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With the dawn of technology and the influx of the digital world, paperless wedding invitations have become an excellent alternative to traditional printed wedding invitations. Despite paper invites being considered a formal, classical option, it also calls for lots of effort and money.
Digital wedding invitations have its pros and cons, and to ensure you have made the most informed decision when it comes to your special day, we have compiled a list of the advantages and disadvantages, along with the best places to buy them.
With the right guidance, creative flair, and a pair of detail-oriented eyes you’ll be able to create a digital invitation just as marvelous as a printed invite, if not better!
Pros of Digital Wedding Invitations
Paperless Wedding Invitationby Edi Design Collection. See the store here.
Paperless invites are often sent via email, although some send it through other social media platforms. There are several benefits to going digital, yet everything has a downside to it, hence this list is put together for you to be able to make a concrete decision on going digital.
1. Inexpensive
One of the biggest pros on this list is the cost-effective aspect of paperless invitations. Thestandard cost of printed invitationsis estimated between $5000 and $8000 dollars, whereas the average cost of digital invitations amounts to approximately $100 dollars. It’s more bang for your buck! Pricing plays a major role in majority of the people’s budget, hence an inexpensive means of getting an invitation done while ensuring it looks just as good as a classical invitation tips the scales.
2. Quick and Efficient
Contrary to the traditional way of posting wedding invites through the mail, which then takes weeks to reach your guests, digital wedding invitations and quicker and more efficient. The reason for this is quite simple – technology. With technology, the hassle of traditional wedding invites is eliminated. What’s more, digital invitations also make it easy to monitor your guest’s RSVPs via your wedding website all in one place. It saves so much more time and requires less effort.
3. Eco friendly
With global warming and the negative effect, waste has on the planet, going paperless assures you that you are doing your part as an environmentally conscious citizen. This advantage often stands out forcouples that are eco-conscious, making digital invites a go-to for their special day. Further, digital invites ensure there is no physical footprint, therefore excluding the need for envelopes, inserts, and save the dates.
4. Online RSVPs
The biggest advantage paperless invitations bring along is the ease of RSVP-ing, for both parties. The standard procedure requires guests to fill out a card and mail it back, which could be a hassle for most in this fast-paced world.
Digital invites take this inconvenience and make it easier for everyone. Guests would only be required to respond digitally, be it a website they are directed to or a contact number. You’ll have it all in one place. This also takes away the hassle of staying on top of your game with all those RSVP cards coming in at different times.
5. Uniformity in designs
With the appearance of evites, it makes it easy for couples to coordinate the main theme of their wedding through all wedding-related items. From invitations to thank you cards and evenyour wedding website! Maintaining a theme can look aesthetically pleasing and gives a cohesive, well-thought-out look to your overall wedding look.
Cons of Digital Wedding Invitations
Despite paperless invitations having a range of positives, you must keep in mind that even the best has its downside. Here is a list of some of the main disadvantages, so you know what you are dabbling with.
1. Down with the classics
Regardless of technology and the advent of evites, the traditional form of invitations will always remain a front runner, at least in the foreseeable future. Guests value the personalization that goes into paper invitations, and some go to the extent of preserving them. Since digital invitations are relatively new, some still haven’t gotten used to them and may even consider them inferior or atypical.
2. The elderly vs. technology
Albeit a wedding has the essence of youthfulness and longevity, there are older relatives and friends on the invite list who aren’t as familiar with the technology. They may find it difficult to find their way around trying to RSVP and a wedding website.
3. Spam filters
Email is a game changer and features such as filtering spam emails do come in handy for everyday use. But what happens when someone’s email doesn’t recognize the website that your evite was sent from? Simple – it goes into thespam folder. It is a rare occurrence for people to check their spam folder, and so your invitation would be at the risk of not reaching certain guests.
4. Confusion about who’s invited
Traditional invitations address the guests who are being invited. It makes it clear who is on the guest list and who is not. It’s not the same for digital invitations. Here it is sent to one email and can leave the guests confused as to who is included on the guest list.
The Best Online Stores for Paperless Wedding Invitations
After reading through the pros and cons and you have decided to opt for a paperless invitation, here is a list of places that do the best evites. With plenty of options, colors, and price ranges to pick from, you will have the perfect evite ready for your big day!
1. Paperless Post
Main Features:
- Easy to track RSVPs
- Hundreds of ready-made designs to choose from
- Upload your custom design, and create a unique wedding invitation of your own
- User-friendly website
- Utilize the “free” filter option to find free wedding invitations
Paperless Post is a site that has everything you need for you to send out digital wedding invitations. It caters to all your needs and wants. From general cards and flyers to designer collections, they have styles and designs for everyone and every occasion, including invitations for bachelorette parties, engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, and bridal showers. Feel like their designs aren’t a fit? You can upload your own custom design, which would allow you to create the exact design you are after. The Paperless Post has a general wedding collection, which is divided into two categories.
- Cards– These are stationery inspired, where you can change the text, style, envelope, and backdrop, as well as other features that Paperless Post delves into on their website.
- Flyers– These are flyer-style invitations that can easily be customized, with photos, animated effects, stickers, and colors.
Prices vary, but the average price for 30 invites amounts to roughly $24 dollars. You can preview your card to get a feel of what it is like to open a paperless invite. Additionally, their evites have an RSVP option where you will be able to track RSVPs and communicate with guests immediately.
The downside of Paperless Post is that users cannot create a greeting card or invitation via the app. Most of the negative reviews are attributed to their app, so sticking to their website, which is generally user-friendly, would save you some time and energy.
