Shopping for Wedding Stationery – Tips from 3 Bees Paperie

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White or color? Embossed or ribbons? Letterpress or offset? Purchased or DIY? Choosing wedding invitations can be an overwhelming and daunting task with the varied choices in paper, printing methods, and styles available. But shopping for your wedding stationery doesn’t have to be so difficult.

Deciding on a Budget

Your wedding stationery may represent a small percentage of your overall wedding budget, but your guests rely on your wedding invitations for coming to the big day. So make them count!

Make a list of all the stationery you need in addition to your wedding invites – menus, favors, place cards, thank you cards, etc. Make a note for each item on how much you want to spend. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with choices and go over budget. So start early and look around – the more you choices you find, the more likely you will find something perfect for your style and budget.

Don’t assume that if you have a small budget that you must create your stationery yourself. If you weren’t born with “crafty” genes, the time and energy you put into trying to create your stationery may be more than you bargained for and that leaves less time to plan the rest of the wedding and more time stressed out! Leave it to the professionals if cutting, pasting, and printing is not your thing.

Understanding Printing Styles

Printing techniques will impact your stationery budget and style. Here are a few of popular techniques available:

A relatively new technology, digital offset is a top-of-the line printer that mimics the quality of traditional offset presses. Whereas most digital printers use toners, digital offset uses liquid ink that dries directly into the paper. The result is flat printing but done quicker and cheaper than traditional offset printers. However, digital offset is limited by its paper choices and prints on weights no larger than 110 lbs. These presses cannot print on envelopes either.

Offset printing (or lithography) is a traditional printing method where ink sits flat on the paper. The presses transfer images from printing plates to a rubber blanket and then to paper. Unlike digital offset, offset printing can be used on any type of paper with any type of weight.

Letterpress has been around for hundreds of years, and hopefully hundreds more! This printing process creates images that are indented into the paper. The result – stationery that not only looks good but feels good too! Letterpress is best used on thick and soft paper. Letterpress, however, is not the best method for printing photographs and is a more expensive printing method than digital offset and offset.

Injecting your Personality

There is no reason why any wedding couple should be stuck with wedding stationery that they find boring or unappealing. After all, the wedding invitation is the first representation your guests receive of your special day. So make it yours and inject as much of your personality and wedding theme into your stationery as you want. You could use your wedding colors in your invites or incorporate some of the wedding day décor into your stationery. Beach wedding? Look for nautical or tropical designs. Offbeat couple? Look for quirky ways to symbolize the bride and groom. A grand gala? Add embellishments, like crystals, rhinestones, or ribbons to your stationery.

Proof, Proof, Proof!

How awful would it be to send out invitations with the couple’s names misspelled? Or worse – your in-laws! Believe it or not, misspellings and typos do happen. In the midst of wedding planning frenzy, you may overlook mistakes. Be sure to proof, proof, and proof some more! Get your friends and family members involved in the process to make sure your wedding stationery is just perfect!

All images from 3 Bees Paperie. 3 Bees Paperie is a wedding and social event stationery company inspired by South Asian designs. The company currently offers three collections: Couture Weddings, ready-to-order wedding stationery; Baby Bees, ready-to-order baby announcements; and Made for You, for custom stationery.

Planning Elegance would like to thank 3 Bees Paperie for submitting these wonderful tips and gorgeous pictures of their personalizable invitations!