Online vs Physical Invitations

I prefer mailed invitations and STDs, Not only do they seem fitting to the significance of the occasion, they are less likely to be overlooked and for many people serve as an ongoing visual reminder. Older relatives may not use technology or check it often or at all.


Online invitations are often associated with a more casual wedding. An advantage, of course, is that they are cheaper. You could also do a combination of mailed invitation and have the option of an online RSVP.

I think online STD's with a link to a website is a good idea, and can save on costs and paper.

A paper invitation would be better if you're planning to have a more formal event, as the invitation style kind of sets the tone.

Hi!

Personally, i sent the save the date online to save money. And ordered print invitation to set the formal tone of the event. If you want to save money, you can order them in Canvas for less than $100 with envelope.

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Thank you. I will look into Canvas.

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I am thinking about skipping save the dates and just mailing out invitations with a link to the wedding website. Any thoughts?

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I think I am going for a semi-formal feel and skipping save the dates and just mailing out invitations. Any thoughts?

I think a great in-the-middle option is virtual save the dates, then printed invitations later. The save-the-dates are much less formal anyway, and I don't think it generally makes sense to pay for both printed save the dates and printed invitations (unless you're having a small wedding and only sending a few save the dates and invitations). Otherwise, the cost would add up quite quickly, whereas a virtual one serves the same purpose.

I mailed out my std and invitations. It was formal to me and It was easier for me to mail them so my could have a physical copy of it.. I didn’t do online bc I took in consideration that some of my guest not be to navigate through the system especially if they or older or there maybe an issue with the system itself which makes to navigate through it.

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We emailed save-the-dates and mailed invitations for our semi-formal wedding. It turned out just fine. There were a few people on my side who didn't have email addresses, but they were all my parents' friends, so they were contacted via phone/text. What you want to do sounds reasonable - honestly, we almost didn't send save-the-dates either, because we got married 5 months after we got engaged, so there wasn't a lot of time between sending the save-the-dates and the actual invitations.

In our families and social circles, save the dates for generations have always been a verbal communication at 6-12 months ahead via phone call or in a regular conversation. That worked for a number of our guests, but for those we don’t speak to on a daily basis we decided to make magnets for everyone, even though we were the first in our social circles to do anything of that nature even though the internet says it is old school.


For invites, we went with traditional physical invitations and we made sure that all guests were sent identical full sets. It didn’t cost that much in the end though a local independent print shop, and the regular sites such as Zazzle were more expensive because each item had to be purchased separately with limited customization. We could have gone with annsbridalbargains.com and saved even more money with a traditional full set but we wanted a specific look and were able to get that without breaking the bank.
We have received a couple digital wedding invitations and were very confused by them. Digital tends to be very casual and doesn’t translate well to a wedding like it does to a birthday or backyard bbq. The times when we did receive digital invitations, we were surprised that almost no one attended and the couples said they had invited well over 100+ guests. Through various mutual friends, we found out that people didn’t attend because they were expecting physical invitations and thought the digital version was a save the date. These were different social circles as well that normally expect physical invitations with over the phone save the dates.

Thank you everyone for your advice and information. It has been very helpful.

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I think that sounds fine!

I'm so glad I ran across this thread because I had the same thoughts. I was like "what's the difference?". But I appreciate everyone's input. I think I will mail the "Save the Date" with a link to the website so they can RSVP with their preference for food and accommodations. It just makes it easier for me to keep up with everything in one place. Good Luck to you all. Happy Planning!