Invitations....

Hi

It all depends on the design really. Do you have a lot going on in the front? Embellishments etc?

That will dictate the price quite significantly.

Nat

Hi Excitedbride,

I'm a stationery HIB on here, so I'm going to give you some advice from a supplier's point of view, I'm sure some of the brides will be along with their advcie too!

Can I firstly suggest that you see samples of any stationery before you agree to anything? The quality varies dramatically and you must make sure you are getting what you want for your money.

The price of invitations varies dramatically and obviously it depends on the materials, design, quality etc. Pocket style invitations are usually a bit more expensive but are a great idea for sending additional information.

Have a REALLY good look at lots of stationery sites, order samples of a few that really grab you, ask about colour options, timescales etc. Ask if the designer can adapt the design to suit you - most will. You also need to consider if you prefer a hand finished style or a more contemporary or printed style. Do you have a particular theme and do you want to include this in your stationery?

If you want to look at DIY options, then I can highly recommend www.pdacardandcraft.co.uk for pockets, card, paper and envelopes.

Also www.craftcreations.co.uk for paper card etc.

www.imaginedoingityourself.co.uk for pockets, embellishments and card

www.thehandcraftedcardcompany.co.uk

And some great stationery sites to look at too:

My site: www.millieandme.net

The wonderful Suzanne: www.prettywild.co.uk

www.lucyledger.com (fabulous vintage style designs)

www.twobytwoweddings.co.uk

www.perfectmatchdesigns.co.uk

www.xoxo-wedding.co.uk

www.twenty-seven.co.uk

Have a look through the suppliers directory on here too, there are lots of excellent stationery HIBs on here (I can never remember all the websites though!)

Please shout if you have any questions.

Nicky

Hello,

I do think that is a lot of money but if you have the money and do not have the time to spend on making invites then why not??!! I am making my own, it is taking forever (I get bored quickly and only make a few at a time) and I have saved money by doing it. I have made my own RSVP's and typed up the inside of the invite. I have gone for the simple yet effective look, I used real pressed flowers so each card is a little bit different! I hope this message helps. x

t

I was quite shocked at the price of stationary, so decided to do it ourselves. I did regret doing it ourselves purely for the time involved in trying to design them. In the end i gave up and went with a simple design and made the day ones on Ivory Card with red snowflakes, and the evening ones on Black card with sparkley snowflakes.

They do look home made, but i'm just glad they're done now! They'll be going out later this week! Yay!

I just have to clarify when people say they get "Shocked" at the price of stationery and have to explain that it is not always the case.

The amount of work that goes into producing quality stationery is phenominal and some people don't see this at times.

Consider 50 pocketfold invitations as an example:

1. Making the actual pocketfold - even if you buy ready cut, they still need folding and gluing up usually. If you want a printed design, pocketfolds dont tend to go through many printers so they either need to be printed and cut individually or the design built up.
2. Then there is the design. How detailed is this? Made up of multiple layers? Embellishments?
3. Onto the inside - an insert plus 3 information cards for 50 pocketfolds = 200 pieces of card plus 200 printed cards. These need printing, gluing and cutting and then sticking together one by one.
4. Then we need to finish the pocketfold - velcro dots if needed, adding all the information card in and sticking in the insert. This is hours of work!!
5. You also need to consider the tools used. I've spent years saving for the equipment to make my range as diverse as possible. Foiling, cutting intricate designs etc all involves the use of these tools
6. Then there are the consumables - blades/cutting mats/Guillotines/double sided tape/glue etc
7. Then what about the hourly rate of the stationer? I can assure you that most stationers will not even charge themselves minimum wage when pricing up these invites!!
8. What about all the other work that goes on in the background? Emails/proofs/samples etc? All adds up and I bet a lot of stationers don't charge for this time.

Would you think twice about going into a card shop and paying £3.99/£4.99 for a birthday/anniversary card that is mass produced?

Just food for thought really.

Nat

I have to say that Having made my own invites, i'm very aware of how much time goes into making them. I hated doing it, but i'm glad they're done now, and i actually quite like the home-made look they all have!

But for a new bride to be who has no clue about these things, it's unsurprising that they are shocked at the cost. I think once they look at the options available and delve deeper into it, they do realise why it cost's so much.

