I am not a paper person!

I am not a scrap booking, craft stores, Paper Source loving bride. But luckily I have friends that are. I know many brides to be find that making your invitations as one of the most cost effective ways to help with the budget. And Miss Butterscotch happens to be one of those brides. When my two good friends took me to paper source I vividly remember one saying to me "so what type of blue do you want?" and I looked at the wall with the about 10 different shades of blue and pointed to the whole blue section simply replied "blue". She laughed at me. So I have come a long way since my first visit. And while I am still not a paper person I can at least pick a blue.
I told the hive that the cost of our day so far is hovering around $15,772ish. Here is the cost break down of my invitations.
Envelopments 5x7 pockets 1.69 per pocket *Originally $2.25
Envelopments 8x11 cover weight .41 per sheet *Originally .54
Stardream Sapphire (discontinued from Paper Zone) .12 per invite
Stardream Opal (discontinued from Paper Zone) .12 per invite
4 bar reply envelope in Sapphire .30 per invite
Cutting costs done at Costco .12 per invite
Sticker to close pocket .10 per invite
Clear plastic to mail invites .05 per invite
Sticker Labels (both the to and return labels) .10 per invite
Stamps to mail and with the return stamp 1.28 per invite
Total per invite $4.29

I would have loved to keep them under $4 but the feed back that I have gotten from family and friends has been well worth the extra cost and labor. And when I went to get them weighed at the post office I have a small crowd of postal workers impressed too! All in all I got exactly what I wanted. We are using the Chopin script that you see in my mock above throughout the wedding (*programs and fan favors posts to come soon :)) We also as you will see used plastic slip covers to mail them in rather than spend more money on envelops.

*My envelopment cost were discounted by 25% since I purchased more than 100 and my local vendor had a special donation drive going that if you donated rolls of toilet paper to a local women shelter they would give you a discount on your purchase.

I didn't include the cost of the $9 corner punch or the $9.00 spray glue since I can use both items again for other project.
Here are some pictures sorry that they are not the greatest but the paper is so metallic that the glare was unavoidable. What do you think?








What was your invitation budget and how did you stick to it or what were you willing to spend a little more on?