Wedding invitations can cost anywhere from basically nothing up to many thousands of dollars. I like to say there’s not really an “upper limit” because if you want me to get shirtless men to deliver every invitation on horseback – I will. But it’ll cost you! The lower limit is probably the cost of some cardstock at a craft store, and the ink cost of using your own printer to print them – I’d estimate around $50 bare minimum for invitations, assuming a lot of DIY time. 

So there’s a lot of space between $50 and shirtless men on horseback! How much should wedding invitations cost? The general stats will tell you 4-6%, but everyone prioritizes things differently for their wedding so that could easily go up or down.

It’s hard to give a clear answer to “how much are invitations?” because there are a lot of factors. In fact, there are 7 factors that will influence the cost of wedding invitations. Let’s explore how to get an accurate read on how much you should spend on your wedding invites!

Wedding Invitation Design Type

The level of design help you want is, in my opinion, the largest factor in how much your wedding stationery will cost. There are 4 main types of wedding invitation design:

1. DIY $  – You’re designing and printing your own stationery. I’ll include purchasing a template in this section as well as you’re editing and printing it yourself. 
2. Pre-Designed $ – This level of invitations can be as little as $1-2 each in some places, depending on which pieces you want and the quantity. This means the design template is set, and someone updates your info and prints. 
3. Semi-Custom $$ – Semi-custom invitations will have a few more customizations, for instance color changes, layout revisions, or even custom artwork in some cases. Pricing can vary a lot by customization – ours start at $5/ set. 
4. Custom $$$ – Custom invitations are truly unique to you as a couple. They often include custom artwork like maps, pet portraits, or venue drawings, but don’t have to, and are created with you in mind from scratch. Of course these are generally the most costly – my minimum is $3,500 for custom design, but they can range upwards of $10,000 depending on logistics and which designer you work with.

Wedding Invitation Assembly

I’ll also mention that with different design levels you will receive different assembly levels too. For instance, for my semi-custom clients, I do not stuff the invitations into the envelopes. If someone books a custom suite with me, then I do full assembly, and some custom designers also mail out their clients’ invitations for them. So if you go with DIY, pre-designed, or semi-custom invitations, you may be on the hook for some assembly of your invitations! 

What’s included in an Invitation Suite?

The next factor that will determine your wedding invitation pricing is what pieces you include in the invitation suite. The absolute most basic wedding invitation would be a postcard invitation with an online RSVP. However most invitation suites include at least a wedding invitation, an RSVP card, and two matching envelopes. This is what I call a 4-piece suite in my Collections, and is what most wedding invitation sets come with standard. 

From there, you will pay a little more for each additional piece you add to your suite! Most engaged couples I work with add on a details or website card, but there are a lot of different additions you can make:

• Details Card
• Reception Invitation
• Accommodations Card
• Wedding Invitation Map 
• Website Card
• Weekend Itinerary
• Invitations to other events (brunch, rehearsal dinner, etc.)

The cost for these pieces varies – generally to print/produce an extra insert card is only $1-2 apiece. However, if your design is custom, then you’ll also pay for design work that’s involved in these cards. Wedding maps can cost a lot, depending on how many different locations are on them and how complex the artwork is.

Wedding Invitation Papers

I say papers, but “materials” might be the best word for this. Technically, you can make wedding invitations out of a ton of different materials – rock, metal, fabric, leather, acrylic, etc. Acrylic invitations are becoming fairly common! Watch this video on acrylic wedding invites:

Besides acrylic, I feel comfortable saying that any material that’s not paper will likely fall under the “Custom” design pricing. There’s just a lot of logistics, and unusual materials often require luxury print methods, which we’ll get to in a moment. 

When it comes to paper, there are different types of paper that will have different price points. Let’s say that unique materials are all in their own realm of pricing. But within the paper realm, here are the most common invitation papers in order of cost-effectiveness. Each dollar sign isn’t a degree (like 10 vs. 100 vs. 1000), it’s just a comparison to show you how the costs of these different invitation papers compare.

1. Smooth Paper $ – Smooth cardstock is the most common and usually the least expensive.
2. Eggshell Paper $$ – Eggshell paper is my house stock, actually. It’s not the color Eggshell, but a finish. This type of paper has a little bit of texture to it, but still comes in lots of colors and weights. It’s a good middle ground for wedding invitations. 
3. Cotton Paper $$$ – Cotton paper has a lot of beautiful texture, and is more eco-friendly than some of the other options. Cotton paper is most commonly used for letterpress printing, as it allows for a really deep impression. 
4. Handmade Paper $$$ – $$$$ – There are a few different handmade paper companies that vary a bit in price. Handmade paper often requires specialty printing, and you likely recognize handmade paper for the “deckled edges” – it’s often referred to as “torn edged paper” even though the paper isn’t actually torn but made that way by a mould and deckle! 

Invitation Paper Weight 

Paper weight is important as well! Double-thick paper is a really nice upgrade that isn’t always very costly. For instance, you can upgrade invitations to double-thick paper for around $0.50 apiece as opposed to other upgrades that cost a lot more!

Invitation Print Methods

In addition the materials, your print method or print methods will affect the cost of wedding invitations. There are 3 most common wedding invitation print methods (watch this video) VIDEO

1. Digital Printing $ – Basically your “regular” printing. Most commercial printers use more high-end machines than your in-home printers, but it’s the same principle. There are a lot of color and element options, so don’t disregard digital printing just because it’s the cheapest! You have to use digital printing, in fact, for watercolor or really colorful design elements.
2. Foil Stamping $$-$$$ – Foil stamping is often gold, but comes in lots of colors! It involves a metal die being created and physically heated and pressed into the paper with a thin sheet of foil on a press. It’s more hands-on, so it costs more. 
3. Letterpress Printing $$$ – Letterpress printing is similar to foil stamping in process, but with ink instead of sheets of foil. It’s generally a bit more expensive. 