Hi,

I was going to be a DIY bride for my invitations but didn't in the end because I didn't have enough time. It's not just about the materials though, it's the skills involved and time involved in making up the items. If anything you are paying for the time that someone will put into making everything up and the tools. For stationery companies you are paying for the special printer they use, assuming they have a better one than normal run of the mill ones, so consider that before thinking the prices are too much. So even though a design is £3.50 each it might take 30-45 mins to make one invitation depending on the design so well under the min wage. It's the same for tiaras as one of my designs may cost £25 in materials but the customer is paying £70 but it's taken me 5 hours to make so my hourly wage is only £9 and that includes the time spent discussing designs, the skill I've spent years learning etc.

If your wedding is costing thousands of pounds then is £285 for first impressions too much...it's such a personal decision.

I used Prettywild for my invitations and the quality was amazing and she was worth every penny. I wouldn't have paid for some companies though because the designs weren't worth it so just like Millie and Me said you need to search around and make sure the quality is worth it in your mind. If you like you can make something of similar quality and have hours and hours of spare time then you'll get a huge amount of satisfaction.

I've seen some designs made by brides on here that are fabby and look very professional and far better than some stationery companies so it's not always the case that paying someone will give you a better result so have a play around yourself, get samples etc before deciding.

x

Wow - these are lovely!!!

These look lovely too :-)

They are amazing and shows what can be done if you have the time and skill. I wouldn't even know where to start with drawing something like this so you have a fab talent there.

Again I'm going the DIY route, so can't comment on the pros prices. But it has taken aaaaages to finally decide on a design (and in the process probably spent about £20 on sample papers/ cards etc). Originally we were going to do a pocketfold invite, but decided it was going to be too time consuming to get the formatting/ sizes right etc. So have now simplified the design to a little book, sewn together with ribbon and it is going to work out as about 50-60p per invite (inc envelope), and 5 minutes max each to make. This is using really lovely high quality spangly card and paper courtesy of PDA, but it is a simple design with no embellishments or anything.

Would say it is definitely worth considering whether you have the time available to put into DIY - If not, then it might be worth paying extra to have pros do them! I guess it just depends on how much extra ?

Hi excitedbride,

I would like to recommend Emma at designs2treasure.co.uk. I was quoted £3.50 and £4.00 for a pocketfold invite from 2 other companies and she was able to do exactly the same for much less. And I have received a sample and they are AMAZING.

x

Having heard many horror stories about the stress & time it takes to do your own invites - and giving that we invited 180 to our reception and a further 200 to our evening do...there was no way I was going to make my own. Too much hassle & time when things are hectic enough. I firmly believe in using professionals & letting those who are qualified do what they do best - Im not crafty at all & I really hate invites that are shoddily made - they just look cheap & without effort. Invites totally set the tone for your day.

Our invites were pocketfold, included a rsvp, addressed envelope & gift list info. The pocketfold was the same material as they grey shimmery floral pattern and when guests opened it the back of our gift list card was on display saying:

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

Everyone commented on how beautiful, classy & elegant our invites were. My colours were charcoal grey, lipstick pink, ivory & silver. So I was hinting towards the colour scheme whilst giving nothing away!

All together, day invites, evening invites, order of service, table name place setting & our thank you cards (which we got @ wkend & MUST start writing this wkend!) came to around a grand. Money well worth it IMO.

seems a bit pricey for the day invitations, plus as a wedding stationery designer, I am shocked that you have to pay extra for the envelopes....they usually come with the invitations!

That price seems about right, however it obviously depends on whetehr or not they are of a good quality! Shop around and compare prices before committing!

Tbh its hard to say if they are expensive or not, without actually seeing them; seeing the work that has gone into them and the quality of the materials used. But sounds about right although agree with Jayne I would expect that to cover envelopes unless you were given the option of different quality envelopes at an add-on price

Thanks for the recommendation Porche xx

Anniepie - I think I love you ? Although I think you'll find less designers and companies offering free samples now as these too, cost to make & send - free sample services can be very open to abuse unfortunately.

Excellent advice from Nicky & Natalie - there are so many stationery companies around that the quality of designs and finish will vary enormously. Even different print methods will command different prices.

As a ballpark figure, £3.50 for a day invitation with a guest info card and RSVP card, with a pocket seems very reasonable to me, (and £20 for 110 envelopes works out as approx 18p per invitation.) I would struggle to find even the flimsiest, mass-produced, generic birthday card for that on the High Street, let alone a 3 piece invitation set. Bear in mind that wedding stationery orders are usually personalised so will include layout/proofing time for each part (as well as the time spent physically making or finishing) with proofs provided as hard copies/PDFs. So when I see these 'stationers' (partic. on Ebay) offering invitations for 40p or £10 seating plans (for example) they are frankly doing all professional, creative companies/designers a disservice by grossly undervaluing the service & skill we provide – it probably says more about how little they value their own products, their confidence of ability/skill and the minimal time they can afford to spend on them.

