Planning a wedding can be a strenuous, costly task. There’s guests to feed, venues to book, photographers to recruit, music to organize; and before you set one high-heeled foot on the dance floor, there’s a multitude of decisions to be made regarding your wedding stationery.
Luckily, your wedding woes are at an end, weary traveler. Below, we present an in-depth look at how to design your own wedding invitation suite – whether you want the help of Zazzle, or whether you’d prefer to go solo with your trusty HD printer! We’ve got design tips that relate to RSVP cards, enclosure cards, and Save the Dates, and we explain how to add your own DIY touches to store-bought stationery.
Dear reader, you are cordially invited…
What is a Wedding Invitation Suite?
Before we begin, let’s make a brief detour and clarify what exactly a wedding invitation suite is: what’s included, and when should each piece of stationery be sent.
Save the Dates are a reminder to guests that they’ll need to make arrangements – such as booking accommodation or requesting annual leave – in order to attend your wedding, and they’re usually sent out 9-12 months in advance (allow more time for destination weddings, which require more notice). The centerpiece of the stationery suite is, of course, the invitations, which are mailed 3 months in advance of the wedding, and can be coupled with enclosure cards, RSVP cards, and fancy, fancy envelopes.
Wedding stationery doesn’t stop at cards and envelopes, of course. Consider the below advice to be equally useful when designing those ancillary items, such as stickers, embossers, return address labels, and belly bands. And while they’re not strictly part of the ‘wedding invitation suite,’ you should also take time to organize your ‘day of’ stationery, which means creating delicious menu cards, tallying up your table numbers, and sitting down to work on your seating chart.
Tips for Designing Your Wedding Stationery
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Whether you decide to purchase your wedding stationery or make it yourself – or even a combination of the two – there’s a lot to bear in mind when it comes to creating your design. Below are a few of our favorite suggestions, but when you’ve finished reading them, head to our “5 Tips for How to Perfect the Mix & Match Wedding Invitation Suite Trend” for more information!
Stylish Stationery
Before you design or order any piece of wedding stationery, think about what the style or vibe of your wedding will be like, and then “commit to it,” as Karen Louise notes on OneFabDay.com. Is your event going to be a large, traditional church wedding, or is it going to be a modern day at the beach? Does your venue evoke the sophisticated greens and grays of a castle in the countryside, or the cool blues and golds of a seaside hotel? Take inspiration from what the day itself will actually be like, and incorporate the tone and colors into your wedding stationery. Doing this will even help you to isolate what items to include in your suite; embossers, for example, add a more regal effect than stickers or return address labels.
Streamlined Suites
While it can be tempting – and fun, too – to browse through all the different wedding stationery templates on Zazzle and other sites, remember that you aren’t obliged to use them all. Even the most grandiose wedding doesn’t necessitate the use of embossers, stickers, labels, wax seals, AND singing telegrams. This ‘less-is-more’ approach also applies to the layout of your invitations and Save the Dates, as Kim Forrest writes on The Knot.com. “Trying to squeeze too much onto the invitation can make it harder to read and it won’t look as elegant,” she writes, recommending that certain information be added to detail cards or the wedding website.
Well-Worded Weddings
Again, the tone of the wedding, as well as the venue, will provide a hint as to how your invitations should be phrased: will you be encouraging guests to ‘eat, drink, and be merry,’ or will you be ‘kindly requesting the honor of [their] presence’? Different parts or stages of the wedding invitations suite will require different information, too: on a Save the Date, the dates and location are most important, but for a wedding invitation, you can go into further detail.
Karen at OneFabDay.com cites 5 things you must include on a wedding invitation: whether the invite relates to the ceremony and/or reception; the name and address of the venue; the date and time of the wedding; RSVP instructions; and the RSVP deadline. However, if you’re still stuck, check out our articles on “Wedding Invitation Wording Tips & Etiquette,” “Wedding Save the Date Wording Tips & Etiquette,” and “Wedding Thank You Card Wording Tips & Etiquette”!
Proofed Paper Products
Admittedly, the spectacle of your wedding stationery may be somewhat dulled should you spell your soon-to-be spouse’s name wrong, and there’s bound to be chaos if you’ve listed the incorrect address, thereby ensuring the majority of your guests attend a stranger’s wedding instead. It’s vital, then, that before you hit ‘Print,’ input your payment details, or forward your PDF to the stationer, you ask others to double-check your wording and design. Kim at The Knot.com suggests that you borrow a common copy editor’s tip, “read[ing] the proof word for word (to yourself and aloud!) from right to left so you don’t accidentally gloss over any mistakes.”
DIY Wedding Invitations – the Pros and Cons
Now that you’ve mastered the basics of designing a wedding invitation suite, you may want to know a little more about those DIY methods we mentioned earlier. There are two ways to DIY your wedding stationery: you can use a tool like Zazzle Create to download digital designs, which you can then print yourself; or you can make your own at home, with naught but a paintbrush and calligraphy pen in hand.
We have a few ideas about how to start – as well as some quirky, tangible tweaks you can make to personalize your invitations even further – but before you begin, here’s a list of pros and cons for you to consider.
Pro – They’re Budget-Friendly
The DIY method is, overall, budget-friendly. Zazzle Create, for example, is free to use, meaning that, unless you transfer the design to a physical product, there won’t be a charge. This is substantially cheaper than consulting a designer or purchasing expensive software.
