Your Wedding Made Simple

Arranging your own wedding can be stressful at times and wedding stationery is probably one of the hardest areas to come to a decision on.

Expect to allocate between 5% - 10% of your total budget for stationery, so take your time and get it right!

While your Wedding Invitation is the centre piece of your stationery, you will be surprised at how many wedding stationery items there are, so try not to let things get too complicated.

Take time to step back and think about what you actually need now, it is easy to get snowed under with too much detail at the beginning.

Wedding Stationery Printers are usually asked four main questions when they are first approached and the first is
So, how do I plan my wedding stationery successfully?

In buying property, we are all told it is down to Location, Location, Location!

In planning, it is down to Communication, Communication, Communication!

Discuss your thoughts and ideas with your Wedding Stationery Printer.

Use his expertise, after all you are probably doing this for the first time, he advises people as part of his daily working life.

It is his job to work with you and adapt designs from your ideas and creations and to advise you on what is possible.

He should help you become familiar with the wedding stationery printing process and timescales involved, this will help you determine your needs in advance and avoid unnecessary costs.

Correspond either by email or phone regularly with him, to ensure that you get exactly what you set your heart on and that any small issues are dealt with swiftly, before they escalate into a major crisis.

Establish a good working relationship with your Wedding Stationery Printer and no difficulty is insurmountable

So what stationery do I need?

Typically, stationery for the average wedding consists of Save-the-Date Cards, Wedding Day Invitations, Wedding Evening Invitations, Reply Cards, Order of Service Cards and Thank You Cards, so concentrate your efforts on these first.

Other items such as Menu Cards, Table Place Cards, Table Plans, Wedding Favours etc. can be addressed later when you have decided on a theme for your stationery.

When calculating how many cards to buy, order about 25% more than the number of guests you're inviting - you're bound to make mistakes or make last minute additions and don't forget to add the same amount of extra envelopes in case of errors in addressing.>More

What designs can I have on my stationery?

Wedding stationery can be bought in a choice of styles such as contemporary, classic, floral, layered, embossed and religious, to match the character of your wedding.

Many couples are going back to the traditional, formal look and featuring both sets of initials as monograms on the cards.

Wedding stationery is now available in a vast range of colours and designs, although stock stationery tends to be white or cream, traditionally the colour of your wedding dress.

You may decide to match the colour of your bridesmaids' dresses. In this case, consider custom designs.

This Bespoke Stationery can be very reasonably priced, depending on the card type and printing options requested and is often overlooked on the grounds that it may be too expensive. It very often isn't!

As with all other aspects of your wedding, your Wedding Stationery gives you an opportunity to reflect your own personal tastes and preferences.

Whatever you decide, this is your chance to make your invitations innovative and unique to your personal style.

How do I start sending out my invitations?

The Wedding Invitation is the first formal notification of your wedding to friends and family and forms the main area of your wedding stationery package.

Your guests will need to have their invite in plenty of time, so start work on your Wedding Invitations the moment the date, time and place of the Wedding have been confirmed. Aim to send them out at least three to six months before the service and make sure to include an RSVP deadline on your invitations.

However, if you think your guests will need more advance notice, especially if you are having a Destination Wedding or are inviting a lot of out-of-town guests, send Save-The-Date cards first.

This allows them to mark their calendars with your wedding date, while giving you extra time to arrange the main wedding stationery package.

Try to send Save-The-Date cards about six months prior to your wedding date or about four months before you send wedding invitations.

This is particularly important if travel to another country is involved, to allow for any visas, inoculations etc. that may be required.

If you are sending Save-The-Date cards, particularly for a Destination Wedding, don't forget to include important information like local hotels (and their room rates), flights, and car rental.

Make sure that you have one fully assembled invitation weighed and checked>More

Congratulations, on your forth coming wedding. Your boyfriend has proposed marriage and you have accepted.

Parents, family and friends have been given the great news.

The answers to the following questions will have to be taken into consideration before any wedding plans can be considered.

Is it to be a long engagement or a whirlwind romance

Have the parents of the bride been saving for years for their daughters wedding or have you caught them by surprise

Are you and your partner paying for some or all of the wedding

What is your budget

Is it going to be a formal church wedding or a civil ceremony

Of course you must have dreamt of this day a hundred times over and it's natural for you to be super excited. You probably know exactly what your ceremony must look like and you surely must have all the details ready in your head.

