Wedding Invitation Price Comparison: "I'd like a side of envelopes with my order please!"

Today we are going to talk about a subject that is near and dear to our hearts: Invitation Pricing - or at least the pricing that you see touted on advertisements and even in the online store as you begin to fall in love with that invitation.

At Relish, we believe in doing our research to make sure that we are being competitive in our pricing for the sake of our customers. We buy bridal magazines and read online blogs and it always gets our attention when we see nice looking invitations priced "as low as $1.00 each!" To be honest with you, our goal at Relish is not to be the "cheapest" in invitations. We want to keep our costs low so that you can afford the beautiful custom invitations you dream of. However, we do not want to sacrifice quality (or paying our very talented team) in order to do so. We believe in fairness to our customers and part of that fairness is telling you right up front what you are paying. When we investigate other invitation companies, about 90% of the time we come out with the same result: Misleading advertising.

We are not going as far to say that our competition is not doing a good job or making beautiful invitations. However, we just want you to be educated to know the difference between the competition and Relish.

When we go to our competitors sites, the first thing we find is the "as low as...." We just investigated a few of our competitors' and are going to compare "apples to apples".

#1: getmarried.com: Their claim is invitations for $1.00. They do allow you to customize the color of your font which we appreciate. We then realized at the end that we paid $7.00 for this perk. When you add that and RSVP cards, and their envelopes - the price jumps to $2.30 / invitation. That does include printing a return address on the RSVP envelopes - we included that in our research because we include that option for free at Relish. (their price is $.20 / envelope)

The invitations we researched and "designed" were not bad. They are cute in fact. This package includes: 100 = 5.5" x 8.5" Flat invitation (no layers, embellishments, etc); White Envelope, RSVP Card, RSVP Envelope & Return Address Printing.As far as we can tell, they are printed on a digital press. That means they are printed on a very nice copier. We cannot find what the stock is - how heavy or matte, gloss, etc. Below is what we created. Again, total price $230.00 / 100 OR $2.30 / each



#2: Wedding Paper Divas. We will be honest and say we are fans of Wedding Paper Divas. They have very cute designs. We do not yet offer Flat (unlayered) invitations at Relish so they have options we do not have - and vice versa. We also love that they say clearly what type of printing and what stock. Their claim is invitations for $1.44 each.

We again designed an 8.5" x 5.5" invitation. We could not get as much customization. You can choose from different color schemes however. We chose the below design and added RSVP card and RSVP envelopes. We also chose return address printing on the RSVP envelopes ($.50 / each) to make all comparisons equal. They print on digital presses as well and print on 110 lb matte cardstock. The total cost for 100 = $318.00, or $3.18 / each



#3 Relish or www.getrelish.com. Again, we do not have flat designs... YET. (check back for our 2010 NEW LINES!) Relish has completely customizable software that allows you to choose nearly every option of your design, including font colors, styles & even the design colors. The color & style changes are all included at no additional cost. We only offer the layered line right now which gives you more customization options. You also get 2 pieces of paper, assembled together by our in-house team. Since you can even choose your SHAPE at Relish, we decided to go with Square for no additional cost. Relish prices INCLUDE invitation envelopes, RSVP Cards, RSVP envelopes & printing of return address on RSVP envelopes. ALSO - you get your choice from a dozen different envelope seals! (not an option with the other 2 sites)

Below is what we designed using Relish's custom invitation designer software (iBuilder). All our invitations are printed on 130lb matte cardstock on TRUE professional offset presses. For more information on the difference of printing presses and paper stock, please visit our information page HERE. For 100 invitation set, the total price is $296.00 OR $2.96 / invitation.
In the end, Relish uses the best printing methods available and the highest quality paper stock. We also offer 2 pieces of paper we assemble together. We allow you to completely customize your invitation. Once all is said and done Relish is by far the best bang for the buck!



BUT WAIT! There's more!! SNEAK PREVIEW!! Our 2010 Line will include a "Simplicity Line"! That would mean we could TRULY compare our apples to their's, with one layer instead of 2. Here is a design from the upcoming line. For invitations, envelopes, RSVP cards, RSVP envelopes, Return address printing & Seals for this invitation... The total cost is (drumroll please): $161.30 OR $1.61 / invitation!!



YES, that means that Relish would offer the most affordable custom invitations! The BONUS is that this invitation is still printed the same way: professional offset press and 130# matte stock - the best out there! So if you are on a smaller budget, stay in touch... we are working for you! We will also be revealing a Thermography Line in 2010. So stay tuned - more information coming soon!

In the end, we know that you may have a smaller budget and may not be able to afford Relish's layered line or even one of our competitors invitations we just reviewed. This is more of a "truth report". We just want you, the consumer - to be informed about the wedding invitation pricing process. Just be sure that when you go shopping for your wedding invitations, you do your research. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Even if you fall in love with a design, make sure that you get the facts on how it is printed and what is included.

Enjoy the Journey!

PS: Kudos to our competition - we like your style or we wouldn't have chosen you as comparisons! :)