Should We Use a Wedding Invitation Template?

While custom wedding stationery is exquisite, it can be expensive. Not only are you paying for the service of a stationer and/or designer, but also for all of the paper pieces and decorative elements—from response cards to ribbon—that complete the invitation suite. Given the necessary nature of an invitation, though, as well as the tradition behind it, it’s not something that you can just scratch from the to-do list in order to save money.

Thankfully, with so many beautiful wedding invitation template options available, you don’t have to break the budget in order to invite guests to your wedding. You can easily find a wedding invitation template on the internet to suit your personality and wedding theme, whatever it is.

At Zola, we offer plenty of incredible options to choose from. Here, we’ll walk you through the painless process of selecting a wedding invitation template, customizing it to your celebration, and sending it to all your guests.

How to Make the Most of Wedding Invitation Templates

When you opt for a wedding invitation template, you don’t have to sacrifice the style and formality you get with traditional wedding invitations, nor do you have to embark on a big DIY project. In fact, templates can be even more stylish and even simpler to execute. In order to help you make the most of your wedding invitation template, we have outlined a few simple steps to follow.

Select the Right Design

The design of your wedding invitation is the first thing that will catch your eye and capture the attention of your guests. It sets the tone for your wedding day and hints at its style and theme. There are thousands of wedding invitation templates to choose from, so you may first want to envision the style, shape, and color that you’re looking for before you begin browsing. This will help you narrow down your search and also keep you from getting distracted by all the pretty paper options that aren’t necessarily in line with your wedding.

Every element of the design can be used to show off your personality, from font style to patterns, prints, borders, and more. Choose from elegant calligraphy and modern typeface fonts, geometric prints, and floral patterns. Whatever your wedding style may be, there’s an invitation template to match.

Customize It

A common misconception with selecting a wedding invitation template is that you can’t alter it in any way. In reality, most templates are highly customizable. Not only can you change the necessary wording, such as names, the date, and the place, but also the phrasing. You can also typically alter the colors, font size, and paper type.

Often, you can even customize the shape and size of the invitation template. If you opt for a simple wedding invitation design, you may want to choose a unique invite shape, such as square, circle, or rectangle with rounded corners. Just because you’re using a template for your wedding invitations doesn’t mean that it can’t be tailored to you.

Address the Envelopes

Once you have chosen your favorite design and customized it with your wedding day details, you can move on to the more mundane, yet essential, parts of sending wedding invitations such as addressing the envelopes. You can do so yourself, hire a calligrapher, or utilize an online service.

If you select a template at Zola, we will address the envelopes for you in proper etiquette so that you don’t have to worry about how to phrase every envelope—from doctors to couples to guests that get a plus-one and so on.

Order Prints

If you use an online service to select and customize your wedding invitation template, the next step is getting them printed and delivered to your door. Some sites will print the invitations for you, while others will send you the completed template and require you to take care of printing yourself. In the latter case, you’ll need to partner with a printing service or superstore to have your invitations printed.

We don’t advise attempting to print invitations yourself, unless you have a heavy duty printer, the right paper, and are ready to utilize your paper-cutting skills. The easiest and most fool-proof way to ensure your invitations are printed to perfection is to shop templates from a site that will print them for you.

Once your printed invitations arrive, you can admire, stuff, seal, stamp, and send them off to your guest list.

The Pros of Zola Wedding Invitation Templates

If you’re looking for the most seamless way to customize, address, and print your invitations, as well as hundreds of beautiful designs to choose from, you should consider a Zola wedding invitation template. Here are the major reasons why:

Beautiful Designs

With one glance at the wedding invitation shop, you’ll see an array of eye-catching designs for your card. Zola offers hundreds of beautiful invitation templates that are also affordable, so you’ll be able to find a template that suits both your style and budget.

Here are a few of Zola’s most popular invitation card designs:

• The Blake Invitation
• The Octavia Invitation
• The Violin
• The Abbey
• The Woads

Plus, Zola wedding invitation templates are completely customizable. You can change the wording, font size, color, and more with the intuitive builder so that the design becomes even more your style. Use these templates as a base for whatever wedding invitation idea you have in mind.

Matching Stationery

If you fall in love with a design, why use it only for your invitation? Using the same, or complementary designs for your invitation suite, wedding website, and day-of stationery will create a cohesive look, and lessen the amount of decisions that you have to make down the line.

You can create everything at Zola, from invites to programs, menus, and even thank you cards, all with your chosen design. Plus, your coordinating wedding website at Zola is free.

Free Perks

Free perks don’t stop there. When you use one of Zola’s wedding websites, you get free guest addresses on your envelopes (a major time and money saver) and a free sample delivered to your door so that you can touch and feel the invitation before you commit.

The Guest List Manager

Create your guest list unbelievably fast with Zola’s guest list manager. This tool will be your best asset when it comes to efficiently managing your guest list. Not only can you easily collect guests’ mailing addresses, but you can also track RSVPs, meal preferences, plus ones, and more. Plus, when you use the guest list manager, Zola will seamlessly address all your envelopes for you in the correct formal layout.

Easy

Wedding planning can be stressful, but your stationery doesn’t have to be. Let Zola take this burden off your shoulders with the super-simple builder that will make your invitation template look and feel totally personal. It’s extremely easy to use, so your custom invitations will be on the way to you in minutes and you can check that off the list.

Other Wedding Invitation Templates

Albeit affordable, Zola wedding invitation templates do come with a cost. While it’s almost impossible to spend zero dollars on your wedding invitations, there are places that offer free wedding invitation templates, or can help you save in other ways. Here are a few options:

Canva

If you’re looking for free wedding invitations, consider customizing a template on Canva. There are a variety of stylish options to choose from. However, keep in mind that you will need to pay to print the invitations, purchase envelopes and postage, and address them or hire a calligrapher to do the addressing. So, while you may be securing the template for free, the process of actually securing and sending the invitations won’t be.

Virtual Delivery

If you specifically want to cut back on delivery costs (printing, postage, etc.) for your wedding invite list, you may want to consider a virtual invitation service such as Paperless Post. While you’ll need to purchase the invitation template, price based on design and quantity, you’ll save on paper costs, addressing, and stamps.

DIY

Another way to cut costs on your wedding invitations is by DIY-ing certain elements. We don’t recommend this route if your guest list is large as it can be extremely taxing to address, let alone create 100 or more invitations. However, if you have the time and capability to cut, print, and letter your own custom wedding invitations starting from scratch (or from a template on Etsy), you could save some money.

A Wedding Invitation Template vs. Custom Invitation

There are times when a custom invitation is preferable to an invitation template. If you have a very specific vision for your invitation’s design or execution you may want to hire a stationer or work with a talented friend or family member. For example, you may want to include a family crest, a unique illustration, or 3D decorative elements, or, perhaps, you want to print the invite on leather or wood. When budget allows and your vision is unique, custom stationery will be more satisfactory.

However, there are plenty of pros to using a wedding invitation template, too. You can thank the digital age for providing wedding invitation templates that are just as beautiful as traditional stationery, for a fraction of the cost. Plus, you’ll spend far less time creating the actual invitation using a template than you would hiring a stationer and going back and forth on design.

To ensure that you’re getting the best option for both your style and budget, pay attention to the design, customization process, perks, and potential fees before selecting a wedding invite template.