A Guide to Wedding Stationery & Invitations

Ok, you’ve set the date, what’s next? Well, this is where it starts to get really excit­ing. This is your chance to tell the world, (or your friends and fam­ily at least) by invit­ing them to the big day! Your wed­ding sta­tionery is the first glimpse your guests will get of your wed­ding day style, so it’s impor­tant to make a good first impression.

When to send?

Tim­ing is crit­i­cal. Peo­ple lead such busy lives these days that per­haps you shouldn’t be sur­prised if send­ing out invi­ta­tions just a few weeks before the event results in a postman’s sack full of “Sorry we won’t be attend­ing” replies. To make sure that your near­est and dear­est are all present on the big day, send­ing out save the date cards around 6 months before the wed­ding is a great idea. If you are hold­ing your wed­ding abroad or dur­ing a pop­u­lar hol­i­day period, it would be wise to get them in the post even earlier.

Per­son­alised wed­ding stationery

As the cost of print­ing has fallen over the past sev­eral years, per­son­alised sta­tionery has become hugely pop­u­lar. It’s the per­fect way of putting your own stamp on your wed­ding with the min­i­mum of effort.

There is a huge range of per­son­alised sta­tionery avail­able, how­ever the qual­ity of design is just as large. Eng­lish Wed­ding has some won­der­ful exam­ples of beau­ti­ful wed­ding sta­tionery so take a look around to find some­thing suit­able for you.

Advan­tages of using per­son­alised stationery

• Saves you time and effort — it’s easy to order per­son­alised sta­tionery online so all the work is done for you
• The choice is end­less so you can choose your favorite design and font, cre­at­ing a unique style which is per­sonal to you
• You can mix and match with DIY wed­ding sta­tionery — you could have per­son­alised invi­ta­tions, for exam­ple, but cre­ate your own place cards

DIY wed­ding stationery

Cre­at­ing your own wed­ding sta­tionery is a time-consuming process which can either become a hugely enjoy­able part of your wed­ding prepa­ra­tion, or a major regret. It’s a very hands-on approach, but lets you design some­thing per­fectly suited to your day. Receiv­ing a hand­made invi­ta­tion feels much more per­sonal and spe­cial. It’s a won­der­ful ges­ture, but it’s cru­cial to plan each step through before starting.

Make sure you’ve got time. For exam­ple if you’re hav­ing a small wed­ding and you’re plan­ning well ahead of time, DIY sta­tionery could be the per­fect choice. If, how­ever, you’re invit­ing hun­dreds of guests and only have a cou­ple of months before your wed­ding day, you’re almost cer­tainly going to be bet­ter off with a per­son­alised range. It’s just not worth the stress!

Advan­tages of DIY wed­ding stationery

• Per­fect if you want to show off your cre­ativ­ity and use your artis­tic skills to cre­ate com­pletely unique stationery
• Cre­at­ing your own sta­tionery can be great fun. Evenings spent with brides­maids mak­ing cards can be one of the high­lights of plan­ning your wedding
• DIY sta­tionery tends to be less expensive

Whichever style and type you go for, sta­tionery is such a huge part of your wed­ding day it’s worth get­ting absolutely right. Give your guests some­thing to get excited about with your invi­ta­tions and fol­low the style through to your menus and place cards for extra effect. The effort will be worth it.