Wedding stationery seems like a pretty cut-and-dried topic, right? Buy it, write on it, mail it out – done! Unfortunately, even if you’re having a low-key wedding, stationery can still be a pain, and an expensive one at that.
When I started planning our wedding, I initially thought choosing stationery would be easy! After all, my fiance and I agreed on the style, so the hardest part (agreeing on things) was over. Oh, no it wasn’t.
Did we want mail-only, email-only, or a combination of both? Did we want glossy paper or thicker paper? Did we want Etsy, Minted, or some generic design at Target? Who gets invites? If people are living with their parents, do I address to it family and assume they’ll bring a plus one?
Okay, so while we won’t get into how and whom to invite, we can at least cover the basics of saving money on stationery. Here are some ways to save money on stationery, so you can save your brain power for things like who to invite!
Skip the Non-Essential Items
Everyone told me I “had to” have an inner liner on my invite. Honestly, while I’ve received many wedding invitations from friends, I never understood why they had to have a liner. To protect them? Well, if your invite is pretty hardy, please skip the extra items like liners, maps, programs, menus, etc.
This serves two purposes: one, you don’t have to buy extra stationery, and you won’t to have to go into the post office, spend time weighing your invitations and pay more for extra weight.
Think you need a map? Depending on how tech-savvy everyone is, you can send an email with the map and menu information if necessary. 90% of the people who attend our wedding either knew where our venues were, the other 5% knew how to use Google maps, and the remaining 5% I sent emails out to with specific directions. No one got lost, and everyone was mostly on time.
Print at Home
Nowadays, designers and sites offer you the opportunity to receive a PDF version of your invitation, meaning you can skip their printing fees and print from home. This gives you a little more opportunity to find the right paper/cardstock to use for your invitation. Also, if you realize you need more invitations, you can print them up right away and not have to worry about your order arriving on time.
Worried you’ll mess it up? While it will cost a little extra, you can take it to your local FedEx Office or other printing store to get it done professionally.
Choose Budget-Friendly Embellishments
I did end up having our Etsy designer print out our invitations, which ended up being a good idea for us, but one thing I regret splurging on is fancier paper. I order linen, instead of the much cheaper and just as nice cotton paper. Honestly, linen invitations? I don’t know what I was thinking, but learn from my mistake and trust me when I say: choose budget-friendly embellishments – no one will notice!
In addition the choosing the less pricey paper option (cotton instead of linen, for instance), consider thermography instead of engraving as well. Thermography is a printing process that uses heat to create a raised letter look and costs half as much as engraving.
Finally, leave out extras like colored paper. ink, borders, attached faux-flowers, ribbons, etc. Not only will these increase the price of your stationery, they may not even make it to the recipient! A friend of mine had lovely rosettes on her wedding invitations, but most were crushed in the mailing process, which wasn’t exactly the look she was going for.
Proofread, Proofread, Proofread
One of my biggest fears was something printed incorrectly, like the date, time, or venue location address. Unfortunately, I’m the proofreader in the family, as everyone else in my family (and his family) is #yolo about everything. In order to preempt this, I double and triple-checked everything, took my time, and came back to our invitation sample multiple times.
Luckily, everything must have been right since everyone showed up on time, but try as much as possible to get several people to review your invitations before you print them. Have your parents, best friends, and future spouse review them if possible.
Nothing is worse than printing out 50+ invitations only to discover you’ve printed the wrong venue location, as my friend realized after she had sent out her save the dates (the invitations had the correct address, luckily!)
Go Paperless
If you really want to save a lot of money on stationery, consider forgoing physical stationery in favor of paperless save the dates and invitations. Paperless Post is one of my favorite sites for this type of online stationery. If you can get away with using only online invitations, this is a great way to save a lot of money – no buying, printing, or mailing invitations required!
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Personal Capital lets you see all of your accounts in one convenient place. Sign up now for free.How did you save money on your wedding stationery? What is your biggest recommendation for saving money on stationery?
We did out wedding invites ourselves and I was very pleased with how they turned out! We ordered the metallic card stock online, printed at work (lol) cut and paste at home! We even added Swarovski crystals as I had gotten them online for 3 cents apiece. I think we ended up spending less than $2 each for pocket folds with inserts!