Affordable Wedding Invitations for You
Affordable wedding invitations? What do you think about when you hear those words? And is that even a possibility? Does the multitude of designs and paper types and sizes and colors and envelope choices make you just a little bit nervous whenever you even think about wedding invitations? If it does, don't you worry because you're not alone.
Wedding invitations have been an important part of the wedding ceremony pre-planning process since about the beginning of the 18th century. Jump to the present day and this historic process is still one of those that most brides follow. Brides want to let their guests know all about their big day, when where and all of that, and what better way can they do that then by sending out lovely and affordable wedding invitations?
What Are Affordable Wedding Invitations
Basically, when it comes down to the use of wedding invitations nowadays, you have the choice of four basic types -
- printed out in stationary form and sent via the mail or
- a hybrid printed and wedding favor combo with your message inside a bottle (especially great for beach weddings or ocean themed ceremonies)
- online cards via a wedding website or email or
- using DIY wedding invitations templates
Depending on how comfortable you and your potential guests are with the Internet and how email and social media savvy they are, that will be a big consideration when you're choosing to go the online method. Or you could pick a kind of hybrid 4 part DIY printing process we suggest where you do a lot of the work yourself. And if you decide to stick with the traditional old-school mail method using printed stationary, then that is fine too. No matter which method you choose, any of them is a good choice for choosing affordable wedding invitations.
But all these choices can complicate matters because there are just so many variations out there - but don't let that scare you because we are here to help. As a graphic designer with over 20 years of experience in creating all sorts of printed materials I can tell you that wedding invitations and other types of wedding stationary don't have to be that tough a process to do but a lot of people tend to make it that way. And affordable wedding invitations options can look just as nice as the more expensive ones if you make good choices and think about what you want.
So if you choose to use printed wedding invitations and other sorts of cards such as RSVP, save the date and all the others there are certain things you can do and still save yourself some money. The most recent estimates for wedding invitations I have seen run the gamut from around $350 for 150 invitations to well over $3000 if you choose many of the expensive options as listed below and use several of the printed materials such as menus, thank you cards and all the rest. In the end, we want to help give you a beautiful outcome and something you'll be happy and proud to hand out and share with all your guests. And something that doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg too.
So while we're talking about printed wedding materials, do you have to choose to use everything such as the RSVP cards, the save the date cards and all the other kinds of stationary so often associated with a wedding ceremony? The answer is simple. No, you don't have to buy and use them all. You can get by quite easily by choosing as many or as few kinds of wedding stationary as your needs allow because, quite honestly, I feel not all wedding stationary fits all types of services so why bother with the things you don't need.
And if you want to save yourself a lot of money, one thing you can do when choosing affordable wedding invitations that don't break the bank is to NOT choose ones with a lot of additional items, such as:
gold foil, engraving, or embossing
which can all cost a small fortune individually as far as wedding invitations goes. And if you were to choose more than one of those four - ouch! There goes that budget right out the door. So what I plan to do here is offer you some tips on some of the things you should be looking for when you're deciding on your printed stationary and also a few things you should probably ignore or leave out if you have any kind of a budget at all.
Tips For Choosing Affordable Wedding Invitations
To make things easier for you Frugal Brides, I have made a list of several things you should choose to do, or not do, when deciding on affordable wedding invitations. If you want to stay within your budget here is a list of many of the things that will kill your wedding invitations budget in a heart beat and will end up costing you so much more in the long run. I hope these tips help - one thing I am assuming here, and I hope it's OK with you, is that you will be buying invitations for less than 350 guests. :~)
- Digital printing is one of the best, cheapest and fastest ways to get invitations made - also my favorite way overall - and this is the way most printings are done today because this method shines when printing in smaller amounts
- Foil is so beautiful but it is also a very expensive and specialized printing option
- Engraving is very expensive and highly specialized and will cost you mega bucks
- The letterpress option is more expensive than digital printing but does give invitations a very unique look
- Thermography virtually "melts" colors on to the page for a cool raised plastic look but can be a very, very expensive option
- Laser cutting is a new option I really like that does not require ink - instead designs can be cut of out paper leaving lacy and creative looks unlike any other - prices can be expensive depending on what you choose but the results are stunning
- Using postcards instead of cards with envelopes whenever you can will save you lots in printing costs and are much cheaper to mail too
- Avoiding rounded corners can save you the extra cutting costs
- Lined envelopes will cost you extra in cost and postage as well because of weight
- Single side cards compared to double sided cards can save you loads
- Flat cards vs folded cards can also save you additional costs
- Use standard ink colors to save money - neons and foils can be very expensive
- If you add extra layers, pockets or any kinds of add ons your cost per piece will be more expensive because of the additional work in creating each invitation
- Choose your papers wisely - some can be less than half the costs of others, yet look almost the same side by side
- Avoid handmade papers which can be very expensive to save money
- 80 lb papers are a great choice compared to heavier paper weights
- Order more invitations than you think you will need when placing your first order - it's cheaper to buy 25 or so extras in your initial order than having to pay for a minimum of 100 or more later because you needed a few more but ran out
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