When doing some research I came across one of the best blog articles I have ever read on wedding invitations by Hip Ink‘s Sarah Spano. I will share some of the great points that she makes in her article with you.
Many brides will tell you that wedding invitations are expensive. However expensive is different for every bride. One bride’s pocket change is another bride’s expensive. What brides really mean when they say that invitations and stationery are so expensive is that they were unaware of the cost of wedding invitations and it was a surprise to them. There is really only one occasion or two in a person’s lifetime where they would need a service like this, so it is okay to not know the price of wedding invitations.
Sarah also gives a side note that Bridal “experts” say the “accepted” amount to budget for wedding invitations is 5-8% of your total wedding budget. This may not be agreed upon by everyone in the industry.
There is a huge range in the price of wedding invitations, starting at $2 per invitation. This is where Sarah stops for a little aside, one of my favourite points in her article:
”How much do you spend on the average greeting card? $3? $4? $5 or more? Is it totally mass-produced? Yes. Is there anything particularly special about it? Probably not. Is it personalized? No. Do you think its expensive for what you’re getting? You might. Do you buy it anyway? Most of the time. So why is it that there are people out there (probably lots of them) that think $5 for a custom invitation set is “expensive”? Food for thought.”
What goes into the cost of a traditional invitation?
If you are going with a traditional (not custom) invitation- there is the actual paper and envelopes itself which is usually a nice stock, better than a local printer. The price of the designs, although not custom someone still had to design it, this is spread out over many brides and grooms though. The set up costs for printing your information on it etc.
What about what goes into the cost of custom invitations?
Custom invitations are not like traditional invitations. Custom invitations are created for you to be everything you dreamed of. They are not mass produced and your guests will have not seen them before when invited to someone else’s wedding. They are created by a designer to be a reflection of you as a couple, your wedding, and yes they can be pricey.
The price of a custom invitation is based on many different factors. The style of the invitation for example a single panel invitation verses a pocketfold or boxed invitation. The type of material you choose, patterns and metallics versus matte colors. The type of printing you choose flat print verses raised print, and how many embellishments such a rhinestones and ribbons that you choose. Every invitation takes time to design to perfection, print and trim and then assemble them by hand.
Sarah says they use the finest papers and embellishments at hipink, and the same can be said for Milestone Moments. You ARE getting great value for your dollar. For every invitation order there is a lot involved including meeting with the customer or discussing over the phone or online, working with vendors, sometimes sourcing the “perfect” materials, designing, editing, printing, cutting, assembling and more.
This is a great tidbit from Sarah’s article:
“Brides will often ask me my option on custom vs traditional vs DIY. I like to use the wedding dress analogy, because most brides can understand and appreciate the differences. Picture it: you fall in love with the perfect wedding dress, Vera Wang. It is $6000 (because it is made out of the finest materials, sewn and embellished by hand, and created especially for you with multiple fitting to make adjustments and ensure it is exactly what you want. You go to Big Chain Bridal and see a similar dress. It is $600 (because it is made out of lesser quality materials and mass-produced in a factory, and you will have to pay for alterations to ensure it fits properly). Then you go to Big Box Fabrics and see that you can buy fabric and embellishments for $60 (because you will have to sew the dress and do all the embellishments and alterations yourself). Each of these dresses has its merits, but most people brides can agree that the Big Chain Bridal dress will never be the same quality as the couture gown and that they probably aren’t Vera Wang”
That said, lots of people fall in love with beautiful mass-produced gowns or are very successful in sewing their own wedding dress – but, it is important to compare apples to apples. In stationery world, custom is apples, traditional is oranges and DIY is kumquats. The best advice I can give you is to determine your budget for stationery, compare prices within the type of invitation you’ve chosen. Look for value – beware of hidden costs (for example, some companies will quote their price with rsvp cards and envelopes, whereas some will quote pricing for the invitation only) and make sure you compare the quality, not just the price.”
This also rings true….
“As for me, I’m probably not the right person to ask, because I believe that your invitations are the most significant stationery purchase you will ever make and an extremely important part of your event, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make an amazing impression on your guests.
I know and am in contact with many custom stationery designers. We almost all work for ourselves or for very, very small companies. Making invitations isn’t our hobby, it is our livelihood – it may feed our passion for creativity, but it also feeds our families. We do it because we love design, we love paper, but most of all, because we love people. We love seeing the faces of our brides when they see their finished invitations for the first time. We love to hear what their friends and family think. We take pride in our work. And we want you to understand exactly how much of *us* goes into what we do for *you*.”
This article was great! Thank you Sarah!
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