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Hi...I was just wondering what I should charge for wedding invitations. Last year, I made some for one of my dearest friends and as it was my gift to her, I didn't charge her anything. This year, two of my co-workers have asked me to make their invitations. They will each pay for supplies and then a fee for my time, but I have no idea what to charge. I typically charge $2.50 for cards that I make but for 200 wedding invitations this gets REALLY expensive!! I know it is still a reasonable cost for handmade invitations, but I'm hoping to get the exposure from these 200 people she is sending these cards out to and maybe get future customers. Any suggestions?
It of course will depend on the complexity of the invitations, but in the past, I have charged up to $2.50/invitation. Just depends on how much time/effort is involved. You NEVER want to short change yourself, or people will not see the true value in them! HTH
Let me "second" calgramma! I baked scratch cakes and decorated them laboriously. Even though they took hours I very rarely charged people what they were worth, for a reason similiar to yours - I wanted future customers. But please consider, its not the pricetag, but the quality of the work people will look at. Charge what is truly fair (decide on a fair hourly rate, figure out how many you can realistically make in one hour - including design time, add on material expenses, then divide by the number made). Handmade invites are worth every penny paid! I would suggest you go look at some of the printer's invite books. You'll quickly understand that $2.50 for a handmade invitation is a STEAL, and charge more!! If today's greeting cards, made by machines by the thousands, are worth upwards of $4.00 apiece then surely your handmade, and uniquely designed, ones are worth that, too! Smiles -Melissa
I agree with what Melissa said. Don't sell yourself short. I was asked by my DIL's mother to make invitations for a
50th Wedding Anniversary celebration. I went on some websites and looked at what it would cost to order invitations. Many of them were not elaborate at all, and they cost quite a bit.
I ended up charging $3.00 per invitation, plus the cost of materials. She was very pleased and said everyone at the party raved about the invitations. Mine were pretty simple but elegant. I used a white cardstock Cuttlebug embossed front in the DVine swirl pattern and good quality gold cardstock and ribbon, for the Golden Anniversary. The text inside was computer generated in a beautiful font.
Actually, $2.50 an invitation isn't expensive for wedding invitations. I've worked in the wedding industry for a little over 5 years and on average the cost is between $5 and $8 per invitation in most boutiques. That price includes a response card and envelope, reception cards, and the return address printed on the outer envelopes, but it is also the average for a very simple design (1 layer, 1 color printing, very little graphic manipulation). When you start to get into layers and ribbons and embossing that price generally increases exponentially. The most expensive invitation I've ever designed landed somewhere in the $30 per invite range. It was incredibly over the top, but that's what the customer wanted (and that's what she paid for).
So just remember to value yourself and your time and be confident (but not pushy). Often, the impression you give to a client can make all the difference as to whether or not someone is willing to pay for your services. Good luck!
It all depends on the design and labor involved. I did a 50th anniversary that had multi-layers, metallic cardstock, heat embossing, Swarovski crystals, stamping, velvet ribbon, and a photo. With response cards, directions, accomodations, envelopes etc. I charged about $10 each.
As sort of a guideline, I figure $1 per layer plus 50 cents for each embellishment. The cost of materials is the cheap part. The cost of your time and labor is the expensive part. I figure I'm worth $20-$25 an hour.
Of course all of this depends on where you live and what type of clientele you have or want to get. The people I deal with don't even ask me the price up front. I find out the party details and then design 2 or 3 invites and they choose from these. After they have chosen an invite, is usually when they remember to ask how much it cost. They rarely blink at what I say. Sometimes, if I've created a card that I know is time consuming, I will put a high price on it, just because I don't want them to choose that one. They usually do anyway!
The invitation I'm working on right now for a 50th anniversary is a tri-fold with a belly band that has a photo on it and two Swarovski crystals. I'm charging $6.50 for the invite and envelope, $1.00 for the response card and envelope, and 50 cents for the accomodations/directions card. If I have to print any return addresses on the envelopes, it's 25 cents per envelope. Printing envelopes is very time consuming for me, because with my laser printer I have to feed them though one at a time.
Like previous posters have said, don't sell yourself short. Just because something is handmade, doesn't mean it is "cheap".
How much to charge for wedding invitations?
