Cheap Wedding Invitations
The cheapest form of invitation is with an email. You can include all sorts of design elements including lots of photographs and text - you're not limited to the size of a card.
But the trouble with emails is that they don't always get delivered and if you send out too many at once, you could be branded as a spammer (even though you're only sending to friends and family). So "delivery" of your wedding invitations could be a problem with email. Overall, although it's cheap, I don't recommend this as your main method of inviting people to your wedding.
Print your own invitations
You probably have a color printer. All you need then is to design your invitation or get hold of a ready designed template. After that, you'll need to find a good quality card to print your invitations on.
Use calligraphy
Calligraphy is the art of beautiful writing. If you know someone who is already a skilled calligrapher, do your best to talk them into writing your cards for you.
It can pay to learn calligraphy to make the names on your wedding invitations really stand out.
Use an online printer
Because they don't have the overhead of a local print shop, using an online wedding invitation printer can be a cheap way to get top quality invitations at low cost.
Most online sites have a range of pre-designed cards that you can then tweak and customize online until you are completely satisfied. Once you are happy with your design, it's simply a matter of choosing how many invitations you want printed and then waiting a few days for them to arrive. In fact, it's often quicker to order from an online printer than it is to use a local print shop.
Once you've got your wedding invitations designed and printed, remember to choose a matching envelope so that the invitation looks at its best!
Discount Wedding Invitations
Wedding invitations are just a small part of the cost of holding a wedding. But that doesn't mean that you have to pay the full price for them.Your wedding invitations will set the tone for the whole event.
Many people choose to have a picture of the future wedded couple on their invitations. This can look good and it is also helpful for those relatives or friends who don't know both of the couple to visualize them together.
You can have this photo taken by a professional studio but today's digital cameras are plenty good enough. The secret with photographs is to do what all professional photographers do - take lots and lots and lots of them. There's no film cost nowadays, so your aim should be to have tens or even hundreds of photos taken in one session and then choose the best one. This is the secret to great photographs - almost anyone can get a good photo if they take enough!
You can then choose an online discount wedding invitations service or print the invites out on your color printer. Personally, I think that the small extra cost of getting the invitations professionally printed is well worth it.
One of the best discount wedding invitation printers I've found is here. They will print quantities as low as 10 invitations in full color and have matching envelopes as well. All at a very affordable cost.
What Do You Want From Your Wedding Invitations?
Creative Wording for Wedding Invitations
Once you've decided how you are going to get your wedding invitations produced, it's time to work out what to say on them.If your mind goes blank at this stage, don't panic. This is quite normal (authors call it writer's block).
The main wording of your wedding invitation will likely be fairly formal and should be concise - this isn't the time to write both your life stories!
Remember to include both your names on the invitation as well as the time and place the wedding will take place. You should probably ask people to confirm that they will be attending - this will help you with organizing the ceremony. Simply adding "RSVP" is normally enough for this aspect.
Nowadays, many people turn to the internet for the creative wording for their wedding invitation.
Which is good as a "starter" but you need to make sure the wording you choose is something one or both of you would say. Try reading your wording out loud - this is the easiest way to ensure that it will read correctly.
If your wedding venue is somewhere novel, you can work that into your invitation wording quite easily. Similarly if your town or city has a slogan, you may be able to adapt that - "Carol and Steven from the windy city ask you to witness their wedding ceremony at..." for instance.
Of course if your wedding is going to be in somewhere glamorous like Las Vegas then you can use this to help with your wording.
The time of year you are holding your wedding can also give you some ideas for creative wording - spring lambs, etc.
If one of you writes poetry - or someone in your family is a good poet - then it may be that you use a poem as part of your creative wedding invitation.
Whatever you do, don't use a phrase on your wedding invitation if it isn't something one - or preferably both - of you would say. An invitation is a very personal thing, especially for your wedding. Your aim should be to get as close to something you would write personally, even though your invitation is going out to many different people.
Also remember that there will be a range of age groups receiving your invitation. Any "in" jokes that would have your friends rolling over the floor with laughter could well be missed by your granny!
Wedding Invitations
Wedding Invitations
Amazon Price: (as of 12/27/2009)
Gone are the days when a couple's major decision about their invitations was choosing between white or ecru paper-today's invitations come in an incredible array of materials, colors, textures, sizes, and shapes. And the often complex structure of modern families makes wording invitations a challenge. The first book to fully address these topics, Wedding Invitations takes couples from original idea to finished product, no matter how simple or extravagant their vision.
Wikipedia on Wedding Invitations
Category: Image - :Paperfish Designs Invitation.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Handmade Wedding InvitationCategory: Image - :RedBumbleBeeInvitations.JPG|thumb|right|250px| Modern Wedding Invitation
Category: Image - :Wedding-invitation-cards.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Mix of wedding invitations
A wedding invitation is a letter asking the recipient to attend a wedding. It is typically mailed six to eight weeks before the wedding date. Wedding invitations may be printed using one of the following methods: engraving, lithography, thermography, letterpress printing, sometimes blind embossing, offset printing, and more recently, on laser and inkjet printers as many do-it-yourself brides are printing on their home computers. Invitations can be ordered from an artist, or vendor specializing in invitations. For the artistically inclined, they can be handmade.
Traditionally, wedding invitations are mailed in double envelopes. The inner envelope may be lined, is not gummed, and fits into the outer envelope. The outer envelope is gummed for sealing and addressing. Tissues are often provided by manufacturers to place over the engraved text, originally this tissue protected the engraving against smudging or blotting, but improved printing techniques mean they are now simply decorative.Elizabeth Post, Emily Post on Weddings, page 65. 1987. More recently, the inner envelope is often left out in the interest of saving money and postage. In some cases, a pocketfold takes the place of an inner envelope. Traditionally, the mother of the bride addresses the wedding invitations. However, if she chooses not to, the mother of the bride may outsource this responsibility to a professional calligrapher or a friend with good penmanship. With computer technology, some are able to print directly on envelopes from a guest list using a mail merge with word processing and spreadsheet software.
In countries that issue them, the envelope may be franked with love stamps. The United States postal service issues a love stamp each year specifically denominated to cover the double weight of the invitation and reply (a rate slightly less than the cost of two regular stamps).
