Wedding invitation postage in 2026: what a stamp costs, and what adds to it

Wedding invitation postage in 2026 starts at 82 cents. That is the price of one First-Class Mail Forever stamp since July 12, 2026, according to the US Postal Service, and it is all a standard invitation, longer than it is tall and weighing one ounce or less, needs. A second ounce, a square envelope, or an address written along the short side each add to it. Below are the current prices, the rules that decide which of them apply to your envelope, what the postal regulator decided in August about the next price change, and what it adds up to for a whole guest list.

What a wedding invitation stamp costs in 2026

On April 9, 2026 the Postal Service filed new prices with the Postal Regulatory Commission, a rise of about 4.8 percent for mailing services, and after the Commission's review they took effect on July 12. The Forever stamp went from 78 to 82 cents, a postcard from 61 to 65 cents, and a one-ounce letter to another country from $1.70 to $1.75. The price of each additional ounce stayed at 29 cents.

Stamps you already own still count. The Postal Service describes a Forever stamp as always valid for the First-Class Mail one-ounce rate, even if postage rates increase, so a Forever stamp bought at 78 cents still mails a one-ounce invitation today.

Why a square envelope costs 49 cents more

Letters are sorted by machines, and the Postal Service's mailing standards list the features that make a letter nonmachinable. A letter with any one of them pays a surcharge of 49 cents on top of its postage, according to Notice 123. A one-ounce square invitation up to 6⅛ inches on each side therefore costs $1.31 to mail, and a two-ounce one $1.60. A larger square, such as a 6½ inch one, is too tall to count as a letter and is priced as a large envelope, from $1.69 at one ounce.

• Square or close to it. The rule is length divided by height: below 1.3 (or above 2.5) is nonmachinable. A square envelope is 1.0. A common 7¼ by 5¼ inch envelope for a 5 by 7 card works out to about 1.38, which passes.
• The address runs along the short side. For example, an envelope addressed standing upright, in portrait orientation.
• Clasps, strings, buttons or similar closures. Those are the Postal Service's own examples. A ribbon or twine tied around the outside works like a string closure, so expect the surcharge unless the clerk says otherwise.
• Uneven thickness. The standards give pens, keys and coins as examples. A raised wax seal or a charm can make the thickness uneven, so expect the surcharge unless the clerk says otherwise.
• Too stiff to bend. A letter that does not bend easily around the sorting machine's belts, such as an invitation printed on heavy board.
• An outside that is not paper. A plastic sleeve or any other outer surface that is not paper.

The same standards set the outer limits for anything priced as a letter: no more than 11½ inches long, 6⅛ inches high, a quarter of an inch thick, and 3.5 ounces.

Will stamps go up again before your wedding?

Not decided yet. In July the Postal Service asked the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees postage prices, to let it calculate part of its pricing room from estimated data, so that it could move its next increase for stamps and other mail to January 2027, as part of a January schedule it said it was considering. On August 21, 2026 the Commission denied the request in Order No. 9696, finding that the Postal Service had not shown good cause or that the change was in the public interest.

The same order leaves a January increase possible. It says the Postal Service may still file its annual price case in October 2026 for prices starting in January 2027, as long as the case follows the standard rules, and it notes the limit the Commission set earlier: these prices can rise above a small threshold no more than once per fiscal year, through fiscal year 2030. As of September 23, 2026, when we wrote this, the Postal Service had not published new stamp prices.

What postage adds up to for a whole guest list

This is our arithmetic, not a survey. It uses the July 12 prices and a round 80 households as the example. Count households rather than guests, because a couple or a family shares one envelope.

Two things stand out. The square envelope costs more than the whole July increase: its surcharge on 80 invitations is 80 × $0.49 = $39.20, against $6.40 for four cents more on each invitation and reply stamp. And the reply is a line of its own: a reply postcard instead of an envelope saves 17 cents a household, and replies collected online need no reply stamp at all.

Guests abroad cost more. A one-ounce letter to another country is $1.75, and heavier ones more, so weigh one of those separately. Our guide to destination wedding invitations covers what traveling guests need to know, and when to send wedding invitations sets out the mailing dates.

Paper, a link, or both

I've spent more than fifteen years behind a camera, a lot of it at weddings. If you want paper, go with paper. We just think your guests shouldn't have to call you to find the address.

Some couples mail a paper invitation and collect the replies online, which takes the reply stamp off the bill. Others send the whole invitation as a link. We make digital wedding invitations that need no postage: at The Digital Envelope, Classic is $99 for a list of up to 100 guests and Signature is $199 for a list of any size, paid once, and a Save the Date is $29.99 (it has no RSVP). The full paper and digital comparison is in what wedding invitations cost.

How we put this together. On September 23, 2026 we read the Postal Service's April 9, 2026 price announcement, its current price list (Notice 123) and its mailing standards for letters, the Postal Store's description of the Forever stamp, and the Postal Regulatory Commission's Order No. 9696 of August 21, 2026. Each price is credited in the sentence where it is used. The totals for 80 households are our own multiplication, written out in the table. Our own prices are taken from our order page.