This can be one of the most confusing parts of ordering wedding stationery – how many invitations do you actually need to order?
There’s a sweet spot so that you don’t fall short, but equally so you don’t end up with a tonne of spares. So how do you calculate what you need while factoring in the right number of spares? Because realising that you need just one more invitation that you don’t have is a terrible feeling, so it’s definitely better to overbuy than under buy in this area of your wedding. Plus, a few extras won’t break the bank.
Here’s my top tips for working out exactly how many invitations you should order:
You don’t need an invitation for everyone.
Your guest list will likely be made up of families and couples. These groups only need one invitation between them. So if you have 100 guests, you likely only need around 50-60 invitations to comfortably cover the list, potentially even less if there are larger families and children that make up some of that guest list number.
Guest list management can be tricky, but this is a great reason to have a guest list management system and it will really help your stationery designer when it comes to designing your envelopes too. My favourite is a good old spreadsheet!
You can easily set up a spreadsheet yourself or grab my free guest list management system below. Its a simple download that you can start using right away.
Always get spares.
Even if you know exactly how many guests you’ll be inviting to your wedding and you are confident you’ve worked out the numbers you require, save yourself the headache and get some spares.
You just never know when an invite will go missing in the mail or get damaged in a letterbox by the weather. Plus there’s also the possibility of last minute additions. Reduce stress and grab a few spares – around 5 spares is a good idea.
Understand minimum order quantities.
Your wedding stationery designer will let you know if there’s minimum order quantities for the style of invitation you are getting. For some invitation styles you can easily reorder just a handful if you need extra, but other styles such as letterpress, die-cut or foiling, printers have really strict minimum order numbers.
For example, the print partner I work with have a 50 piece minimum order quantity when ordering those three specialty styles. The reason is that for something like letterpress printing, they need to create metal plates as part of the process. Often these plates are melted down afterwards and the material is reused, so if you do happen to need a few extra, that’s a big deal for the printing company and often not possible for just a few extra pieces unless you’re willing to pay a premium.
Remember to order a set for photography.
One thing that photographers love to do (and it really is such a beautiful little touch in your wedding album) is to take a styled flat lay photograph of your wedding stationery on the day. Be sure to order an extra invitation set to provide to your photographer for this photo.
Photographers take great care with all your bits and pieces on the day but having an extra copy for them to play with is a great idea.
I hope that helps and gives you the confidence and clarity to determine exactly how many invitations you should order for your wedding. If you have any additional questions – or anything I might have missed, you’re welcome to pop a question below in the comments.
And if you’re ready to work out exactly how many invitations you need, be sure to download the FREE guest management system below.