"Why I don't want your wedding invitation."

If you send me a wedding invitation in the mail, my response upon opening it, will be a loud, drawn out groan.

Not because I don’t appreciate the invite.

Not because I don’t want to come.

Not because I don’t believe in marriage, or don’t want to purchase a wedding gift.

But because I cannot understand why, in 2017, when everything else in our lives is electronic, you would choose to send out hard copy wedding invitations in the post.

In an age when we are so aware of climate change and the ways in which we contribute to it, why are people insisting on mailing letters to 200 people, often including an RSVP page, on thick, fancy paper?

Mia Freedman, Holly Wainwright and Jessie Stephens discuss the alleged death of the wedding invite on Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues below. 

Deforestation causes more climate change emissions than global transport. Every year, an estimated 18 million acres of forest disappear – which equates to 20 football fields a minute. Here are a few things people might not know:

• To produce paper takes twice the energy it does to make a plastic bag.
• 42% of all wood harvest is used to make paper.
• Every tree produces enough oxygen for three people.
• It takes 324 litres of water to produce one kilo of paper. That means for every piece of paper you use, you’re wasting 10 litres of water.
• The paper industry uses more water to produce a tonne of product than any other industry on earth.
• Paper makes us 25 per cent of landfill worldwide.
• The pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy in the world.
• The electronic revolution has not cut down paper usage. In fact, it’s increased.

We are in the midst of a paper crisis, and without wanting to sound overly righteous, I just can’t understand why the hard copy invitation would still be so many couples’ preference.

An electronic invite is far more efficient, and it doesn’t require your guests to fill out a form and then visit a post office to send it.

Inevitably, mistakes will be made that way. People forget to tell you they have dietary requirements. People don’t understand it requires a formal response. People lose the invite. The time and energy it takes to gather everyone’s addresses, create invitations, send them, receive RSVPs and collate the responses is nothing short of absurd.

And don't even get me started on the money. According to a survey site, the average cost of wedding invitations for a 150 people event, is $750. Before postage. To be clear, this is in an age where many young Australians can't afford a house.

It seems the most obvious way to cut costs, to save yourself an enormous amount of work, and to make things as easy as possible for your guests.

So if you send me a wedding invite, with a save-the-date card, menu card, and RSVP card, I am not going to be impressed by how much effort you went to.

I will let out a deep, exasperated groan, and wonder when wedding trends will finally catch up with the rest of the world.

You can listen to the full episode of this week's Mamamia Out Loud, here.