BTW I have no problem with people making their own if they wish to do so. Just wanted to defend professional stationery company prices

Hi, excitedbride!

I was just going to reply when I noticed Nat from Inspire Me Designs already replied - I was going to recommend her as when we got into financial difficulties last year after already ordering our Save the Dates from a different company, she stepped in and saved us! The guests can't tell they are not from the same range, on the contrary, they thyought our invites were even nicer than the expensive Save the dates!

Our lovely invites from Nat (she used a photograph taken by my OH):

The Save the Dates from Imagine:

I much prefer Nat's! I recall this same company charging me £95 for a Table Plan. nat contacted me asking whether I wanted it diamond-encrusted or something for that price!!! LOL

Just to reply to the OP: No, I consider that price reasonable. My CBM paid nearly £500 for her invites and placecards only! OK, granted, she had 100 day guests and 190 evening guests.

Well I too sometimes charge around that price (and more) for certain style seating plans of mine because of the sheer amount of work that go into designing & artworking them in Illustrator & Photoshop, and includes getting them printed on canvas or framed. Charges are not always indicative of the embellishments added but can be due to the design & prep work involved and prints.

Just to point out, that company wasn't mine but just explaining how prices can vary.

Yep, mine were roughly around this price for our day and evening invites x

I think that is a fairly standard quote. I am going down the DIY route as I WANT to....and I used to make and sell hand made cards so I think people will expect me to, but I am beginning to regret this a little as 1) I'm stressing about the design 2) it's probably going to work out more expensive that I anticipated and 3) I NOW WANT THESE and wish I had seen these before ordering all my stationery....[View:http://www.weddingteatowels.co.uk/:550:0]

[View:http://www.weddingteatowels.co.uk/:550:0]

www.weddingteatowels.co.uk/

I agree with what other suppliers have said, sometimes stationery can look expensive but a lot of people don't realise it is because there is such a lot of work put into the items and things like jewels and pearlised card don't come cheap. My pocket fold and wallet style invites start from £1.70 each. This pocket fold invitation below is £3.35 just to give you an idea around the price you have been quoted.

I have just sent my invitations out! Yippee!!!

they cost me £1 each and are beautiful

I wasn't wanting to spend a fortune on them and I knew what i wanted but i had searched the internet and it just didn’t exist, so i sent her a long email with photos for inspiration and within a day she had designed my perfect invitation and rsvp...i literally didn’t make a single change, it was perfect!

I have had proofs for other matching things like my table plan and numbers, guest cards and wedding menus, oh and order of service booklets (i like things to match)

I highly reccomend www.hopeyoucanmakeit.com (I think they are currently updating it)

Jill x

Hi there,

Id say thats a pretty resonable price for a pocket fold, echoing what the other ladies have said with regards to time taken that go into into making these.

I can only say from my point of veiw being a printed stationer that even when i do pockets i still have to set up the printing press then they go through the cutting machine, sraright to the folding machine then they all get stuck together to create the pocket and is still a timely process for a service that i charge £2.50 each for a pocket.

If your going down the hand crafted route like some of the sellers on here you can instantly see the time and dedication that has been taken on their work to make their beautiful invites.

As said previously though i would make sure you have a sample first.

kirsty

I made my own and I think they worked out about £1.20 each in the end.

But they took days... papercuts, aching arms and a dining table covered in offcuts of card and ribbon.

Hi,

I certainley agree with the other stationers comments, especially when a design is created bespoke for you. The amount of hours I spend sourcing the right colours, trying new ideas for clients etc.

I charge for samples (it is refundable against any future order) because I do personalised samples as I think potential clients should only base their decisions on the product they would actually receive but as mentioned, it is time consuming and expensive (eg if you just want a small amount of a colour of ribbon rather than wholesale)

When it comes to the decision whether to DIY or not, I think it is a totally personal choice and depends on circumstances. For one bride it is a great way to make your wedding personal by doing something they enjoy, for another it is a total pain that puts them off wedding planning altogether!

To bring it back to the original question (without seeing the actual design), it seems in the right ballpark. I always include envelopes in the cost but really it is just a presentation thing really as they could quote 15p extra per invite and then no extra charge.

Anna

Thanks for all the user who post the invitation model.Use good quality card or paper as a base for your wedding invitations, even if you are on a tight budget.I've seen them on some online wedding invitation places but haven't noted what sites.It's was very nice to see,they have chosen perfect theme color used.more Too many Color haven't used.If you look that ,you also feels the same.