5 ms·

I still find the idea of a digital wedding invitation pretty strange, because here in Hungary the bride and the fiancé invite everybody in person together. Mayb

I still find the idea of a digital wedding invitation pretty strange, because here in Hungary the bride and the fiancé invite everybody in person together. Maybe distant relatives are invited by mail or something. Is digital invitation a common thing nowadays? Or was it more common even years ago in other countries?

tptacek 8y ago
Sites for weddings in the US have been common for many years.
- gowld 8y ago
  The question was about "digital invitation", not website.
devonkim 8y ago
Nine years ago I made a wedding site with Wordpress but sent invitees either the URL or a traditional paper invitation for those that appreciate that touch. When everyone is around the country or even several other countries it would be impractical to visit everyone in person. We didn’t have much money and financed the wedding entirely ourselves so this was necessary as well.
numbers 8y ago
Yes, sites are the best way to get information for weddings IMO. What we did was: send out an invitation and it had the date + website (no other info) so people HAD to go on the website to get that information. I love the idea of the couple inviting everyone in person, I would've loved to do that too. We invited close family and friends so would've been obvious.
- WestCoastJustin 8y ago
  We did the same. Paper + only date & website link. Worked out awesome. Then you can update the site as people ask questions or need more detailed info, etc.
kcorbitt 8y ago
Interesting! I assume most of the invitees live locally then? My wife and I sent invitations to friends and family in 6 countries on 3 continents, so inviting everyone in person would have been impractical. We didn't expect eg. her extended family in Chile to actually show up, but we wanted to formally invite them anyway so they would know we were thinking of them. We did actually have attendees from two continents and four countries though.
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organsnyder 8y ago
The tradition for many in the US (in my experience, at least—it's far from universal, of course) is that the paper invitation is considered "official"—often even more-so than an in-person invite. In-person invites are still welcome, of course, but they're often seen as informal. Since a mailed invitation is already considered by many to be the most formal route, it makes sense that electronic invites have gained popularity—especially for those looking to save money (printing fancy invitations and mailing them easily costs hundreds of dollars). When I got married in 2006, we sent paper invitations with postage-paid RSVP response cards. They were custom-printed by a local printer. Between printing and postage costs, we must have spent over $500 on invitations alone. This was for a very traditional wedding in Michigan.
- Spivak 8y ago
  Not kidding. And once a print shop catches a whiff that it's for a wedding the price goes waaaaay up. We're doing digital invites by default and paper invites for family that who would get frustrated trying to use one. Cheaper, better for the environment, most people think it's neat, and it's a fun project.
bronco21016 8y ago
As others have said, in the US the formal paper invite is considered official. When my wife and I married we still did this but we encouraged people to RSVP via the website or email. No sense in sending more paper. It’s sad to me that we felt so pressured to do the paper invites. They’re ridiculously overpriced and all of that paper and emissions for delivery for something that can easily be delivered electronically and instantly for near zero cost. The entire wedding industry thrives on norms like these and it’s amazing to me that technology doesn’t displace more aspects.
- dylan604 8y ago
  How do you let people know about the website? Social media posts? How do you contact people not on social media about the website? A mailer? A phone call/text? These are just questions I would ask to understand why paper invitations are still a thing. Rather than providing a self addressed stamped envelope for the RSVP, just put the website into it. Also, people love to hang things like invitations on their fridge as a constant reminder of an event that's somewhat far into the future. Rarely is that something printed off of a website, but a card received in the mail will pretty much get placed there straight away (or maybe after sitting on the counter for a period of time).
  - jmiserez 8y ago
    Do you have the current postal mailing adresses of all of your friends? I certainly don't, so I'd have to call them or write them on social media first just to get the address.
  - davidcbc 8y ago
    > How do you let people know about the website? Social media posts? How do you contact people not on social media about the website? A mailer? A phone call/text? Someone should invent some kind of electronic mail for these things! > Also, people love to hang things like invitations on their fridge as a constant reminder of an event that's somewhat far into the future. Rarely is that something printed off of a website, but a card received in the mail will pretty much get placed there straight away (or maybe after sitting on the counter for a period of time). My wife and I did email invitations because we didn't consider it worth $500 for someone to have something to stick on their fridge. We were able to automatically send an email reminder a week or two ahead of time instead.
davedx 8y ago
We sent very carefully hand-crafted invitations to all our guests in the mail. We did a wedding website to get the RSVP's, as we live in a different country to many of our guests so postal RSVP's would have been difficult (we sometimes have issues receiving mail here). The website was also a great information point on how to get to our venue. So basically a bit of old and a bit of new. It worked well :)

tptacek 8y ago

Sites for weddings in the US have been common for many years.

