Invitations are the first wedding purchase where the numbers get away from people: $3 a piece sounds harmless until the suite, the inserts, and the stamps put a $518 average on a line most couples budget at $250. Here's the real price stack — printing tiers, the 2026 postage rates, and the five decisions that quietly double the bill.
National anchors first: couples average $220 on invitations alone and $518 on the full suite (invitation, RSVP, save-the-dates, postage), with a standard 100-guest suite running $400-$600. The spread is enormous because printing is tiered:
| Tier | Per set | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Budget digital | $1.25 – $2.00 | Flat digital print, standard cardstock |
| Standard | $2.00 – $5.00 | Heavier stock, liners, thermography |
| Foil / letterpress | $5.00 – $10.00 | Foil stamping, pressed impressions |
| Luxury custom | $10.00+ | Calligraphy, handmade paper, boxed sets |
On mid-tier printers, foil, envelope liners, and wax seals add roughly 50 cents to $2 per piece. None of it changes what the invitation does — which is why this is the most negotiable line in the budget. Price your exact mix in our wedding invitation cost calculator.
Stationery postage is a rate stack, and every layer is avoidable if you know it exists:
Add it up and a traditional 2-ounce suite with a stamped reply envelope costs $1.93 per household in stamps alone. On 100 invitations, that's $193 before a single card is printed — and if you chose square envelopes, $242.
Count households, not guests. Couples and families at one address get one invitation, so a 100-guest list is typically 60-70 households. Order about 10% extra for parents' keepsakes, misprints, and the cousin who materializes six weeks out — reprinting a short run later costs multiples of the unit price. And take one finished, stuffed, sealed suite to the post office to be weighed: 0.9 ounces and 1.1 ounces are different prices.
Run the five moves together — rectangular, digital tier, online RSVP, no inserts, no inner envelope — and a 75-household suite comes in around $182 including stamps, against $707 for the traditional version with the same information inside. That difference funds a real line item; track it against the whole plan in our wedding budget calculator, and if you're still deciding venue capacity, the household math feeds straight into our wedding venue cost calculator.
Printing, 2026 postage rates, RSVP returns, and save-the-dates — free, no signup.
Open the Invitation Cost CalculatorThe full stationery suite averages $518, with most standard 100-guest suites landing between $400 and $600 including postage. Invitations alone, without save-the-dates or extras, average $220. Budget digital printing can bring a suite under $200; letterpress and foil designs push past $1,000.
In 2026, a 1-ounce invitation costs 82 cents; each additional ounce adds 29 cents, so a typical 2-ounce suite with an RSVP card costs $1.11 to mail. Square or rigid envelopes add a 49-cent nonmachinable surcharge, and a stamped RSVP envelope adds another 82 cents. Budget roughly $2 per invitation all-in.
Use rectangular envelopes to dodge the 49-cent surcharge, keep the suite at or under 2 ounces, switch RSVPs to a website or postcard to save the return stamp, order by household rather than guest count, and take the digital-print tier from an online printer — those five moves routinely cut the bill 40-60%.
Save-the-dates go out 6-8 months ahead (earlier for destination weddings), and invitations 8-10 weeks before the wedding, with the RSVP deadline about 3-4 weeks out so you can chase stragglers and give the caterer a final count.
Households. Couples, families, and roommates at one address receive one invitation, so a 100-guest list typically translates to 60-70 invitations. Order about 10% extra for keepsakes and last-minute additions.