Original content: Average Price Of Wedding Invitations: An Actual Guide
You’ve made your major wedding planning decisions. Your theme is chosen, your venue is booked, and you’ve chosen a date. Now it’s time to send out the invites and you’re wondering “what’s the average price of wedding invitations?”
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Follow along and we’ll show you everything including paper types, printing options, design elements and more. This way, you’ll know exactly how much of your wedding budget you should set aside.
Average Price Of Wedding Invitations
To keep things as sensible as possible, we’re going to work with the average price for wedding invitations and then break down the variables so that you can discover where you can save money or where you can put a little extra into the project. At the end, you’ll be able to find the perfect balance between budget and extravagance.
What is the average cost of 100 wedding invitations?
Not everyone has the exact same amount of guests they want to invite to their wedding. To keep things simple for everyone we’re going to talk about the average cost for 100 wedding invitations. You can do the math from there to determine the exact number you’re working with.
Most couples are spending between $300 and $600 (or a precise $386 this year) on the entire wedding invitation project. Of course, you could ask some high-end design firm or wedding planner and they’ll tell you it’s somewhere closer to $5000 to $6000.
Why the drastic difference? Some couples are doing most of the work themselves and some farm out the project entirely. The choice is yours. Either way, we’re going to show you how everything works.
What Determines The Price Of Wedding Invitations
There’s a lot of aspects that go into the cost of invitations. Just a few choices can drastically increase the average prices for wedding invitations.
Before you start working on your design, it’s a best practice to choose your paper type.
Paper types with an average cost per 100 sheets:
- Cotton Fiber: $29
- Felt Cardstock: $22
- Matte: $18
- Glossy: $18
- Parchment: $15
- Vellum: $17
- Glassine: $17
- Handmade paper: $20
- Recycled Paper: $20
- Linen: $17
Not only can this decision significantly impact the overall look of your design, but invitations are also a very tactile item. Your paper will affect the entire presentation.
Wedding invitations are just ink on paper, right? Not exactly. There are plenty of additional elements that you can add to the design to transform that piece of paper into a work of art.
Optional design elements:
- Photography
- Engraved Design
- Stamped Foil
- Letter Press
- Glitter
- Calligraphy
- Color
When it comes to budget, the choice is yours. When it comes to design, the choice is still yours but you should take some professional advice. Many brides with a few extra dollars to burn bombard their wedding invitations with every design option out there. This is a mistake that inevitably results in a mess. Less is more.
Design elements drive up the cost of your personalized invitations based on the materials used and the time required to apply them. What drives up the cost most drastically is the printing method you choose.
The average cost of printing 100 wedding invitations:
- Digital Printing: Starts at $600
- Offset Printing: Starts at $1200
- Thermography: Starts at $1200
- Letterpress: $1600 +25% for every additional color.
- Engraving: Starts at $2200
Although printing is the most expensive aspect of wedding invitations, the same image can look entirely different depending on how it’s printed. Choose wisely.
Additional Costs Of Wedding Invitations
There are a few more decisions you’ll have to make in regards to invitation décor.
The average cost for accent per 100 wedding invitations:
- Foil Stamping: $400 (for a modest amount)
- Debossing & Embossing: $350
- Edging: $150
- Bevel Cut: $400
- Wax Seals: $250
- Insert Cards: $325
- Envelope Liners: $300
Each of these wedding invite options requires specialized equipment and manual skill, which is why they aren’t cheap. It may seem like a lot of money, but consider the fact that these types of accents are the easiest way to make your invitations stand out and memorable, which is why so many brides opt for at least one (usually more) of these.
If you’re going to choose only one, were going to suggest that you craft a unique image – such as stylized initials or logo that sums up your relationship or wedding theme – and go with the wax seal. It’s very impressive.
Tips On Saving Money On Wedding Invitation
The easiest way to bring your expenses lower than the average wedding invitation cost is to choose as few options as possible, as well as the least expensive from the options you don’t have a choice to choose from.
If you’re looking for a little more insight than that, consider the DIY route. We should warn you, however, to plan the entire project before you get started.
Consider:
- The cost of ink (and potentially new printer)
- The cost of design software if you can’t find something free
- Wax and a seal price
- The cost of paper and liners
Those costs are fixed and easily calculated. What’s a little less predictable is the cost of your own time (it’s at a premium during the wedding planning process, what would you pay for a good night’s sleep right about now?) and the cost of screwing up. Add at least 20% to account for mishaps and “practice runs”.
If the DYI cost is approaching the cost of having your wedding invitations professionally designed and printed, it’s probably best that you leave it up to the experts and avoid a potential disaster. Nothing costs more than having to do it twice.
Where To Buy Wedding Invitations?
Don’t mention designers and shops, just describe where to find invitations.
After all of your design planning is done, it’s time to decide how your going to turn your vision into reality.
– Stationery Stores: These are the true experts, they specialize in exactly this.
– Online: There are plenty of competitively-priced online options that will walk you through the entire design, materials, and ordering process in a very logical manner.
– Professional Designers: Graphic designers tend to focus on digital, but they all have a foundation in fine art and a wealth of knowledge when it comes to printing. They most likely have more than a few printers in their network too. The professional and personal touch always shows.
These options are far too extreme to offer up any sort of average. You’ll have to do a little online research and get some direct knowledge.
There’s everything you have to consider before you start making your wedding invitation decisions. First, calculate the overall costs and make sure that it fits your budget. If you need to scale back, start cutting out some none-essentials or consider DIY wedding invitations – this could be a great party activity.
The most important part is to always keep the end result in mind. Spending a few extra dollars on appetizers may seem like a better decision, but you and your friends and family will be keeping the invitations as memorabilia for generations.
