The average Australian couple spends $945 on wedding invitations. Most of those cards are in the bin within a fortnight of the envelope being opened.
Paper invitations costing $945 heading for the bin beside a printed tea towel still hanging in a kitchen
That is the whole argument for a tea towel invitation. Print the date, time and venue onto something people actually use, and the invitation stops being admin and starts being a keepsake.
Ten years on, it is still in a kitchen drawer with your names on it.
What a Tea Towel Invitation Actually Is
A full-size tea towel, 70cm by 50cm, weighing 80 to 100 grams, printed with your event details.
Everything that goes on a paper invitation goes on the towel. Date, time, venue, dress code, RSVP details. What changes is the space.
You get roughly four times the printable area of an A5 card, and most people spend that extra room on the parts that make it worth keeping: the couple’s names, a guest’s name, a photograph, a due date.
We design and print them here in Australia on cotton, linen, or a 50/50 cotton-linen blend, using water-based inks certified to Oeko-Tex 100. That side of it has stopped being a footnote.
Sustainable stationery is the defining wedding trend of 2026, and a 300-guest paper suite burns through 45kg of CO2, 1,200 litres of water and 12kg of waste before anyone has read a word of it.
What They Cost Against Paper Invitations
Paper looks cheaper per unit. Cost the whole job out, and the gap closes fast.
| Paper invitations | Tea towel invitations | |
|---|---|---|
| Per unit | $1 to $6 per card | From $8.50 each at 50, $8.00 at 100, $7.35 + GST at 150 |
| Typical spend, 100 guests | $300 to $500 ready-made, $900+ custom | Around $800 delivered |
| Print finishes | Foiling and letterpress push into the thousands | Printing Included in the price |
| Lifespan | Days | Years |
| Doubles as | Nothing | Favour, thank you gift, keepsake |
On raw unit price, paper wins. On what you get for the money, it is not close. The same budget in tea towels covers the invitation and the wedding favour in the one item, and most couples budget for those separately.
A custom paper suite for 100 guests can pass $900 and leaves you with nothing afterwards.
Which Occasions Suit a Tea Towel Invitation
Weddings
The strongest case, because the towel doubles as the favour. Print the couple’s names and the date, and it works as an invitation on the way in and a memento on the way out. Guest names are optional if you want each one to be personal. More on tea towels as wedding invitations.
Baby Showers
Small guest lists, and the people receiving them are the ones who will be in that kitchen for the next twenty years. Print the mother-to-be’s name, the due date, and the baby’s name if it has been chosen. Grandparents keep these. More on baby shower invitation tea towels.
Bridal Showers
Usually a dozen to thirty people, which is the range where paper invitations are least economical per unit. It arrives as an invitation and stays on as part of the kitchen the bride is about to set up. More on bridal shower tea towel invitations.
High Tea Parties
A high tea is a themed event, and the invitation is expected to set the tone. A printed linen tea towel does that in a way a card cannot. More on high tea party invitations.
Save the Dates
Birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, christenings, business milestones. A save the date on paper has one job, and then it is finished. On a tea towel it stays where people can see it, which is the point of sending one in the first place. More on save the date tea towel invitations.
Choosing the Material and Print Method
Grid comparing cotton, 50/50 blend and linen tea towels against screen and digital printing, blend highlighted
There are three base fabrics, and the one you pick changes both the feel and the print.
- Cotton is the cheapest and the usual choice for larger runs. It prints cleanly and washes well.
- The 50/50 cotton-linen blend gives the best result overall. It has the best hand feel of anything in the range and the colours come out strongest, so it is the one to pick if your design carries a lot of colour.
- Linen is the premium option. Heavier, with a texture that reads as expensive. It suits high tea and formal weddings.
Screen printing suits designs with one to three flat colours, and it gets cheaper the more you order.
Digital printing handles full-colour artwork, photographs and gradients with no colour limit, which makes it the right pick for individually named towels or anything with an image on it.
Send the artwork with your quote request, and we will tell you which method suits it.
What to Print on One
Start with the event details, then use the space a card would never have given you:
- Names of the couple, the mother-to-be, or whoever the day belongs to
- The guest’s own name, so every towel is individual
- A photograph or an illustration
- The due date, the anniversary year, or the venue
- A line, a quote or a joke that means something to the people receiving it
The event details make it an invitation. The rest is what stops it going into a drawer and never coming out.
How Ordering Works
Send your idea, artwork or rough sketch through the quote form. You get a price back along with a recommended fabric and print method. No artwork? Our designers can build it from a description.
Order early. Invitations usually go out six to eight weeks before a wedding, and save the dates around six months ahead, so work backwards from your mail-out date rather than the event date and leave room for artwork approval and a sample.
And ask for the sample. It is free on request, conditions apply, and seeing the print on the actual fabric before you commit to a hundred of them is worth the few days it takes.
Small Orders and One-Offs
There is no minimum. A single personalised tea towel with any full-colour design is under $35 delivered, which covers a bridal shower for twelve as easily as a wedding for two hundred. Order a personalised one here.
My daughter and son-in-law are so glad we discovered your website, the invites were a huge hit with the guests. Thanks so much for getting them done in time. The Nelsons
Get a Price on Yours
Send your event details, guest count and any artwork through the quote form, and ask for a free sample while you are there.
You get a price, a fabric recommendation, and something you can hold before you commit to the order.
Planning a school event rather than a private one? The same printing runs as an end-of-class fundraising tea towel, with pricing shown upfront and no hidden fees.
Need Some Help? Send us your ideas, designs or orders via the quote form.
