Custom Invitation Envelopes
Custom invitation envelopes from 100 — outer envelopes, printed liners and laser-cut pocket folds sized to your invitation suite, in colored and textured papers that match the card.
The first part of the invitation a guest actually sees
- Paper
- Smooth white and ivory, cotton-textured, metallic shimmer and deep-color envelope papers
- Sizes
- A7, A9, A2 and square 6½ in.; inner envelopes and custom sizes to your suite
- Flap
- Euro or square flap; gummed or peel-and-seal
Order online
Order invitation envelopes
Starting from $0.75 per unit
Printed to your artwork or plain, sold in runs of 100 up to 5,000 units per product online. Freight to the US, UK, Canada and Australia is inside the price.
How an online order runs
- Add the units you needThen check out with your delivery address. Add other products to the same order on the way.
- A digital proof comes backLaid on the dieline, before anything prints. Change it as often as you need.
- Pay once you approve itPay by PayPal invoice or bank transfer after you approve your digital proof, or cash on delivery in the US and Canada.
- We make it and ship it deliveredYour delivery date is confirmed with the proof, against the spec and your fill date. Freight and customs are handled on the way to you.
Another size, board or finish, or more than 5,000 units? Send the spec for a price instead. Freight by market and our terms cover delivery and remakes.
Get a price for Invitation Envelopes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Sized to the invitation suite, not the other way round
Send us the finished size and thickness of the whole suite, with every insert stacked. A stack with an RSVP card, a details card and a ribbon is thicker than people expect, and the envelope is sized to that stack rather than to the invitation alone.
| A7 (5¼ × 7¼ in.) | The most common wedding size; holds a 5 × 7 in. invitation |
|---|---|
| A9 (5¾ × 8¾ in.) | Larger formal suites and invitations with a pocket fold |
| Square 6½ in. | Modern square invitations; check the postage surcharge first |
| A2 (4.375 × 5.75 in.) | RSVP cards and thank-you notes inside the main envelope |
| Inner envelope | An unsealed second envelope for traditional formal suites |
Flaps, liners and pockets
- Euro flap. A deep, gently pointed flap; the classic wedding shape.
- Square flap. Straight across, cleaner and more contemporary.
- Printed liner. A pattern, a monogram or a venue illustration glued inside the flap, seen the moment it is opened.
- Laser-cut pocket. A die-cut lace or geometric sleeve that wraps the invitation itself, often posted inside a plain outer envelope.
Paper that matches the card
The most common mistake with invitations is an envelope that is a shade off the card. We make the envelope from the same family of paper where possible, or match the color from a printed sample. Smooth white and ivory, cotton-textured stocks, metallic shimmer papers and deep colors such as navy, forest green and burgundy are all available. Deep colors look rich but need a white or metallic address print, because black ink disappears on them.
The cards themselves are on our printed wedding invitation cards page, made so the two can be ordered together and checked against each other.
Printing the guest addresses
Each envelope can be printed with its guest’s name and address from your spreadsheet, in a typeface that matches the invitation. This is variable-data digital printing, so every envelope is different without a setup cost per name. The return address goes on the back flap, where it is expected on formal mail. For couples who want the look of hand lettering, a script font in white or gold on a dark envelope is the closest printed alternative.
Send the address list early and check it twice. A typo printed on a numbered guest envelope means reprinting that one envelope, which is easy; finding it after posting is not.
Postage and how invitations travel
- In the US a square envelope, or one made rigid or lumpy by a seal or a ribbon, pays a non-machinable surcharge; budget for it.
- Wax seals, ribbons and buttons add thickness and can be hand-canceled at the post office.
- A card stiffener behind a pocket fold keeps corners sharp in the mail.
- For guests abroad, a slightly heavier envelope paper resists scuffing through more sorting stages.
Planning the envelope order with the guest list
An invitation order is set by the guest list, not by the number of guests. A couple or a family at one address gets one invitation and one envelope, so a list of two hundred guests is often around a hundred and twenty envelopes. Count households, then add a margin for late additions, an address change and the one envelope that gets a coffee ring on it at the kitchen table.
If the envelopes are being printed with addresses, the margin should be blank envelopes in the same paper rather than more printed ones. Blank spares can be hand-addressed for anyone added after the print run, and they match the printed envelopes exactly because they come from the same sheets.
Invitation Envelopes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Paper
- Smooth white and ivory, cotton-textured, metallic shimmer and deep-color envelope papers
- Sizes
- A7, A9, A2 and square 6½ in.; inner envelopes and custom sizes to your suite
- Flap
- Euro or square flap; gummed or peel-and-seal
- Extras
- Printed liners, laser-cut pocket sleeves, card stiffeners
- Variable guest addressing, return address on the flap, white and metallic inks on dark paper
- Minimum
- 100 invitation envelopes per size
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. Both sides as standard on cards, tags and leaflets.
- Color
- CMYK with spot colors for a brand match. Uncoated and cotton stocks print noticeably lighter than coated ones.
- Tolerance
- Trim plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut. Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding.
- Tooling
- A die only where the piece is shaped, perforated or drilled, made once and kept. A plain rectangle needs none.
