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Printing Engagement Announcement Cards

resources imageGetting engaged is one of the most exciting moments in life, and the recently engaged are thrilled to share their good news with the world. Weddings can be expensive, but that doesn't mean your engagement announcement cards have to be. So, how much does it cost to print engagement announcement cards? It all depends on how you go about it.

To design or not to design

For starters, you have to decide whether you'll design your engagement announcement cards yourself or hire a designer to do them for you. If you design them yourself they'll be more personalized and it won't cost you anything but some time; if you hire the design out they'll likely be designed with a professional edge but it will cost you money. That doesn't mean that professional design will necessarily be expensive - if you can find an up-and-coming or student designer, you might be able to get it done for under $300.

Go with a professional printer

Once you have your design ready, the actual cost to print engagement announcement cards is clear. Some newlyweds choose to print their announcement cards at home on their desktop printers, but this is not the best choice. When you add up the cost of ink and paper for 200 engagement cards (about $200), it's easy to see why desktop printing doesn't make sense. Toss in the aggravation, headaches, and hassles of paper jams, tears and ink smears - not to mention poor quality, long wait times, and having to do it all over again to print on both sides - and it's a no-brainer when 200 engagement announcement cards can be professionally printed for a little more than $200.

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The cost of professional printing varies depending on the options you choose. The $200 figure above is based on 200 5-inch by 7-inch engagement announcement cards printed on 16-point gloss cover paper, paired with matching envelopes and pre-folded for convenience. Changing the size, paper stock (a 13-point  recycled matte cover stock is elegant), or quantity of your engagement announcement card run will change the price. Still, piece for piece, professional printing offers a higher-quality product at a cheaper price than desktop printing. Your printing costs are also affected by the time of year you choose to print. If you have many months to plan your wedding and formally announce your engagement, you would be wise to watch for deals on websites such as PsPrint. At the time of this writing, the online printing company was running a special for engagement announcement card printing at 50 percent off - meaning 200 cards in the specs above would go for about $105. Other options that can affect the price include foil stamping, UV coating, ordering a hard-copy proof, and having your engagement announcement cards scored but not folded. It's not as simple to say that professional announcement card printing costs around $1 per card, since as the quantity goes up the price per piece goes down. At 200 cards, your price per PsPrint's instant price quote tool is about $1 per card, but at 50 cards it's closer to $2 per card. On the other side of the spectrum, it's good to know that if you have a lot of friends it only costs about 25 cents per card if you order a run of 10,000.