How To Design Your Own Wedding Postcards

Instead of buying a post card to stick in each of your wedding welcome bags (which can add up and add an extra expense to your wedding), you can design your own wedding postcards and print them on photo paper.

Find more tips to save with all of our ways to save money posts.

UPDATE: Now is the time to design your own wedding postcards and print them. You can get 20 FREE 4×6 photos with the code WOW20 at Walgreens on October 16, 2024 from 2 pm to 4 pm EST. Choose instore pickup to save on shipping too.

When my friend Mallory got married in Washington, it was similar to ours in that it was a destination wedding for everyone except, basically, the bride and groom. So she had a similar situation where she had to make a ton of wedding welcome bags for the out of towners.

When I was making our wedding welcome bags, she suggested that I attach a postcard from our town to the bags. Well, quick math told me that at $.35 a postcard for 100 bags would run me $35 plus tax. I had to come up with a cheaper alternative.

And that's when it hit me. I would design my own wedding postcards.

 How To Design Your Own Wedding Postcards

I'm pretty creative on the computer. I mean, I do run two blogs for a living and spend much of my time designing images online.

But at the time, I wasn't that great.

I actually designed two wedding postcards. One from my phone and the other on the computer. The second one was so much better than the first. So, if you have a desktop, use that.

I took a photo when we were at a local beach and was in love with it. Our really eye-catching (yet simple and logo-less) umbrella hangs over the beach on a perfect day, with a bit of waves but not enough for children or surfers. There was a build up of sea junk that makes it look like I placed it there. There's nothing distracting in the background, not a cloud in the sky or a rogue person in the background. It looks, well, it looks sort of like a postcard.

And since our wedding was at the beach, since that's where we live, this was perfect. If you live in New York City, consider going out and taking a photo of the Empire State Building. Getting married in San Francisco? Snap a pic of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not sure what exactly your town is known for? Stop into a souvenir store and check out the postcards. Figure out what landmarks and shots are used and replicate that on your own.

Then, go to a design website. Both Canva.com and PicMonkey.com are free, so those are good options.

Make sure to start with a 4x6-inch template. I would recommend 800x1200 pixels, at minimum, so you can make sure they don't print grainy. And if you start them at a 4:6 ratio, you can print them as 4x6 prints, which are often free (like right now!).

I added text that says, "Welcome to North Carolina for Lisa & Pete's wedding" in a large, dark font. I put this right in the middle of the picture because I thought it would get lost at the top or the bottom. To jazz it up a little more, I added the words Post Card at the bottom. And, to personalize them, I added our wedding month and year up top.

I made them up myself, but I'm sure you could find a free wedding postcard template out there somewhere if you didn't feel like you could make them on your own.

Since I made sure to pick a really clutch photo, it doesn't actually look like I made it myself. I mean, yes, it's personalized so you know I made it, but it looks like I ordered them.

If you want, you can add handwritten note onto the back since you have a blank canvas for it.

If you choose to do that, I would recommend a felt tip pen. A regular ball point would run the risk of indentation. If you push too hard, you'll be able to see the lettering from the front of the print. A felt pen would eliminate this issue, however, be careful to let it dry before stacking these or affixing them anywhere. You don't want the ink to bleed. Or, to be perfectly safe, you can just leave the backs blank.

Then, affix them to your wedding welcome bags.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Would you make these wedding postcards?

Wedding Welcome Bags (Complete with hangover kit)

My brother's wedding was this weekend and although it was only an hour away from home, most of the guests stayed at a hotel overnight. The hotel actually shared a parking lot with the reception hall, which was awesome for the guests. Everyone was able to just walk from the venue to the hotel after the wedding -- which is great because there was an open bar so no one had to worry about finding a designated driver.

Since so many guests were staying the night, my brother and his (now) wife made wedding welcome bags for everyone.

Their wedding welcome bags had something that I heard about through the grapevine and loved: hangover kits.

Personally, I don't drink alcohol. Ever. At all. So needing a hangover kit isn't something that I actually need, but it is pretty brilliant to include in a wedding welcome bag.

