How Much Do Wedding Invitations Cost in the UK? Real Prices and Worked Examples for 100 Guests

How much do wedding invitations cost in the UK? Less depends on the design you fall for than you might think. The total comes down to three things: how many households you’re inviting, what goes inside each envelope, and how it’s finished. Rather than quote a vague national average, we’ve costed real examples using our own current prices, with every sum shown, so you can see exactly where the money goes. All prices are correct at the time of writing; the shop always shows today’s.

How much do wedding invitations cost per invite?

Here’s what one invitation costs across our current range. Each price is per invitation, and each invitation goes to one household, so a couple or a family shares one.

So a wedding invitation costs roughly £2–£7 each with us. The design barely moves the price; the number of pieces and finishes inside does.

How much do wedding invitations cost for 100 people?

100 guests doesn’t mean 100 invitations. Couples and families share one, so 100 guests is usually around 45 households. Add five spares for the address you forgot, a smudged envelope and one for your keepsake box, and you’re ordering 50 invitations.

How much do wedding invitations cost per person? Because one invitation covers a whole household, divide the total by your guests, not your invitations. In the table above that’s between about £1.00 and £3.50 per guest (£99.50 ÷ 100 and £349.50 ÷ 100).

Wedding invitation costs for 50, 150 and 200 guests

The same rule scales up. We’ve assumed about 2.2 guests per household, which is typical when most guests come as couples. If you’re inviting lots of single friends, you’ll have more households; lots of families, fewer.

Inviting extra guests to the evening only? Count their households too, and add evening invitations to the same order. Our stationery checklist walks through counting households and spares in more detail.

How much does wedding stationery cost? Two full sets for 100 guests

Invitations are only part of the picture. Here are two complete sets for the same wedding: 100 day guests from 45 households, seated at 10 tables, with save the dates, invitation suites, menus, place cards, table numbers and a seating plan. We’ve assumed three separate orders (save the dates, invitations, then on-the-day stationery once RSVPs are in), each with our £4.99 Royal Mail delivery.

A simple full set: £558.87

That works out at £5.59 per guest (£558.87 ÷ 100) for everything from the first save the date to the last place card.

A full set with every finishing touch: £1,036.87

That’s £10.37 per guest. Notice where the extra £478 comes from: the invitation suites add £200, but separate menus and place cards add another £178, because they’re multiplied by 100 guests rather than 50 households. Per-guest pieces are where budgets quietly grow.

What affects the cost of wedding invitations?

• Households, not guests. Every invitation you don’t need saves its price and its stamp. Count addresses carefully before you order.
• Inserts. Each extra card adds printing, card and assembly. Our barn owl invitation is £1.99 with its envelope and £4.00 as a full suite with details and RSVP cards: £2.01 more per invitation, or £100.50 across 50.
• Finishes. Wax seals, ribbon, twine, clips and vellum jackets are what make an invitation feel special, and each one adds cost. Adding a wax seal to the gold foil shell invitation is £1 each, so £50 across 50.
• Assembly. Tying ribbon, wrapping vellum and pressing wax seals is careful handwork, which is a big part of why handmade invitations cost more than flat printed cards. Ours can arrive assembled or as separate pieces.
• Personalisation and proofing. Every order is designed with your names, wording and colours, and you approve a digital proof before anything is printed.
• Printed envelopes. We can print each guest’s name in the same font as the invitation for 80p per envelope with your invitations (or £1 for envelope and printing on its own), so £40 for 50.
• Postage size and weight. The thicker and heavier the finished invitation, the more each stamp costs. More on that below.

How much does it cost to send wedding invitations?

We don’t quote stamp prices here because they change, but the sum is simple: the number of households you post to × the price of one stamp at the right size. Invitations you hand-deliver cost nothing to send. To work out which stamp you need:

• A 5×7 invitation in its envelope is within Royal Mail’s Letter size (up to 240 × 165 mm and 5 mm thick, and no more than 100 g).
• Wax seals, bows, clips and vellum all add thickness. If the finished envelope is over 5 mm thick, it becomes a Large Letter, which costs more per stamp.
• You don’t need special stamps for wedding invitations. Any first or second class stamp for the right size and weight is fine.
• If you want guests to post their RSVP cards back, stamp the RSVP envelopes too, which doubles your stamp count. Replies by email or wedding website cost nothing.

Why are wedding invitations so expensive?

Per invitation, they usually aren’t: a few pounds for a handmade, personalised piece printed on heavy textured card. What makes them feel expensive is multiplication. A small batch of invitations, each designed with your details, made up of several cards, finished by hand and then posted, adds up quickly across 50 households. That’s why getting your household count right does more for your budget than any other decision.

How much should you budget for wedding stationery?

Rather than start from an “average cost of wedding stationery”, build your budget from your own numbers. It takes ten minutes:

1. Invitations: (households + spares) × price per invitation.
2. Save the dates, if you’re sending them: the same quantity × their price.
3. Menus and place cards: guests × price, or tables × 2 if you’re sharing menus.
4. Table numbers and seating plan: tables × price, plus one plan.
5. Delivery: £4.99 per order at the time of writing.
6. Stamps: households you’ll post to, doubled if you’re stamping RSVP envelopes.
7. A small cushion of 5–10% for late additions.

As a guide, our worked examples put a full set for 100 guests at roughly £550–£1,050, plus stamps. If you’re still deciding which pieces you need, our wedding stationery checklist sorts them into must-haves and nice-to-haves.

Honest ways to save money on wedding invitations

None of these will make your stationery look cheaper. They just stop you paying for things nobody will miss:

• Combine menu and place card. A named menu like our blush pink wildflower menu & place card is £2.20, against £4.19 for a separate menu (£2.99) and place card (£1.20). That’s £1.99 less per guest, or £199 for 100 guests.
• Share menus across a table. Two per table at 10 tables is 20 × £2.99 = £59.80, instead of £299 for one each: £239.20 saved.
• Let your website replace the details card. If every detail lives online, an invitation-and-envelope option (£1.99 rather than £4.00 for our barn owl suite) saves £100.50 on 50. Our details card guide helps you decide whether you need one.
• Skip save the dates for a local wedding less than six months away: £99.50 and 50 stamps saved in our example.
• Choose one or two finishes, not all of them. A ribbon or a wax seal looks lovely on its own, and keeps the envelope within Letter size.
• Hand-deliver to neighbours, family and colleagues.
• Order on-the-day pieces together once your RSVPs are in, so you pay one delivery charge rather than several.

Still choosing a design? Our guide to choosing wedding invitations covers size, card and finishing touches, and our timeline shows when to order so you’re never paying for a rush.

Start with a sample pack

A sample is the smallest stationery cost you’ll have and the most useful. At the time of writing, our Grace wildflower sample pack is £3.99 and our wildflower invitation suite sample is £2 (or £6 personalised). Standard sample packs are sent within 4 days and personalised samples in about a week; full timings are on our delivery page.