We build digital invitations, so treat this with the scepticism it deserves. But the honest answer is that printed cards are better at some things, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
What printed cards are better at
They are an object. Somebody's mother will keep it in a drawer for thirty years. No link does that.
They carry weight. For the elders in the family, a card delivered by hand is a mark of respect that a message cannot replace. This matters more in some families than others, and you know which yours is.
They need nothing. No phone, no signal, no battery.
What they are worse at
They cannot be corrected. A wrong date on five hundred cards is five hundred cards. This is the single most expensive mistake in the whole process.
They are slow. Design, approval, print, delivery. Three weeks is normal, and the last week of it is spent worrying.
They tell you nothing. You do not know who received one, and you certainly do not know who is coming. That is what the phone calls are for.
They are the same for everybody. No name, no headcount, no way to show one family three functions and another family one.
What most people actually do
Print a small run — thirty or fifty — for the people for whom the object matters. Send everybody else a link.
You get the respect where it counts and the speed everywhere else, and you cut the print bill by ninety per cent. The digital version carries the detail that would never have fitted on card anyway: directions, dress code, hotels, the running order, the questions people always ask.
The one thing to decide first
Not the design. The guest list.
Everything else — printed or digital, one function or six — is easier once you know who you are inviting and roughly how many seats each family needs. The invitation is the last step, and it is the quick one.