There are loads of easy ways to save money on your wedding invitations and stationery. Below is each item of stationery and the best tips and tricks to cutting the cost of each.
Save the day cards
Once the date is set, many brides send out ´save the date´ cards. This card simply announces the engagement and requests the guest to save the date of the wedding in their diary. This is a very American tradition, but it is now becoming popular in the UK too.
The best way to cut your cost here is send an email! If your guests don't have an email address, I can guarantee that your mother has already told all your relatives, so even Great Aunt Maud has the date of your wedding fixed in her head.
Cheap wedding invitations
I firmly believe that one of the best ways to cut your costs here is to make your own wedding invitations. You can find plenty of ideas from looking at wedding magazines or wedding stationery suppliers. Creating your own wedding invitations will not only save you money, it will make your wedding more personal and unique.
RSVP or acceptance cards
When sending out your invites, traditionally you send an RSVP card as well. In these modern times, it's perfectly acceptable not to include this card at all. You can easily pop a postal address or email address for people to respond to.
For my own wedding, we used an email address and it worked perfectly. Those who didn't get back to us, we simply called up to double check they were coming. You'll need to do this anyway, as not everyone will remember to send you back their RSVP.
If you're really keen on an RSVP card, try to use a postcard instead of a small card and envelope. This will reduce the amount of paper you need to buy as well as the cost of postage for sending out your invites.
Another alternative is not to provide a stamped address envelope as a reply card. Let the guest buy the stamp! It will save you a few quid.
Order of service
Often the Order of Service is simply a plain piece of folded A4 paper. It's easy to type and print out the information, so why have it printed professionally? If you wanted, you could always continue your theme on this piece of stationery too.
Seating plan
A seating plan can easily be done on a computer as well. Just make sure you include everyone who is coming (I managed to miss one friend off. Luckily he took it lightly, so it wasn't too embarrassing!)
Table place cards
A hand-written place card for each guest is a cheap alternative to getting them printed as well. They're very cheap to buy and most good stationers stock them.
Thank you cards
There are hundreds of thank you card designs in stationers and generally they're reasonably priced. So there's no need to get them professionally printed.
In most cases, once the big day is over, most of your guests are on to the next big wedding of the summer, so keeping to a theme is not so important. Your guests will be more concerned that you've recognised the fact that they bought you a gift, not that your card matches the rest of your stationery.
If you're still feeling creative, then you could make these as well to match your invites.
The last word
If you're still dead-set on getting your wedding invitations and stationery professionally printed, make sure you follow the golden rules:
- Set your budget and stick to it
- Get three quotes and compare like with like
- Get some extras, just in case of mistakes - reprints later will cost you much more
- Perhaps limit the professionally printed pieces to only key pieces such as invites and RSVP cards only
- Avoid fancy printing techniques such as embossing or metallic colours
- Use second class postage
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