They included:

• 2 bags of chips
• 1 chocolate bar
• 1 bottle of water
• 1 Gatorade (which I hear is basically hangover repellent)
• 2 packets of two-count Advil

And everything was packed in this bag that says, "Welcome to our wedding". I actually had my eye on those bags before I decided that we would use reusable tote bags, so I was super stoked about their choices.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What do you think about their wedding welcome bags and hangover kits?

Wedding Welcome Bags (The parents edition)

My parents came to North Carolina the Monday before the wedding to help with all the last minute things that go on during wedding week (making the card box, picking up items for the mimosa bar, folding our wedding programs, coming to my last minute dress fitting, on and on).

Since they were coming early and staying in our guest bedroom for a trio of nights, I put together their wedding welcome bag and left it on our guest bed for them. I decided to put together wedding welcome bags for Pete's dad and for my grandma at the same time since they had similar items. In theory, I could have put together everyone's welcome bags, but I had to make those for 100 people and I figured I would wait until my parents were in town. That way, they could help us.

I laid out personalized tote bags made for us by CW Designs.

If you remember, we had a post about CW Designs and the personalized maps that Carol makes. We featured a bunch of her designs in the post, all of which were amazing. Even better, though, Carol made us a personalized map for our wedding. I was so impressed with it. We were able to pick out our favorite spots -- like where we got engaged, where the ceremony and reception were, and our apartment -- and she made a map of the area with our locations highlighted.

You can have your map modified to be printed on a tote bag, which is adorable. We had four made: one for my parents, one for Pete's dad, one for my grandma, and one that I used all day to carry our wedding necessities. The bag was super durable, even when multiple people were carrying mine around and hiding it under tables. The colors popped and were so vibrant, and everyone who received them were absolutely in love with the tote bags. It's definitely a keepsake to reserve for the most special people in your wedding.

So was a lot of the other items we put in these three wedding welcome bags.

We filled them with:

• Personalized water bottles (we got mother of the bride, father of the bride, grandmother of the bride, and father of the groom from CafePress)
• Paper fans
• Personalized lotions from Udderly Smooth
• Men's & women's razor
• Peanut butter crackers
• Two bags of candy
• Hand sanitizing wipes
• Shampoo, conditioner, and hair spray
• Personalized map from CW Designs
• Papers including:
• Shuttle information
• Welcome booklet from the chamber
• Town map from the chamber
• Personalized Do Not Disturb sign
• For my mom and grandma: Manicure sets in organza bags with personalized nail polish, a nail file, and travel-size nail polish remover
• For my mom: wedding necklace from Dogeared
• For our dads: Personalized cufflinks

I set the bag on the guest bed and attached a personalized post card to it and left it for them to find. In the hustle and bustle of getting their suitcases and belongings up four flights of stairs after driving for 13 hours, they overlooked the bag. So of course, I had to point it out to my parents because I wanted to see their reactions.
They loved the bag and were so happy with the items that were inside. When Pete's dad got to town, we gave him his bag and he loved it as well. Every single item made him smile so much.
My grandma got to town three days after my parents and I hand delivered her bag (which I also added Fritos to). She was so happy. In fact, she immediately took her water bottle to the BBQ we were hosting (at the same time she got to town) and she took it with her everywhere with her. Every day she was here, I saw her with that water bottle. She really liked it. And, on the second to last day my parents were in town, I went up to their hotel room and saw they each had their personalized water bottles on their respective nightstands. It made me so happy to see them getting so much use.
The bags went over so well and were such a great way to make them smile.
BRIDAL BABBLE: What do you think about our wedding welcome bags for our parents?

Want to see our wedding welcome bags for our guests?
Check out our final wedding welcome bags post.

Wedding Welcome Bags (Oriental Trading Edition): Full bags for only $1.15 each

Oriental Trading provided some of these products for this post. Additional items were purchased out of pocket by A Bride On A Budget.

I went up north for a wedding two weekends ago, and of course, I was an out of town guest (well, my parents were the out of town guests and I was the person too cheap to pay for a room for myself so I crashed in their extra bed).

When they checked in, they were handed a welcome bag (I used to always call them hotel bags but someone said welcome bag during a recent #BridalBabble Twitter chat and I liked that). Actually, the entire #BridalBabble was about welcome bags a few weeks back. We were chatting about what people like (and don't like). And then, when I was at the wedding earlier this month, I surveyed people there and asked what they did and didn't like.

