Sharing your news should not cost an arm and a leg. Neither should the paper and ink used for a wedding invitation. While some couples send out elaborate announcements of their engagement or engraved and calligraphy-scribed invitations, dozens of less expensive ways can do the job just as well.
Some magazines or papers will only print wedding announcements as opposed to engagement news. Be sure to jot those down so you can send a wedding photo and news after the fact to obtain a free public keepsake for your scrapbook.
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Contact local papers, church-affiliated bulletins, college alumni magazines or newsletters, and even your fraternity/sorority magazine to share your happy news. Often they publish weekly or monthly announcements of engagements and weddings at no cost.
Check to see if your local paper will print a picture of you two. This will also serve as a super souvenir.
Divide up your calling list, and have your fiancé call his friends and family.
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Some couples print up their own announcements to mail to family and friends. This approach is fine, but it can get costly with stamps, printing, and time. Calling those closest to you is an acceptable and inexpensive way to spread the news. The evening and weekend off-peak times will save on long-distance calls.
Ask your parents to contact their close friends to save you time on phone calls. Just be sure that the people they call are those you plan to have on your guest list. If you decide to have an engagement party, have those invitations serve as your announcement, too.
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Announcing your news via e-mail is perfectly acceptable, too, and probably the most efficient. Faxing is another inexpensive alternative.
First compile your individual lists. Then compare and discuss the invitees. Guess who will and won’t attend to get a closer idea of who will actually come. This number will give you a general idea for catering costs, space needed, and other wedding aspects.
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Consider how long it has been since you have been in contact with each individual on your list. Who would you regret not inviting versus who are you inviting because of an obligation or guilt? Remember, this is your wedding and your budget.
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Only after you and your fiancé have your closest guess on what the responses will be, should you give your parents a number limit of guests they can invite. Have them also provide you with their guesstimate as to who they think will actually attend. Remember you are on a budget, so encourage them to stay within your limits.
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If you and your fiancé agree to limit your guest list, do not include the names of your friends, boyfriends or girlfriends on the envelopes. Some couples have an “engaged- or married-only” rule; all other guests are considered single and expected to attend alone.
Don’t invite children to the wedding unless it is imperative. You’ll save on costs here, too.
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Spare yourself hassles and follow-up phone calls by assigning a number to each individual guest or family you invite. Then lightly pencil that number onto the back corner of the reply card so if a guest forgets to write their name in the space of the reply card, you can identify who they are by cross-checking the penciled number against your master list. Also, this numbering system keeps your RSVPs in numerical order so you can see who has yet to respond.
Avoid the more expensive and ultratraditional style of engraved invitations, whereby the text of your invitation is literally engraved or cut into a metal plate and printed one by one. Many more cost-effective methods look just as nice, such as thermography (raised printing), laser or inkjet printing, or even handwriting.
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Bargain shop. Select your stationery and price it at several stores, on the Web, and in mail-order catalogs. You may surprise yourself with the price discrepancies for the same or very similar item.
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Only order the number of invitations based on the number of families and singles you plan to invite. Don’t make the mistake of overordering by counting each guest as one invitation. Whether a couple, single person, or entire family, each address—not each individual—counts as one invitation. In other words, two hundred guests does not translate to two hundred invitations.
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Hand-address invitations or run the envelopes through your printer instead of hiring a calligrapher.
Negotiate with stationers. Tell them you saw the same invitations or something very similar for less. Who knows? They may give you a discount off their listed price just for asking.
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Find a graphic designer or someone starting a printing or calligraphy business, and see if he or she will handle your printing needs to beef up a portfolio. An art student also may be interested in designing your wedding announcements and invitations as a side project for a fraction of what you would pay a stationer.
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Purchase card stock from an office supply store, local printer, or copy shop. Then set up your invitations via computer and copy on heavy-duty photocopy machines. Mail out your invitations in the form of postcards with either a photo of you two or some other wedding image. You’ll save significantly on postage, inner envelopes, and other extraneous invitation additions. The goal is simple—to disseminate information in a clear, concise way—so why not? Have them RSVP via e-mail or by phone.
Some couples design homemade invitations with photos of themselves scanned in or printed on the invitation. More and more computer programs offer creative, inexpensive alternatives to mail-order or store-bought invitations.
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Be sure to factor in the cost of your time and what it is worth to you, because potential headaches and unforeseen costs can be associated with making your own invitations.
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Add ribbon, tulle, or beading to your invitations yourself rather than paying a stationery company for these extras.
It was really time-consuming, but the most rewarding part of the wedding-planning process for me was making my own invitations. I have a passion for art projects, so I personally designed (with hand-tied and glue-gunned bows), printed on vellum paper, wrote, and stuffed all two hundred invitations myself. The complimentary calls and comments I received from guests were reward enough for my efforts. They were so impressed with my unique invitations and cherished the time and love that was put into crafting them. I look back on the process as my wedding gift to myself and therapy to help me maintain my sanity during the craziness of it all. And, I’d do it all over again.
