Minted vs. Semi-Custom Wedding Invitations

As we all know, ordering online can be a risky business! And that’s never truer than when it comes to your wedding invitations. You hope the image on your screen translates into high-quality invitations with rich, accurate colors. But there’s no way of knowing until said invitations have arrived on your doorstep—and there’s no time remaining to tweak the design, should it fall short (or correct those pesky typos!).

We offer a different experience with our collections of semi-custom wedding invitations. From proofing to printing, we’re meticulous about ensuring your design is perfect. On-demand printers like Minted and Zola promise speed and convenience but aren’t the right choice for every couple. Read on to discover the primary differences between Minted vs. semi-custom and find the approach that best suits your needs!

The Christina Collection of semi-custom wedding invitations by Invited by LamaWorks

Minted vs. Semi-Custom Wedding Invitations: How Are They Different?

Generally, on-demand and semi-custom wedding invitations have three big differences: speed, variety, and flexibility.

Speed: With on-demand printers like Minted and Zola, you select your preferred design, input basic information to tweak the wording, and then send it to print. Within two to four business days, your invitations will be hot off the press and on their way to your doorstep. While the printing process is fast and hands-off, you must take care of any design edits that arise.

Semi-custom invitations will take slightly longer, depending on how many revisions we make (we offer unlimited rounds of complimentary proofs!). However, because of the proofing process, you can feel complete confidence in the design before seeing it in person. This ensures zero delay before getting your invitations into the mail and your guests’ hands!

Variety: While on-demand printers usually offer a decent array of paper options, they won’t have as many envelope options as a semi-custom designer. For example, special touches like an envelope liner may not be available in your preferred design (and won’t include custom details like a wedding crest!).

In addition, Minted and Zola offer a more limited range of fonts and ink colors. For example, you won’t be able to use glyphs to customize a font with extra loops or tweak the ink color so it matches your other wedding details perfectly. But with a semi-custom designer’s professional software, the sky’s the limit! We can use precise color-matching and find a font that closely resembles your inspo images to bring your dream invitations to life.

Flexibility: As a designer at Zola, I know how their designs work and can tell you that each new design comes in four colorways. You can customize the text color, but other design details (like floral illustrations or a venue sketch) can’t be changed. Conversely, you can adjust the design of a semi-custom invitation until it fits your unique celebration. You can even include fully custom details like a wedding crest, monogram, venue, or pet illustration—we’ll put you in touch with the artist who can make it happen!

Bride holding a bouquet filled with pink and white roses and blue delphinium

Designing a Semi-Custom Wedding Invitation With Us

A few more differences set the Invited by LamaWorks experience apart. We aren’t just here to fulfill your order—we’ll provide personalized advice on wording, setting an RSVP date, and anything else you may need. We also employ an in-house proofreader who acts as a second set of eyes on every order before it goes to print, for your peace of mind and ours. She’ll ensure correct spelling and punctuation, plus verify that your website link works!

In addition, we have experience working with various print colors and can predict how your chosen colors will turn out. Did you know that blue—a popular wedding color—is difficult to print? Unless you input the correct ratio of blue to red, your invitation may print with purple undertones, even though it looks blue onscreen. We ensure you avoid this time-consuming (and costly!) setback with years of accumulated industry knowledge. Every order also comes to us before shipping to our clients. So, if something doesn’t go right, we deal with it for you—no need to stress!

Minted vs. Semi-Custom Wedding Invitations: Which Is Right For You?

On-demand printers like Minted and Zola are popular for a reason. While we can’t recommend their services to every couple, they may be the right choice for you if:

You’re on a tight budget
You need invitations fast
You only need a small number of invitations (this will save you $!)

However, keep in mind that you get what you pay for. It hurts our hearts when we receive invitations for a black-tie wedding printed on cheap paper and with typos! You want your invitations to reflect what’s to come. And while on-demand printers excel at speedy service, you won’t know what you’re getting until the finished product arrives on your doorstep. Should it fall short of your expectations, you need to budget more time for shipping those invitations back, communicating with the printer to fix the error, and waiting for the corrected shipment to arrive.

When you order on-demand or “DIY” invitations, you also sacrifice having an industry professional’s knowledge to guide you along. You don’t know what you don’t know—whether it’s the correct spacing to ensure none of your text is cut off, the proper software to use to print letterpress invitations, the optimal paper weight for a formal invitation, and the list goes on! Semi-custom wedding invitations are your best bet for quality assurance, minus the hefty price tag and time commitment of commissioning a fully custom design.

Comparing Minted and semi-custom wedding invitations

Order Semi-Custom Wedding Invitations

We may be biased, but we believe semi-custom wedding invitations offer the best of both worlds! You get the uniqueness of a custom invitation blended with the affordability of on-demand invitations. Are you ready to order semi-custom wedding invitations from Invited by LamaWorks? Start by browsing our collections to find your favorite design. Or, drop us a line to schedule a consultation! We can’t wait to work with you to bring your vision to life.