am I crazy?

For those of you who know me well, you'd know that I'm not creative. I don't usually have good ideas and I don't typically think "out of the box." For as long as I can remember, my sister has been the creative one. She can draw, write, take amazing photos etc. I can't seem to capture that moment.

I have a DIY guru friend who did made ALL her own wedding stuff. IE: Invitations, programs, save-the-dates, aisle runner, banners, center pieces, unity candle etc. She's even selling this stuff on the side for other brides-to-be. Very cool stuff. Very time consuming. I never thought that I'd do any of this myself. I'm more of the "I'll just pay someone to do it for me" - I think I got that from my dad. He tends to not want to be bothered by much, so he hires almost everything out.

However, now that we're engaged, we have to make sure we stay within our budget. It's not that easy when you're limited with funds. Yes, our parents (fortunately) are capable of helping us out with finances, but they aren't paying for the entire thing, nor do we want them to. We'll have to shell out a good chunk of our own money.

So, I've been doing preliminary research on items such as invitations. WOW. EXPENSIVE! I never even had a thought about how much these cost, until of course I looked online. Yeah, I don't think we'll be spending $3000 + for invitations. People throw those away! I'd rather spend the money of food and open bar. I'd rather spend extra money on the photographer. So I think I've decided, with the help of my friend (who happens to work with me too, and is a creative person) that I will design our invites. When I say design, I really mean finding something I love online and showing my friend Michelle who can make a similar design. I like straight lines, simplicity and elegance. I think we can do it....I think. I have to get costs for printing them, but again, my industry lends itself to these types of vendors so I have easy access. But then I think to myself, is it worth it to spend the time to trim and assemble 200 invites? If you think about it, it's not just invites we'd be assembling. It'd be invite itself, the little cards that are included (directions, hotel information, RSVP cards, RSVP envelopes), programs, table numbers etc.

I haven't yet decided if I'm up to this challenge. I do think though, it would save us a lot of money to do it myself. My sister is coming home for 6 months. Maybe she can design my invites and I don't have to pay her as much as I'd pay my friend. I mean c'mon, she's my sister. I just don't know if she's got the programs on her computer to do such things. I'll have to check.

I think that's probably the only thing I'd be doing myself. Ugh. I'm just not sure I'd be able to pull it off.