—Kiko K., Los Angeles, CA
Another bride purchased just two reams of beautiful paper with flowers pressed in it from an office supply store. She swears that this was enough paper for all her needs: the engagement announcement, invitations, wedding programs, place cards, table numbers and thank-you cards.
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One bride chose literally to make her own paper with construction paper, a blender, water, and flower petals. (Consult a craft store or books for more details.) Then she used tracing paper as the overlay with the invitation printed on it and attached the pages together with ribbon. The invitations were a fraction of the cost of store-bought ones and bore her personal touch, too.
If you invite a small number of guests, consider handwriting your invitations. Forget etiquette, which dictates that you can only do that for fewer than fifty guests. You define your own rules on this one.
If you go the mail-order route, order invitations early—several months prior to your wedding—to avoid rush-shipping fees and to allow for any mistakes that may arise. If there are mistakes, contact the provider regarding return authorization so you do not have to pay to ship back the flawed invitations.
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Use card stock that is a standard size. Square cards and envelopes and other oversized or odd-sized papers require additional postage.
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Be sure the weight of your invitation and reply card does not exceed the necessity of one postage stamp so you’ll save on extra postage.
Many lower-budget printing services will print your invitation order for much less than a stationery or wedding store will charge. Also, bridal magazines offer special reduced rates for subscribers.
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Nowadays, some couples even send their invitations via e-mail or fax. Casual can be chic and cheap! Be sure this choice fits your style, though, and note that it may offend some more traditionally minded recipients.
Announcements and thank-you cards should be ordered simultaneously to coordinate with your invitations and to avoid additional setup fees or shipping costs.
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For thank-you cards, you can use inexpensive preprinted cards from a stationery store (or grocery store, for that matter!) that simply say “Thank you” on the front as opposed to personalized stationery. Or, make your own cards on the computer.
I ordered invitations from Party City, a party warehouse store. They were the same ones I saw in wedding catalogs and books, only cheaper. I also did prewedding announcements, the wedding program, the “guide to weekend activities,” and others all on my computer and had them printed at Kinko’s so the cost was minimal.
—Barbara B., Newport Beach, CA
Don’t order preprinted return address envelopes for your invitations. Affix homemade labels instead.
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Rather than feeding envelopes one by one through your computer printer to have addresses printed directly onto them, print clear adhesive address and return labels on your computer. Clear is less noticeable and a little classier than white labels, which can be distracting if your envelopes are cream or any color other than white. Print two sets of these labels so you can use them again on your thank-you note envelopes.
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Envelopes can be handwritten or printed if you have the time. Handwriting is obviously the least expensive.
While some might view this as a major etiquette faux pas, if budget is your true concern, consider omitting a stamp in the reply card of your invitation and leave guests responsible for affixing their own. Or request e-mail, fax, or phone RSVPs.
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The lighter the weight of your invitations, the less postage you will need. Eliminate extra internal envelopes, tissue inserts, or separate direction sheets. Include as much information on one card as you can.
Save money by omitting a prewedding/save-the-date mailing to your guests. Use e-mail, word of mouth, and a wedding Web site to disseminate information. Or, set up a phone tree so your parents can call their lists and you and your fiancé can call yours with the information.
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Postcard postage is cheaper than regular postage. Use postcards to share information that can only be delivered through “snail mail” instead of electronically.
Set up a wedding Web site where you can post all wedding-related information, such as where you are registered, fun photos of you two, important dates, hotel information, and locations of events. You can keep updating your site as more information becomes available. Just remember that all of your guests will not have Internet access, so be sure that those invitees get postal mailings or calls with all pertinent information.
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Many Web-hosting companies offer free wedding Web sites if you post at their location. Look into these as opposed to paying a fee to advertise your information or for a more personalized domain name. (See pertaining section on this page.)
We created a wedding Web site that included important information on hotels, directions, activities, phone contact information, and so forth. Our goal was not to have a cheesy Web site with pictures of us and how we met. Mostly, it was a funny Web site that gave my fiancé an outlet to showcase his humor. Everyone loved it, and it was a lot of fun putting it together. As an engagement present for one of our groomsmen who was recently engaged, we set up a Web site for him and his fiancé. Domain names can be obtained for free or through many wedding Web sites at no cost.
—Kelly B., Washington, D.C.
Q. Help! My friend sent invitations to her guests, and some replied that their children or significant others were attending. How can I avoid that embarrassing pitfall when sending out my invites?
A. Clearly address your envelope to only the names you plan to invite to the wedding. If you are not including children, then be sure to address the invitation only to “Mr. and Mrs.” and not accidentally “The Jones Family.” Also, for single guests, only write their name on the envelope. Do not add “and guest” unless you will allow them to bring someone. If you receive reply cards with additional names that you have not invited, have the person who invited them (i.e., your mother, in-laws, your fiancé, or yourself) call and explain that significant others or children are not included due to the limited guest list and size restrictions of your site or chapel. Don’t be embarrassed. If they are bold enough to assume they can add others to your list or if it was a simple oversight on their part, then by all means a call to clarify is appropriate.