Right before we ordered our invitations, we received an invite to another wedding with the absolute worst DIY invitation. The paper was cheap, the printing was crooked and the font was such a tiny script you couldn't read it. It made me feel like they did not really put any thought into it. Even though I didn't want to break the bank for our invitations, I still wanted them to look nice, fancy even.
I had used vistaprint several times for business cards and such and always found them to be the cheapest option for a mid-range to nice product. I looked at invitations from several other online companies that specialized in wedding invitations and vistaprint beat every one of them on price for a similar looking product. Plus I was more comfortable with vistaprint because I had used them before.
If you have time, I highly recommend ordering a free sample kit to see what the different paper types are like. It was really helpful, I did not have it for my Save the Dates but it was great when choosing my invitations. If you are concerned about the printing quality from vistaprint, this will also ease your fears.
This is what I did, how much I spent and how I tried to save money every step of the way!
Save the Dates
I kind of wanted the magnet save the dates that have been super popular the past few years (vistaprint offers these) but ultimately decided they were too expensive, especially for something that is going to become trash in less than a year. Instead, I went a more eco-friendly route and got postcards. Not only were the postcards 1/2 the price of magnets but the postage for a post card is also lower and it doesn't need an envelope.
When you do your guest list you want to pay attention not just to the number of guests but the number of households, which will determine how many invitations you will order. We had 88 households, so I ordered 100 cards so we would have extras.
On vistaprint, they have a bunch of designs for you to choose from and you can even upload your own photo. I used one of our engagement photos for the front and put our basic wedding information on the back (names, date, location and our return address).
The maximum size for a postcard in US mail is 4.25x6 inches. This means to get the lower postage rate, you can only choose either the "standard postcard" or "small postcard" on vistaprint. I chose the small postcard and it was really the perfect size.
Invitations & Response cards
For my invitations I did better on scouting for a sale, I was in the process of designing invitations and I saw they were having a 50% off sale so I jumped on it! The prices below reflect this sale.
I chose a 5x7 vertical flat invitation (this was after lusted after these on etsy for like a week knowing they were too expensive the whole time) but it seems in terms of postage costs, all invitation sizes are more less created equal. Don't get too crazy or they will be over weight (1oz) by the time you add a response card and other inserts.
The really annoying thing was, not all of the invitations had a matching response card design. I seriously looked through 20 pages of response cards and didn't find any that matched my chosen invitation design. However, I contacted customer service and they whipped me up a matching design for free in 5 minutes. So if you cannot find one that matches, I suggest contacting them via online chat!
I wasn't 100% sure what the invitations should say either. Vistaprint has sample wording but I found it a little lackluster. If you need help wording your invitations, I found this website of samples really helpful and appreciated the modern choices.
Our guest list increased a little after our save the dates were sent, and I did not want to run out of invitations so I decided to order 120 invites and response cards. Vistaprint only allows orders in specific quantities, in this case 100 or 150. Since I didn't need 150, I went to "my portfolio" and copied my invitation and ordered 1 batch of 100 and 1 batch of 20. I then did the same thing for my response card. I paid more per piece for the 20 than for the 100, which is a little annoying but still less than I'd have paid overall if I'd have ordered 150 of each.
Using my sample kit, I decided to upgrade to the thicker paper for the invitation to give it some weight. I opted also to go for the free envelopes that were included and use them as our "interior envelope" (I didn't know this was a thing but apparently it is, my mom told me we needed them, so fine, I'll use the free ones), in part because I did not like the design of the upgraded envelopes but also because they were hella pricey. It was like $50 for 100 of the fancy envelopes.
I had seen a lot of reviews saying the free envelopes were "thin" and since our invitations were a dark color (and my mom said I had to have two envelopes), I ordered some thicker envelopes for an exterior envelope from Amazon. I figured it would be nice not to be able to see them through the envelope when it came. Though when the free envelopes showed up, they were thick enough I thought. Definitely not the crappy envelope I imagined after seeing the online reviews. Don't get me wrong they weren't fancy but just a normal envelope.
So the only additional option I added on vistaprint was the upgraded paper for the invitation. The total damage was:
- 120 invitations in "premium white matte stock" with 120 "free" basic envelopes (aka my interior envelope): 56.96
- 120 response cards with 120 basic "free" envelopes: 32.48
- Shipping & tax for invites, response cards, thank yous and my other add-ons: 22.98
I ordered exterior envelopes from amazon because they were so much cheaper and I got tissue paper squares from Amazon to jazz them up even more. Fancy! I even contemplated a belly band but they were too spendy.
I only got 100 of each because they were Amazon Prime, so I could get more in 2 days if needed.
Unfortunately when I went to assemble my invitations, my Amazon envelopes were too small to fit my vistaprint envelope/invitations inside! In the end I opted to use only the Amazon envelopes because they were a little nicer and had a square flap to match the square flap on the Vistaprint response card envelopes but if I hadn't already opened them, I might have used the free envelopes.
Thank yous
They had matching thank you cards so I ordered them from vistaprint too. Though in this case, I don't think they were really any cheaper than from anywhere else. I did not have any custom printing done so I could've bought them anywhere. However after comparison shopping on Amazon, they were the same price as other thank yous so I went for the matching ones.
I ordered these at the same time as my invitations and response cards to save on shipping. That is the thing about vistaprint, you always pay shipping, but they are still cheaper than going elsewhere.
- 100 thank you cards with 100 "free" basic envelopes: 34.99
Other cute stuff I tossed in
I'll admit, these might not be my most frugal choices. When you are ordering on vistaprint they will show you a bunch of coordinating options, and I found some of these useful so I ordered them not quite on a whim, but close.
First I got matching return address labels for the invitations, to stick on our response card envelopes and also for the thank you cards. We're not moving any time soon so we can always use them later if we have extras.
- 420 return address labels (quantity of 140 and 240): 23.98 (this was WAY too many)
I also got some cute envelope seals that were recommended to me. I'll be honest, I'd never have ordered these if they hadn't shown them to me. Sigh. Oh well, they are cute and I don't have to lick any envelopes.
- 120 envelope seals: 14.99 (this was more than I needed)
Sometimes you need things to make wedding planning easier and for me that is seals and return address labels.
Overall I'm pleased with the final product and our invitations came in a smidgen under budget, even with my add-ons.
Update: I forgot to mention that I got a 5% rebate from Mr. Rebates on our total order (minus tax and shipping). The rebate was $8.17 for our invites bringing our total down a little bit more. Every penny counts when planning a wedding. If you want to sign up for Mr. Rebates click here (referral link, thank you in advance).
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