“I would suggest paperless post for any invites. It’s easy for guests to access at all times in their email instead of trying to keep track of a piece of paper. It doesn’t end up in the landfill and they are pretty!! Very affordable as well!”
2. Greenvelope
Main Features:
- Personalize your design
- Built-in messaging
- Import your guest list
- Event and RSVP reminders for guests
- Easily track RSVPs
- Address validation
“Save Time, Save Trees, Save Money” Greenvelope’s slogan speaks volumes for what they believe in. They have a plethora of designs to choose from and even offer matching components like save the dates and thank you notes. They also offer services that make digital invitations easier, whether you’re a newbie or tech savvy.
Greenvelope’s stationery templates are all hand-picked by their in-house design team, who work with a community of illustrators, calligraphers, graphic artists, and painters from all over the world.
The site is straightforward and user-friendly with details presented in a crystal-clear format. Their pricing varies from $39 for up to 40 people to $119 for over 120 guests. The reviews on the site are exceptional, with few to no negative comments on their services, making it one of the best sites out there!
“I’m a first-time user of Greenvelope and evites in general. I am so glad I chose this method to send out my invitations. It was so quick and easy to design my card, simple to create my contacts and the organization of the rsvp process is amazing. If you haven’t tried Greenvelope don’t hesitate. It’s great!” –
3. Evite
Main Features:
- Unlimited virtual messaging
- Manage from any device – laptop, mobile, ipad etc…
- Send via text message, social media, email, or link
- Track RSVPs
- Add as many guests as you require (up to 2500)
Evite has more than just digital birthday, pool party, and bridal shower invitations. They handle weddings as well. They have the option of scheduling event reminders and to even selecting the option that requests guests to mail any photos they have from your special day.
With Evite, you can go premium where you can customize your invitations by adding photos and embellishments or uploading your custom designs. The advantage of going premium means your invite will be sent without any advertisem*nts. Premium invitations start at $14.99 for 15 invitations.
One of the main downsides Evite has is that their invitations are often filtered into the spam folder, hence guests on your list may never see the invite. But this isn’t just specific to Evite. Any digital invitation runs a risk of getting filtered into a spam folder.
“Evite keeps all my attendee/invites super organized, so I know who’s received the invitation and who’s actually coming. It also integrates Google contacts, which is very helpful.”
4. With Joy
Main Features:
- Free wedding planning platform – easy to use
- Easily track RSVPs
- Personalized RSVP features
- Wide range of designs to suit any wedding theme
Joy is a free planning service that helps you plan your wedding, not just digital invitations. Once you’ve entered relevant details, you will have a website with other features, all completely free. This integration makes it easy to keep track of all your invitations, RSVPs while also giving a cohesive look across your wedding resources.
Joy’s wedding invitations are beautifully designed, and suit a range of themes, whether beach, boho, cultural, destination, rustic, or traditional.
Some features that make Joy a reliable website that helps ease the whole process of planning a wedding are invitations, guest list, registry, multiple admins to help with planning, a customizable website, and accessibility worldwide. It is a known fact that free services are usually complemented with limited features, yet Joy users do not experience this drawback.
Joy has an app that does experience technical difficulties from time to time, as per normal.
“It is very easy to use and organizes everything you need extremely well!”
5. Etsy
Main Features:
- Wide range of options
- Inexpensive – but nothing free
- Customizable
- Each retailer has different policies
Etsy is an online marketplace where individuals buy and sell a variety of products, including digital wedding invites. Prices vary greatly based on sellers ranking as well as the services and products they are offering in relation to digital wedding invites.
You can purchase invites for as low as $5 dollars. The average price for a digital wedding invitation varies from $23 dollars to $90 dollars.
There are a variety of designs to pick from, but the features and services that come along with the product greatly depend on the seller and the ranking they have on the platform. Etsy also has features such as rating sellers and products with tag lines “Star Seller” and “Popular Now” to make it easier for you to filter through the search and find the perfect digital wedding invitation for your special day.
6. Riley and Grey
Main Features:
- Luxury wedding website builders
- New designs each season
- Stylish designs to suit a variety of themes
- More expensive than other options
Riley and Grey is a platform that constructs luxury wedding websites for “design forward couples”, where you can build and showcase your story whilst taking good care of your guests and planning a whole wedding all at the same time.
Apart from creating unique wedding websites, they also offer save-the-dates and paperless invitations that are all in line with the design of your website. A unique feature they offer is that they release a new collection of designs every season, so you have a wide range to choose from thematically.
Like any other site, you can customize your own design and have one-of-a-kind evites and a website. Their prices begin at $35 dollars per month of site hosting and can go up to $240 dollars. Despite being on the higher end, price wise it still is significantly lower than classic wedding invitations.
So, if budget isn’t a limiting factor and you would prefer a luxury website, this is just the place for you!
“The website does do everything we want/need it to do though, and we’ve gotten a ton of compliments from guests on how it’s the nicest wedding website they’ve ever seen”.
Wrapping Up
Digital wedding invites are growing in popularity and gaining momentum in the wedding industry, This guide touches on the pros and cons, to ensure you have made the right decision when it comes to going digital.
Each option discussed above has its own offerings, pros, and cons, so go with the option that works best for your budget, aesthetic, and wedding dreams.
So now that you know what all the hype around paperless wedding invitations is, why not give it a go? It’s new, quirky, and elegant and it saves the whales. Isn’t that a deal you want to cash in on?
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