(Originally Published in 2005) The cost of graduation announcements can be very steep, but I wanted to send out something nice to all our friends and extended family to let them know that my youngest child was graduating from college.
What I did is buy some graduation announcement kits at Office Depot. We needed about 50 announcements so I bought 2 kits with 25 each. The kits included 25 announcements (black and silver lines framing each section that folded into 4 panels after laser printing), 25 foil add-ons in the shape of a graduation cap, and 25 envelopes.
I picked out a picture of my daughter to include with each announcement. Many of our friends and relatives live a long way away so haven't seen her recently. The picture was taken with a digital camera and I was able to get a bunch of copies at a local store with a photo/electronics department.
On the front I did the normal "Graduation Annoucement for (name) from (name of school). I used one of the inside panels to talk about her future plans and the other to announce the date, time and location for the graduation ceremony and a barbecue that we are having after to celebrate.
The announcements look good, are unique, and cost just over $1.00 for each announcement including postage. The announcements were $13.95 a box. I printed the announcements on my own laser printer. If I had had more to do I may have printed one (on blank paper) and then photocopied the design onto the rest. The digital photo prints were $0.19 each. A grand total of about $58 for 50 invitations ($28/invitations, $10/photos, and $20/stamps).
Do you have any tips for making your own invitations? Share them below.
About The Author: Susan is the Editor of the ThriftyFun Newsletters.
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
My son is graduating from high school this year and I wanted something personalized and less expensive than the stock ones he could order through the school.
I took numerous pictures of him in the back yard with him to the side of the frame. Since I used my digital camera, we came into the house, looked at the pictures on the computer, decided if we liked any of them, deleted the ones we didn't want, and took more.
The next part I actually hired a friend to do, but I could have done it myself. I found wording online that I liked, so used Photoshop to fade the background around my son, then put the wording to the side of my son in the area we had allowed when taking the picture.
To print, the image was uploaded to one of the photo developing sites and printed in a 5 x 7 format. The back was printed with the name of the site, which I wasn't thrilled about, but I decided to send them that way. I could have mounted them on another piece of paper had I wanted to hide the back.
Even with what the friend charged for her labor, the cost was only about 80 cents each, including the envelope. And my son has an announcement that will not be the same as anyone else's and will let people see what a handome young man he has grown into
The attached picture was the last "working copy" before the final cutout was done around his body.
Love, love, love this. I'm going to follow these suggestions for my daughter 2006. Thanks
For my college graduation I'm using e-mail and a web adress to "advertise" my graduation. It's cheap and simple
Thank you for this great tip! I am a college senior who is graduating and cannot afford the $150+ costs of buying invitations. This is awesome.
Thank you! I am making my own invitations due to the expensive costs of purchasing pre-made annoucements. It is nice to know I'm not the only one venturing out to create my own... thanks for your directions!
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
