How to Lower the Costs of Your Wedding Invitations

Preparing for your wedding is a huge job made up of many tasks. Although couples often begin planning their weddings with a budget in mind, it’s not unusual for them to overspend. The good news is that you decide which elements of your wedding you’re willing to spend more money for.

Printing and sending wedding invitations are aspects of your wedding where you can easily preserve your budget. With some careful planning and plenty of creative thinking, you can have beautiful wedding invitations for a reduced cost.

Review these ideas to find how to best create thrifty wedding invitations that reflect the two of you:

Print your own

Consider printing your own wedding invitations on your computer. Avoid using expensive professional printers to prevent over-spending on your wedding budget.

• Purchase pre-packaged cards at your local office supply store. Choose pre-creased cards if you like. However, you’ll save even more by purchasing square or rectangle flat cards.
• Preview the various print fonts on your computer. You’ll be surprised at how lovely the cursive fonts appear when printed on nice card stock. Blackadder ITC resembles old calligraphy and brings a formal look to your invitations. Another distinct cursive font, Edwardian ITC looks elegant and scripted, while Segoe Script appears less formal and more light-hearted and fun.
• Carefully proofread your draft invitation after typing it on your computer. Ask two other people to also proof it to avoid typos and other errors before printing up the invitations.

Hiring a printer

If you prefer to have professional printers print your wedding invitations, use these cost-cutting strategies:

• Obtain bids for your wedding invitations from 3 different printers. Meet with each printer to see if they’re willing to give you a percentage off total printing costs to secure your business. Make every effort to negotiate lower printing charges.
• Reduce wedding invitation costs even more by including reception information near the bottom of your actual invitations.
• You can also use postcards for your reception information rather than a card, an envelope, and first class postage for each invited guest. You’ll save nearly half the postage and probably half again for using postcards as opposed to cards and envelopes for reception information.
• Alternatively, you can simply have your invited guests to email or call you or a close friend or relative who agrees in advance to manage the guest list. This strategy assures you’ll have a running list of the number of guests to expect and you’ll save money in 2 ways: you won’t have to purchase response cards and envelopes or purchase postage for them.

Handwrite your invitations

For a smaller guest list, say 50 or less, you might consider handwriting your wedding invitations. This strategy works best for those with attractive handwriting.

• Use pre-packaged paper as a less expensive option when writing your own wedding invitations.
• Although writing out your invitations sounds like a lot of work, write just 4 or 5 invitations each day. Before you know it, you’ll have lovely, individualized wedding invitations ready to mail. Your guests will be thrilled to receive such a personalized invite.

With these tips, wedding invitations that are both low-cost and beautiful are possible if you’re willing to think creatively and put some effort and work into the design.