Bespoke Wedding Invitations
Choosing to go fully bespoke for your wedding stationery makes the world of ink and paper your oyster. We’ll work together to create a suite of exquisite invitations, save the dates, RSVPs and assorted gorgeous extras that really represent you and your inimitable style.
We’ll explore colours, textures and fonts to find the custom combination that’s right for you and your day. Dive into luxury hand-mixed inks, polished typography and the flourishes of contemporary hand lettered calligraphy plus the shimmer of hot foil, personalised wax seals, custom illustration, hand drawn maps and of course the sophisticated sexiness of letterpress debossing. As I design every element from scratch in my studio, it ensures we have full creative control and we can truly reflect you in your wedding stationery – you’ll have all these options and more to play with, and the possibility of some truly exquisite results.
From consultation, concept development and artistic design, to the pristine quality and high end packaging containing your finished invitations, every detail of the Ink & Paper experience has been designed to elevate your wedding invitations into something more than simply an announcement of your upcoming celebration. Together, we’re creating personal, thoughtful and luxurious keepsakes of your style and your story that your guests will want to treasure.
I only take on around 12-15 bespoke commissions a year, typically spending eight to twelve weeks on each commissions to ensure that you walk away with wedding stationery that is truly unique. So, perfect if you have a clear vision of your invitations that you want to bring to life!
So how does the bespoke invitation process work?
Designing and creating a fully bespoke suite of wedding stationery is a personal and creative process. I work with a limited number of commissions each year to give each one of my clients my full attention and to keep the process as enjoyable, fun and effortless as possible for you.
IT WAS ONLY A KISS
We start with a consultation, where we will talk about your love story, your wedding-day ideas, and the things that make you tick as a couple. Remember, inspiration for your stationery can be drawn from anywhere, so don’t forget the passions and interests you share outside of the world of wedmin.
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE (AREN’T) FREE
I’ll put together a stationery quote for you based on everything we talked about. If it all sounds good and you want to get stuck into designing your gorgeous invitations…
IS THIS LOVE
I’ll then get creative and put together an initial design proposal for you, including suggested colour palette, two custom design routes, visual inspiration and recommended paper stocks.
A DESIGN FOR LIFE
Once your concept has been refined and finalised, it’s design time! I’ll take all the information you’ve given me to create your full invitation design, bringing you a full-colour digital proof of your invitation or suite.
MAKE AN IMPRESSION
Then it’s time to hit the printing press. Every aspect of your invitations is produced in house, from letterpress and hot foil printing to hand calligraphy and wax seal stamps.
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
Now it’s time to wait eagerly for the postman as your luxury wedding stationery is beautifully packaged and delivered to your door.
This is a super-quick summary of the way the design process works. There’s of course much more to it than this. Please get in touch to book in a consultation where we can chat through your ideas and I can walk you through the process in a little more detail.
How Much Does Bespoke Cost?
Budgeting for your wedding can feel immensely stressful, with so many elements being “well exactly how long is a piece of string?”. And wedding stationery is no different, but the good news is that there is a stationer out there for every budget. If your heart is set on a custom or bespoke design you should expect to spend a little more on your wedding stationery. I don’t offer a price list for bespoke invitations as there are so many variables and different moving parts involved, however I have broken out the core cost elements below:
THE DESIGN FEE
The pricing for your stationery is split into design costs and production costs. My design fee starts at £495 for invitations (£750 for save the dates & invitations). This includes the design of an invitation suite with three inserts (invite, details/information card and RSVP). More bespoke hand-drawn details such as venue portraits, maps or calligraphed elements will mean the design fee is higher, and you’ll receive a tailored quote after our initial consultation. As a very rough guide, many of my couples spend upwards of £2000 on their wedding stationery.
Adding a gorgeously personal selection of on-the-day stationery too (which a lot of my clients choose to do), means the bespoke design fee can be anything from £495 – £1500, subject to your requirements.
PRINT AND PRODUCTION COSTS
Quality shows: you wouldn’t use poor quality produce in a high-end restaurant, and I firmly believe the same applies when producing your wedding stationery. I use high quality, sustainably sourced materials, and these can vary considerably in cost: letterpress and hot foil are both also time and labour-intensive artisan production methods. There is no mass production here: everything is produced in small (sometimes tiny!) volumes to ensure you receive your perfect invitations.
A bespoke Ink & Paper invitation suite can range from anything between £10 – £25+ each, subject to the number of sheets or inserts you need, the material, print finishes, assembly, and any finishing touches like wax seals, custom envelope liners, ribbons and wraps that you may require.
I know that’s a lot to take on board, but don’t stress! Conventional wisdom suggests that you should allocate around 15% of your overall wedding day budget to your wedding stationery. On our consultation call we’ll chat budget, and any must-have elements. I’ll also make sure that everything is broken down really clearly for you in your initial quote, so there are no hidden extras or nasty surprises down the road, and we’ll work together to tweak and refine your design where necessary to make sure it fits with your budget as well as your style.
