How To Save Money On Stationery
We’re all about thrift here on Staggered and have, in the past, made several stabs at DIY stationery that have resulted in bloodshed and shame. There’s always the digital approach, but some would argue that it’s a bit impersonal. If you’re a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to correspondence and you’re planning to send out physical invitations, print place cards etc, there are still ways to save money. Iain Bartlett of stationer Hello!Lucky explains…
1. Frugal Facsimile. You might have a very specific idea of how your invites should look, in which case you’ll be looking to go bespoke, but chances are you’ll find a retailer is already offering a fair approximation of what you have in mind.
If a product is effectively off-the-shelf rather than bespoke then it will likely be far more cost effective, so get on Google using ‘images’ rather than ‘web’, narrowing the search with salient words: ‘London Invites’, ‘Peacock invites’, ‘Organza ribbon and teddy-bear invites’ and the like.
Don’t worry about the printers’ geographic location; invites by their very nature are eminently suitable to be posted to you and the proofing process is done by email these days.
2. Weight Gain. The bigger your order, the more you can save if you take the weight of the paper into consideration.
Get a sample before ordering – most companies will sell/send you one so that you can feel the stock they are printed on.
Aim for something around 300 grm in weight; anything lighter can feel like a sheet of floral Aldi bog roll and anything heavier won’t go through a digital printer.
If you’re in swanky-mode and plumping for engraved or foil stamped invites then you can go up to a heavier board, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that heavier = better; anything above 750 grm can just end up feeling like a giant beer coaster.
3. Ink Outside The Box. You won’t be able to see the difference between the various printing techniques – letterpress, engraved, thermographic, digital or poster-paint and potato print – but your bank account will. Similarly, when choosing a colour you should bear in mind that costlier hues aren’t necessarily better than a nice, cheap black.
Pale rose pink and ‘hint o’ eau-de-nil’ are charming colours for a bathroom, bedroom or bouquet, but useless for printing text; do make sure that all important information is legible.
4. French Fancy. Separate RSVP cards are a nice touch, but not essential– a return address printed on the invite itself is actually correct form and half the people won’t bother to send them back anyway, feeling their acceptance is just automatically assumed. You’ll probably end up having to call/email them for an answer anyway, so best let them respond in the same manner.
Similarly, direction cards, maps and parchment-bound, 38 page instruction manuals on what to bring, what to do with the children and a complete history of the venue from the Norman Conquest onward are all very nice, elegant and impressive – and to a point, useful; but in reality, with most people being online, having Sat Navs or able to work a telephone, not necessary. They need a venue, date, time and dress code.
If there is a mass of additional info that you think they really need then consider setting up a wedding website; it’s usually quicker, cheaper and can have links to relevant sites.
5. Stamp Duty. If you are going the DIY route, this doesn’t necessarily mean filing the dining room table with pots of glitter and Copydex and butterflies made out of feathers and rice paper; nor does it mean slicing your hands to ribbons or messing with superglue.
A simple rubber stamp that you can either buy off the shelf, or better yet, have made from a doodle of yours, is a simple, effective way to give a unique, uniform look to your invitations.
The joy of stamps is that they can carry through from the Save the Date cards to the napkins on the day. (www.bladerubber.co.uk)
Having said that, if you’re not skimping on anything else, then don’t skimp on the stationery – it’s the first taste the guests get of the wedding, so if you’re dolling out a King’s ransom on the venue, the food, the flowers and twice as much again on a pair of Christian Laboutin oyster satin platform peek-toed wedges, you don’t want them to get the impression that the reception is going to be a few rounds of a cash bar in some flat-roofed pub on the outskirts of the Chatsworth Estate*. (*’Shameless‘ – not Derbyshire)
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Great advice – you boys (Iain included) are so practical! 4 is especially good. Wedding websites are so easy to do now, and although I’m probably being horribly sexist here it’s a good job for the guys to get their teeth into.
Hmm. There’s a blog post I could write next…
Claire
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