Do you keep wedding invites?

thesummersky · May 2014

We have $300 budgeted for invites (50 households) with the idea that we'll have a lovely crafter from Etsy make them. I love invitations and cards, and have turned most that I've received for at least 3 years into wall art. FI throws cards away almost immediately, and said he doesn't care much what they look like.

So I'm wondering - do you guys keep wedding invites after the wedding is over? If most don't, I'm wondering if we should just go the less expensive, buy-a-digital-file-and-print-at-Kinkos-or-something route which may cost a third of what we'd budgeted.

Thanks!

labro · May 2014

I've kept the ones that I've received so far. Part of the reason was the bat-shit-crazy not-engaged person inside of me wanting to keep them for future inspiration (ended up not even looking at them before ordering my own) but it was mostly for sentimental reasons. I don't really pull them out to look at them but I've kept them all for memories sake.

HisGirlFriday13 · May 2014

Nope. Other than my own, I have exactly ZERO wedding invites, other than the one on my fridge for the wedding in two weeks.

I'll be honest -- we spent less than $300 on printing and mailing our 76 STDates and our 76 wedding invitations and the stamps for our RSVP cards and our RSVP cards themselves and the stamps for the TY cards and the TY cards themselves and the paper for the programmes and the paper for our table letters.

I'm sure the etsy ones would be lovely, but after the wedding, I think 99.99% of people chuck wedding invites.

theartistformerlyknownas · May 2014

I do, but I'm sentimental like that. I stick everything like that (invitations, thank you cards, baby announcements, etc.) up on a bulletin board, and if we're really close and I have other pictures from the wedding, it'll eventually go into my scrapbook. I don't expect anyone to save mine though.

Regardless of whether you think people will keep them or not, your invitation should dictate the formality of your event. If you're having a fancypants evening reception with passed hors d'oeuvres and a string quartet, you probably won't want tear-and-send invitations printed at Kinkos because people may show up underdressed and be embarrassed. If it's a backyard BBQ, that's totally OK for them to be less formal.

emmyg65 · May 2014

Nope, not even my own.

beachyone15 · May 2014

Oh I keep everything, especially invitations and handwritten cards (my favorite).

Alikat9614 · May 2014

Once the event is done, into the trash it goes! As for cards and TY notes, I might keep them for awhile, but usually they end up in the trash, too. Our StD budget plus invites, reception cards, response cards, and TY notes was around $175 for about 80 of each.

Jen4948 · May 2014

I don't. Once the wedding is over, then I don't need the invitation anymore, not even as a keepsake. My true keepsake is my memories of the event itself.

tammym1001 · May 2014

I keep wedding invites for people that I'm really close to.

AddieCake · May 2014

Nope.

manateehugger · May 2014

Nope. It stays on the fridge until after the wedding, and then it moves to the trash.

We'd have a big box full of them if we kept all the wedding invitations we get.

I'd look for a happy medium; I poked around on Etsy, Invitations by Dawn, and Wedding Paper Divas until I found a style and sale I could live with. In the end, other things just mattered more.

kmmssg · May 2014

We are a "stays on the fridge til it happens" bunch here. What would I do with other people's invitations after the wedding? That just junks up the house and DH does a fine job of that all on his own. The only ones I have is one from my last wedding and one from each of our 4 girls (and that is because I made them all). Invitations go in the trash the overwhelming majority of the time, just like those napkins with your names on them. DD said she wasn't spending anymore than she had to for things that were destined for the trash quickly.

lyndausvi · May 2014

never. I can't even remember if I kept my own.

ShesSoCold · May 2014

I don't keep 'em.

At first I had similar thoughts, OP. I wanted these gorgeous grand pocket invitations and blah blah blah. I found much better things to spend my money on and bought templates on etsy for $42 and then $35 for a local printing company to print them.

Cookie Pusher · May 2014

I only saved the ones from my closest friends where I have pictures of us together at the wedding. Those are going into FI and my scrapbook of our time together. So over the course of 12+ years, that means I have 3 or 4. If we're not close to you, I won't keep the invitation even if I have kickass pictures of us at your wedding.

mrs4everhart · May 2014

Very, very few. Most go in the trash after the date is marked on the calendar and I'm tired of moving it from place to place trying to convince myself enough time has elapsed that it's not completely bitchy to ditch it. Much like the Christmas cards with pictures of people's children.

Maggie0829 · May 2014

I keep them until the event is over with then they go into the trash. I did use one invite to make a Christmas ornament for one couple but other then that they got thrown out.

I kept one of mine because I felt like it.

I cannot recall, nor do I really care, what anyone's invites looked like from the 20+ weddings I have been invited to and attended.

Simky906 · May 2014

I keep them all but a) I love stationary and b) I hang on to basically all of the cards and handwritten notes I recieve. So I will probably be in the minority here.

theartistformerlyknownas · May 2014

Simky906 said:

I keep them all but a) I love stationary and b) I hang on to basically all of the cards and handwritten notes I recieve. So I will probably be in the minority here.

My mom is moving, so she brought me an old box from the back of my old closet. It had all the cards I received from my high school graduation, including one from my grandpa who passed away a few months later. That is never getting thrown away now, and I'm glad I was such a pack rat as a teenager. I'm just so grateful now to have something with his handwriting on it.

I have a handwritten card from my grandma too... she normally gave preprinted cards, but for my 15th birthday wrote, in her beautiful penmanship, "Happy birthday, dear Lori. You have such a beautiful life ahead of you." She died 8 months later, unexpectedly. It is my single most cherished possession.

Sorry for the NWR tangent.

mysticl · May 2014

We have a framed copy of our invite. The reason we have that is because my mom framed the one we sent her and gave it back to us.

I do keep invites for awhile but eventually they end up in the trash. But I do feel bad about it.

Grabows14 · May 2014

I keep them only if they were close friends or family. I am too sentimental!

atlastmrsg · May 2014

If the invite is pretty, I'll put in on my fridge until the wedding with a magnet. Like a little reminder. After the wedding, toss it.

If the invite isn't pretty, I put it in my phone and toss it immediately.

sheslikeasunburn · May 2014

I always toss after the wedding.

However, if you have the budget, I would get the invites you really want. The invite really sets the tone, and I, personally, set low expectations when an invite is cheap. I know I am not alone.

I think you should definitely keep some for yourself. I have a pretty frame with my grandparents wedding portrait and invite in it. It's beautiful and i'm so glad they saved a few!

doeydo · May 2014

I might keep them in a drawer somewhere if they were my sister`s or someone really close to me. Other than that, they go in the recycling.

thesummersky · May 2014

Thanks so much for the input, all! This has been so helpful. I'm definitely going to spend a whole lot less than previously planned, but there are still options within that range that are beautiful and do what's needed.

ejpentecost · May 2014

I think I might have saved my brother's, but if I did, it doesn't matter because I haven't looked at it in 25 years.

huskypuppy14 · May 2014

I keep all cards and invitations for weddings. I'm missing a few but i enjoyed looking at them when I was finalizing my wording.

JennyColada · May 2014

The thought never even crossed my mind, honestly.

twitterbird · May 2014

I used to keep invitations to everything, programs, etc. Then I severely purged the amount of stuff I had and threw them all out. Now the program doesn't leave the church with me and invites go in the garbage after the event has happened.