The Perks Of Digital Wedding Invitations #spon

This post is sponsored by Inviter. All thoughts and opinions belong to A Bride On A Budget.

My mom has a scrapbook where she saves wedding invitations paired with wedding photos. The first time I saw the book (at least, the first time I remember seeing it) was a couple years ago. I just loved seeing the old invitations.

But I wonder how much longer her book will last, though, because cutting out invitations is one of the way couples are saving money. With invitations averaging about $5 each, I get it. It took me so long to decide on wedding invitations because I wanted ours to be perfect. And they were. They were more than I ever could have imagined.

But, honestly, who still has one? I do, and I bet my mom does in that book of hers, but everyone else probably kept it on their fridge until my wedding day, stuck it in their bag to grab the address off the GPS, and then probably threw it in the hotel room garbage that night. It kinda breaks my heart to think that's what happened with something I spent hours and weeks agonizing over, but that's the reality of it.

That's why saving on your stationery is so important. The how of it is tricky, though, because you can't just not have invitations. You can't just expect people to show up at your wedding if you don't tell them when it is. But you can still creatively save with a very modern concept: digital wedding invitations.

Hear me out for a minute.

So much of our lives are spent in the digital world. Realistically, I spend more of my day talking to my friends on Facebook than I do talking to them in real life. And as I type this, I'm scrolling through Instagram and liking photos. But, if you want a real example of how integrated we are: My 94-year-old grandma makes dubsmash videos and posts them on her Instagram.

Me and my funny daughter having fun. #video #dubsmash #dubsmashgrandma #myjapanesegrandma #myfunnygrandma #funnyvideo #laugh #stayinalive #beegees #dancing #family #life #music #song #familytime #familyfun

A video posted by @myfunnygrandma on Jan 15, 2016 at 4:51pm PST

We live in a time when our photos live on our phones not in photo books; our documents are in the cloud instead of file cabinets; and our music is in files not albums. So why not update your wedding invitations too?

Inviter is a website where you can craft video invitations. It's pretty easy -- and inexpensive. You can create an event with 100 invites for only $14.99. That's a mere 15 cents per invitation. Much more budget-friendly than $5 a piece.

So, how do you do it?

Sign up for an account and create your event, adding in your venue, time, etc.. You will need to have a video ready in order to continue, so keep that in mind. Personally, I didn't have a video of me and Pete on my phone. Weird, right? The only video I had handy was one of my cat, Totes McGotes, trying to break into a room I was hiding in. This is my life, people.

If you don't have a video either, that's okay. There are free apps that will use your pictures to create a slideshow.

After you get the video uploaded, you can edit the layout of your invitation template and your guest page. You can customize them to incorporate your wedding colors, which is fun. You can then share via social media or by adding your guests' email addresses.

Which means you would have to get their emails. Yes, a slight bother, perhaps, but the perks of digital wedding invitations far outweigh the bothers.

The Perks Of Digital Wedding Invitations

Eco-Friendly

Paper invitations can be a lot of paper. There are invitations and envelopes, RSVP cards and envelopes, then additional inserts (like directions, maps, hotel information, and more). That ends up in the trash (unless it's me throwing it away; then it ends up in the recycle bin). Still, though, intangible invitations means no garbage.

Easy Access

Have you ever been on your way to a wedding and then realized you left the invitation at home? You have to text or call someone to get the name of the venue and the time of the reception. What a pain. If you sent digital invitations, your guests would just pull up the email on their phone and all your wedding invitation would be at their fingerprints.

Posterity

If you send a paper invitation and someone throws it out, it's gone. But if they save the link to your wedding invitation, they can look at it whenever they want. Sure, that sounds unnecessary now but in a couple years when you're feeling nostalgic, it'll be nice to have.

Easy RSVP's
It's really a bit of a pain to keep track of the RSVP's. We made a spreadsheet and I updated it all the time, but then we ended up calling and texting people to track them down after the deadline. With digital invitations come digital RSVP's. You can track them in the site and then send your friends a little reminder when the RSVP date rolls around.

Savings

A big part of why digital wedding invitations are so alluring is the cost factor. If you remember my math from above, 100 digital invitations will cost you $14.99 at Inviter while an average of $5 an invitation means $500 for 100. So you're saving $485. There are so many other things you can spend that $485 on: wedding favors, your cake, shoes, wedding welcome bags ... 

Speaking of savings, you're in luck. Inviter is giving A Bride On A Budget readers 20% off with the code IVTNSUPR. The code is valid until June 31, 2016. Be sure to check out all the pricing here. And, you can see an example of an Inviter invitation here.

And, if you're curious, you can see my invitation to our imaginary wedding part two (and the video of Totes) here.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What other perks of digital wedding invitations can you think of?