DIY Invitations...sort of

OK, I know I said I was going to make my own pocketfold invitations from scratch. I was completely jazzed about it, thoroughly convinced it was going to happen. Well, it is going to happen...just not in the super-crafty glorious vision I had imagined.
The fiance and I decided to take advantage of Michael's crazy 50% off coupons this week. Yep, that's right. This week, take an extra 50% any regular priced item (check your Sunday paper!). Then we saw these invitation kits at my local Michaels:

They're from the wedding collection of Brides Magazine--there are 30 invitations in each box, including  pocketfold envelopes, response cards and envelopes, address labels, direction cards, seals and ribbon. 

Sure, the design is very simple, but I think they're elegant. And there are ways to personalize the look (you don't have to stick to their template.) We're going to switch out the cream-colored ribbon with a purple one, and we may add some more purple in the design, but I think they're rather chic! Not the grand pocketfolds I was thinking of making myself, but I think these are much better than anything I would have produced, and probably much cheaper!

We bought two kits for a total of $48. (We're buying another kit tomorrow using an online coupon we printed this evening). With our 50% coupons, each box was $24. That means each invitation comes out to about $0.75 per unit. For 90 invitations that includes the whole shebang, this is a great deal! With postage, we may even come in under our $150  invitation budget!

FYI: Sign up for Michael's email newsletter and you can get weekly 40% coupons. We're told that we can combine these coupons with the bounce back receipt coupons we receive after each purchase. We going to try this tomorrow to see if this works!

Money-saving tip: To cut costs we decided we will have our guests RSVP online. Our website will have a separate page just for RSVPs, so instead of reply cards, our invitation will include  instructions on how to RSVP online. Since our rehearsal dinner will be more of an informal welcome dinner, we will send out evites instead of another invitation that requires more postage. Besides, snail mail is so last century!