Letting all of your friends and family know that you’re tying the knot is one of the most thrilling parts of your wedding journey. You’ve found your forever person, and you want to let the whole world know! Wedding invitations and stationery are a forever memento of your love — and one of the most exciting purchases of your wedding planning journey.
As you create your wedding budget, it helps to understand your options for stationery. Working closely with a stationery designer can help you find the perfect match for your wedding budget, as well as your day’s aesthetic.
So, how much do wedding invitations actually cost? Today, we’re looking at semi-custom and custom invitations (as well as save the dates!) to give you an accurate idea of wedding invitation price points.
Cost of Custom Wedding Invitations
When you’re planning your wedding day, every detail — from the escort cards to the flowers to the seating — is significant. You deserve to be particular! As stationers, we can confirm, the difference between seashell cream and eggshell white is real. Your wedding day should feel just as unique and extraordinary as the love you share with your partner.
Made to your exact specifications, custom wedding invitations are a great fit for couples looking to create completely singular, one-of-a-kind invites for their big day. Whether you already have a long list of invitation desires or you want a professional stationer to capture your essence from scratch, the custom invitation process will leave you with a design that’s incredibly personal and spectacular.
Because there are endless ways to approach a custom design suite, custom invitations range broadly in price. For reference, custom main invitation cards start at about $1,500 with full custom wedding invitation suites beginning at $5,000.
At Volk, we ask our couples to select a budget range using our Custom Wedding Form, beginning at the $5,000 to $7,000 bracket and going up to $20,000 and above. Setting your price point in advance will help our designers showcase features and options in your specific budget range.
How to Set a Budget for Custom Wedding Stationery
Now that you have a very vague price range for what custom invitations can cost, how do you decide how much of your wedding budget to allocate to stationery? Here are a few things to consider when it comes to your custom invitation budget:
Materials
Vellum top layers, acrylic features, velvet belly bands…there are many paper and non-paper elements that come together to create custom invitations. Elevated touches like a wax seal or hand-calligraphed envelopes can help your invitations stand apart.
When it comes to cost and pricing out these different features, chat with your designer to explore all of the possibilities. Keep in mind that your invitation designers will have to source some of these more intricate touches from external vendors, which will affect the overall cost of the design.
Hoping to keep costs down while still achieving a mixed-media look? Different types of paper such as cotton, rice paper, and recycled paper can all be artfully combined to give a layered, varied appearance. Your stationers can help you find creativity in your invitation while staying in budget.
Method
Another important factor in the price of your wedding invitations is the method by which they are printed. Digitally printed invitations will be the most affordable choice, while multi-color letterpress invitations with blind embossed details will land in the higher price range.
More unique than digitally printing but similarly budget-friendly, risograph printing is a great option for a vibrant aesthetic. This technique originated in Japan in the 80s and uses rice-based ink and is both sustainable and affordable, using rice-based ink printed using a screen. Perfect for environmentally-minded couples, riso printing brings distinctive visuals and illustrations to life on your invitations.
At Volk, we specialize in traditional printing methods that give your invitations an elevated, timeless look. A few examples of our printing include letterpress, blind embossing, foil stamping, and risograph printing. More handcrafted, labor-intensive elements — like calligraphy and blind embossing — will impact your total price.
Quantity
Lastly, the number of invitations your plan to order will, of course, impact your cost. While ordering a large number of invitations will increase your overall stationery costs, often the cost-per-invitation will actually decrease. That’s because designers can order your materials in larger quantities and it’s more cost and time effective to print a larger quantity of invitations.
Letterpress uses a custom printing plate for each piece of stationery to individually press each piece of paper and create beautifully impressed details. Because each piece of letterpress wedding stationery requires a custom printing plate, the cost-per-invitation for a larger overall batch will be less expensive, as designers will be able to get more use out of your custom plate.
Ultimately, be sure to chat with your wedding planner and designers about different thresholds and what makes the most sense for your number of guests.
Save the Dates
Save-the-dates are traditionally sent a few months before your invitations and help your guests plan for your big day in advance. Snail mail save-the-dates create excitement and anticipation and act as a physical reminder for the big day. But, how much do save-the-dates cost? Typically, that will depend on two major factors: size and style.
Typically, custom save-the-dates start at $1,500 — similar to main invitation cards. Because save the dates act as a warm up to your more formal invitations, custom save-the-dates are truly limitless and invite your creativity to flourish.
One way to save on costs is with save-the-date postcards, like these. Because postcards don’t need envelopes, it’s a great cost-effective solution for a modern, casual wedding. At Volk, semi-custom save-the-date Postcards start at $320 and can include photos of you and your spouse-to-be (or any precious fur babies).
If you’re aiming for a more traditional look, Volk’s classic semi-custom save-the-dates start at $780 and include gorgeous fonts, colors, and styles, like these from the Andie and Blume suites.
Semi-Custom Wedding Invitations
Semi-custom wedding invitations are the perfect choice for couples looking to balance their personal taste (and budget) with a stationer’s expert touch.
From colors to photos to custom text, there are many ways to make semi-custom suites completely unique to your wedding. At Volk, we’ve styled a line of semi-custom packages that give nearlyweds a range of design and pricing options.
3 Semi-Custom Invitation Suites for Smaller Budgets
Berlin
Cool and angular, this suite is made for a casual, modern couple. Because of its use of risograph printing, it’s extremely affordable without sacrificing any of the quality.
Main Invitation starts at $600
Andie
Whimsical and classic, the Andie suite is perfect for the couple inspired by quirky flowers, like ranunculus and anthurium. With complimentary colors for weddings in any season, it’s a versatile low to mid-price for semi-custom invitations.
Main Invitations start at $699
Blume
Do you want your guests to arrive at your wedding feeling as if they’ve stepped onto the Bridgerton set? A touch more expensive, the Blume suite combines striking, vivid colors with gorgeous regency touches and flourishes.
Main Invitations start at $1,071
Semi-Custom Details cards start at $573
For those not too keen on addressing 50 to 300 envelopes by hand, laser-printed envelope addressing at Volk begins at $100. Or, perhaps you’re still looking for a hand-written look, but you haven’t practiced cursive in the last decade. In-house calligraphy addressing starts at $3.75 per envelope.
More semi-custom suites can be found here!
Budgeting for Your Wedding Invitations
Planning and budgeting for a wedding can be stressful. Our best advice? Have a clear price point and plan to keep everyone on the same page.
How much should you spend on wedding invitations? Wedding expert Kristen Bozzone Armstrong advises couples to set aside around 4-6% of their overall wedding budget for wedding invitations.
Depending on your particular ceremony and what’s most important to you and your partner, this percentage can vary! With micro weddings and elopements rising in popularity, more couples are dedicating larger portions of their budget to long-term keepsakes, like custom stationery or wedding videos, instead of spending on food and beverage costs.
Only you and your partner can decide how to allocate your wedding budget — it’s your big day! Whether you spend $500 on wedding stationery or $20,000, finding invitations that reflect your special love is a must. Happy wedding planning!
