Your wedding is a day that you will remember for the rest of your life and as reminders, many couples keep a number of items from their wedding that will bring back happy memories of their special day; invitations are an element that are always kept. Beautifully designed, raised ink wedding invitations printed in thermography will be guaranteed to be kept for a lifetime.
Of course, there is no right or wrong (despite what the bridal magazines tell you) of what a complete wedding stationery set should contain. It’s down to your individual requirements, your budget and how much you want to keep people informed. There is no right or wrong and you may decide to only have wedding invites and nothing more, or you may decide to go the whole hog and get a complete set.
The receipt of a beautiful wedding invitation will always be placed on the mantelpiece or indeed, the kitchen pin board. Your event will be looked forward to with a greater sense of excitement and anticipation, perhaps even precipitating a swifter RSVP, but the initial sense of excitement is always enhanced by fabulous presentation.
On every wedding day there is a heady mix nerves, excitement and happiness, to ensure that everything runs smoothly your guests will need to be given plenty of information in advance to allow them to make their plans. It is therefore vital that within your wedding invitation you also include information such as where to stay, where to park, if children are welcome and all the of other questions than need answers. We have made invitations for thousands of weddings and we will be delighted to use that experience to help yours run perfectly.
The Wedding Stationery Guide
Wedding stationery is n essential aspect of any wedding and one that needs to be given careful thought and planning. Things have changed since the days of when a simple wedding invite was enough. Our most common print runs in our Suffolk factory are Engagement Announcements, Save The Date cards, RSVP cards, Wedding information sheets; Hotel Guides and reccomendations, Order of Service books, Thanks You cards. Thermography replicates the look of engraving at a much more affordable cost. Thermography’s special ink creates raised letters, though the type may be slightly shiny. This process leaves no impression on the back of the paper. Offset, most common for everyday use, leaves a flat surface and is dull and boring by comparison.
Cotton paper compliments raised type beautifully, but wood paper’s variety of colors and weights can accommodate any style. The most formal invitations use a side fold, and the single panel card, once considered less formal, is now completely accepted.
Save The Date Cards
These are basically cards that are sent way in advance of the actual wedding to give people plenty of notice of the actual wedding date. It helps your guests to literally ‘save the date’ and plan their diaries. These cards came about because traditionally, wedding invitations are sent out around 6-8 weeks prior to the date. In these modern times, many people will have prior commitments scheduled and may be unavailable on your chosen date. Likewise, if you are planning on getting married during a busy period like during the holiday season, then giving your guests as much prior notification is important. Save the Dates will allow you to inform your potential guests many months in advance of the invite being sent out.
Wedding Invitations
These are the actual ‘formal’ invitations, inviting your guests to your wedding day. They typically contain the date, time and location of the actual event. We have hundreds of samples and can guide you on design, or layout & typeset them for you. We love typography and the physical layout, type choice and size are important, raised ink invitations are lush, but comic sans isn’t the most natural bedfellow when creating truly stunning stationery!
Normally most bride & grooms have a two tier approach with invitations and guests will be invited to attend the whole event whilst others will be invited to the evening celebrations only. As such we often print two sets of wedding evening invitation cards for this very purpose. Your thermographic wedding invitations can be printed in any size you require, but A6, A5 and A4 (folded) are common – as are the round cornered gilt or plain edged cards that come in old-school inch measurements, 6×4″, 7×5″ we can provide envelopes to match any size. Thermographic wedding invitations can be printed in any pantone colour that you wish to have and up to four colours can be printed in thermography.
Cotton Fibre Paper, the traditional standard for wedding invitations, has a soft, rich look and feel. It comes in white or ecru (ivory) of varying weights (thickness), we can go up to 400gsm. In addition to looking and feeling more luxurious than wood paper, cotton is a good ecological choice that stands the test of time. Cotton is a renewable resource, and does not yellow with age. Wood Fiber Paper, most common in everyday use and extremely versatile, can be made in a variety of colors and weights. Recycled paper makes a wonderful environmental statement, and alternative fibre papers can accent less-conventional, informal weddings.
RSVP Cards
With most wedding invitations they generally contain the wording “RSVP by….” This basically prompts your guests to confirm whether they will be able to attend or not by a specific date. Planning a wedding is a huge affair (as you possibly are aware of you are reading our blog post) and knowing how many confirmed guests you can expect to your day will greatly help you to plan and budget more accurately. If some cannot attend, then it may give other guests the opportunity to attend in their stead. Knowing accurate numbers is essential, if nothing else for printing estimates.
In reality, whilst many will reply to your invitation in good time, there will be many who will forget to RSVP or they inform you late. It can be a bit of a planning nightmare so anything that helps your guests confirm their attendance is only a good thing and this is where RSVP cards come in. You can obviously list email as a contact preference, but if you design them yourself, do remember to list out the email address legibly, not in capitals in a script font, as nobody can read them. Mobile numbers are more common today also, and landlines also, not everyone will write back to you, despite the trouble you go to invite them, again it requires planning and chasing, but raised ink stationery does set a tone that instills a sense of gravitas to an occasion.
Order of Service Books
These are basically cards that outline a programme of the days events and are used in most weddings. What will happen when and where, the timings and any other useful information required for the day can be printed onto the Order of Service cards. It always helps to let your guests know where they should be at a given point in time! This piece of literature is the most kept and treasured by guests, often, sadly the invitation isn’t, but because there’s often so much personal information listed in Order of Service books, readings, hymn or music choices, personal vows etc. Again great presentation makes the difference, and we often print the outer covers in thermo and flat print the insides, there are some great binding options too, stunning cord tassles for instance looks so much nicer than staples and can be accessorised with flowers or something personal to the couple.
Wedding Thank You Cards
Finally, once you are finally married and have enjoyed your honeymoon, it’s not quite over yet. It is traditional to send a thank you card to your guests, showing your appreciation for them sharing your day and to thank them for any gifts they might have given.
These are generally hand-written to make them more personal and are lovely to receive as a guest, often we just print the newly married ‘s names at the head of some individual stationery and they can act as correspondance cards for their new life together well after the event. Get in touch with us here to receive printed samples, or just a call back for a quote.
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