How to Create Your Own Wedding Stationary

Creating your own wedding stationary is an excellent way to put your personal mark on your wedding and save some money while doing so. After designing your wedding stationary, you may opt to print it yourself or make use of a local printing company.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wedding stationary samples
• Graphic design software (optional)
• Paper

1. Look through samples of wedding invitations to get a feel for what you like and what you don't like about their design. Wedding stationary that you like, whether the design, type of paper, or other aspect, may be helpful as inspiration for your own design.

2. Determine your wedding's style. This will help determine which fonts, illustrations, and type of paper you should use. For example, the invitation to a beach wedding may be more informal than one for a black-tie wedding.

3. Decide what size you would like your wedding invitation to be. Popular paper sizes include A7 (5 inches by 7 inches) or #10 (3.875 inches by 9.25 inches) for invitations and 4 bar (3.5 inches by 4.875 inches) for response cards.

4. Develop a color scheme for your wedding invitations. These colors will be used in your fonts and graphic elements, and may also influence your paper and envelope color choices.

5. Use a graphic design software program to design your stationary. To embellish your design, consider using free clipart or royalty-free art available online from websites such as istockphoto.com.

6. Choose a font set for your wedding stationary. Graphic design software typically comes with a wide variety of fonts; you may opt to buy new fonts or search online for free fonts if none of the fonts you have appeal to you.

7. Determine whether you will include a separate information card or reception card with your invitation.

8. If you expect to receive RSVPs by mail, be sure to design a response card that includes space for the names of guests and preferred entrees, if necessary.

9. Proofread your wedding stationary. Also enlist a friend to help proofread; what looks perfectly correct to you may in fact contain a misspelling or missed word.

10. Choose the paper for your wedding stationary. Look for heavier cover weight papers for your invitation and response cards; you may opt for a lighter paper type for information cards.

11. Determine whether you will print your wedding stationary yourself or if you will have it printed professionally. Professional printing companies can offer a variety of options, including engraving, thermography, or flat-printing services.

12. If you opt to print your wedding stationary yourself, you may choose to use your home printer or you could use a screenprinting technique such as Gocco or Yudu printing. These latter two types of at-home printing require special equipment and accessories.

13. If you opt to use a professional printer, be sure to get a quote first and have the printer do a test run to make sure everything prints to your specifications.

14. Decide whether to add embellishments to your wedding stationary. For example, you may want to add a vellum overlay or a decorative sash to your invitation.

Tips & Warnings

• When deciding on your font set, try to limit yourself to no more than three different fonts. This will ensure that the pieces of your wedding stationary tie together and it makes for a cleaner and less-confused graphic design.
• Do not wait until the last minute to design your own wedding stationary. Ideally, you should have your invitations in hand at least two months prior to your wedding date to allow time for addressing and mailing them out.

References

• Do-It-Yourself Invitations
• Free Font Source
• Illustration Source

Resources

• Paper and More
• Paper Source
• Jam Paper