15 DIY Wedding Invitations Ideas

If art was your forte at school maybe it’s time to pull out the old paintbrushes and watercolours and set to work creating hand-painted invitations. You don’t need to be Van Gogh in order to make hand-painted invitations look chic and professional. Choose a design that is simple, but effective – less is definitely more.

What you’ll need:

• Brushes
• Acrylic paints
• Good quality art paper

How to make them:

Step one

Choose a design and colour palette that works with the theme of your wedding. It could be an abstract design or something more classic like flowers, leaves or even a painting of your wedding venue if you’re skilled enough. Have a look on Pinterest, on wedding websites and in magazines for inspiration.

Step two

Practise your design as many times as possible before you set to work properly.

Step three

Use your thin brushes to draw the design and then fill in and shade with different colours to fill it in. Layer over different shades or add metallic colours to give it a glamorous edge.

Hand-painting a design is one for more experienced crafters but if you love the painted look you can still achieve a really lovely wedding invitation design with minimal effort. Watercolour wedding invitations look really elegant and are a lot easier to make even if you’re not particularly skilled with a paintbrush because they’re meant to look abstract!

What you’ll need:

• A paintbrush
• Water
• High quality water colour paints
• Water colour paper

How to make them:

Step one

Choose your colour (or colours if you’re mixing a couple) and mix with water.

Step two

Apply the watered-down paint to your card in sweeping zig-zag motions ensuring that some areas have more depth of colours than others. To make it darker in some areas use less water on your brush and more paint. Try not to be too neat – it’s meant to be a relaxed look.

Step three

Leave to dry.

Floral invitations always look lovely for weddings and can easily be tied into the theme by using similar flowers to the ones you’re having on the day. You can use real flowers to make these simple DIY wedding invitations and the effect with be divine. You can buy some really cheap and plain wedding invitations on the high street and then jazz them up and personalise them using pressed flowers.

What you’ll need:

• Fresh flowers of your choice
• A hammer or flower pressing kit
• String or wax seals to secure
• Watercolour card or invitations

How to make them:

Step one

Choose the flower heads you want to use and pull them from the stem. Place them where you want on the watercolour card or pre-bought invitation.

Step two

When you’re happy with the design, use a hammer to press the flower heads into the card until completely flat and the colour has transferred. If you’re using a flower pressing kit, place the card with the flowers inside, tighten and leave to press.

Step three

Peel the flowers away once they have been pressed and the colours should be transferred leaving a perfect imprint. If you want to keep the dried flowers on the invitations for a more rustic look you need to keep a bit of the stem attached and secure with string or a wax seal.

Fancy learning a new skill as part of wedding planning? Then sign yourself up to some calligraphy classes or order a book to help you learn the craft.

What you’ll need:

Calligraphy pens

High quality bleed proof card

How to make them:

Step one

Learn some modern brush pen calligraphy skills!

Step two

Using a pencil, sketch out the letters.

Step three

Once you’re happy, use your calligraphy pens to go over the pencil outlines.

If your invitations are quite plain and could do with some added bling, you might want to consider adding some gold leaf. It’s easy to DIY and looks seriously glam.

What you’ll need:

• Gold leaf flakes and a brush
• Glue

How to make them:

Step one

Place a bit of glue in the areas you want to apply gold leaf. The corners of the invitations are a good place to start if you’re new to gold leaf.

Step two

Brush the gold leaf flakes over the glued areas.

Step three

Leave to dry.

If your shop bought invitations are looking a bit plain, you can give them an instant professional update with a pretty cut out design.

What you’ll need:

• A pattern cutter/ punch
• Your invitations

How to make them:

Step one

Choose a design and decide which areas of your invitations you want to cut out (all the way round or just the top and bottom?).

Step two

Carefully punch out the design, making sure it’s perfectly lined up each time.

These wedding invites are super easy to make and look really cool and different. Less is more – so stick to your names or a couple of words and pair with another design like a watercolour background or floral design.

What you’ll need:

• Wooden Scrabble tiles
• Glue
• Card
• Ruler

How to make them:

Step one

Lay the wooden letter tiles out in the design you want to create. Perhaps you could create a Scrabble effect with your names if you share a letter?

