21 Gorgeous Gold Foil Printed Wedding Invitations
Question: What happens when you apply gold foil onto a wedding invitation?
Answer: You get optimum lux that takes a ho-hum invite from everyday mail to something that makes one think of gold, wealth, and royalty!
Combine gold leaf with a beautiful personalized design to create a wedding invitation that each guest will distinctly remember.
Andrew and I got married at an early 20th century mansion in Vancouver. Naturally, we chaose a roaring twenties theme with gold accents. So, when we stumbled upon Minted’s Foxtrot gold foil wedding invitation, we knew we’d found the wedding invite for us.
(Updated 2020 – Sadly foxtrot invite is no longer available. However, Minted still has a ton of other amazing gold foil invite designs!)
Thick, foil-pressed, luxurious, and exuding a 1920’s style. It makes my stationery meter register a 10 out of 10 just thinking about it. After all, truly well done stationery is like a cherished piece of art that could be hung on a wall.
What is Foil Stamping?
Foil stamping is a specific type of printing process. In the simplest form it involves three things: foil material, heated metal dies (aka plates), and pressure. The end result is a luxurious, slight indentation effect in the form of your design that adds a little glitz to whatever surface you apply the foil.
What about price?
We’ve gotta be honest, foil stamping can be an extravagant printing method, which means the price can fluctuate greatly depending on the invitation design and paper type. You could spend $1,000 or more on foil stamped stationery.
With that in mind, we’ll look at the exact process of what goes into a gold foil invite, the different pricing you will come across, along with pros and cons. Of course, afterwards we’ll take a peek at some pretty gold foil invites that we found on our hunt for gold foil invites.
The foil printing process is a beautiful way to really impress guests with an elegant, luxurious wedding invite.
The Gold Foil Printing Process
In this article we’ll talk about gold foil. When it comes to foil color options, there is no shortage of additional variety such as copper, silver, white, red, green, and blues. Furthermore, there are wonderful finishes like matte or holographic. The end result is similar to that of letterpress in that the pressure it takes to transfer the color onto the paper will leave a faint indentation behind.
Foil stationery requires heavier, high quality paper to withstand the indentation of the print, much like letterpress.
Foil stamping is a specialty printing process that is considered a ‘dry’ technique because there is no actual ink required within the process.
Once the design of the invitation is agreed upon, your design will be put onto a custom made die (i.e., metal plate features the raised reversed image of your design). When the metal die is ready to go to print, the chosen foil color is positioned between the paper receiving the foil and the heated metal die. Pressure is applied to the die onto the paper and the heat activates an adhesive within the foil. The result is a thin layer of foil transfered onto the paper, revealing a beautiful foil stamped invitation.
How much does foil cost?
Although foil stamping is the perfect way make your wedding invites look expensive and glitzy, it is only a little more expensive than letterpress printing.
You do have to consider the paper quality. As with letterpress, you will need to choose a slightly heavier paper grade for printing, which is one of the things that can drive up the overall cost of foiled invites.
There are 4 different options when it comes to gold foil:
- Foiled Stamped
- Personalized Foil Text
- Custom Personalized Foil Invitations
- Faux Foil
As with most wedding stationery, the the price can fluctuate depending on factors such as how many pieces you order, or the degree to which you customize your invites.
We decided to compare a few different companies offerings with regards to gold foil and look at how much the company charges for 50 invitations, with a basic paper option.
Foiled Stamped
Many online stationers offer beautiful wedding stationery that incorporate real foil in their design elements with digitally printed personal messaging. As there is no need for custom text, you end up with beautiful gold foil detailing on your wedding invites, for a lower cost.
Example Modern Gold Foil Wedding Invites
1. Gilded Shore
by Minted
Pastel colors with real gold foil in all the right places make this invite shine!
2. True Love
by Minted: Carolyn Nicks
Sometimes simplicity is all that is needed. Th gold typography set against a grey color makes this entire suite really pop!
3. Lustrous Wedding Invitations
by Kaydi Bishop
This has to be one of my new favorites. It’s got a sort of art deco meets raw nature vibe. Again, the muted blue goes so well with the gold foil.
4. Borealis
by Minted
Deep purple coupled with gold foil caught our attention. We can see how this winning combination makes a real statement as a wedding invite suite.
5. Sonnet
by Minted: Petra Kern
A cute watercolor flower motif in blue with lovely gold foil accents.
