“Oh wow – Who’s it from? Look at my name written in beautiful calligraphy! Look at the handcrafted card! Where is the wedding? What is the theme? Oh my goodness, it’s so stunning. I’m going to pop it on my mantelpiece for years to come!” That is the kind of reaction you want when your wedding invitations finally reach people. Your wedding is actually happening and this is the first time people get a proper hint of what to expect, what to wear, what to give you! And not only that, it’s a lifetime souvenir of your big day. At Bridebook, we love a heavy papered, beautifully written wedding invitation, especially when it is landing on our doorstep! But you might be a savvy millennial toying with the idea of going online and saving lots of lovely trees? Let’s work out what you want so you can create the best bit of post (or email) your guests will EVER receive.
Advantages of traditional invitations:
- The biggest advantage of a traditional wedding invitation is that it makes an awesome keepsake. It is a physical representation of your upcoming marriage and something that your friends and family can keep forever!
- Once you have collected all the addresses and postcodes, you will be able to use them when sending your thank you notes – bonus!
- Another advantage of a paper invite is that, well, they are traditional! They follow wedding etiquette to a T and will please everyone, especially the older generation coming to your wedding.
- Even if you print your e-vite, it won’t have the same high-end quality as a traditional paper invitation. Not quite the same keepsake.
- You know the conundrum of not inviting children to your wedding? Or including/excluding plus ones? And all the other secrets of wording? All of these can be lost on an online wedding invitation, whereas paper will allow you to be crystal clear about your preferences.
- The best thing about a paper invitation is the huge variety of choice when it comes to designs. You can pick the style that perfectly complements your wedding: heavy cream paper for a traditional affair, whimsical and fun designs for something more casual. And while the world of weddings is becoming more open to doing online invitations, some guests might still associate them with a casual affair, no matter the design.
Advantages of going online:
- Online wedding invitations can save you some big pennies! Even if you have to pay a fee for creating a bespoke design, or for sending out the invites, it will cost you less than a paper invitation which also needs postage.
- Online invitations are guaranteed to save some time between sending and receiving the RSVP’s. This is very useful if you are planning your wedding in a short period of time.
- Tracking RSVP’s will be much easier if online invites are sent, as you will be able to see who has opened and read the invitations, even if they haven’t accepted or declined your invitation yet – playing it cool!
- Providing your guests with printed maps and other instructions won’t be necessary, as your online wedding invitations can have links to everything that the guests might need.
- If you are an eco-friendly couple, sending emails to your guests instead of paper invitations is a great way to save a few precious trees.
Overall, we still recommend (and love) paper invitations – they are beautiful and you can keep them forever! So if you can afford to go all print, then do it! If not, how about printed invites with a little card (even a business card) directing them to your very own basic website. This is where you can collect RSVPs, share the nitty-gritty details, and bonus – it’s easy to make edits. Quirky tip: buy a .wed domain for around £50 to add a personal touch and voila – SarahandTom.wed
Happy Planning!
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