Wedding Invites = A Tidy Sum

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but according to Bridal Association of America, an average bride will spend $659 on wedding invitations and reply cards. Granted this information hasn't been recently updated, but still.... 

$659.00 on just paper. 

I was in shock when I read this. Seeing as I've been trying my hardest to make my wedding a budget friendly event, I was not about to spend that much on invites that 99% of the receivers will throw away. This weekend was designated "Domination Wedding Invites" with Zach. I was prepared to dive in and get these babies done and sent out this weekend. Hah! My, what big expectations I had.

Dreams of designing and putting together my own invitations had been dashed by my busy schedule and the desire to save even more.  So, a couple of months ago I purchased my invites and reply cards from Target on a whim....they were cute, reasonable, and I wanted to get this over with.  This Saturday, Zach and I headed out to Office Max to get the invites printed and get this marked off the Knot checklist.

After almost an hour of proof-reading, margin checking, and one CAPS freak out, we left with our finished invites!  We just need to go back and get the reply cards printed.  Let's hope that won't be such an ordeal.  

 To think, all this stress for pieces of paper...




These are the invites before we printed on them. What do you think?
We are planning on punching holes in the top and tying a decorate bow using jute.
I'm going to be handwriting all the addresses in calligraphy, but will be utilizing return address labels to save my sanity... I do want to get these sent out on time!

After crunching numbers, here is the estimate of how much everything will cost after we are done:

Two packages of invitations (with reply cards) = $70.00
To print about 80 invites and reply cards = $60.00
Stamps (reply cards included)= $90.00
Jute Bows = $2.00
Labels = $16.00

Total = $238.00
(Plus Zach had a Office Max gift card for $40!)

I think we did pretty good considering we have 155 people to invite! That's about $1.50 per person.
Has anyone done their invites for cheaper? I'd love to hear how they did it!  We also did save the dates via an e-card and I'm so glad because that saved so much; trees, money, and time.  At the time I felt like this was a "scandalous" idea because it was so cheap and I have never heard of others doing this...have you?

Hopefully everyone is having a great week so far!
Make sure to enter in my Owl Necklace Giveaway before Wednesday.

-KateLainey

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11 Responses to Wedding Invites = A Tidy Sum

  1. Those look so pretty! Nice job on the BIG money saving. $659 on INVITATIONS? Sweet Jesus... lol

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  2. Well I'm so proud of you Lainey - you hold the true Kaufman spirit in you.

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  3. Great job! I did invitation postcards that we hand stamped and mailed -- got them out for $199. I was so proud :) We also just did E-rsvp or rsvp by phone. Sticking to a budget is so great, spend the money on your honeymoon! Here's a link to the entry I did on my wedding if you want to check it out :) http://afewthousandmiles.blogspot.com/2010/12/wedding-wednesday.html

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  4. love love LOVE the invites. so "you"! i cannot wait for your wedding - i know it's going to be the best! can't wait to catch up on all of this fun stuff on sunday!

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  5. We got ours done cheaper, but not as pretty as yours. Boxed sets from Staples for $45 (three boxes), printed them at home for about $60, wrote all addresses by hand (including returns - ugh), and stamps - it was around $120-150 all told. Yours are lovely :)

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  6. AWWW! I absolutely love these! They are so pretty! I would say you did well- you'd probably have to pay four times that if you were like me and wouldn't be able to make them! I love it.

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  7. These look so pretty! My invites were a wedding gift from one of Jon's relatives who is a print maker, so we were really lucky. We spent quite a bit on stamps though!

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  8. Isn't it crazy how much everything wedding-related costs?! Good for you for keeping your invitations on a budget... My husband and I were lucky enough to manage to come in (very slightly) under budget for our wedding last September, but there was a lot of luck involved (most notably the fact that I found the perfect dress on a sale rack for 99$- sometimes being tiny pays off :D). Our invitations weren't quite as budget-friendly as yours, but we did spend less than the average bridge and groom, at least according to these statistics. But they were one of the things I decided to splurge on a bit... We got engaged in Paris and when I found invitations with Eiffel Tower cutouts in them, I just couldn't help myself :)
    xox,
    Cee

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  9. I love your selection! they are soooo pretty and good job on the $ savings!!!!!!!!!

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  10. I love those invites...such a great find from Target! Good luck with all your wedding planning...
    Btw-I love those red shoes you wore in the next post in Rockford...so great!

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  11. Those look so pretty! Nice job on the BIG money saving. $659 on INVITATIONS? Sweet Jesus... lol

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