The Basics of Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations set the theme of the entire wedding with the style and design of your invitations indicating to your guests what to expect on the day. The wording of the wedding invitations is extremely important as it will convey to your guests the dates and times and the type of wedding you are having. It is therefore important to ensure that your invitations reflect who you are.

Begin by shopping around for invitations. This may include looking at wedding invitations online, comparing wedding invitations you have received or visiting several invitation stores for ideas. Keep in mind what colours, fonts, sizes and media you wish to use.

Determine what the trends are or what kind of style you are after. Will your wedding invitations be contemporary, romantic or informal? What colours will be used in your wedding? Your colour palette will depend largely on what you have in mind for the wedding. The wedding invitations should compliment your decorative plans for the day and the same or similar design should be used for envelopes, reply cards, name cards, wedding programs and all stationery that will be used on the day.

As a general rule of thumb wedding invitations should make up 2-5% of the wedding budget. Prices range enormously depending on the type of invitation you want, the type of paper you are using and the quantity in which you require it, however there are many cheaper alternatives which are just as effective and look as stunning. So whatever your budget, there is an invitation to suit!

In addition to the wedding invitation you may also want to send your guests a map of how to get there and accommodation in the area. Reply cards and Wedding gift registry information cards can also be included.

Insider's Guide to wedding invitations

Welcome to this edition of the Wedding Indsider's Series, Wedding Invitations. Wedding Invitations set the theme of the entire wedding with the style and design indicating to your guests what to expect on the day.
Invitation Types

So if you decide to leave the invitation creation to the professionals, there are many different options to consider with just as many different price points.

Digital Printing - The simplest and cheapest form of custom invitations. This process is about choosing a design either online or in the store, customizing the text, fonts and layout as well as the card style and paper types and having them printed. The biggest advantage with this is that the designs are only limited by your imagination as basically anything can be printed.

Thermography - A bit of a rarity in Australia, this is a fairly specialized process where heat is used to raise the ink above the paper, giving it a sort of reverse-engraved effect.

Letter Press - A beautiful and traditional process which has actually been around for hundreds of years. This is done on a Gutenberg style press where your design is laid out in a mould then pressed against your choice of paper (usually quite thick) for an engraved look. This is a beautiful option but does require a lot of hands-on work and together with the initial set-up fee can become costly.

Hand Made/Multi-Layered - This style of invitation is beautifully unique and also the most labour-intensive depending on the design. Again, the design can be as simple or as complicated as you like it to be but typically will also be the most expensive if it is a very complex design requiring a lot of hand-work.

We tend to find that the more labour-intensive the invitation design, the more they can cost per unit. Digitally printed designs give you the most flexibility and have the fastest turn around time because the majority of hands-on time is the design phase rather than the creation phase.

Hand-made/multi layered designs, letterpress and thermography can easily cost over $10 per unit and we have even seen some for as much as $30 per invitation and that is before the cost of envelopes and other cards that form the set such as RSVP cards, Thank you cards, Place cards and Gift Registry cards are incorporated. This is another factor to consider if you want to create your own invitations as you will have to create all of these cards too!

So best thing to do from here is chat to some We dding Invitation Suppliers. Some will have shops where you can go in for a design consultation and others will be online based. A bit of online research will go a long way and as usual we would love to hear what you have found and what you think will work best for your wedding. Post your findings on our Facebook Page or email us to keep us in the loop!