5 Things to Consider When Creating Your Own Wedding Stationery

Many people who are passionate about pens tend to naturally be creative types, who are often keen to give a personal touch to everything that they do. I certainly fit in to this category! Calligraphy may also be your speciality, in which case you could feel it would be madness to pay someone else to do it for you, or miss out on the opportunity of flexing your artistic muscles. Or, being a creative type, the thought of sending out pre-made invite cards from your local WH Smith might fill you with horror!

Weddings are an expensive time, so many couples like to cut costs wherever possible. Invitations may look like an easy way to do that, as they can be pricey to have made. But are they actually cheaper to make yourself? Is it worth all the effort?

Here are 5 things for you to take in to consideration if you fancy trying your hand at making your own wedding stationery:

The Cost

It may seem like a cost-cutting option to make your own invites, but is it really? Craft supplies, including card, envelopes, pens and embellishments can mount up to quite a sum of money. Would you ever use the leftover crafty bits? If you’ve invested in a calligraphy pen, then I imagine you’ll have caught the bug and be rather keen to use it for all writing in the foreseeable future! Been there, done that, and still love my pen. But what about the other bits? You could re-sell items like stamps, but be prepared to make big losses, and the postage can often outweigh the profit in these situations.

The Time

Even if you were to design an invite entirely on the computer and print them all out at home, this could take a long time. However, if you are making your invites by hand, then be prepared for it to take a lot longer than you had ever imagined or planned for. Do you have help on hand? Could you ask your bridesmaids or relatives to help? The more the merrier in this situation, but do make sure everyone involved has the skills required! Talking of which…

The Creative Skills

You may be a creative at heart, but how are your invite-making skills, specifically? If you aren’t too fussy about the end result, then carry on regardless, but if you are a perfectionist, make sure you have the skills you need (along with everyone you ask to help you), or you may be really disappointed with the outcome. This could waste time, and end up in you ordering some or buying some at the last-minute. Also, when planning the design, don’t aim to create something spectacular if you know you will struggle with it – keep it simple and within your skill set. If you find out that calligraphy isn’t for you, head to the PC and get printing; this is still a cheaper and more personalised option than buying pre-made invitations.

The Materials

Quality is key here. There’s no point in going to the effort and expense of making your own stationery to then use materials which don’t reflect the type of wedding you are planning or which don’t match your theme. Many say that the envelope is key, as it is the first thing guests see when it lands on their doormat, so make sure yours are good quality and make the statement you want them to; be that classy, subtle, bold, hipster, or glitzy. Remember you can have as much fun with the envelopes as with the invites themselves.

Proof-reading

This is important for any invitations – be they printed to order, or DIY. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Craft a test invite first, so you know the design and copy is spot-on, and then – and only then – you can begin with the task of making the rest. Check all invites as you are enveloping them too, just to ensure no mistakes have occurred in the crafting process. Imagine if someone had written 25^th July instead of 5^th July on an invite; you’d potentially have one guest arriving more than 2 weeks after you’d said your ‘I dos’!

Did you make your own wedding invites? How did it go? Did you do your own calligraphy? Let us know in the comments below, or on our Twitter or Facebook pages.