Weddings can be very expensive. Reign in the budget from the beginning by choosing affordable wedding invitations; you’d be amazed at the options you do have. Plus, you take advantage of these money saving tricks that will cut costs without cutting the cuteness of your wedding invitation.
Wedding Website
The easiest way to save money on wedding invitations is to forgo the RSVP cards. I know, you’re thinking, “But how will we know who is coming?” Simple: on your invitation include a message saying, “Please RSVP at our wedding website” and include the url address. So many places offer free wedding websites complete with the RSVP feature. They even let you customize your url address to something more personal.
There are numerous advantages to having a wedding website. It is considered inappropriate to include wedding registry information in an invitation, however on a website it is perfectly acceptable to include a link to your registry. You can also include directions, attire requests, photo albums, a virtual guest book, and so much more depending on the free website and the features they offer. It’s easier than you think and a whole lot of fun to put together. Even those without any technological skills can create their own wedding website for free since the tools and templates are completely user friendly.
About Invitation Photos
A professional engagement photo session is fun and exciting, but is also costly. With your average digital camera providing excellent quality and the ability to take literally hundreds of photos at no additional expense in hopes that at least one turns out well, most anyone can take a great engagement photo. The couple should choose someone they’re comfortable with so their natural expressions of joy and love will come across in the photo. As far as location, anything goes, though it is advisable to avoid a cluttered living space for a background. However, whether it is a scenic park, a beach, or the steps of an architecturally astounding building, most anything will look lovely behind the loving couple. Save the photography budget for where it really matters — the wedding day.
Affordable Wedding Invitations
Photo and a Message
A wedding invitation with a photo is always more pleasing than one without. Everyone invited is excited to see the happy couple in love. With photo prints being extremely affordable, an easy wedding invitation idea is to make prints of a favorite photo of the couple and print up a simple invitation message on paper. Think about it; those fancy invitations are usually just a photo and a piece of paper with instructions of when and where. Skip the expensive professionally printed pieces and buy your own paper. You can get nice paper more affordably this way, or you can dress up plain paper by using clip art flourishes and perhaps scrapbooking scissors to cut out the messages. You can use a whole piece of paper for the invitation or create smaller ones that fit four to a sheet. You may be thinking this will look cheap, but the truth is the prized possession of any invitation is really the photo — that’s what people will keep and treasure.
Photo Postcards
I used photo postcards for my wedding invitations. I loved them! They looked great, got the point across, were easy to display on a fridge or bulletin board, and best of all they were cheaper to send because of postcard rate stamps. It’s the perfect combination of a photo and invitation message. Many photo printing websites offer photo postcards. They usually cost a little more than typical prints, but with the difference you’ll save in postage it works out in the end. Plus the ease of ordering, addressing, and stamping, then you’re done, is absolutely wonderful during such a hectic time. You can use your own photo software to create your photo postcard or you can use the editing tools provided by the printing website that you choose. You can add text to the front on the photo as well as on the back of the postcard. Don’t forget to include a return address and the wedding website url of the happy couple.
Homemade Invitations
Get those creative juices flowing and make your own invitations. There are so many options it can be overwhelming. You can use a computer art program to toss together some cute clip art and create a lovely print-and-mail invitation. You can use paper and ribbon and additional adornments to create a texture-rich invitation that delights the senses of sight as well as touch. Whatever you choose to do, be sure to do the math before hand. If you are making invitations in an effort to save money, compare what your homemade invitations will cost verses what it would cost to order professional cards. Be sure to calculate all of the supplies (including printer ink) in addition to taking into consideration how much time it will take to assemble and complete this project. If it is worth it to you, then proceed with crafting the wedding invitations.
And a word of advice to the bride: delegate the invitations. You have enough to focus on already, not only all of the wedding details, but more importantly your marriage that is about to begin. Be involved in the process of deciding what you want for your invitations, or even design them yourself, but when it comes to addressing, mailing, or even crafting the invitations, it is fine to let go and let someone you trust do it for you. I had someone else address, stamp, and mail my invitations, and let me tell you that delegating something seemingly simple actually decreased my stress substantially. So enjoy your invitations, keep it affordable, and more importantly, get ready to be married!