Call it market research.

I took everyone's ideas and created these wedding welcome bags on a budget.

There's a ton of stuff going on in that bag, so I'll walk you through it little by little.

Start with the actual bag. When I asked, the overwhelming majority said that reusable was better than disposable (although the minority only said disposable because of the additional cost of reusable bags).

I actually found a really great deal on Oriental Trading. You can get a 50-piece tote bag assortment for only $31.50. That's only $.63 a bag, which is actually less than I was finding disposable bags for.

Reusable bags are great, especially in practicality. See, people are coming from out of town and every time I go out of town, I always end up coming home with more than I went there with. But I never end up with any extra bags. This is a great way to actually have that extra bag to pack your souvenirs in.

I wanted to include post cards on the front of every bag, but they were a little out of my budget (I mean, they're 3/$1, which isn't terribly bad, but every penny counts -- especially when you're like me and have to make 100 bags).
So what I did was design my own, then I printed them at Walgreens. You can use PicMonkey.com to edit your photos (I edited the coloring and more). Then, you can get great deals on prints (as low as free, which is when I got mine, but usually around 10 cents each on sale).

When I asked people what they wanted most in bags, water and snacks was the best idea. I'm saving all my Walgreens points to get free water (more about that here). I was thinking about including one bottle per bag, but my mom said it should be at least two per bag. People are staying in the hotel room as a couple and you shouldn't expect them to share water.

As far as snacks, I'm planning on using my Kmart points get bags of chips for the bags (although they're not pictured because it's a bit early to pick those up).

I did, however, get some themed candy. I picked up some beach monkey banana candy and tropical-shaped candy fun packs, both from Oriental Trading. Since we're having a beach wedding and everyone we know will be traveling to the beach, these were totally fitting.

The banana candy is $7.25 for 48, so only $.15 each. The tropical candy is $4.99 for 57, so $.08. Add one to each bag and you're spending less than a quarter each. What I'm actually thinking is throwing these two candy packs along with a pack of gum into a mini organza bag. That way, the small candies won't get lost in the large tote bag.

It's November now and it was 82 degrees last I checked. So imagine how hot it'll be for our June wedding. People will need fans. Maybe not at the wedding itself, but this bag is more for their time outside of the wedding. So I figured plastic fans would be great.

If you can see, the purple fan in the middle is closed and the other two are open. This is something a woman can throw in her purse and pull out when she's sightseeing. The fans, you guessed it, are from Oriental Trading. You can pick plain fans, but I picked the hibiscus print fans. The're $3.50 a dozen, so $.29 each.

The other items in the photo (the shampoo, hair spray, and razors), that's all recapped here. If you remember, that's all stuff I got for free after coupons.

Our budget for the bags is $2 per bag. That's $200 total. I know, it seems crazy to think that we'll be able to make that budget ... until you actually recap.

Welcome bags:

Tote bag: $.63

Shampoo/conditioner: free after coupons

John Frieda hair spray: free after coupons

Personal postcard: free at Walgreens

Trident gum: free after coupons

Mens/womens razors: free after coupons

Tropical candy: $.08

Banana candy: $.15

Fan: $.29

Water: free with Walgreens Balance Rewards

Total so far: $1.15

Ideally, I'm going to add chips to this (but that'll be less than $.85 for two bags) as well as area maps and information. I can get the maps and info free at the chamber (I've already asked and they will give me 100 of each, for free ... and more if I need it). So my $2 per bag budget is completely possible. And that bag is awesome and looks like it's more than $2. You just have to know how to spend your money.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What else do you think this wedding welcome bag needs?

Want to see our finished wedding welcome bags?
Check out our final wedding welcome bags post.

Note: This post was written in 2013. Prices may have changed. A Bride On A Budget is not responsible for price changes.

Wedding Welcome Bags -- My Lot So Far (Retail: $150.97; My Cost: $0)

If you don't know, I write the frugal lifestyle blog Drugstore Divas. The site has really helped me to understand how dramatically couponing can change your budget. It's also brought me together with some of the greatest couponing friends I could have -- ones who are rooting me on during my budget wedding and have so graciously sent me coupons for John Frieda and BIC razors so that I could amass the beauty that is the photo below.

Behold, my lot for our travel bags for our out of town guests.

