wedding invitation with bellyband and wax seal

How many wedding invitations to order? Tips from a stationery expert

When you’re working out how much your wedding stationery will cost (and how much to budget for it) one of the first questions will be how many wedding invitations to order. Spoiler alert: it’s probably a lot less than you initially think. I’ll explain why.

You only need one invitation per couple, family or household. Not one per guest.

My very simple formula for working out how many wedding invites to order is to estimate your total guest list, divide it by two and add about ten percent. So for 100 guests, that would be 55 to 60 invitations. This is a very simple but effective rule of thumb and will work well for budgeting purposes.

To work out exactly how many wedding invitations to order

When you have finalised your guest list you can work out exactly how many invitations you will need. Go through your list and allocate one invitation to each of the following:

Married/living together couple – 1 invitation
Family (including children) – 1 invitation*
Members of your bridal party – 1 invitation each
Single friends & family – 1 invitation each (decide whether you are allowing ‘plus ones’)

*If a family includes older children that still live at home, consider sending them a separate invitation if you think they will appreciate it.
pretty laser cut wedding invitation with blush pink card and ribbon
Bespoke blush pink laser cut wedding invitation

Do you need to send invitations to your bridal party?

Don’t forget to include your bridal party and immediate family such as parents and grand parents in the numbers. While it might be a given that they are invited it’s proper etiquette to give them a formal invitation and I guarantee they’ll treasure the keepsake.

Don’t forget to include some spare wedding invitations when you order

Always include a few spares, even if you are sure your guest list is final. You’ll want a keepsake for yourself and you never know when situations might change and you want to invite an extra guest or two. write out your entire guest list and then go through and group together those individuals who will be included on one invitation.

It can be false economy to order the exact number you need and then have to make an additional order later for the sake of a couple of extras. That said, you don’t need to go overboard with spares as they’ll only go to waste.

evening wedding invitation with greenery eucalyptus design
Eucalyptus evening invitation

What about evening guests – how many invites should I order?

Remember that those guests you invite for the ceremony and reception will not need a separate evening invitation. You only need to order evening invites for those extra guests that are coming for the night time celebrations.

Follow the same guidelines outlined above for calculating the numbers you need. For initial budgeting I would advise working on 70% of your total evening gust numbers, I often find that there is a greater proportion of ‘singles’ in the evening guest list.

Example:
You have 100 guests for the day and up to a total of 150 in the evening. That’s 50 extra guests arriving for the evening only.
Budget for 55-60 day invitations and 35-40 evening invitations

Wedding invitation with a floral printed vellum jacket tied around with twine and a gold wax seal
Bespoke wedding invitation with a vellum jacket and wax seal, based on my Green & White floral collection

So how many wedding invites should I actually order?

Simple – just remember that it’s one per couple or family, not one per guest. That’s usually about 50 to 60% of your total guest list number. Don’t forget your bridal party or your nearest and dearest and always include a few spares (if only for a keepsake).

Top tip:
Much of what I have covered here will also apply to save the date cards.

What’s the point of wedding save the date cards?

I really hope this blog has been useful. If you’d like your very own download and print (if you want to) wedding stationery checklist you can get it here. It will tell you not only how many wedding invitations to order but how to calculate the numbers for all those other bits of stationery you might need too.

Download your Ultimate Wedding Stationery Checklist

When you’ve downloaded it, head over and find me on Instagram. I’d love to know if you found it useful.
Jo

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