Happy Thursday, everyone! Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to my BFF, Jacki T! Since December, Jacki has been planning her wedding for this November. A few months ago we chatted blogging and I offered to let her guest post whenever she wanted. On Monday, after sending out her wedding invitations, she asked if she could rave about her experience with Minted.
Jacki has not complained about anything more than the wedding invitations over the last eight months. It is a nod to Minted that she wants to share this experience!
*Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, see site footer for more info*
P.S Ben + I used Minted invitations for our wedding reception in 2017! And I totally agree, A+ 🙂
Without further ado, Jacki-
Everything You Need to Know About Minted Wedding Invitations
In 2017, The Knot asked over 13,000 couples how much they spent on their wedding. The average cost from the couples surveyed rang out at $33,000. I thought anything above $25,000 for a wedding was extravagant, and then I planned a wedding. Today I am less than four months away from the big day and now I completely understand how we are averaging out at $33,000 for a wedding.
The wedding industry is booming!
Wedding Planning + The Most Stressful Part
Throughout this whole process, I’ve been blessed. From December until now, there hasn’t been anything too stressful. Don’t let me fool you, there have definitely been some hiccups along the way. One or two melt downs. A couple of arguments and a few, “it cost’s HOW MUCH?!” But overall, I’ve kept it together.
I have learned A LOT over the last eight months of wedding planning. The number one lesson has definitely been about the quality of vendors. I’m not just talking about vendors with heavy price tags. In the wedding industry, and really every industry, quality doesn’t necessarily mean expensive.
To me, quality means peace of mind.
Of every stage of the planning process, the wedding invitations have-hands down-been the most stressful part. I put it off for too long and opted not to do save the dates to cut costs. And, to be honest, I didn’t want to deal with any of it. Just thinking about the monumental task of sending out wedding invitations stressed me out: collecting addresses, selecting style, finding the perfect wording, deciding how to do the RSVP’s, etc.
Things got even more complicated than expected. My parents requested a very specific wording. Mike (my fiance) and I were a bit more flexible about the whole thing. Style combined with the wording request proved WAY more difficult. I looked at hundreds of THOUSANDS of invitations and a dozen different websites: Minted, VistaPrint, Shutterful, Staples, BasicInvites, the list goes on.
Nothing had exactly what we were looking for but, I eventually settled on Minted.
No, their invites didn’t have the perfect wording or the highest quality materials; what they did have was excellent customer service and free wedding website. Unlike the knot, Minted’s website doesn’t have a mile long address). I lucked out. When I say they had excellent customer service, I mean that Minted has the BEST customer experience possible.
Designing the Invitations
Mike and I settled on a style that was simple yet elegant, something that would tie into our wedding as a whole seamlessly. After arguing with my parents for weeks, my dad stepped up to the plate and requested different wording than what the invitations had originally. Minted was not only incredibly gracious and helpful in the initial conversations about placing this special request, they sent a follow-up email with detailed instructions on what we would need to do:
- Select your design and then go to edit
- Insert any special requests as detailed as possible
- Purchase your item
- A proof will be sent when the design is complete
- If you do not approve, you can either a.) change it again or b.) completely cancel the order and receive a full refund
So that is exactly what we did.
I was hesitant about making a payment at first, but Minted assured me that I would receive a full refund if the invitations were not what I wanted. In hindsight, I didn’t even need to worry. Not only did Minted get it right on the first try (despite the difficulty of giving detailed instructions in an email) but the proof was finished three days earlier than they quoted!
In addition to the wedding invites, I ended up ordering a second purchase for RSVP cards and Rehearsal Dinner invites. The second order didn’t have any special requests aside from normal name editing changes. I did, however, change the quantity order of the dinner invites twice and I changed the wording three times. That’s right, I submitted a new version for proof three times and Minted came through for me each time. Within those three proofs, I also stumbled upon an additional coupon. I reached back out to them to see if I could apply it to both orders that I had already paid for and, without any problems, I received credit back on my card for the amount of the coupon!
Minted Bonus: Free Wedding Website!
As I said earlier, ordering through Minted comes with a free, easy to navigate, wedding website. As a bonus, it was SO easy to setup. Their options are a limited but you always have the option to pay for an upgrade, which includes more pages and design options. For me, the basic website was perfect.
The best part about the Minted wedding website, for us, was the option to do multiple event RSVP. The one feature I would add is a meal selection (theKnot does this but they don’t have a simple way of doing multiple events). Because of this I spent a lot of time wording the fill-in questions box for people to select their meals. But overall, it was a really easy process and I would rather have a head count for both events and need to reach out to help anyone that is confused.
Of course, dealing with technology and websites, there was one minor issue with the web design. But Minted’s customer service was incredibly fast and very personal. I had a personal representative tracking the problem from beginning to end and a ticket-number for reference. They made it clear that my happiness and satisfaction were their number one priority and it made me feel great about the choice to work with them.
In the end, my invite, RSVP cards and Rehearsal Dinner invites arrived a week earlier than quoted, putting me back on schedule for my targeted invite-send out date. For all three pieces, 135 invites, 135 RSVPs and 35 dinner invites my total was $566.20. Everything was hand-packed and signed inside the boxes with bubble wrap and a protective seal over everything.
I’m not a blogger, endorser or anything special, but I cannot rave about my experience with Minted enough and express how satisfied I am with my invitations. While my invites might be a little more expensive than the average on theKnot survey, I still think the service and peace of mind was worth the extra money. Just because you need to go cheaper shouldn’t mean you need to sacrifice your sanity or not get what you want.
If your invitation situation looks like it’s going to be as stressful as mine was, go with Minted. Otherwise, keep looking around. What was the perfect package for me might not have what you’re looking for and there are so many options out there. Reach out to a long-lost friend about their experience, chat with a friend over coffee (or wine) and ask where their preference landed them. I cannot express the amount of gratitude I have for fellow current and past brides that have been sharing their knowledge and tips on what to do and not to do.
While my big day hasn’t happened yet, I know without a shadow of a doubt that my selected vendors will one hundred and ten percent deliver on my wedding day. If you have any questions or need help, you can find me on Instagram 🙂 Or drop a comment/email Kayla!
Remember, stay cool and stay calm. Whatever is frustrating you today won’t end the world tomorrow!
Isn’t she just the BEST?! Keep your eye out for more from Jacki, I am going to try and persuade her to write every so often 😉
Leave a Reply