Your wedding save the dates or invitations are the first glimpse your guests will get into your big day, and that means you often want them to pack a punch, be that with stunning calligraphy, gold foils or other elements that tie in with your theme.
But hold your horses, let's hear what the experts have to say! HELLO!'s latest money-saving column with UK Alliance of Wedding Planners (UKAWP) elite member Vaishali Shah of Ananya Cards explained that while some couples are excited to personalise their wedding stationery, it's not one of the elements they are able or wish to dedicate too large a proportion of the budget – and that's ok.
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There are lots of really impactful and easy ways that you can save costs, while still wowing your guests with gorgeous, luxurious and practical stationery. Join us as we explore the three main variables that affect the cost of wedding stationery: the design, the printing process, and the finishing touches.
1. Design
Some companies offer semi-bespoke designs can be customised
When it comes to design, keep in mind that if a stationer is creating a completely bespoke and unique suite for you, they will need to charge design time, which could be anything from £350 to £1,000+ – which varies depending on the experience level of the designer themselves.
If you love someone's style but don't feel you can afford a completely bespoke design, then it's a great idea to ask them whether they have any in-house collections of semi-bespoke designs that could be customised for you.
This means that you can reduce design costs and time by choosing an existing template that the stationer has already created, which can then be personalised with the colours and text that reflect you and your wedding.
Another tip is that having your wedding stationery printed with everyone's names and personalised information can ramp up costs quickly and significantly – so it's better not to personalise individual elements. There are also ways that stationery elements can double up in purpose: for example, you can combine place cards and menus into one. This would save you the cost of place cards, which are typically £2+ each.
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Finally, we suggest condensing the information to a single card for the invitations themselves if you want to reduce costs – and simply including a URL to your wedding website where you can include all the travel, accommodation, activities, RSVP, and dress code information; this allows you to reduce spending by not needing several additional inserts for each invitation suite.
2. Printing
Use one stationer for all of your save-the-dates and invitations
For the printing, there are a few tips for saving cost: the first is to try to order as much of your stationery at once as you can and to work with the same stationer for all your save-the-dates, invitations, and on-the-day pieces.
The reason this reduces price is that a lot of printers have minimum orders (generally 25+), and actually, it works out that the price per items decreases as the overall quantity increases.
One route for a more cost-effective stationery suite is to have online save-the-dates, to avoid the print costs, which can be sent to your guest list via email – and will typically save you anywhere between £2 - £5 per card.
If you are sending physical invitations, make sure you are only sending one per household, and ensure you are spending a good amount of time proofreading your text (and asking a friend to take another look too!) so you can avoid the extra costs associated with having to reprint anything with mistakes.
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There are also a few techniques that help keep costs down, such as printing single-sided instead of double-sided, digital printing instead of letterpress or embossing, using standard-size envelopes, avoiding hot/gold foiling, and choosing thinner card stock.
As an example, opting for specialist print techniques instead of digital would typically cost upwards of 30 per cent more per stationery order. With regards to timescales, the more notice you give your stationer, the better – as printers can often charge a premium for rush orders!
3. Finishing touches
Calligraphy and wax seals can increase the price
And finally, the finishing touches: by this, I mean elements like calligraphy (starting from £3.50 per invitation), wax seals (starting from £2.50 for non-bespoke wax seals), bellybands (starting from £1 per item), envelope liners (starting from £1.50), and all the pretty little details that can be added to a stationery suite once it's been printed.
A lot of couples choose to add these extra elements themselves, by learning how to do calligraphy and wax seals, for example, but this kind of arts and crafts isn't for everyone.
If you like the idea of the suite feeling that little bit more romantic, why not chat with your stationer about using fonts that are similar to hand-drawn calligraphy, and purchasing some non-bespoke adhesive seals?
We would say that, if you need to prioritise and balance the budget, it's much better to keep the save-the-dates and invitations simple, and then invest in more luxurious on-the-day elements like place cards, menus, signage, and so on, as guests are much more likely to notice and remember the details of the big day itself.
Check out UKAWP Member Vaishali Shah of Ananya Cards or follow her on Instagram @ananyacards for all your wedding planning needs.
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