Retail value: $150.77.
My cost: $0.

My goal is to spend $2 per bag per family, and I'm trying to account for 100 bags. By my estimate, that's $200. That in itself is quite a bit and people generally spend quite a bit on these bags (like $5 to $10 each). Personally, I can't justify or afford that, but couponing is going to help me put together wonderful bags for our guests, at a fraction of the cost.

I'm going to break it down for you, item by item, and let you know what I've already picked up -- and how.

I have nine bags of BIC Silky Touch razors for women. There are six bags of 10 and three bags that have a bonus four free, for a total of 14 razors in those packs. The grand total is 102 razors. Each bag is $2.96 at Walmart. I had a $3 off BIC disposable razors coupon, which made each bag free.

Retail value: $26.64
My coupons: $27.00 (yes, my coupons were worth more than the total value so the extra was applied towards tax)
Total: $0 out of pocket (and I had $.36 overage)

The TRESemme travel bottles and Nivea creams are going in my bridesmaids gifts, mostly because I can't imagine that I will amass 100 of these since they weren't bought with coupons from the newspaper. They were all bought at CVS. The TRESemme was bought with CVS store coupons for $2 off any two TRESemme items. These travel size bottles were $.99 each, so they were free after the coupon. I was able to pick up seven sets (and Pete even stopped by CVS on his way home from work to help me get these).

Retail price: $13.86
My coupons: $14.00
Total: $0 (and I had $.14 overage)

The Nivea was part of a CVS deal where if you bought two, you would get $6 back in ExtraCare Bucks (CVS money). I bought 10 tins, which are $.99 each. I got back $30 in CVS money for buying these items. Now, don't worry. I didn't clear the shelf. I bought these during three different CVS sales.

Retail value: $9.90
My total: I got back $30 in CVS money, which means I actually made $20.10 in CVS money for buying these.

These John Frieda hair sprays may be the end of me. I was given so many coupons by my couponing friends that I was able to pick up 44 of these bottles. I'm really far short of my goal here, but I have faith that another coupon will come around.

The coupon was for $3 off any two John Frieda items, excluding 1.5oz. bottles. These hair sprays are 2oz., so it counts. They are only $1.47 in Walmart, so I picked up the majority there.. I made multiple trips to many Walmarts during that time and never cleared out the shelf. I made sure there was more for other customers before purchasing.

Retail value: $64.68
My coupons: $66.00
Total: $0 (and I had $1.32 overage, which went towards tax)

Pete told me he had men's disposable razors that we could use. But, I wanted to buy the majority of them since they would all be a uniform yellow and his were a blue. I will borrow a couple from him since I'm a couple short here, so I wasn't worried about being shy. I bought eight bags, and they each contain 12 razors, for a total of 96 razors.

These razors are $2.68 in Walmart, and I used the same $3 coupon for the BIC razors here as I did for the women's razors. I have two amazing couponing friends who sent me a huge lot of these coupons to cover what I didn't have. These ladies were so incredible that they actually offered to send me any matching razors that they had bought if I couldn't find enough in my stores. Now those are some great friends.

Retail price: $21.44
My coupons: $24.00
Total: $0 (and I had $2.56 overage, which went towards tax)

And finally, I printed photos that I will attach to the outside of the bags instead of buying postcards. As I mentioned the other day in this post, buying 100 postcards at $.35 each is $35. Instead, I printed photos, which I personalized, when Walgreens was offering 25 free 4x6s to anyone with a Walgreens Photo account. I ordered 25, Pete ordered 25, and one of my friends ordered 25, for a total of 75.

Retail value: $14.25.

My total: $0 (and since I selected in store pickup, I didn't even have to pay for shipping).

So, as a grand total:

9 BIC razors, for women: $26.64

14 TRESemme: $13.86

10 Nivea creams: $9.90

44 John Frieda's: $64.68

8 BIC razors, for men: $21.44

75 pictures: $14.45

Total: $150.97

My total: $0.

And this is exactly why my wedding will stay on budget -- and exactly why your wedding budget can get blown on such small stuff if you're not paying attention.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Are you using coupons to help you stay on track with your budget?

Want to see our finished wedding welcome bags?
Check out our final wedding welcome bags post.

