Paper or Email?
While my fiancé and I have checked most of the big things off of our to-do list like the wedding dress, caterer, photographer, and videographer, we’re really stuck on the invitations. My fiance and I have been thinking – are conventional invitations all that important? In the age of Evite and Facebook, do we really need printed paper invitations? And if we use printed invitations, how can avoid spending a bunch of money on invitations that will end up in people’s waste baskets?
We’ve already set up a wedding website via WeddingWindow.com, where we can conveniently manage our guest lists, send out electronic Save the Date emails and even have people rsvp for the wedding online. We feel that invitations are an area that we could save money on, but at the same time I’ve seen some beautiful printed invitations.
Our wedding invitations must also be sent out by mid-June, since our wedding is in late September, so we have to make a decision soon! Do we do the traditional paper invitation? Or should we go the nontraditional route and use our wedding website to send out our invitations via email?
8 comments
We have a similar website set up, but we’ve decided to do paper invites with online only RSVP…we think.
I say go with conventional invitations – for several reasons:
1) They make great keepsakes. I doubt your kids will be able to pull up your wedding website years from now or that you will pull it up to reminisce.
2) How will older guests be able to view and rsvp to email invitations if they don’t use email?
3) There are always creative ways to save $$$ on invitations such as making them yourself or sending postcard invitations.
Another reason to go with (affordable) paper: spam filters. Say what you will about the US Mail, but it’s very reliable. Because of the variety of spam filters (and other issues that can arise), it’s impossible to be nearly as sure that e-mailed invitations are received and seen. Instead, find ways of reducing the cost and paper amounts of traditional invitations, and use e-mail to follow up on RSVPs you haven’t received. {ProfJonathan}
I don’t think there is anything wrong with an electronic Save the Date card, but I wouldn’t do an email invite.
You would be amazed as to what you can do to save money on them. If you go to staples you can buy a reem of designed paper for $10 and print something simple out at home, but it wil look really nice.
To me it seems really impersonal to do an invite. Plus if money is a factor, people might be more apt to mail a check with a “no” RSVP than they would be to just check off “no” on evite or facebook.
Why be one or the other? Mix it up a little! Order some nice invites for framing and for close extended family (especially any older family members who aren’t online) and then invite the majority electronically.
i would have to agree with The Mrs. A wedding is still a special occasion, worthy of something beyond an evite. You could ask people to RSVP using phone or email and avoid the reply card, to cut down on paper. And use recycled or repurposed paper.
Congratulations on your engagement! As an invitation designer, admittedly I am biased, however this is a topic I listen in on and most people agree: there is nothing special about receiving an email invitation, (it could even end up in a spam folder) but a hand addressed paper invitation in the mail is always special, and as stated above, is a keepsake. I think wedding websites are a good idea for giving more detail and the story behind the engagement, but there really needs to be a formal invite for your special occasion.
Thank you to everyone for your comments and feedback. We will do paper invitations, I agree a paper invitation is a important keepsake. Now I just need to find an affordable, but nice invitation that will wok for us.
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