gowld 8y ago
The question was about "digital invitation", not website.

devonkim 8y ago

Nine years ago I made a wedding site with Wordpress but sent invitees either the URL or a traditional paper invitation for those that appreciate that touch. When everyone is around the country or even several other countries it would be impractical to visit everyone in person. We didn’t have much money and financed the wedding entirely ourselves so this was necessary as well.

numbers 8y ago

Yes, sites are the best way to get information for weddings IMO. What we did was: send out an invitation and it had the date + website (no other info) so people HAD to go on the website to get that information. I love the idea of the couple inviting everyone in person, I would've loved to do that too. We invited close family and friends so would've been obvious.

WestCoastJustin 8y ago
We did the same. Paper + only date & website link. Worked out awesome. Then you can update the site as people ask questions or need more detailed info, etc.

kcorbitt 8y ago

Interesting! I assume most of the invitees live locally then? My wife and I sent invitations to friends and family in 6 countries on 3 continents, so inviting everyone in person would have been impractical. We didn't expect eg. her extended family in Chile to actually show up, but we wanted to formally invite them anyway so they would know we were thinking of them. We did actually have attendees from two continents and four countries though.

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organsnyder 8y ago

The tradition for many in the US (in my experience, at least—it's far from universal, of course) is that the paper invitation is considered "official"—often even more-so than an in-person invite. In-person invites are still welcome, of course, but they're often seen as informal. Since a mailed invitation is already considered by many to be the most formal route, it makes sense that electronic invites have gained popularity—especially for those looking to save money (printing fancy invitations and mailing them easily costs hundreds of dollars). When I got married in 2006, we sent paper invitations with postage-paid RSVP response cards. They were custom-printed by a local printer. Between printing and postage costs, we must have spent over $500 on invitations alone. This was for a very traditional wedding in Michigan.

Spivak 8y ago
Not kidding. And once a print shop catches a whiff that it's for a wedding the price goes waaaaay up. We're doing digital invites by default and paper invites for family that who would get frustrated trying to use one. Cheaper, better for the environment, most people think it's neat, and it's a fun project.

bronco21016 8y ago

As others have said, in the US the formal paper invite is considered official. When my wife and I married we still did this but we encouraged people to RSVP via the website or email. No sense in sending more paper. It’s sad to me that we felt so pressured to do the paper invites. They’re ridiculously overpriced and all of that paper and emissions for delivery for something that can easily be delivered electronically and instantly for near zero cost. The entire wedding industry thrives on norms like these and it’s amazing to me that technology doesn’t displace more aspects.

dylan604 8y ago
How do you let people know about the website? Social media posts? How do you contact people not on social media about the website? A mailer? A phone call/text? These are just questions I would ask to understand why paper invitations are still a thing. Rather than providing a self addressed stamped envelope for the RSVP, just put the website into it. Also, people love to hang things like invitations on their fridge as a constant reminder of an event that's somewhat far into the future. Rarely is that something printed off of a website, but a card received in the mail will pretty much get placed there straight away (or maybe after sitting on the counter for a period of time).
- jmiserez 8y ago
  Do you have the current postal mailing adresses of all of your friends? I certainly don't, so I'd have to call them or write them on social media first just to get the address.
- davidcbc 8y ago
  > How do you let people know about the website? Social media posts? How do you contact people not on social media about the website? A mailer? A phone call/text? Someone should invent some kind of electronic mail for these things! > Also, people love to hang things like invitations on their fridge as a constant reminder of an event that's somewhat far into the future. Rarely is that something printed off of a website, but a card received in the mail will pretty much get placed there straight away (or maybe after sitting on the counter for a period of time). My wife and I did email invitations because we didn't consider it worth $500 for someone to have something to stick on their fridge. We were able to automatically send an email reminder a week or two ahead of time instead.

davedx 8y ago

We sent very carefully hand-crafted invitations to all our guests in the mail. We did a wedding website to get the RSVP's, as we live in a different country to many of our guests so postal RSVP's would have been difficult (we sometimes have issues receiving mail here). The website was also a great information point on how to get to our venue. So basically a bit of old and a bit of new. It worked well :)