” Then check the boxes marked “crop marks and bleed” and “flatten pdf.” Then the last step is to go to the “color profile” drop down and select “CMYK.” Personally I save files I’m currently about to print onto my desktop and then trash them later, but use whatever filing or storage system works for you. Theres a short video below to show you these steps.

Now, what did you just do? Essentially you’ve told the file how you want it to behave when you go to print. There are other settings you can choose, but 99.999% of the time these are the exact settings I use. Your file is ready to print!

Even if you’re sending the file to a professional printer, print out one copy on just regular copy paper- get that red pen we talked about in Part 2 and PROOF PROOF PROOF. Pretend you’re a New York Times Editor. Read the whole invitation backwards, send it to a friend that’s amazing with spelling and grammar. Check all the dates and times (confirm against your venue contracts). I promise this will save so many headaches down the road.

When it’s proofed and ready for production, you have two options:

Option 1- Send the File to a Professional to Print

If printers are so not your friend, you can avoid the frustration altogether. Your downloaded files are ready to send a professional printer of your choice. Lots of couples choose Zazzle, Vistaprint, or Smartpress. You could also send them to your local FedEx, Staples, or UPS Store. You’ll have limited paper choices, but avoid the hassle of printing them yourself.

Option 2- Print on Your Home Printer

This is where this get’s tricky. There are about a million things that can go wrong here. I’m a professional and I goof this up all the time. If you’re not savvy with technology or easily frustrated, for the love, please use Option 1! If you still want to go ahead, here’s my checklist:

SIZE IS IMPORTANT- Check the size of your file, the size of your paper and make sure all your settings match. If you have a printer where you have to TELL it what size paper you loaded, make sure it matches exactly. For most at home DIYers your easiest bet is going to be to print two copies on one 8.5” x 11” and cut them after with that paper cutter you got after reading Part 2 in this series. The crop marks you added when preparing your file will be your guide to show you exactly where to cut.

CHECK ALL YOUR SETTINGS, EVERY TIME- When you’re ready to print, your driver will have tons of options when you open up the print dialogue box (that’s what comes up when you click “File” then “Print”). Make sure you check these over every time. Make sure you’re printing the right page, the right quantities, the right paper size and type (extra heavy, glossy, etc.), the right orientation, and that your scale is always 100%.

TEST LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT- Run just one test print at a time until you’ve got it down. If you’re doing a double sided design and your printer doesn’t duplex, practice printing one side, then flipping the paper to print the other side (this one takes some practice). I like to put a red star with that felt pen on one side in the upper or lower corner and see where the mark is when it prints, this helps me know what orientation the printer is using and know exactly what direction to flip.

WRITE DOWN YOUR SETTINGS- I write down the settings for each print job on a post-it so I KNOW what worked best. Then I keep that so if I need to reprint later, I know exactly what I did.

BABYSIT THE PRINTER- The saying a “watched pot never boils” does NOT apply here. Printers need to be watched at all times during production. When you’re ready to do your full print run, be on hand to address paper jams, clogged ink cartridges, dirty rollers, etc. Peek at your prints every so often so you can easily identify any issues and resolve them right away.

TROUBLESHOOTING- I could write an entire manual on this and it varies by printer, so your best bet is to hop right to the Google Machine and ask the question using your exact printer model in the query.

Envelope Printing

This could also easily be a separate blog post so I’m simply going to say avoid this for DIY unless you are very savvy and have done this type of operation before. For labels, which are great for DIY, I love these Avery wrap around labels and Avery has user-friendly instructions and software to help you get this right.

Assembly

Here are my top tips for assembly:

• Phone a friend- two or more sets of hands make light work.

• Gather all your supplies and organize them assembly line style. Clear off a large surface, make sure it’s CLEAN and free of dangers like open drinks and cats. Organize your supplies in the order in which you’ll do them.

• Set up guides for yourself. When I’m going to repeat and operation over and over again, I use painters tape to make guides on my work surface. For example, if I know I need 12” of twine, I’ll put a piece of painters tape down on the table in front of me, measure 12” and put another piece down. Now measuring out the length and cutting goes quickly.

• Batch-prepare supplies. Like the twine example above, cut all the twine to length before assembling. Cut all your envelope liners, etc.

• Slow down if you need to! Take your time and make sure you get everything just right! There is no prize for speed and you’re not getting paid for efficiency, so slow and steady is OK! If your work surface is in a safe area without a lot of traffic, you can totally leave and come back when you need to.

I hope these printing and assembly tips are helpful. If you ever find yourself in the weeds, email me! We’ve taken on partially completed DIY projects that sometimes just need a little professional boost.

Stay tuned for the final post in this series “DIY Invitations Part 4: Mailing.”

In case you’ve missed it, here are the first two posts in this series:

DIY Wedding Invitations Part 1: Vision + Design

DIY Wedding Invitation Part 2: Supplies

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