With foil or letterpress printing processes, there’s one more thing to take into account: die costs. The die that’s created has to be made for each color of foil or ink, and the invitations have to be run through the press a different time for each color of foil or ink as well. 

This means, if you do the RSVP card in foil in addition to the invitation, you pay for 2 dies and 2 press runs. If your invitation has blue ink and black ink, you pay for 2 dies and 2 press runs for that. So the cost can accumulate quickly and you can keep it lower by only using a single foil color, or by only upgrading to foil or letterpress for the invitation card itself. 

Lastly, you might see websites like Minted offering foil stamping for less than a custom designer can – are they price gauging your invitations? Not at all! If you create a foil die with more generalized information on it – such as a border or the words “You’re Invited” – then you can re-use that die as many times as you want and the cost will even out to next to nothing over time. However, if you want the foil stamped words to be custom to you – for instance, your names and date – then you can only use that die once and need to pay the full cost. That’s how websites that produce a ton of invites are able to reuse dies and print foil or letterpress invitations at a lower cost. 

Wedding Invitation Embellishments

Wedding invitation embellishments can include a plethora of things, but the most common embellishments I see are:

• Wraps (ribbon, string, belly band, vellum wrap, etc.)
• Wax Seals
• Envelope Liners
• Calligraphy
• Address Printing
• Brads/Grommets
• Pockets or Backings

Many of these are included in your invitation package, but assembly level is determined by how hands-on your designer is! I always assemble everything for custom invitation clients, but do a little less assembly for semi-customs unless requested. 

If you’ve got a DIY spirit, this can be an area where you can save some money. As with most of these factors, when it comes to embellishments you’re mostly paying for someone’s time. It only costs me about $0.15 for a paper belly band, but I would charge more for the design if it’s printed, for my ordering time, and the time it takes to attach the belly bands to each invitation. So doing it yourself can lower the cost of your wedding invitations – but be prepared that a lot of these tasks require tools and supplies and are not as simple as they seem!

For instance, wax seals require a melting device (depending on the type of wax), a seal itself, and the knowledge of how to work with wax such that it sticks to the ribbon (or whatever) but doesn’t stick to your wedding invites! There’s a reason people pay for this…plus sometimes I get burned doing it!

Here’s a video on it if you want to try it yourself:

One of my favorite wedding invitation embellishments on a budget is thread. Yep, just regular old thread. It holds all the pieces together, which makes your guests feel like they’re getting a present from you! But it’s also really easy to find and really cheap. For about $7, you can get thread in any color with plenty to tie 100+ invitations. Tie it around (maybe using some of these ties) LINK TO VIDEO ON RIBBON TIES, and voila! A beautiful embellishment that only costs you time.

However, if you don’t want to invest much time into these invitations, then it’s definitely worth paying an expert to do it! Most of my custom clients don’t want to bother learning these tricks, so they are happy to pay my team to help them out. 

Wedding Invitation Postage

The final factor to take into account for your invitations is postage! I know a lot of couples often don’t include postage in their initial budget, and if you’re not working with a hands-on designer, you might get a shock at the Post Office!

The minimum cost for postage for invitations will generally be $0.58 apiece (as of the time of writing this article). Most of my wedding invitation suites need postage in the $0.78 to $0.98 range.

You’ll need to add extra postage if your invitations:

1. Are double-thick
2. Include more than 1 insert card
3. Are oversized
4. Are unusually shaped (including square invitations)
5. Have a wax seal or ribbon tie 
6. Are in a pocket enclosure or gate-fold enclosure

Here’s a video about wedding invitation postage to help you get the hang of it (this video was filmed when postage was $0.55, but now it’s gone up a little to $0.58). 

In general, what you’re paying for when it comes to wedding invitations is someone’s time. If it takes more time to order supplies, if the printing method is more complex, if they had to learn a special skill to create a certain type of design or print, if they have to assemble the pieces, etc. then you’ll pay a premium for those things. Yes, there are supply costs, but my actual supply costs vary much less than the timing and expertise costs.

Save Money on Wedding Invites

So if your goal is to cut costs on wedding invites, here are some of my favorite suggestions!

1. Use the back of your pieces! Not recommended for the invite itself, but putting hotel information on the back of a map is a great use of space.
2. Online RSVPs. This saves the cost of a second envelope, addressing that envelope, and saves on postage!
3. Upgrade the invite, not every piece. If you want do to a double-thick, over-sized, or luxury printed invitation, but cost is an issue, I like to highlight the main invitation card and keep the others simple. For instance, a foil stamped invitation with digital printing for the other pieces!
4. Print your Addresses. Calligraphy is beautiful (I’m a calligrapher, I know) but if you’re out of budget, this one is a large cost savings without losing quality. You can digitally print gorgeous addresses and envelopes with fun designs for the same price as printing boring ones!
5. Be willing to DIY. Not every designer will allow this, but if you’re able to DIY the embellishments or help with assembly, then it can be a large cost savings (but be warned: this does take time and effort – it’s not always as easy as it looks!)
6. Stick with Semi-Custom or Pre-Designed. There are so many beautiful invitation suites out there, that you don’t need something 100% custom to make it feel unique and special. You can shop all of our Semi-Custom invitations below!