Pasties & Petticoats Blog 2
Wedding stationery
Wedding stationery is a growing business, with a huge variety of options available to you. The two basic choices are getting items printed, and DIY. The size of your wedding, and the style of it, will be the major factors to bear in mind – if you have 200 guests, that’s rather a different proposition to just 20. And if you will be needing save-the-date cards, invitations, RSVP notes, orders of service, table plans, name cards and thank you notes, then you need to consider costs and time implications before gleefully saying, “yeah, we’ll make them ourselves, it’ll be fun!”
That said, making your own can be great fun. I did it, with help from my family, and we enjoyed it, and created a unique set of stationery.
However, make sure you have the time, equipment and skill before you embark on the project. There are endless options to choose from, and you will be able to create a style that is unique to you and your wedding. You could have a party, invite craft-minded friends round to make everything, with the promise of food after. I’d limit the alcohol, so you don’t end up with decreasing production standards as the wine flows!
Remember, what you create needs to fit in an envelope, at least for invitations, so don’t get carried away making 3D effects that will get squashed. Also, make sure your filled envelope is narrower than 5mm, else you’ll be charged large letter rate by the Post Office.
The Royal Mail’s standard letter size is no more than 24cm x 16.5cm x 5mm deep, and up to 100g.
Large letter size is 35.3cm x 25cm x 2.5cm deep, and up to 750g.
The current prices can be found at http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder but at time of writing, the difference between the second class rate for a standard letter and a large letter is 20p, which adds up to £40 over 200 envelopes.
Having your stationery printed can give a more professional, smarter appearance, or give effects you simply can’t achieve yourself, as well as being (hopefully) faster and less hassle. Get samples of paper, card, finishes, colours, fonts, and designs, as well as prices and delivery times when you speak to designers / printers, and find reviews of the company you’re considering as well. Make sure you can see proofs, actual printed proofs, before you sign off on anything. And double- and triple-check the spellings of everything, especially names!
You can get a huge
variety of styles, from formal printed script-like fonts on embossed paper or
card with gilt inlay, to quirky styles that are almost home-made in their
appearance, but far more complex than you’d probably want to attempt yourself.
You’ll be able to personalise your stationery to suit yourself, and there are
options to suit every budget.
As far as fonts go, you may need to choose more than one, for instance one for your names, and one for the majority of the text. Make sure you can read what’s written, so your guests won’t be peering at the invitation, or the table plan, attempting to decipher the elaborate writing and find out what’s going on. Also, ensure that there is sufficient contrast between the colour of the ink and the colour of the paper. Silver ink on mauve sounds delish, but unless you hold it to catch the light, it’s nearly as good as lemon juice for invisible ink!! And the postman won’t thank you for addressing your envelopes in flowing metallic script either.
I found a font the other day that may appeal to you if you’re planning an eco-friendly wedding – it’s called Ryman’s Eco font, and is designed to use 30% less ink than a regular typeface. It’s elegant, without being too ornate, and is clearly readable, not a faded grey as you might expect for using less ink. Check it out at http://www.rymaneco.co.uk/
Weddings blog – complete series:
- invitations
- invitations again – making vs printing
- vows
- the rest of your ceremony, music, readings, etc
- speeches – content, running order, and who should give them.
- how to give a great wedding speech
Condensed version: ‘top 10 tips for words to get right at your wedding‘, for the Pasties and Petticoats newsletter.
Leave a Reply