However the wedding also involves another person namely your partner and they must also have similar dreams and aspirations so make sure you discuss what you want you're wedding to be like with them in detail. Let this dream be a mutual one and not just the fulfilment of your wishes.

One of the first things you will have to consider is the time of year you wish to marry. Have you a date in mind?

Either way, whether it is to be a church wedding or civil ceremony, you will have to find out if your local church, registry office or any of the hotel's that now advertise civil ceremonies are available for the date you have in mind. This may be the first compromises in the planning of your wedding you will have to make.

It is a fact that the wedding reception gains the most number of discussions before the wedding. However, it is the actual ceremony where you must focus your attention. You will have to meet the officiate or the prospective officiates before the wedding ceremony to discuss any such requirements that you have before the wedding. In case the officiating person bears no relation to you, you must think out about your comfort level with him or her and if you would be happy to see this person as your officiator, because he carries out the most crucial part of the wedding. A wedding takes place between two people to make them man and wife, and the officiateor is the first person to declare this to the world. You should have a rapport before you make him an everlasting part of this happiest and closest moment of your entire life.>More

Having organised the place of the Wedding Ceremony, your next thoughts will probably be in organising the Wedding Reception. Within this area you will be considering several details all bought under the umbrella of the reception but the first thing to decide is where you want to hold the reception.

It may be wise to arrange a meeting with not only the bride and bridegroom but also the person/persons paying for the reception, so that numbers of guests and a budget can be agreed before meeting with the proprietor of the venue chosen. This will save time and possible embarrassment later.

If you are having a Civil Ceremony in a hotel, the wedding reception will probably have already been booked. If you chose a Church or Registry office then the place of the Wedding Reception will have to be decided upon. Taking into consideration the choice of venue, availability and size required considering the number of guests.

The proprietor of the venue will have a great deal of experience in the holding of a Wedding Reception in his establishment and will offer a good deal of advice and should take into account your requests.

You will need an idea of the time of arrival and how you want to greet the guests. Will you be at the entrance to welcome your guests and will they be offered a glass of champayne or something similar.

Planning the seating arrangement of guests can become a real headache. Knowing of any family rifts beforehand can save embarrassent. It may be a good idea to get together a small party of immediate family before the wedding to allow both sides to introduce themselves, preventing the segregation of brides family and bridegrooms family.

The bride and groom, parents/partners of both bride and groom, bestman and bridesmaids/pageboys would normally sit at the high table, with guests arranged within groups around the room, depending on size and shape of the room.

You should have an idea, following discussions with the proprietor of the venue whether to have a set, sit down menu or a buffet/banquet and whether this is to be a hot meal or cold. Any special dietry requirements if known should be given as soon as possible.>More

Over time it has become traditional to offer guests a thank you gift as appreciation for their participation in an important event.
Such gifts are quite often presented by way of favour boxes, which are used to hold personalised chocolates, sugared almonds, or other decorative treats as a gift for each gentleman or lady guest.

Although weddings are the most popular occasions, favours also add a personal touch to Anniversaries, Christenings, Birthdays and formal Dinner Parties.

Available in various styles and finishes, our favour boxes are a cost-effective and beautiful way of adding colour to your event or Wedding Reception tables.>More

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Envelope seals add the finishing touch to your Wedding Invitations, so why not leave a lasting impression by adding one of our elegant seals to the back of your invitation envelopes.
We have several styles, ranging from heart shaped designs to motifs depicting wedding couples - a stylish way to "seal" your invitation before sending it on its way to family and friends.

These tasteful adornments create lasting impressions, beautifully enhancing plain envelopes.
A must have for your Wedding Stationery!>More

A most popular wedding stationery accessories are bookmark style tassels.

They are offered in a variety of sizes and colours and are wonderful addition to wedding invitations, programs for events and any type of invitation.

Most tassel styles offer an adjustable slide making it easy for a custom fit and adding that stylish touch to the card.

They will attach to virtually any of wedding invitation and stationery designs (except the wallet versions) and are particularly attractive when used with ranges of cards that have acetate covers.>More