Save-the-Date Magnets: Cost Breakdown

I am so incredibly happy with how our Save-the-Date magnets turned out (and that they are finally mailed out and done!).  I'm even more pleased with how inexpensive they ended up being.  I saved an arm and a leg on these things by doing them myself!  Without further ado, here is the cost breakdown for my DIY save-the-date magnets:

Magnet Sheets: $9.99 for 12 sheets

$0.8325 per sheet

5 Magnets per Sheet

$0.1665 per magnet

So, the magnets themselves were only about $0.17 each.

Save-the-Date Photos: $7.50 for 75 photos

$0.10 per photo

So, the photo magnets were only $0.27 each!  That is absolutely unbelievable.  Even with the cards and envelopes added in, they were still a great deal:

Pack of 50 sheets of cardstock: $1.49 (bought at a discount store!)

$0.0298 per Sheet

2 Cards per Sheet

$0.0149 per Card

Holy Moly!  That's less than 2 cents per card!

Box of 100 Envelopes: $10.79 (with free shipping through Amazon Prime!)

$0.1079 per envelope

9 Sheets of Tissue Paper: $1.00
$0.111 per sheet
11 Envelope Liners per Sheet
$0.01 per Envelope Liner

So, for each STD that I made, the total without shipping was only $0.3993.  I basically spent $0.40 for each complete STD.  AAAHHH!!  I'm amazing.  ;)

Before deciding to make these myself, I did some searching online for STD magnets.  I was in serious sticker shock.  The cheapest ones I could find were $1.29 a piece. (because I only needed 75).  That only included the photo magnet and the envelope; not the card.  AND, those magnets were much smaller than the ones I created.  Those were only 2"x3.5".  My magnets are 3.5"x5".  That is $0.89 difference for a smaller magnet and no card or envelope liner.  

The one that I found that was pretty close to the size I made (they were 3.5"x5.5" -- so a half inch bigger than mine) were $1.89 per magnet (since I only needed 75).  Again, they included envelopes but no cards or envelope lienrs and were $1.49 more per magnet.  If I would have bought these, I would have spent $141.75 plus shipping to get them to my house.  And then I would've still had to buy or make the cards and the envelope liners! 

I think it goes without saying that I got an insanely awesome deal by DIYing these photo magnets.  It took a little bit of effort, but I think it was worth it.  I ended up sending out 65 Save-the-Date magnets.  This means that I spent $26 TOTAL on these!  That is a difference of at least (not including shipping, cards, or envelope liners) $115.75!  I don't think I could be any more pleased with them.  :)

Save the Date Magnets Are Done!

This process is finally over.  It took several hours tonight, but they are DONE!  I was going to blog the "how to" for making the magnets, but I'm exhausted.  I've had very little sleep in the past few days and my fingers are tired from putting the magnets and the cards together.  So, I'll work on that blog post in the next few days.  Until then, here are a few pictures of the finished product:

The finished magnets... all 75 of them.  :)

The magnets in the Save-the-Date cards.

Save the Date Photos Have Arrived!

The photos for the Save-the-Dates finally arrived.  I did my own little happy dance.  :)  Here they are:

You may remember that I ordered them from PhotoWorks.  Well, they were supposed to take no more than 7 business days to arrive.  Not true.  So, I was really irritated with the company.  Especially when I saw that they were shipped over a week after they told me they shipped. 

So, needless to say, I was not pleased with the speed of the shipping from that company.  However, the photos turned out really well.  My only other issue with them is that I ordered 75 photos and they shoved them all into a single envelope.  Some corners were a little smashed on a few of the photos.  

While I did have a few problems with the company, I still think I would order from them if I had to do it over again.  I mean, they are the only company I found that would print the 3.5x5 inch photos.  And, the photos looked the way they were supposed to.  And, the price was great.  I paid $0.10 per photo with free shipping.  I'd say it was worth a little bit of extra hassle.   

Save the Dates

I've been focusing a lot on the paper part of the wedding recently. I have been trying to figure out how I want the invitations and save-the-dates to look.

Well, I think I've finally figured the save-the-dates out:


The ivory part is actually going to be a magnet. The rest will be a card (folded in half). The front of the card will have our logo/monogram on it:


I am pretty excited about it. I am going to do the magnets myself. I am having the photos printed at http://www.photoworks.com/. They offer 3.5x5 prints (one of the few places I can find that size!) for $0.15 per print. I thought it was pretty reasonable. I am buying sheets of adhesive magnets to attach the prints to. I am still searching for the magnet sheets, but so far, I found these. The problem is that I can only fit about 5 STDs on each magnet sheet, and they sell them by the dozen. I'd like to make about 75-80. I don't really want to have to buy 2 dozen sheets when I only need 15-16 sheets. So, my search continues... If it comes to that though, at least they are fairly reasonably priced. :)

Once I have the magnets finished, I am going to attach them to the cards. I'm printing 2 cards per sheet of cardstock, so it will save a bit of paper. I haven't decided what color cardstock I want to use yet though. I had originally thought ivory, but I changed the magnets so that they are ivory (they were Philip's favorite -- I also made navy blue and black backgrounds). So, I had thought about doing navy blue cards, but I don't want the writing to be difficult to see on the card. So, I think I'm just going to go to the craft store and see what they've got on sale that will go with my STDs.

I will update as soon as I get a mock-up done! :)


**P.S. I went with a photo from our first date for the STD magnets. I thought it was a cute touch! :)