Ideas for Affordable Wedding Stationery: Invitations, Programs, & Thank-You Cards

With the incredibly high price tag that accompanies most modern weddings (the national average is a whopping $28,800 according to The Wedding Report, Inc.), savvy brides everywhere are on the lookout for ways to save.

Wedding stationery costs the average couple almost $900, and where I live in the Washington DC metro area that number is even higher - more than $1,300. Below are some ideas to help you select beautiful wedding stationery for a much more affordable price!

Invitations: There are many ways you can save on your invitations. Probably the most economical way to go (and what I wish I'd done) is to get a do-it-yourself wedding invitation kit. These affordable kits include beautiful ready-to-go invitations in your choice of design, with envelopes; often response cards and envelopes are included as well (see links below). You can do the printing yourself at home (or at the office, if it's okay with your boss!) If you're on a tight budget, I'd say that's the way to go!

You could also design your own invitations from scratch (or get help from a graphic-designer friend), and then have them printed on nice paper at Kinko's. This option is especially great if you want to design something completely original with photos, art, or whatever strikes your fancy.

I ordered my invitations online through David's Bridal invitations. I went with them because I could order the color scheme to match the exact shade of my wedding colors (although in hindsight I'm not sure that was really necessary), and because I qualified for a 40% discount since I'd bought my wedding dress at David's Bridal. I was pleased with how my invitations looked, but they ended up costing more than I thought they would. When I went to place the order I realized that the 40% discount applied to the invitations ONLY and could not be used toward reply cards, extra envelopes, etc. Also there were some extra charges I didn't anticipate (extra cost for colored envelope lining, additional fee for the pre-printed return address, a $6 charge for getting the print proof faxed to me so I could make sure it was right, etc.) However, I still spent way less than the national average.

However you decide to get your invitations printed, remember to also budget for sufficient postage. Take a completed invitation to the post office so they can weigh it and MAKE SURE you are buying the right stamps! Many invitations are too heavy for a standard first-class stamp; this is especially true if you are including a reception card, reply card, directions sheet, etc. If you try to mail your invitations without the correct stamps, they will be returned to you with ugly "insufficient postage" markings all over the envelopes! That would be a nightmare! Note that etiquette also dictates that you need to buy stamps for the reply card envelopes as well. You could design and print reply postcards to lower the postage and printing costs.

Programs: We did all our wedding programs for a grand total of $30. My sister designed them on the computer, we bought nice thick textured paper (see quality white and ivory options below), and we printed them ourselves. They turned out beautiful and elegant! If you want more ornate programs, you could add ribbon or a sheer overlay for very little cost. Be creative! One way I made my programs unique was to fold the 8 ½" x 11" paper vertically so that each program measured 4 ¼" x 11" (when folded). Of course, you can fold the paper any way you want - I just thought the "tall" look added some elegance.

Thank-you cards: There's no need to buy expensive wedding thank-you note cards. At CVS I found lovely white-with-silver or white-with-gold thank-you note cards for about $5.00 for a box of 20 cards and envelopes. I used these thank-you notes for our wedding gifts as well as my bridal shower gifts. I also saw nice wedding thank-you note cards at Wal-Mart for a very good price (50 notecards and envelopes for about $8.00); look in the craft section by the wedding supplies. I kept an extra box of cards in my desk at the office so I could get my thank-you notes written on my lunch break.