What You Need to Know About Selecting Wedding Stationary

You’ve finalized your guest list and you’re ready to let friends and family know about your big day.  It’s time to start selecting and ordering your wedding stationary.

A variety of beautiful, stylized paper products communicate the messages and tone of your wedding.  Whether you choose the D.I.Y route or hire professionals to write and print your stationary, you have quite a few decisions to make.

Save-the-Date Cards

Save-the-date cards are not required, but they are a becoming more common and they are certainly a welcomed courtesy “heads up.”

If you are inviting out-of-towners or hosting a destination wedding, save-the-date cards will give your guests plenty of notice to make travel arrangements.  Also, if you are planning a wedding on a holiday weekend, make sure guests know about your wedding before they make other plans.

Preferably, your save-the-date cards will match your wedding’s color scheme and style, but it’s not necessary.  The most important thing is to start spreading the word about your wedding as soon as possible —  6-8 months in advance — to ensure those you really want to attend can.

Wedding Invitations

If your save-the-date cards haven’t already done so, your invitations will introduce your guests to the style, colors, and formality of your wedding.  Invitations set the tone and begin spreading the vibe of one of the most important days of your life.  So go for the highest quality invitation your budget allows.

Browse online galleries and head over to your local wedding stationary designer with some ideas in mind.  He or she will guide you through the selection process, allowing you to view and feel paper, printing, embossing, and embellishments. You’ll want to incorporate your style while keeping your selections sophisticated and simple.

Whether your wedding is casual or formal, make sure you do research on how to word your invitations.  Wedding invitations are one of the last-remaining holdouts where most people are still strict sticklers for proper etiquette.

Are you going to address the envelopes yourself?  Enlist the help of your wedding party? Hire a calligrapher?  These are all decisions you’ll need to make early-on to give yourself plenty of time.  Avoid the stress of a last-minute, scribbling, hasty  rush.

Wedding Day Stationary

The day of your wedding calls for several printed stationary items to communicate must-know information to your guests.

You may choose to make your wedding programs beautiful keepsakes to commemorate your special day.  Programs will allow guests to follow the ceremony, and will also serve as a way to explain the religious and cultural wedding traditions you choose to incorporate.  You might also include other elements, such as song lyrics, poems, memorials to deceased loved ones, wedding party bios, and notes of appreciation.

Other matching wedding day stationary you’ll need to select include personalized escort cards, menu cards and table name cards.

Overall, your wedding stationary gives you a chance to express your individuality and creativity.  Your stationary is an important design element of your wedding, so take the time to carefully consider the look and feel.

If you are planning a wedding the Atlanta area, contact The Special Occasion for full-service wedding planning and consultation.  We will help you locate a wedding stationary designer and  make selections that suit your taste and budget.