Hi Print fans,
I had started the first part of this blog a few weeks ago, but because of various other entries I haven’t had the chance to finish it until now. As a brief recap; in the last blog I went over some of the traditions involved in a wedding and how they have evolved. If you would like to read the full blog you can find it here:
http://www.capitaloflondon.com/blog/2009/05/07/wedding-stationery-part-1/#comment-12
This week I wanted to discuss what stationery you may need for your wedding and how to make sure you are getting the best deal.
Many people are terrified by the prospect of having to organize their wedding stationery and because of this it is often left to someone else to sort out be it a designer or a wedding organizer. Surprisingly enough, wedding stationery is not as difficult as many wedding organizer would have you believe, provided that you know what you want and how to get it. After reading this I guarantee you will be in a much better place to go out and organize your own wedding stationery yourself.
From the time they are young all girls think about their wedding day. This is the one day in their lives when they will feel truly special. A day of love, romance and pure happiness. A day to share with their loved family and friends. So much planning goes in to this one special day! So many choices, so many decisions!
Although necessary, wedding stationary can often be just another stress in our lives, because of this Capital of London has gone through and come up with a list of the most important things to consider:
1 - What impression do you want to give your guests?
The invitations (or save the date cards) will be the first impressions your guests receive of your special day. They will give your guests an insight into your personality, taste and plans for the day (e.g. whether it will be a formal or informal day of celebration) So think about what impression you want to create; what the theme and colours of your day are and try to tie these things in to your wedding stationary.
2 - What is your budget?
It’s so easy to get carried away so before you start looking, set yourself a budget and try to stick to it. If the stationary for the wedding is outside your budget, don’t be afraid to tell the printer how much you have to spend, often if we know what we need to work in we can make recommendations on different papers or printing styles to reduce the cost and if that is not possible some companies will be willing to drop their prices marginally to bring their designs within your price range.
3 - What items do you need?
Wedding Invites: These are absolutely essential, unless you don’t want anyone to come to your wedding.
Wedding Evening Invites: These are for guests who are only invited to the reception. These are not always essential so should be looked at on a case by case basis.
Wedding registry cards: - These cards are gaining in popularity, but at the moment they are still not essential. Basically these cards are included to tell your guests where you are registered, I would organize the essential stationery first and if there is any money left over in the budget I would then look into what else I wanted.
Order of service: - These cards are very important, They will give your guests a breakdown of the service so they know what they are doing.
Wedding announcements: - These cards will depend on when and where you’re wedding is. If you are having a destination wedding or if you have friends or relatives coming in from a long way off, these can be really hand as you can send them off up to a year in advance.
Save the date: The save the date cards are very similar to the wedding announcements above. You would only ever need to use a wedding announcement or a save the date not both.
Menus: These are not essential but can be a really nice addition, if you are stuck on your budget consider getting one menu per tale
Place Cards: Not essential but can make a huge impression, generally very cheap, and provided you have neat handwriting are easy to fill out. If, like me, you’re handwriting is appalling you will need to look into getting a calligrapher to write out your place cards.
Thank you cards: These need to be sent out as soon as possible after the wedding. Even though it can be a pain all of these have to be handwritten with a personal message thanking the guest personally for the gift they have given you.
Reply Cards: Unfortunately these are essential, without them no one will reply, even with them you will always get a few who don’t reply.
4. How will you print your stationery?
Traditionally all wedding stationery should be engraved printed, but it is not always convenient to do this. A lot of your printing style will depend on your budget, but at the very least if possible I would try and make sure that your main invitations are engraved printed.
5. Order extra envelopes
This is something that always happens, as a general rule we will always included extra envelopes but just to be sure order some extra anyway, because as you are writing addresses some will get ruined. It happened to us a little while ago, a client (who had chosen to ignore our advise of ordering extra envelopes) called me up in a real panic, telling me that she had run out of envelopes and she needed to get her invitations in the post today. Unfortunately for her she had chosen a very detailed handmade envelope and there was no possible way for us to re-make new envelops in time. In this instance we were able to save the client as we had made extra envelopes the first time round, but I can’t promise that will always be the case so please be safe rather than sorry.
I think I have just about talked myself horse for this week. Wedding stationery is a huge section so don’t be surprised in I come back to this in the near future, as I can think of so many things I would like to add. If you are struggling with your wedding stationery and would like any advise, feel free to email me on:
I promise to do what I can to help or advise you in any way.
Till next week,