Wedding Welcome Bags (The Razor Edition)

When you plan a wedding, you plan on having out of town guests. For a typical wedding, you have a handful. For ours, all our guests will be from out of town.

So I can't worry about just 20 or so bags. I need to put together 70 to 100. I started to collect items for my wedding welcome bags ... and I went shopping at Walmart to add a little more.

I "bought" these Bic razors for women.

The 14-count pack is only $2.96 at Walmart. There was a $3 off any Bic disposable razors coupon in the newspaper. Walmart will take this coupon, even though it is a few cents more than the actual item.

There are 10 packs available, but to get more for your money, look for the packs with four bonus razors for free.

If you are putting together wedding welcome bags too, you might want to head out for these, especially since they're free. Just keep your eyes peeled for this coupon.

The truth is, wedding welcome bags are a nice touch for a wedding but they can get expensive. And when you're planning a wedding, the last thing you want to do is add more expenses to your list of things to pay for. That's why I'm collecting the freebies that I can now. If I can find a couple more bags of these razors before the wedding, that's great. And if I can't, I'm not going to stress over it.

If you don't have the coupon, these are still a great price. At $2.97, it's only 21 cents a razor. Our plan is to tie a men's and women's razor with a little bit of ribbon (since the majority of people are coming as couples) and place them in the bags.

If I was going to a wedding and got these, I would love it. I can't tell you how many times I've gone on vacation and forgotten my razor at home.

BRIDAL BABBLE: If you're coming to my wedding, what color razor would you like?

Want to see our finished wedding welcome bags?
Check out our final wedding welcome bags post.

Travel Bags (The Beginning)

As I mentioned yesterday (when I was talking about my logistical nightmare), all our guests are going to be from out of town.

It's customary to have a wedding welcome bag for each family that travels in from out of town. With us having 150 to 200 guests, realistically, that's somewhere between 70 and 100 bags. That can get pricey.

So I'm planning already. At least, I'm trying.

So far, I have a small army of hair products. Not really enough to make a dent in what I need, but it's a start.

I have five TRESemme shampoos and conditioners (both 2oz) from when TRESemme was free at CVS in January. I have four John Frieda hair sprays because John Frieda hair products were free at Walmart. That's it. I have four full sets and one that would be full if I could assure that the bag was going to a single man. But I can't guarantee that.

In a way, it could be daunting to look at know that I only have four complete sets, but in a way, I'm happy to know I already have four complete sets. I'm being a glass half full kind of gal.

I already know that I'm going to put in books from the area and a map of downtown. I met a woman at a bridal expo who told me where I can get those -- and that they're completely free, even if I need 100 of each.

I was on A Bride On A Budget's Facebook page and I asked what people thought was ideal to put in travel bags for guests. You can read the full post here, but I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite ideas below.

Joy said: A wedding I just went to had a list of the best places to eat, best bars to hit up, local attractions & things to do & they were personalized for younger people, older people, families with kids ect.

Mallory said: A post card from the town your having it in. Punch a hole in the corner and attach it to the bags. We wrote a quick thank you on it. 

Linda added: My SIL had a mini Burt's Bees sampler, assortment of LUSH soaps and a special ornament ready for me when I visited her over the holidays. It was such a nice surprise and I can think of her every time I see the ornament. 

One of the biggest tips came from Amanda. She said: I work in a hotel and a lot of people drop off a box of bags with small packs of candies, map quest directions, bottled water, and a list of things to do in town along with the best places to eat. Don't forget to leave extra, we run out almost every time because someone usually just shows up that wasn't planned. Plus, the desk clerks like being remembered since handing those out aren't usually in our job description and it takes a lot of extra time and coordinating on our part. We don't mind it, but it is nice to know we are appreciated ... It never hurts to ask the staff if they will, all the ones I've worked at do it free of charge as a thank you for having your guests stay with us.

I've got a lot of stocking up to do, but I do have a lot of time. We're looking at next summer, so I've got a solid 15 months to coordinate these bags (and hope that some nice company happens to find this blog and wants to donate some items for the bags. Hey, wishful thinking never hurt anyone right?).

BRIDAL BABBLE: What would you fill bags for out of town guests with?

Want to see our finished wedding welcome bags?
Check out our final wedding welcome bags post.