Hello, it’s Andri here, from Always Andri Wedding Design. And I’m back for another instalment of my A to Z of Wedding Planning S for wedding Stationery.
No time to watch the video, read the transcript below:
So it’s S for stationery on my A to Z of Wedding Planning. So I want to have a quick chat with you about stationery. Now, stationery is a big topic, and I suspect, if I was a stationer, I’d be doing an A to Z of stationery all on its own but I’m just going to give you a quick overview and some quick tips to keep in mind when you’re thinking about your stationery needs for your wedding day. I’m mainly thinking invitations, so we’ll begin at the beginning, really, with your invitation suite.
QUICK TIPS FOR YOUR WEDDING STATIONERY
So first and foremost, there are so many options out there now, from very bespoke designed pieces, where literally everything is designed for you from start to finish, your own design, won’t have seen it before, right up to digital and paperless options, so you can have everything completely online. There are some really great companies out there now doing digital, paperless options, if you want to go down the eco route.
WHAT’S YOUR WEDDING STYLE?
Really look and research what it is that you want from your invitation suite. And also, I think your invitation suite can very much tie in with what is your wedding style? Really think, what kind of wedding are you having? What’s the vibe? What kind of look are you going for? That’s the beauty of stationery, and I think many wedding planners will tell you this, what we all love about wedding stationery, is that it can really help personalise your wedding day. There’s lots you can do with it, in terms of setting the tone for your wedding, creating the right kind of feel and atmosphere for the kind of wedding you’re going to have.
TRADITIONAL OR RELAXED
For a very traditional one, you might want to go for a beautiful, thick card stock, lovely letterpress designs. But maybe if you’re having something a bit more relaxed, you can have a bit more fun, a bit more creative with the fonts you choose, the imagery and artwork you might choose for it. So I think that’s what’s quite beautiful about your stationery. You can really go to town with it. Do your research look at what all the options are out there.
STATIONERY COSTS
And think about what the costs is and budget you’ve got. Just think, even a greeting card, for nice beautiful birthday cards you might buy for someone, it’s going to cost you anywhere around three, four pounds these days. So if you imagine your invitation suite, and you’re sending that out to multiples, that’s quite a good way of thinking about how much you’re going to need to budget, allocate, for your invitation suite. I think it’s very rare now you find a £1 birthday card, so don’t necessarily think you’re going to find a £1 invitation, especially when there’s a lot more work goes into it.
INVITATION WORDING
When you’re coming to the wording of your invitation, as I said, the wording you choose can be very relevant. There’s so many options out there. There’s a bit of an etiquette minefield, I think, when it comes to invitations. More so if you’re going down the very traditional route, there’s a particular wording you want to think of, so I think that’s really important. Do look online, there’s lots of really great guides in terms of what kind of wording, depending on what your situation is, who’s hosting it, who’s not hosting it, that sort of thing. Look online to help you find what you need to put in the wording.
On the invitation itself, I would keep it to the minimum, the essentials. If you have got lots of additional information, then put that in as a separate additional info card. And also, what works really well now is wedding websites. These work really well for keeping track of RSVPs. Your guests can just go straight online to reply. They’re quite good too if you’re doing lots of additional events around the wedding party, you can give your guests a little bit of background about you both, a few photographs, there’s all sorts of fun things you can do with wedding websites now. So again, research, see what’s out there. There’s some really great options I’ve seen and we’ve used for some of our clients in the past.
HOW MANY INVITATIONS?
When you come to your numbers, you don’t need to allocate one invitation per person. You can do one per household, so that’s quite a good way of saving a little bit there, but then at the same time, I would always order extra, just in case, it’s always better to order your invitation suite all in one go, rather than adding on. Don’t think you have to do every single guest, but do order extra.
ON THE DAY STATIONERY
And then also, finally, just think about what kind of additional stationery needs you’re going to have, as well as for you invitation, you might want to consider your thank-you cards. Can you pre-order those at the same time? It’s always good to get a little job out of the way. And then what kind of stationery elements are you going to need on the day? Do you need an order of service, or are you going to do something more like signage? Big signage works quite nice for that. Or you could even do blackboards, have someone come in and write something, calligraphy signage onto something at the venue.
Menus, does your venue provide them, or do you need to order menus? Are you having placecards? Do you need them? Do you need to think about ordering those? Things like place numbers, again, do you need them? If you’re having a formal table plan, how are the guests going to find their seats? Is there a table plan, or are you going to go down the escort card route, and think about all the table numbers on your tables themselves.
THE LITTLE EXTRAS
And then finally, any little extras? It’s always quite nice to think about these. I’m a big fan of signage, directing guests, signs for the bars, if you’ve having a photo booth or anything fun like that, gift table, there’s lots of little extras that are quite nice to think about. Have a little think, chat to your stationer whether it’s worth ordering any of those at the same time as your invitation suite, or when they will need to have those, when you need to order those. It’s worth bearing that in mind.
I’m a big fan of extra signage at weddings, and like I say, I think all your stationery elements can really add extra details to your guests. And I think why signage works so well, not only does it really personalise your guests, but you’re constantly keeping your guests informed, and they know what’s going on.
STAMPS FOR YOUR RSVPS
And then finally, in terms of the invitation suite, you might want to consider putting a stamp on your RSVP. It might encourage these guests to get back to you. And then don’t forget to weigh your invitation before you send it off, because if you are putting extra additional information in there with the invitation suite, do weigh it, so you can check you’re using the right stamp for it. Because you don’t want it being sent back. Because they can be, if you’ve got really good-quality cards, and lots of little extras, they can really add up.
Like I said, stationery’s quite a big topic, and there’s lots of options that you can do. But hopefully these quick tips have given you a nice little taster, a few things you need to think about. If you have any other questions or anything, remember, don’t be afraid to ask. I’m always around. And then I’ll be back next time carrying on with my tips- it’s T for Timings!
Photography Rebbeca Goddard | Stationery Nat’s Paper Studio
