Paperless Invites - Pros, Cons and Why You Should Consider Them
Wedding invites are a huge deal. They communicate a plethora of information to the receiver about your big day! They are imperative, especially if you plan on having a large wedding with a ton of guests. However, paper invites are expensive, and even if you DIY them, it will still cost you hundreds of dollars, not to mention all the hours you’ll put into printing, preparing and shipping all of them. What if there was a better way? A cheaper and more efficient method for handling your invites. Well there is, and big surprise, its digital!
Now, in your head you may be thinking, “can sending digital evites really be cheaper and more efficient?” and I’m here to tell you, yes they can! Of course, you're probably also worried about grandma, who lives alone and doesn’t know how to work a computer. My solution for that is to send a paper invite. The truth is, there are some seriously awesome pros to using digital invites, but there are also some cons. So, I think that’s a topic to cover next!
The Pros:
The Cost
What are the pros you might ask? To start, digital invitations are cheaper. Way cheaper in fact as the average cost of paper invitations runs between $400-$650 per couple, whereas digital invites will cost a couple an average of $100. That’s a huge savings, and that doesn’t account for all the time you’ll save without having to package and ship those invites.
Eco-Friendly
I don’t think this point needs much elaboration. You’re saving the lives of some very grateful trees! The standard wedding invite includes 3-4 pieces of paper between the envelope, the invite, and any additional papers inside like RSVPs. Some simple math will tell us that for an average sized guest list, you’d save 360-480 pieces of paper!
No Mail Delay or Loss of Invite
This is probably the second biggest reason why you should consider Electronic Invites (after the price of course). Thanks to the wonders of the internet, your evites will arrive in their respective owners inboxes in a matter of seconds. To add to that, there’s no chance of the invite getting lost while on route! If that’s not some truly incredible peace of mind, then I don’t know what is!
Digital RSVP
Another excellent reason to consider paperless invites, is the ease of use for the intended recipient. Especially when it comes to replying with an RSVP! Most evites will allow the guest to click a link that will lead them to a page where they can RSVP digitally. This simplifies the process in an incredible way as your guests no longer have to hand-write, package and ship their RSVP back to you! It will also give you a more accurate head count and should eliminate the risk of losing RSVPs via the mail service.
Included Digital Links to Your Registry and Wedding Website
Finally, depending on the company and invite you choose, you may be able to add links to your wedding website and or registry via the invite itself or the email it’s sent in. This could be a huge time and problem saver as your guests could click a link instead of having to type in a custom URL.
The Cons:
Less Traditional
Of course, there are always some cons to be considered when looking into something new. One of the most common arguments against digital invites is that they “aren’t traditional”. This is true and for those of you with a larger and aging extended family, they may be put-off by not receiving a physical copy of your wedding invite. However, as we push into an ever more digital era, the use of electronic invites will become steadily more common until they take over the spot once held by traditionally physical ones.
You Can’t Keep Them
This is just a sad truth about digital invites. As they aren’t a physical entity and thus you can’t keep them for memories sake. While some would argue that you don’t need to have a physical invite when your digital one will be stored in the cloud forever, there is nothing that can quite replace the sentiment of having a physical copy.
Older Guests May Have Trouble
The biggest concern you may have about using evites is in regard to the elderly in your guest list. It’s true that not all people are as tech savvy as the younger generations, and while most people, the elderly included, have access to and knowledge on how to use an email, not everyone will. This is a sad truth, but there are workarounds that will make it doable!
Spam Filters
The Infamous spam filter. Your best and worst friend when it comes to email. It’s true, you may encounter some less than friendly issues with the spam filter in regards to it filing your invite as “spam”. If this is the case, your invite may never be seen by the intended recipient and that can cause some unfortunate problems. However, most websites that are selling digital invitations have considered this and have taken steps to ensure that this scenario never happens. That said, the internet is not a perfect system and individuals can change their filtering settings, so be warned.
Possible Confusion on Who is Invited
Finally, you could encounter possible confusion as to who has been invited to your wedding. The theory for this issue however has more to do with the chance that you only send one invite per household that the invite doesn’t include the invitees’ names.
Possible Solutions:
There are two cons mentioned above that I didn’t offer solutions or resolutions to the problems they presented. That’s because I want to discuss them here, in greater detail. The first being that you can’t keep a digital invite. This is already a false statement, as you have access to said invite anytime, anyplace so long as you have internet. However, it is true that a digital invite does not give you a physical copy to keep. The simplest workaround for this is to print it. That’s right, save the file or screenshot the image and print one for yourself! You could even take the file to a printer and have a high quality copy made for next to nothing (literally pocket change in most cases).
The second issue is that of older guests having trouble with a digital invite. If for some reason you have a guest who can’t access the internet or doesn’t know how to work an email account, the easiest and best solution is to send them a physical invite. I know that breaks the purpose of using digital invites, but sometimes the old ways are best. Printing off a few invites won’t cost you all that much and won’t take you all that long and even if you don’t have the time to DIY, there are tons of online websites that will print and ship the invite for you.
The Best Places to Get Your Online Invites:
So, where are the best places to go to get your electronic invites? Throughout my research I found that the websites listed below are the most popular. I’ve included four options, although I’m sure there are plenty of other good ones! Each of them will include a price based on the average number of wedding guests used previously (120). Take a look and see if any of them are right for you!
GreenVelope
Cost: $119
Website: GreenVelope
Joy
Cost: Free
Website: Joy
Paperless Post
Cost: $50-$100
Website: Paperless Post
Riley and Grey
Cost: $35 p/month or $240 p/year
Website: Riley and Grey
Looking for a Photographer who can help you with your wedding every step of the way?