Pro – They Add Personality
While Zazzle boasts a wealth of different colors, fonts, and filters within its design tool, it can’t quite match the personality of an invitation that’s been assembled or designed by hand. You also have the freedom to craft each invitation in a different way – something that’s difficult to accomplish when you buy in bulk.
Pro – They Function as Keepsakes
Adding individual embellishments to your wedding invitations can be a time-consuming process, but that’s part of the fun, too. The extra hours spent comparing samples and sourcing paper will be a reminder, in years to come, of the lead-up to your wedding, and the finished product will serve as a memento for you and your guests.
Pro – They Suit Small Weddings
If your guest list is short, then DIY wedding invitations are far less of a challenge to take on. As Karen of OneFabDay.com points out, you should practice your DIY process before embarking on doing a lot of them at once, “conveyor belt style.” With a small number of invitees, however, there won’t be as much pressure, and it’ll be easy to redo any mistakes.
Con – They Can Be Expensive
Even if you’re printing from home, the cost of ink and paper can quickly soar, “especially if you spring for high-quality paper and/or heavily saturated inks,” according to Brides.com. Unless you’re a graphic designer by trade, it’s also likely that there’ll be a mistake or two, which can increase costs further.
Con – They Take Time
With larger weddings – or even just with less time to spare – creating your own invitation suite can be onerous. Brides.com advises its readers to “give [themselves] time, grace, and patience when printing at home, because it can get a little complicated.” In other words, plan ahead and allow for setbacks; if you think it will take 2 weeks to accomplish something, then schedule for 3 as a precaution.
Con – They Can Be Less Accurate
Another disadvantage of making invitations yourself is that it can be hard to maintain consistency. When you order with Zazzle or another site, you’ll see an online preview of what you’re ordering, and with a commercial printing press, you can be sure that each card will be printed exactly the same way. On the other hand, with DIY invitations, you’re subject to the idiosyncrasies of your home printer and computer monitor.
Con – They Require More Skill
As the remainder of this article will prove, you don’t need to have a degree in Fine Art to produce high-quality invitations on your own; there are simple tricks and touches you can implement with easy-to-find, inexpensive supplies. However, there is a certain amount of finesse required, whether it’s with paper and pen or with Photoshop. If you find the task too daunting, you could try searching for wedding stationery templates and DIY tutorials, which will lay the groundwork for your design.
Wedding Invitation DIY Ideas
With these positives and negatives in mind, it’s time to make a fully informed decision: are you interested in becoming your own designer and manufacturer? If you’ve decided not to go down the conventional route, and you’d prefer your wedding invitations suite to have a tactile quality, then here are some suggestions about how to make that happen!
Paintbrush and Pencil
Our community of Independent Creators are a talented group, and there are thousands of templates available to choose from on Zazzle, regardless of what wedding product you need. However, digital art is only one way to fashion fashionable invitations; you could also order some watercolor paper, and add your own distinctive handiwork to the mix. Choose a slim paintbrush – or a set of watercolor pencils, if you’d prefer – and pay close attention to detail. You can also consult Pinterest for inspiration!
Stamps and Embossers
We’ve mentioned stamps and embossers at various points throughout this article, and that’s because they’re a surefire way of individualizing your wedding stationery suite. Personalized stamps and embossers – like those available on Zazzle – are inexpensive but distinctive; you could mark all of your wedding stationery with the same motif, thereby establishing your own wedding signature or ‘brand’! Before you design a stamp, though, watch our “Designing for Rubber Stamps” video on YouTube, and with embossers, you’ll get the best results by working with a custom embosser template.
Pen and Ink
Calligraphy – basically ‘writing-as-art’ – is an ancient practice, said to have originated in China around 200 BCE. You can continue this long tradition, then, by adding some well-inked script to your envelopes and cards, or by hiring a professional calligrapher to work on them, as The Knot.com suggests. You can teach yourself, too, or perhaps ask an artistic member of your bridal party to help you out; and of course, there are numerous online tutorials to watch on the subject.
Ribbon and Tape
One very easy way to upgrade your wedding stationery suite is with a well-placed ribbon or two. Instead of crossing the wedding invitation package with a belly band, tie it up with a luxurious ribbon, and it’ll also serve to hold everything together. Martha Stewart.com also proposes the option of using thin strips of gold foil tape to give your invitations a gilded, stately touch (but on a humble budget)! You could outline key details with this trick, or underline the attendees’ names.
Perfume and Flowers
This combination seems absolutely custom-made for weddings, doesn’t it? Just as you send out your wedding invitations or Save the Dates, give the envelope a spray with your best perfume. This mailman-mystifying idea is sure to put a smile on your guests’ faces, and even store-bought products can be enhanced with this fragrant touch.
Bride and wedding planner Jessa Davis shares 3 wedding invitation samples she ordered from Zazzle. From simple to boho, rustic to modern, browse thousands of DIY invitation templates.
That’s it: you’re now a wedding invitation suite expert, and there’s no doubt that each and every one of your guests will be impressed with your creations! Take a look at our “How to Upgrade Your Wedding Invitations” and “Unique Tips & Ideas for Wedding Invitations” articles for some final thoughts, and comment below if you have more ideas to share!
Eoin is a Content Specialist at Zazzle in Cork. He’s recently bought a house with his fiancée, and thus most of his time these days is spent trying to keep the walls from caving in and the wolves from the door. Still, he’s always open to book, game, and movie recommendations, so if you have some, let him know: he’ll add them to a very, very long list.
