Choosing your wedding stationery - what to consider

Well-designed, high-quality wedding stationery is a little obsession of ours. Although your invitations, menus, table numbers and the like may not sound like the most important part of your day, they’re such an easy way to tie your theme or colour scheme together, and to add some personality to your big day. So what should you bear in mind when you’re deciding what you want?

1.     First of all, remember that your save the date cards (if you choose to have them) or invitations will be the first clue anyone has as to what your wedding will be like. If you’d like to hint about your theme, now’s the time. If you want all your guests to know that your wedding will be simple and elegant, super romantic, or relaxed and non-conformist, your invites will do the work for you.

2.     Try to pick a theme or a feeling for your wedding before choosing the stationery. Even if you don’t want a ‘theme’ as such, at least decide if you want simple and elegant, colourful and fun, hugely romantic, or something different. If you send out bright, playful invitations and then your wedding features only neutral colours and is very minimal, your guests will be confused, and the rest of your stationery will look out of place.

3.     We always encourage our couples to spend a bit of money on stationery. If you’re on a tight budget, there are ways to save a little cash in other areas, but in our opinion it’s better not to cut corners here. Remember that if your stationery is great, it will effortlessly and subtly tie your whole wedding together, while badly-made or mismatched items will stand out like a sore thumb.

4.     Think about all the items you need, and make sure everything coordinates. Invitations are a given, but depending on you, your theme and your venue(s), you may need some or all of these other things; RSVPs, ceremony programmes, a table plan or escort cards (to direct guests to their tables), table numbers, place settings, guest book, maps to the ceremony, and/or from the ceremony to the reception venue, labels for the confetti flavours and/or favours, other signage (to the bathrooms, or to help your guests find their way to different parts of your venue), and of course: thank you notes.

5.     If you think invitations/menus/table plans could be a fun, DIY project: STOP! Unless you are a fantastic graphic designer with years of experience, the results will never be as you imagine. Don’t get me wrong, I love home-made and crafty touches to a wedding, I really do, but trust me when I say there are some things best left to the professionals! Table numbers and guest books, with the right planning and level of expertise, can be DIY’d, but please, please don’t risk it with anything as important as your invites.

6.     Remember that your stationery doesn’t have to be too matchy-matchy. It should co-ordinate without every piece looking exactly the same. A great stationery designer will know how to carry one colour, or a particular feature or theme across all aspects of your stationery.

Photo Credit: John Schnack Photography via greenweddingshoes.com

7.     There’s no hard and fast rule about when you should send your save the date cards or invitations. If you’re getting married close to home, you could even wait until 6 weeks before the wedding but a destination wedding, as you know, requires a little more notice! Depending on where you’re coming from, where exactly in Italy you’re getting married and at what time of year, guests may require more notice in order to keep flight prices low and guarantee finding enough space in local hotels. Especially if you’re coming from across the Atlantic, more notice might be the difference between your nearest and dearest being able to be there on your special day or not. Talk to your wedding planner about when the high or low seasons are in the region(s) you’re looking at if you want to guarantee the best prices for your guests.

8.     ENJOY the process. Choosing stationery is a great way to be creative, and although it does force you to choose themes & colour schemes and stick with them, when you find the perfect design for you, the sense of satisfaction will be worth it!