What Size Wedding Invitations Should I Buy?

When you start to think about your wedding, you may realize that size matters. How many guests you invite determines how big your wedding venue needs to be, and how many centerpieces you incorporate determines how big your flower budget is. Everything about a wedding is size oriented.

Whether you’re keeping things small or shooting for a “bigger is better” type of event, Zola has the perfect fit. Our selection of wedding essentials is both size and budget-conscious, so your wedding, no matter the size, is just right.

As you plan your wedding, the counting will ebb and flow. From the number of flowers to the number of people who attend, the final count is never truly final, especially regarding the guest list.

There is an adage about wedding invitations that goes something like, “Expect that 10 percent of your guests will RSVP yes and then no-show.” Whether you’re willing to take that risk is completely up to you, but one thing is for sure, no one will come if you don’t send invitations.

Unlike rolling the dice with extra guests attending or not, you can’t expect your guests to simply hear about your wedding from a friend. Invitations are an absolute must, and Zola is here to ensure that yours are signed, sealed, and delivered—literally!

One of the perks of ordering your invitations at Zola is that we will address your envelopes using our guest list feature. At Zola, we believe sending your wedding invitations should be an exciting endeavor, instead of a chore, which is why we do the laborious addressing on your behalf.

Fair warning, you’ll still need to stuff your invitations, but we recommend inviting some friends over and making a day of it. A day of licking and stamping can easily become a day of laughter and memories, especially when you’re surrounded by friends and loved ones.

Sizing Things Up

When it comes to your invitations, style, font, paper quality, and finish all play a part in creating the perfect wedding stationery for your wedding. With so many stylistic options, you may be wondering if there is any sort of standardized size for invites. The truth of the matter is that there is a gold standard size for wedding invitations. There are many reasons why the wedding industry gravitates toward a standardized size for wedding invitations, but for now, let’s look at what that size is.

The Dimensions

When you order your wedding invitations at Zola, you’ll notice that we offer all of our wedding stationery in a five-by-seven inch format. While other sites may play around with the size of the invitation, Zola thinks that there is something to be said for keeping things traditional. A five-by-seven inch invite card is the classic size for wedding invitations, and we think that there are plenty of ways to customize your card without messing with the size. After all, don’t fix what isn’t broken, right!?

The Science Behind the Size

The tradition of a five-by-seven inch invitation is Zola’s preferred size for wedding invites for three major reasons. First, the five-by-seven inch is the easiest to fit into a standardized envelope. Keeping your invites at the standard five-by-seven inch is both convenient and cost-effective because your envelope choices are far more diverse as a result.

Second, a five-by-seven inch wedding invitation is small enough to put on the fridge or mantle without being a burden to your guest. Any smaller than five-by-seven inch and your invitations run the risk of being lost amidst the shuffle of daily life. In contrast, a bigger invitation can become cumbersome and annoying to the guest who receives it.

Finally, a five-by-seven inch invitation is the easiest to mail. The reality is that you are going to be sending your invitations out via the USPS. There are many reasons why the USPS is and has been, the preferred method of sending out wedding invitations for decades.

Made for Mailing

For starters, the USPS is dependable and reliable. Letters being lost in the mail is not as common an occurrence as you might believe. The old excuse of “it got lost in the mail” is just that, an excuse. For the most part, mail sent through the USPS is delivered safely and on time without any issue.

Secondly, sending a letter or card (eg. a wedding invitation) through the USPS is extremely economical. The average cost of sending a wedding invitation is forty-nine cents, or, in other words, the cost of a single stamp. If your invitations are on the heavier side and you want to be extra cautious, then you’re looking at just under one dollar per invitation. The USPS is the best bet for sending invites on a budget.

Finally, the USPS is easy to deal with. To send your invites via the USPS, all you need to do is buy some stamps, place the postage on the envelope, and drop your invites in any mailbox where mail is picked up. If you have extra time on your hands, you can walk them into your local post office, but dropping your invites in any curbside mail receptacle will do.

Sending your invites with a specialty delivery service such as UPS or FedEx can get complicated and pricey. With a standard five-by-seven inch invitation, you know that your invites are USPS approved and perfectly acceptable to send via the mail. At Zola, we know that while it would be fun to have all sorts of shapes and sizes, keeping the dimensions of your stationery in a five-by-seven inch template ensures the safe delivery of your wedding invitations.

All the Right Details

There is a very specific formula for wedding invitations. The invitation itself must have all of the following requirements:

• Names of the parents (both sets)
• Request to attend
• Name of the couple
• Date and time of the ceremony
• Location of the ceremony
• Location of the reception (if different than ceremony site)

When worded correctly, your wedding invite says exactly what it needs to in the perfect amount of space. It may seem like a lot of information, but your wedding invite is only a small portion of the information that you will want to communicate to your guests. Fortunately, the invitation itself is only required to provide the aforementioned details.

The intricacies of your wedding invitation will vary depending on how flowery you want the language to be, but your guests need to be notified about who, what, when, and where. You don’t want your invite to be overwhelming, so stick to the basic information. Here is one example of how your wedding invitation could be written:

Mr. Steven Brown & Mrs. Patricia Brown Together with Mr. Donald Martinez and Mrs. Kathleen Martinez Cordially request your presence to celebrate the marriage of their children Anna Brown and David Martinez On September the Third at Three O'Clock in the afternoon at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Poway, California Dinner and Dancing to follow at The Rancho Bernardo Inn

It is very common for couples to include an enclosure card with additional pertinent details, so don’t feel like you have to cram everything into the invitation itself. Plus, when you purchase your wedding invitations at Zola, your wedding website is free.

Your fully customizable Zola wedding website is made to be user friendly and easy-to-navigate so that your guests can answer all their questions. Your Zola wedding website is the digital extension of your invitation that gives your guests all the info they need, all in one place.

Choosing a Font

Your wedding is a special event. Whether it’s a small wedding at city hall or a big “to-do” where your parents invite everyone they know, your wedding is a day of celebration. The celebration of your impending nuptials should carry with it an air of reverence and sophistication that can easily be reflected in the font of your choosing.

When you order at Zola, you can choose the wedding invitation font[1] that best suits your stylistic preferences. At Zola, you can rest assured that all of our fonts, no matter how flowery or fancy, are always legible and elegant.

Customization Is Key

We're known for our diverse selection of customizable paper products, and our wedding invitations are no exception. You can choose one of our templates, start completely from scratch, upload your design, or tweak a template to your liking.

Even after you choose the basic design of your wedding invitation, details such as paper choice, matte or gloss finish, and even foiling are all customizations that you are free to take full advantage of.

Sending Our Love

Sending out a wedding invitation is more than just an inclusionary gesture. A wedding invitation is a request for full participation in what will be the most important day of your life. Your wedding is a celebration of the love between you and your spouse-to-be, and Zola’s invitations reflect that joyful expectation. When you order your wedding invitations at Zola, the details are all taken care of for you.

We believe that wedding planning should be less about the tedious hand cramps from addressing envelopes and more about making your Pinterest board come to life. Zola’s standard five-by-seven inch wedding invitations with free addressing is just one of the many ways that we're here to ensure that your wedding planning process is easy and fun.