Wedding invitations are the first impression of you wedding, and a sneak peak at your wedding theme. Will it be formal? Rustic? Whimsical or totally laid-back? No matter if you’re a black-tie girl all the way or looking for a down-home vibe, you still want to get quality wedding invitations without breaking the bank. But how do you get cheap wedding invitations without sacrificing style? Consider these 5 tips to help you save big on your wedding invitations:
Find out how much wedding invitations cost with this helpful guide!
1. The DIY Bride
If you are (and even if you’re not) having a DIY wedding, you can easily DIY your own wedding invitations with a few trusty tools. We suggest downloading free wedding invitation templates through websites such as Wedding Chicks or Love and Lavender where there are SO many different styles to choose from. You can purchase premium paper and print at home, or upload the design to a site like Vistaprint, where they can be printed and mailed directly to you. Alternatively, many templates are available on websites such as Etsy for limited costs where artists can create the artwork and send you the final file. Whichever way you go, just know the option is there to do it for free (plus paper and postage).
2. Find a Freelance Designer
The perfect wedding invitation designer may be out there, they may just not be in your backyard. Whether you’re looking for a designer to create a custom template that you can print at home, or looking for someone to design, print, stuff and mail everything for you, consider websites such as Guru.com or 99Designs.com, which even has a section dedicated to wedding invitations. Or, the simplest of all, post on social media! A friend of a friend may know someone who is THE BEST wedding invitation designer. You never know!
3. Get Up to Speed on Technique
Like most things in life, the more complex the design, the more expensive. Becoming more educated on the processes behind designing and printing wedding invitations will help you make smarter decisions as you design your wedding stationery. By learning the facts, you will be able to find a sweet spot where you can afford the design your after. You may just need to modify the process along the way. Consider this 30 second tutorial: Engraving > Foil Stamping > Letterpress > Thermography > Offset > Digital. Likewise, custom calligraphy > standard fonts. If calligraphy is what you’re after, consider letterpress over engraving. If you’re in love with engraved invitations, consider a standard font. Mixing and matching your options will help to control the overall cost. Additionally, each technique and color require their own run through the printer. This means, if you love the idea of a blind embossed border (no color, just an imprint of a design), and want both gold foil stamping and charcoal letterpress, your invitations will require 3 processes. If you choose to make the border in gold foil instead, you then only have 2 processes, therefore taking down the cost. The reason is, each process requires a new plate to be created for engraved, foil stamped and letterpress invitations.
Sites like Basic Invite and Minted also offer various printing techniques for less. Check out our favorites here.
4. Skimp On Additional Cards
Want to add on directional cards, accommodation cards and response cards? Use offset printing. There is no need to add frills (such as letterpress) to additional cards that ride along with the invitation. After all, guests simply check a box (or write a short message) and the response cards end up coming right back to you! Offset printing additional cards can save you nearly a thousand dollars, and make very little difference to guests. You can still include the same design elements from the invitation so the suite matches. It’s really the invitation that counts.
5. Stuff, Stamp & Mail Yourself
Consider stuffing and mailing your invites the chance to bond with your wedding invitations before they hit snail mail. We’re a firm believer in spending the time to do this, since some companies charge as much as $3-$4 per envelope for these services. Consider where else you may be able to spend that $1,000…like your
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