Stationery Style

Your wedding invitations will set the tone for the wedding and should therefore reflect the style and level of formality of the day. Choosing what style your wedding invitations will be is simply a matter of taste. You can find designs to suit all tastes and budgets from good stationers and local printers or you can buy some card and design your own.

Traditional weddings call for formal invitations whereas smaller, civil weddings can get away with a more modern style of invitation. The classic wedding invitation is simply type (no graphics), ideally engraved on good-quality white or cream card. The format is an upright, folded card with the wording on one side only. Black or silver lettering is the most popular. If you have chosen a traditional, specially-printed or engraved card, the guest's name is handwritten at the top left-hand side of the page.

For themed weddings, you might choose to have invitations that are in keeping with the theme. For example, a Tudor themed wedding might be complemented by a sixteenth century style invitation complete with a scroll font on parchment.

Personalised stationery

Personalised stationery is becoming more popular and really adds something to the image of the occasion. For completely bespoke stationery, you might like to commission a stationery designer. This is one way of putting a personal mark on your wedding but remember that it will almost certainly take longer to deliver than pre-printed items. Taking into account that invitations should be sent out no later than six weeks before the wedding and preferably eight to nine weeks before, a first consultation with the designer should really take place around four or five months before the wedding.

Prices will naturally be higher than for mass produced stationery but by how much will depend on the amount of work involved, the quality of the paper used and the number of items ordered. It is important to fix a deadline for completion and the price at the beginning in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.