Hi everyone,

I want to make an audio CD for my sister's wedding with all her favorite songs to pass out as a wedding favor. I will need 350 Cd's all together and want to make a 2-sided front cover (so when you open it, there will be a picture/track listing/etc on the left side), and a back cover. Also, I would like to put a picture on the actual CD itself.

My question is where is the best place to buy this stuff for the printing and labels? Also, is it recommended to go with printing on the cd straight from a printer or printing a paper label and applying it to the cd? I don't mind either but I've heard that sometimes the paper labels can disrupt the playing of the cd in certain situations. If I do need to print on the actual Cd itself, do I need to buy/borrow a special printer that supports this? Further, is there a CD that is better than others to be printed on? What can I expect to spend and how much time will this approximately take?

Lastly, I have looked at "outsourcing" it to certain websites and the cheapest one I found was: http://www.ascotmedia.com/wedding.htm, which with copying cd's, printing inserts, and printing on the actual cd came to about $650-$700. That is a bit much for me and would like to get it done as cheaply as possible but also in a way that will provide the least hassle. I don't mind actually doing the monotonous work of burning, printing, and labeling but I want to make sure the Cd's look decent and will play flawlessly. Any suggestions from anyone that has done this in the past? Best CD's, best labels, cases etc? Any recommended companies to look into for part or all of this job?

THANK YOU SO MUCH in advance.

Prav

First, forget about the idea of outsourcing this project, espically for the price that site gave you.
You should be able to do it all yourself and with little cost, if you don’t mind the work
You can purchase the blank paper that is needed to make the cover and also for the label on the CD, you do not need a special printer to do this but you may need software for the design of the covers and the labels - you should be able to download something from the net.
Everything you will need is on http://www.jewelcaserack.com/ - I am not saying you should buy from this site, you can purchase these items in most stores that supply PC stuff i.e. Best Buy. The labels you need for the CD is on that site with the description "CD / DVD Label Standard High Quality" - I looked at the price, $12.99 for 100, this is a good price.
I don’t really recommend having anyone do this project for you, it should be easy enough.

Thanks for your great reply...it really was a lot of help. Just one question, where can I get the inserts for cheaper than $25/100? Is there anywhere? And does that price include a back cover for the CD case?

You should shop around, also check eBay.

I don't know what optical drives you've got but I would suggest you use a decent CD writer rather than a DVD writer as the quality tends to be better.

In terms of Cd's, the best I've found are Verbatim Pastels (Verbatim code 43417). These are a Taiyo Yuden dye. The reason I recommend these is because they are the only ones I can get to play on my car stereo which won't officially play CD-R media. They will need labels though.