Wedding invitation cost calculator

Work out what your wedding invitations will really cost by pricing each part separately: the invitation suite multiplied by your household count, save the dates, postage out and back, addressing or calligraphy, and the design or setup fee a printer charges before the press runs. Add a buffer for reprints and late additions. See the total, a realistic range, and which parts move it most.

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Change anything. The answer updates as you type.

Invitations to send (households)

How many envelopes you are posting, not how many people you are inviting.

This is the number that decides the bill, and it is the one people get wrong first. A couple sharing an address receives one invitation, and a family of four also receives one. A hundred and thirty guests is often nearer sixty-five envelopes than a hundred and thirty. Build the address list before you ask a printer for a price, because a quote against a guest count prices roughly twice the paper you need.

Invitation suite, each (dollars)

What one complete invitation costs: the card, the RSVP, the envelopes, the printing.

Ask what is inside the per-suite price, because a suite can be one card in one envelope or five pieces with a liner and a belly band, and the two are quoted the same way. Ask also where the price steps: presses run in fixed quantities, so ordering seventy-five when the next band starts at a hundred can cost more per piece than simply ordering the hundred. Print method moves this line the furthest, with digital at the bottom and letterpress or foil at the top.

Save the date, each (dollars)

A save the date is a second mailing to the same address list, so it carries its own printing and its own stamp. Zero if you are not sending them or are sending them by email. If your date is inside about six months, or the wedding is local, many couples skip this line entirely and put the money into the invitation itself.

Postage per invitation (dollars)

The stamp out, plus the stamp on the RSVP card coming back if you are including one.

Two things push this above a plain first-class stamp. A square envelope or a thick, rigid suite is charged at a non-machinable rate, so an elegant envelope costs more to post than a plain one. And a stamped reply card means you are buying two stamps per household rather than one. Take one finished, stuffed suite to the post office and have it weighed before you buy stamps in bulk.

Addressing or calligraphy, per envelope (dollars)

Zero if you are writing them yourselves or having the printer run addresses through the press with the order. Hand calligraphy is priced per envelope and rises with an inner envelope or a second line of guest names. It is a real line worth pricing before you decide, because at sixty-five envelopes it can rival the printing.

Design or setup fee (dollars)

What the stationer charges before anything prints: custom design, proofs, or the plate and die setup that letterpress and foil require. A ready-made template with your names dropped in usually carries none of this. A custom suite carries all of it, and setup is charged once whether you print sixty or two hundred.

Reprint and spare buffer (%)

Spare suites for the addresses you spoil, the guests added after the list closed, and the keepsake copies you will want. Ordering twenty spares with the original run is far cheaper per piece than going back for a second short run, which pays the setup a second time.

Estimated cost

$876

Typical range $438 – $2,102

Invitation suites, across your households$390
Save the dates$98
Postage, out and back$124
Addressing or calligraphy$0
Design or setup fee$200
Reprint & spare buffer$65
Total$876

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$400 to $1,500 is the usual path: a designed suite with a couple of extra pieces, proofs, and postage for around sixty to a hundred households. Ask where the quantity price bands step before you fix the number.

PlanningWedding planning tools↗Keeping the address list and the print quantity in one place.PlanningVendor payment tracking↗Design fees and print balances usually fall due at different times.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

EVERY PRICE ON THIS PAGE IS YOURS, BECAUSE INVITATIONS ARE QUOTED PER SUITE.

A printer prices your order off the paper, the print method, the number of pieces in the envelope and the quantity you are running. Two couples with the same guest list can be quoted very differently depending on whether the suite is digitally printed or letterpressed with a die. A published average stands in for quotes it has never seen, and yours are in front of you. The defaults are ours and editable

Your household count is the multiplier, not your guest count. One envelope goes to a couple and one goes to a family, so the number of invitations you post is usually far below the number of people you are inviting. Build the address list first, then ask for a price against it.

Postage is charged per envelope and is easy to underprice. A square or rigid suite goes at a non-machinable rate rather than a plain first-class one, and a stamped reply card means two stamps per household. Weigh one finished suite at the post office before buying stamps in bulk.

Setup and design are charged once, whichever quantity you run. That is why a second short run for late additions is so expensive per piece, and why ordering your spares with the original order is the cheaper way to cover them.

Day-of paper is not inside this total: menus, place cards, table numbers, programs and signage are usually a separate order, often from the same stationer. Neither is the thank you stationery you post afterwards, which is a third mailing to the same list.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a wedding invitation cost?

There is a range rather than a price, because a suite can be one digitally printed card or five letterpressed pieces with a liner. Price the suite per household, then add save the dates, postage out and back, addressing, and the design or setup fee a printer charges before the press runs. The calculator above builds that total from the quote in front of you, which is more use than an average drawn from orders unlike yours.

How many invitations do I actually need?

Roughly one per household, plus spares. Count addresses rather than guests: a couple at one address gets one envelope, and so does a family. That alone usually halves the number people first assume. Then add fifteen or twenty spares for spoiled envelopes, late additions and keepsakes, and order them with the original run rather than going back for a second one.

What moves the price the furthest?

Print method, then piece count. Digital printing on good card stock sits at the bottom, thermography above it, and letterpress or foil at the top because they need a plate or a die made before anything runs. After that it is how many pieces are in the envelope: a liner, a details card, a belly band and a stamped reply card are each priced separately even though they arrive as one suite.

Is it cheaper to print them ourselves?

It removes the printer's margin and the setup fee, and it costs you the paper, the trial runs and several evenings. A home printer struggles with heavy card stock, so the saving is smaller than it looks once you have bought stock that feeds properly. A middle path many couples take is a template printed by a commercial printer, which keeps the setup fee off the quote while leaving the press work to a machine built for it.

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