Digital invitation: where to order one for your wedding

Sunday morning, coffee going cold, three quotes open on your laptop: a designer, a print shop, and a website that hands you the editor. None of them lists the same things, so the totals don't line up and the cheapest one usually isn't. You can lose a fortnight to this. Or you can open the catalogue, pick a design, type in the names and the date, and send a digital invitation the same morning for €29.99 — one payment, no subscription, every scene of the design unlocked when you buy. If you'd rather compare first, the rest of this is about how to work out where to order wedding invitations without paying for things nobody will use.

Four questions do most of the work. Ask them in the same order to a designer, a print shop and a platform, and the quotes finally sit side by side instead of in three different shapes.

Where to order wedding invitations: four questions that settle the budget

Nobody prices the same job twice, so pin these down before you look at a figure.

• Who signs the design. A designer charges for the proposal and for the rounds of changes that come after it. A print shop charges for the plate, the paper and the proof. A platform gives you the editor and you write the wording yourself, which is why the number looks different.
• What the proof includes. Ask to see it on screen before you approve anything. On paper, a correction is another proof and another delivery. On a link, it's a typo you fix in a text field.
• What happens if the hour or the venue moves. With paper you reprint and call everyone again. With a link, guests open the same address and read the corrected version — the address itself never changes.
• How many sends are in the price. A tracked envelope to the other side of the country doesn't cost what one posted across town does, and that line rarely appears in the first quote you get.

Digital invitation vs designer vs print shop: what you actually buy

From a designer you buy a project: meetings, several rounds of changes and, if you want it, an illustration of the courtyard where you're having dinner, drawn by hand. From a print shop you buy paper, ink and transport. The design usually starts as a template, the bill climbs with every proof, envelope and courier, and a moved date means a reprint. Both make sense if you want something to hold on to. Digital invitations are a different purchase.

From a platform you buy the page and edit it yourself. At Send The Joy that's €29.99, paid once, no subscription, and buying unlocks every scene of the design you picked, not just the cover. You fill in the label, the names, the date, the line underneath and the place, with a character counter and a preview that updates as you type. You can add up to six photos of your own, choose which one goes on the cover and swap any of them later. It's a page in a browser, so guests open it without installing anything, and the site runs in seven languages.

Compare quotes on what a change costs you six weeks later, not on the design fee.

Free to try: edit the cover, then decide

In trial mode you edit the cover without paying anything and see it the way your guests will see it on a phone. If the invitation already handles the hour, the map and the confirmations — those arrive in an ordered list inside the page, with the RSVP questions you set — then you've skipped the proofs, the envelopes and the reprint. Buy it when the cover looks right, unlock the rest of the scenes, and send the link.