You’ve gotten engaged and you’re ready to plan your wedding. You know the dress, food and venue will be expensive, but there are many other little details that cost more than you think.
Wedding invitation pricing can vary greatly. If you are looking for traditional engraved or letter press invitations be ready to use a good chunk of your budget. Letter press invitations are very beautiful because they leave an embossment in the paper. These can run you up to $2.50-$3.00 each. The reason these invitations are so expensive it because of the intense labor that goes into printing these types of invitations. Everything is done by hand, from setting each letter to hand inking each print. There is nothing more luxurious than a traditionally printed invitation; however, like most beautiful things in life, they don’t come cheap.
Most couples today opt for invitations that are printed digitally because they are much more cost effecting. Invitations can run you anywhere from 60 cents each to $1.50 each. Most of the major wedding invitation websites offer digital printing. Most of these websites offer designs in a few colors and simply cut and paste your custom wording onto them.
These invitations are usually not printed on archival paper, so make sure to check the fine print.
A great site for very unique wedding invitations (besides my own website! www.cottontaildigitalpress.com) is Etsy.com
There are many great designers on there that will work directly with you to create any type of custom invitation design. These may cost you a little more than a major wedding invitation website, but you’ll get something very special and custom.
Now, maybe you’ve found the invitations of your dreams, but it’s still costly. Here are a few tricks to lower the cost:
1) Don’t opt for the inner and outer envelopes. Just get a simple envelope to encase everything. I know they look beautiful, but your guests will likely throw them away.
2) Do an RSVP post card. This will save you from purchasing matching envelopes.
3) Get a website through www.theknot.com or a similar website and have guests RSVP through there. Simply put a line at the bottom of your wedding invitation: Please RSVP on our website at: www.ourwedding2011.com
4) Forego the tissue inside the invitation. The tissue is necessary if you are getting traditionally printed wedding invitations (Letter press or traditional engraved ones) the tissue keeps the ink from your invitation from bleeding to the rest of the paper inside your envelope. If you are getting digitally printed invitations these are not necessary. Some people still use them simply out of tradition.
5) Print your own wedding invitations. There are many free templates online to print your own wedding invitations. (I only suggest this to people who are computer and printer savvy.) Check Out http://www.downloadandprint.com/invitation-templates/
You can also contact designers on Etsy and some will be willing to sell you a custom invitation in JPEG format that you can print at home.
6) Instead of hiring a calligrapher print out your addresses in a nice font on clear address labels. Keeping in mind to to use too crazy of a font, the post office still needs to read the address.
Remember wedding invitations set the tone for your wedding. What’s most important is that you find the right design that works best for your event and fits within your budget.
One last tip: Many couples forget you don’t need to order as many invitations as there are people invited to your wedding. You only need 1 invitation per household address.
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