Step two

Glue the back of the tiles and carefully place them on the invitation. It’s useful to use a ruler here to make them look really straight and professional.

Ah the good old doily still has its uses, especially when it comes to crafting. This is a really budget way to make a pretty lace effect if you’ve chosen plain wedding invitations. This works particularly well with Kraft paper invitations as a good contrast.

What you’ll need:

• Doilies
• Twine
• Invitations

How to make them:

Step one

Place your invitations in the middle of the doily. You might want to measure to make sure it’s accurate.

Step two

Fold the two sides over the invitation and smooth down.

Step three

Tie twine or colourful string around the edge of the doily and in a neat bow at the front.

Feeling adventurous? There’s more you can do with wax than just wax seals. You can make your entire invitations from this versatile craft supply.

What you’ll need:

• Hammer
• Wax beads
• Parchment paper
• image of choice printed on computer paper
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Iron
• Knife

How to make them:

Step one

Place wax beads in between some folded parchment paper that is large enough to hold your chosen image.

Step two

Iron the parchment paper to melt the wax. Place your chosen image in the folded parchment paper and completely cover with wax being sure to smooth out any bubbles.

Step three

Remove the image and place between two sheets of plain paper and iron again to remove excess wax.

Step four

Allow to dry and then glue to your high-quality invitation paper. Use a knife to smooth it over.

What you’ll need:

• Personalised balloons
• Washi tape or string or ribbon

How to make them:

Step one

Decorate your piece of card as you wish – colourful washi tape around the edge or a cutout design will look lovely.

Step two

Create a couple of small holes in the centre of the card.

Step three

Place your personalised balloon in the middle and thread ribbon or string through the holes to tie in place. Or simply stick down with more washi tape.

If you’ve gone for professional wedding invitations but want to try your hand at a bit of DIY how about jazzing up your envelopes? Envelope liners look really smart and are an unexpected delight for the recipient. You could use a pretty design or even a photo from your engagement shoot.

What you’ll need:

• Envelopes
• Pretty paper or your personalised design of liner
• Scissors
• Glue

How to make them:

Step one

Print out your envelope liner template and then trace it on your chosen paper. Cut out the shape.

Step two

Glue the back of the envelope liner right to the edges and carefully line up inside the envelope and then smooth down. Leave to dry.

Wax seals give your invitations are very posh and special feel to them. It’s like receiving something from a fairytale when they land on your guests’ doorsteps! Wax seals are super easy to do too.

What you’ll need:

• A stamp of your choice
• Sealing wax in your choice of colour (choose the ones with wicks to make it super simple)

How to make them:

Step one

Seal your envelopes and lay them out on a table address side down.

Step two

Light your sealing wax and let the wax melt a little. Hold it carefully over the area of the envelope you want to seal (the point).

Step three

Once there’s a circle of wax in the desired area press down in the centre with your stamp and hold for a few seconds before realising. Allow to dry.

This is a really easy DIY wedding project and a nice budget friendly way to create smart pared-back invitations.

What you’ll need:

• A personalised stamp from somewhere like Etsy
• Ink in your colour of choice

How to make them:

Step one

Choose your design – your monograms, wedding date, or something more intricate.

Step two

Pick your paper for the invitations and line up your stamp. Dip the stamp liberally in the ink and stamp on the paper.

This is probably the easiest of the DIY wedding invitation projects and looks really chic. Choosing a ribbon in your wedding colours will help tie in your theme quickly too.

What you’ll need:

• Your stationery
• High-quality ribbon of your choice (velvet ribbon looks particularly gorgeous)

How to make them:

Step one

Decide on your ribbon tying method – parcel style or simply round the middle.

Step two

Tie the ribbon and incorporate any tags or pretty decor you want.

An embossed design on your envelopes (or invitations if you prefer) will make them look really professional.

What you’ll need:

• A personalised embosser
• Plain envelopes

How to make them:

Step one

Choose a custom embosser with a monogram or design.

Step two

Stamp the embosser on the point or your envelope or on the chosen spot on your invitation.