Wedding stationery – then and now

by lesleywebb | Apr 18, 2020 | 0 comments

I’ve always loved designing wedding stationery – seeing a comprehensive suite of stationery come together, picking card and paper stock, ribbon, envelopes and seals. How times have changed though! I have been looking back fondly at suites I produced a decade ago – and what I’ve produced more recently.

Swept away… 2002

This beautiful couple had a whirlwind romance (literally – Graeme is an avid storm chaser!) and after a spectacular engagement in Langkawi, decided to get married at the beautiful Mudbrick Vineyard on Waiheke Island.

Navy Silver Wedding Invitation Jigsaw Puzzle Swept away

Navy Silver Wedding Map Waiheke Mudbrick Vineyard

The theme for the suite was “getting swept off your feet” – so I drew a simple little tornado to illustrate the elegant navy and silver pieces. Save-the-dates were mailed in the form of little chocolates in bags with a teaser card. Following on from that, Vanessa wanted to do something unique for the invitations – so had some clever little jigsaws made to post out to guests along with detailed information cards about transport and accommodation.

Navy Silver Wedding suite with swept away theme

Navy Silver Wedding Menu Folders and place setting cards

Personalised menus and handmade folders were made for the reception, which were tucked into napkins. A guest book cover and venue signage were completed for consistency. And lastly, thank you cards were made when the photos came through.

You’ll note that back in 2002, digital printing was still coming along – expensive and not the kind of quality we can expect now. Hence this suite was printed in black on our in-house Canon CLC on premium stock. We hand cut, folded and glued the menu holders and attached the place cards to the front – sized to work with the table settings.

wedding thank you card silver with heart drawn on beach

Navy Silver Wedding Favour Chocolate in small bag

Leaf motif… 2005

Why yes, that’s my own. A bit further on in late 2005, I married my love and did my own wedding stationery. I settled on using the leaf motif, and the pale blue and white theme grew from my pale blue wedding dress. We were married at the beautiful Cassels in Waitakere (now Tui Hills).

I picked a DL card format, with a matching RSVP card for the invitations – going with a solid blue contrast. These were printed offset in spot colour on premium cardstock, as I had a great working relationship with one of my printers, and was able to get these at a good price.

wedding invitation dl card blue and white with leaf motif

wedding invitation dl card blue and white with leaf motif and rsvp card

Place names and menu cards were created in the same style, and as one unit (name at the top, menu and thank you details below and tucked into folded napkins. We DIYed the Guest Book too to fit with the style and utilise the same pearl stock I’d used for the place settings. These were all printed digitally in spot colour (again in-house on a Canon CLC and hand trimmed).

wedding guest book spiral bound with leaf motif

wedding guest book spiral bound with leaf motif inside pages

Best day ever… 2016

Fast forward – the world of wedding stationery passed me by while I was busy being a new mum and doing corporate work. So I was delighted to be asked to do a few more weddings over the past year – most notably Kate & David’s stunning suite of stationery.

wedding welcome sign on plywood with garland

Pinterest delivers up so much inspiration and wedding stationery goodness that it’s hard not to do all the things. Well actually – not hard at all! Kate really did create an amazing wedding experience for their guests – beautiful invitations, plywood signage, menus and treat bags to name a few – read more about the full suite here. The wedding was held at the stunning Kelliher Estate on Puketutu Island in Mangere.

bespoke watercolour wedding invitation with custom envelope

wedding order of service booklets, kraft with black satin ribbon

wedding i spy game cards tied in ribbon on table

wedding menus in luxurious table setting with flowers

Resources… and DIY

Kate is a talented artist and created her own watercolour illustrations which I scanned and worked up in Photoshop – but what if you don’t have those skills? The good news is there is a huge amount of ready-to-use resources available via Creative Market (affliate link*). All the building blocks of a beautiful suite can be purchased (fonts, illustrations, even ready-made layouts) – all you need is a designer to bring it all together.

I’ve pulled together some wedding stationery inspiration over on Pinterest – I’m always adding to this when I stumble across something beautiful.

If a bespoke creation is not in your budget – here are some ideas for DIY wedding stationery:

Buy a printable invitation and have it printed at your local print shop
Check out a wedding stationery specialist and purchase an off-the-shelf suite (check out www.mycards.co.nz)
Purchase a pre-made template and get a designer to personalise the details for you (see my collection on Creative Market*, or look at Etsy)
Purchase stationery supplies from Spotlight or Warehouse Stationery and create your own using your home printer.
Have a look at this Pinterest board for more ideas!

(*this post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission on any sales made.)