6. Cascade
by Minted
A sutle sophistication lies in this stationery suites simple use of fonts and monocromatic color.
7. Whimsical Rose
Personalized Foil Text
You can find online stationers offering beautiful wedding stationery where you can personalize your text – everything from names, times, ceremony and reception details – all around the same price as the less customized versions.
- Invitations by Dawn – $5.33
- Basic Invite – $3.51
Modern Personalized Foil Text Examples
1. I Do
by Minted: Gwen Bedat
Yup, this is all modern. Big, bold typography that shimmers and shines.
2. Gilded Frame
That’s a whole lotta gold going on! But we added it to our list because, well, it is a pretty remarkable frame.
Custom Personalized Foil Invitations
Custom anything usually means pricer. In the case of personalize foil invites, the average price increases substantially. As you can see from the per invite prices below, you better have a large wedding stationery budget if you wish to go this route.
- Foiled Invitations.com – $10.60
- Wouldntitbelovely.com – $6.50-$40
- Bellafigura.com- $12.80
Luxury Gold Foil Invite Examples
1. Renae
Industrial chic with cork skin gold fleck paper. Sign me up for this wonderful piece of stationery!
2. Gramercy
Another wonderful example of how gold typography can work with a plain background.
3. BOHEMIAN
by Bellafigura
Shimmering triangles and well placed typography combine to make this invite a work of art.
4. Aubergine Calligraphy
Faux Foil
A new and cheaper option we stumbled upon while on our hunt for gold foil stationery is faux gold foil by Zazzle. The finished effect appears as a shimmer, without using any real foil. No gold foil was hurt in the making of these invites!
- Zazzle – $1.42
Budget Gold Foil Wedding Invites
1. Faux Marble and Copper Geometric
by Zazzle
- Considered a ‘dry’ technique because it doesn’t use ink. It is also known as an opaque medium because no matter what colored paper you choose to print on, the foil will not change color (unlike lithography, letterpress or thermography). So, you can create dramatic effects on dark colored paper using lighter foils like white or silver.
- A variety of finishes including metallic, glossy, pearlescent, holographic and matte.
- A variety of effects like marble (hint: marble is trending for 2017).
- Foils are available with a semi-transparent tint, which allows the paper color to come through.
- Foil offers a lustrous, shiny finish that will impress your guests from a distance
- Combine foil printing with other printing techniques such as letterpress, digital printing and engraving.
- Can create all different looks with foil invites from lux formal and traditional to modern and bold
Other alternative options for foiled invitations is rose gold and DIYing your invites.
Rose Gold Foil Wedding Invitations
1. Lovely
by Minted: Stardust Design Studio
Lovely aesthtic quality to this wedding invite with real rose gold foil. Reminds me of a late spring afternoon with cherry blossoms overhead.
2. Rose Gold Foil Wedding Invitation Suite
The photo quality of this invite doesn’t do it justice (sorry!). Clean lines and rose gold foil make a real impact.
3. Gilded Wildflowers
by Minted
Elegant and outdoor weddings would do well to send this style of rose gold foil invite.
4. Chapel
by Minted: Leah Bisch
A burst of inspiring specks gives life to this simple invitation design.
5. Gilded Drape
Whimsical and elegant. Send this invite for your fall soire and be sure to include beautiful floral arrangements throughout!
6. Blooming Beauty Wedding Invitations
by Lori Wemple
A lovely design that is a bit fun and quirky. Somehow it all comes together to work nicely!
DIY Gold Foil Invitations
If you are up to the DIY stationery challenge, I found a fantastic tutorial video by Swell & Grand on how to DIY your gold foil invitations. For 100 invitations, including supplies, she was able to create gorgeous personalized for a total cost of $68.95 or $0.69 cents per invitation! Amazing!
If you are interested in doing a similar project, you’ll need the following supplies to create your own DIY gold foil invitations:
Gold foil stamping complements all sort of wedding themes, everything from luxe and romantic to whimsical, contemporary and casual. Not sure if gold foil is for you? Check out all the other techniques in our Ultimate Guide to Wedding Stationery Printing Techniques
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Meredith
Despite her dreamy wedding blogger lifestyle, Meredith's day job is running ClassicVeils.com and a full-time mom to an active toddler. If she could, Meredith would spend her days taking cruises, helping animals in need, and watching Big Brother!
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