If you are in any stage of the wedding planning process then you know that weddings are expensive. Since for most of us money isn’t growing on trees in our back yards, we have to find ways where possible to save money on our weddings.
As a stationery designer of almost 15 years, I’ve seen a huge increase in couples looking for “cheap” wedding invitations and in recent years “cheap” has become DIY. While that’s great and we offer beautiful designs to those customers as well, there are drawbacks to doing your own stationery if you don’t know what you are doing or don’t take time to do your homework.
The original idea for this post came a couple years ago after overhearing a bride-to-be talking with a nearby vendor at a wedding expo. She was sharing with the vendor how she ordered the cutest heart-shaped save the dates from a stationery company online. They came with square envelopes that looked so unique, but when she went to the post office to mail them, she had to pay extra postage for her square envelopes.
She ended up buying standard envelopes to mail her save the dates in so she didn’t have to pay for more postage. This made me cringe because in the end she probably spent more money buying new envelopes than if she had just payed the extra money for postage.
What’s even worse is that the entire issue could have been avoided had she hired a professional stationery designer or at least did enough research that she didn’t buy from a mass production stationery retailer where a real person could have explained all this to her before she spent any money.
I realize hiring a professional stationery designer for your wedding stationery isn’t for everyone, but there are some pretty convincing reasons why your wedding invitations maybe shouldn’t be an area you should DIY for your wedding.
5 Reasons to Hire a Professional Stationery Designer for your Wedding Invitations
Stationery Designers are professionals in their field and know a lot about Wedding Invitations
Whether you realize it or not, there are a lot of things to know about wedding invitations. From standard sizing to weights, what envelopes to use and what papers can be printed by what type of printing method.
Many stationery quality papers are too thick to be printed on a home printer and many copy shops like Kinkos or Staples have very limited options when it comes to paper.
Card stock off the shelf is not generally stationery quality paper and can make your invitations look and feel cheap.
Online printers don’t give you many paper options either. They also often times specialize in business cards and brochures so they don’t have the artistic quality that wedding invitations usually have.
There is also the issue of etiquette and proper invitation wording. Just because you found a picutre online of a particular wording, doesn’t mean it’s right or should be used on your invitations.
Weddings, whether formal or casual, still require a formal invitation that is to be worded properly and provide your invited guests the information necessary for them to know whether they can attend or not.
Your wedding invitations set the tone for your wedding day. They clue your guests into the type of day your are planning, help them figure out how to dress and so much more.
Example: Last year my husband and I were invited to a co-worker’s wedding. The invitations were beautiful and very formal. There was also a note at the bottom that said “semi-formal” attire.
As a wedding pro, I knew that semi-formal attire meant cocktail dresses and suits but it turned out that the couple just wanted people to know not to show up in jeans or shorts. It was outside of a barn at a historic farm, not the kind of place to be wearing high heels and fancy dresses.
That was a very confusing mistake that could have been avoided had they worked with a professional over doing them themselves.
Professional stationery designers have the creativity and knowledge to create something unique.
Wedding invitation design is more than just putting some fonts and some artwork together on a sheet of paper.
A stationery designer is going to know how to put fonts together that work and are easily readable.
They are going to know how to choose fonts based on the formality of the wedding and the wedding style.
They will have access to unique art or will be able to create custom artwork for the invitations that are created for you for your special day.
As mentioned with experience, stationery designers know how to work with printers and about different printing techniques that will best fit the invitation and your budget.
A professional stationery designer can help ensure quality for your invitations.
If I could give just one reason why you should hire a stationery designer for your wedding invitations it would be because of quality.
Your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event and your wedding invitations are one of the few things that will last beyond the day and most likely become a keepsake for you, your family and close relatives.
While invitations may not be where every couple chooses to splurge, they are a very important part of the day. There is so much to consider when it comes to creating wedding invitations.
An experienced designer has the skills and experience to create beautiful designs but they can also help make sure the best paper options are used, the best envelopes are selected, that they are printed by a quality printer as well as pick the right color palette.
Also, because of their experience, they can help couples make these decisions based on their budget. We are experienced professionals after all.
Professional Stationery Designers can save you time.
Planning and preparing for your wedding is time consuming especially when you plan to incorporate DIY projects.
We are all for DIY projects but not usually for your wedding invitations. Wedding invitations take a lot of time to get the design right, from the right wording, to the best layouts and designs, selecting papers and envelopes, etc. Once they are printed, they need to be trimmed to size and then any embellishments added. This is a very long, tedious and time-consuming process especially when every single one needs to look perfect. This is your wedding day after all and anything less than perfect is not acceptable.
A professional stationery designer knows how important your wedding day is. They are pros at making sure your invitations are perfect down to the last detail and when there is something not quite right, they are there to mix things so that you don’t have to.
Professional Stationery Designers can save you stress and tears.
We understand that budgets are important. Unfortunately, far too often couples fail to see at first that there comes a point where the additional stress of trying to do everything themselves just to save a few dollars isn’t worth it.
Consider all the wedding planning decisions and things that needs to be done in the months to come. Remember that this is a time for joy, not stress and anxiety. Stationery designers like us are here for this very reason. We want to help couples achieve their dreams for their wedding by helping take some of the stress off your shoulders.
Weddings are expensive, they take a lot of time to plan and it can all get to be very stressful. DIYing things for your wedding is great and we love to see the things that couples create for their own weddings.
Despite budgets, there are some things that are best not to do yourself and to actual budget for.
Whether you hire Raspberry Creative or one of the many other amazing stationery designers out there, find one that you like, that you get along with, that speaks to your own style and let them do what they do best!
