Not sure if you’re ready to order your wedding invites? As you’d expect, I have lots of conversations with couples about the details they need to finalise before they order wedding invites and stationery.
It’s surprising how many don’t realise they can book me to make their invitations and stationery with relatively little detail about exactly what and how many of each they need.
I always encourage my couples to book productions slots with me (that just means reserving the time in my schedule) for personalised invitations and stationery as early as they can. This ensures that I have the production space ready to make what they need, when they need it. This can be up to two years ahead of the big day.
Guess what? You don’t need to have all the details for your wedding invites & stationery finalised in order to do this.
Early on in your wedding planning it’s more about finding someone who you feel excited about working with and that can make the style of wedding invites and stationery that you like. So, to explain a little more, here are a four of those details that you DON’T need to know before you can book your production slots and order wedding invitations and stationery with me.
1. You don’t need to know the exact colour scheme before you order wedding invites and stationery with me
Colour scheme doesn’t generally affect the cost of your personalised wedding invitations and stationery. Whether I print floral style invitations in pink, blue or green, this has no bearing on the price of them.
Now, there are some details that will, for example if you wanted a non-standard ribbon colour, specialist foil printing, or a custom shade of envelope. But, this wouldn’t stop you being able to order with me. I will be able to give you a price for different options and you would only need to confirm your final colour scheme once you’ve seen proofs and you’re ready for me to start printing.
Read more about including your wedding colours on your invites and stationery
2. You don’t need to know the EXACT numbers of invitations or other stationery items before you book with me
I price all my wedding invites and stationery in ‘eaches’. I believe you should be able to order the exact quantity you need (including a few spares of course) be that 23 or 107.
To book in your order I just need a best estimate of how many of each item you’re likely to need, so ‘about 50’ or ‘around 75’ is good enough. Only once you approve your proofs and I’m ready to print will you need to confirm the exact numbers required. That’s when I’ll invoice you for the balance due.
Click here for my blog on how to work out how many invitations you need
3. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t settled on the exact wording before you order wedding invites
Chances are that, a year to 18 months before your big day you won’t be 100% sure about all the details that need to go into your wedding or evening invites, let alone all that on the day stationery.
But it doesn’t matter. When I book in your order all I need to know is the approximate number and style (pocketfold, concertina or flat) of invitation you’d like so that I can block out the production time in my schedule and begin to plan materials. Same goes for on the day stationery.
We’ll finalise all the printing details around 6 weeks before you actually need them. And, if you’re already booked in with me i.e. you’ve paid your deposit to reserve a production slot, you’ll get handy email reminders to send all those details at just the right time, so you don’t miss any deadlines!
Click here for useful tips on how to word your wedding invitations
4. I won’t need the names for your table plan or place cards when you book in and order your on the day stationery
While you might have a good idea of the guests you hope will be at your wedding, it’s impossible to be 100% sure until much nearer the time. As with invitations, the only details I need to know to book you in for wedding day stationery, are the approximate numbers and items that you need.
For example; about 100 place cards, 10 menus, and a table plan. Once you get all your replies back and know exactly who is coming you’ll finalise these details with me and it might become 97 place cards, 11 menus and a table plan. It’s these final numbers that you will be invoiced for (around 6-8 weeks before the wedding) and the names that you give me then are what will be printed.
And yes, once you’ve reserved your production slots you’ll get those reminders from me when all the details are due.
What names should you use on your table plan and place cards
So there you are, 4 details that you don’t need to know before you order wedding invitations and stationery with me. In the earlier stages of wedding planning it’s all about getting the suppliers you want to work with on board and getting your name and date in their diary.
To recap, the 4 things I don’t need to know before you order your wedding invites:
1. exact design or colour scheme
2. exact numbers
3. exact wording for invitations
4. or all the details for your on the day stationery
to book a production slot for you, or even to give you an approximate price. I will only need to confirm the design before I give you a firm price. Then, numbers, printing and colour scheme details can all be finalised just before I start making.
If you are just starting out planning your wedding invites, go and get my free wedding stationery guide, checklist and planner. It will help you to work out what items you might need, how many of each, and when to order them.
I know that one of the first things you’ll want to know is how much do wedding invites cost. Well, you can have a look at my current price guide for wedding invitation and stationery here. And my blog about why this can sometimes be a really tricky question to answer – How much do personalised wedding invites cost?
And while this blog is all about the things you don’t need to know, I also have one all about the questions you DO need to answer before you order wedding invitations with me.
If you’re ready to start looking for your perfect personalised handmade wedding invitations and stationery have a look around my design collections and GET IN TOUCH if you’d like to make an appointment to have a chat.
Not ready to get anything booked in just yet? Find me on Instagram or Pinterest where I post daily inspiration and tips.