We already talked about how we couldn’t (nay! wouldn’t!) cut the guest list, and how we’re going to have the entire ceremony and reception in the same place. We’ve discussed how much I suck at trying to save money on a wedding dress.
Now, let’s talk about invitations & save the dates. AKA potentially super expensive pieces of paper for people to either recycle (in the best case scenario) or throw in the trash. How do we make something cute that doesn’t cost a lot of money?
Also, why do wedding invitations cost so much money?!
Save The Dates
This was easy. We went to the park where we’re getting married, took a bunch of pictures, and came home to add words and details in Photoshop. After hours of messing around, we found a font/color combination we liked, and we were off!
We went online to Walgreens, though I’m sure any number of print-your-photo places would have worked. They have a “turn your photo into a postcard” option, and we added a few lines of text telling people the web address of our wedding website and that we’d have more details in a few months. Walgreens always (ALWAYS) has a valid coupon code, and we found one for 40% off, making our save-the-dates themselves cost less than the postcard stamps! Winning.
Invitations
The invitations were another story entirely. First, there are thousands of places online to shop for stationery. As much as I’m trying to keep everything local, I knew custom letterpress was completely out of the question. It would undoubtedly be gorgeous and amazing, but so, so expensive. So, I searched online for “frugal wedding invitations” and found Ann’s Bridal Bargains. Now that website is a rabbit hole of amazingness, and there are so, so many options to choose from, but I found one I liked, asked Brent his opinion (surprisingly, Brent does have opinions about wedding things!) and got to work customizing.
We bought 100 invitations (which is more than we need, but if you look at the pricing, you have to pay $100 for 25 invitations, and $139 for 100) and got a discount for joining their mailing list, which ended up covering shipping costs.
We got these (although this isn’t a picture of mine, since I’ve never even been to South Dakota!) and I’m thrilled with them. We’re sending them out this week.
They’re self contained, meaning that once you fold up the invitation, you seal it and address it. There’s no envelope — the invite is the envelope. We have all our important details listed on our website, and we want people to RSVP using the website, so the invitation is a formality. Brent didn’t think we needed it at all, but I really wanted to send something in the mail. I think they worked out to costing about 80 cents each? I can’t recall exactly. But I was really happy with them. They turned out great, they were here really soon after I ordered them, and they came with seals for closing them in a cuter way than a piece of tape would (which is absolutely what I would have used).
I’m happy to spend under $250 on all the wedding stationery. That can be a huge expense, and it doesn’t have to be.
Bottom line
If you can let go of gorgeous letterpress designs, or let go of the idea that your invitations need to be the loveliest, fanciest, most wonderful pieces of paper in the whole world, you can save yourself a bunch of cash.
However, I’m finding that there’s a place for all that “saved” money — some other piece of this wedding just comes to snatch it right up. Save where you can, so you have room to throw money at the alteration lady, that’s what I say!
Note: I am an affiliate of Ann’s Bridal Bargains. So, if you click the links within this post, I get a thank-you commission from them. It costs you nothing — in fact, I think it saves you money to click my links! According to my affiliate manager, these links will take you to some decent discount codes.