- Food contact
- Food-safe inks on menus and counter print that will be handled where food is served.
- Sustainability
- Uncoated and unlaminated stocks recycle without separation, and FSC papers are available across the range.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build invitation envelopes on
Sheet print is judged in the hand more than a box is: the weight, the surface and whether a pen works on it. These are the stocks we run for cards, folders, leaflets and stationery.
Coated card 300–400gsm
The workhorse. Sharp full-color print, matte or gloss, laminated where it is handled. Does not take a pen unless the finish is matte.
300–400gsmUncoated card
No clay coat. Colors read softer and warmer, a deboss goes deeper, and it writes on with anything. Photographs lose punch.
300–400gsmCotton and textured card
Soft, thick and fibrous. Takes a deep blind deboss and reads as an invitation. Foil sits beautifully; four-color does not.
400–700gsmDuplexed card
Two sheets bonded, often with a colored core, for a very thick card with a visible colored edge. The heaviest thing we print.
600–900gsmText paper 100–170gsm
Leaflets, folder inners and booklet pages. Folds without cracking and takes a full-color print on both faces.
100–170gsmManila and kraft paper
Unbleached, tan, and cheap. One or two colors read well; white ink gives a light mark. Envelopes, folders and tags.
90–300gsmSynthetic stock
Polypropylene sheet for tags and cards that get wet, torn or handled outdoors. Prints like paper and does not soften.
200–400 micronBoard-backed
A printed face laminated to grayboard, for a rigid card, a folder back or a display that has to stand up on its own.
1–2 mm boardNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Sheet print takes the widest range of finishes of anything we make.
Matte lamination
Soft, fingerprint-resistant, and it still takes a pen. The default on anything handled.
Gloss lamination
Maximum color depth. Shows every fingerprint and refuses a ballpoint.
Hot foil
Gold, rose gold, silver, holographic or a color. The block is small so the die is cheap.
Emboss and deboss
Deepest on uncoated and cotton stocks; shallow and prone to cracking on gloss coated.
Spot UV
A gloss shape on a matte laminate. Best on a dark ground where the contrast reads.
Edge paint and colored core
Color on the cut edge of a thick or duplexed card. Only seen when the card is picked up, which is the point.
Soft-touch
A velvet laminate on a cover or a folder. Marks on white; excellent on dark.
Uncoated and textured
No film at all. Writes on, debosses deeply, and reads as considered rather than cheap.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing printed sheets, folds and the grain: invitation envelopes
A printed piece is specified flat and finished folded, and the difference between the two is where mistakes live. Send the finished size you want and we work back to the flat.
- Finished size
- The size after folding and trimming. A6, A5, A4, DL, US letter and legal are standard; anything else is cut on its own die.
- Bleed and safe area
- 3 mm of artwork past every trim edge, and nothing important within 4 mm inside it. The guillotine drifts by a fraction on every stack.
- Grain direction
- Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it. We set the grain to the fold, which is why a sheet is not simply cut from the biggest sheet available.
- Fold allowance
- On a roll fold or a gate fold, the inner panels are cut a millimeter or two shorter so the piece closes flat.
- Creasing
- Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding. Without it the fold cracks and the coating flakes along the line.
- Trim tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Spec your Invitation Envelopes
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a stock and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about invitation envelopes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What size envelope does a 5 × 7 invitation need?
An A7 invitation envelope, which measures 5¼ × 7¼ in. If the suite includes several inserts or a pocket fold, we size up to fit the full stack.
Can you print guest names and addresses on invitation envelopes?
Yes. We print each envelope from your address spreadsheet, so every guest’s envelope is personalized without a separate setup per name.
What is an envelope liner on an invitation envelope?
A printed sheet glued inside the envelope and its flap. It shows a pattern, monogram or illustration as soon as the guest opens it.
Do square invitation envelopes cost more to mail?
In the US they usually do. Square envelopes are non-machinable, so the post office adds a surcharge to each one.
Can invitation envelopes match the color of the card?
Yes. We choose envelope paper from the same family as the card, or match the color from a printed sample you send.
What ink works on dark invitation envelopes?
White or metallic ink. Black ink barely shows on navy, forest green or burgundy paper, so addresses go in white, gold or silver.
What is a laser-cut pocket for an invitation?
A die-cut sleeve in a lace or geometric pattern that wraps the invitation card. It is usually posted inside a plain outer envelope.
Do I need an inner envelope for my invitations?
Only for a traditional formal suite. The inner envelope is unsealed and carries the guests’ names inside the addressed outer one.
Can invitation envelopes have a wax seal?
Yes, but a seal adds thickness. Ask the post office to hand-cancel them so the seal is not crushed by the sorting machines.
Do you make RSVP envelopes to match the invitation envelopes?
Yes. A2 RSVP envelopes are made in the same paper and print, and can carry your return address on the front.
What is the minimum order for invitation envelopes?
One hundred per size. A wedding usually orders outer envelopes and RSVP envelopes as two sizes in one order.
How many invitation envelopes should I order for my guest list?
Count households rather than guests, then add a margin of blank envelopes in the same paper for late additions and mistakes.
Same range
