Every wedding needs invitations.  You have many possibilities when it comes to wedding stationery.  You have the option to buy them online by choosing a template or you can work with a stationer.  There are many reasons to choose to work with a stationer over a big online retailer.
 

1. Supporting a small business- Small businesses are the backbone of our country and the entire wedding industry is built by small businesses.  When you choose a small business, you are supporting a dream and not a set of investors.  All of your other chosen wedding professionals are small businesses so why shouldn’t you use a small business for your stationery?
   
2. Stellar customer service- Not only will you get a quality product, but you will have a name and a face to help you through the process.  A person who cares about you and your wedding and will do everything to make it perfect.  When you work with a person you are getting someone with passion who wants to see you smile.  All your answers will be answered quickly and with enthusiasm.
   
3. Quality- You will get to see and feel what your invitations will look like before you order.  A stationer will have options of card stock, envelopes, and designs they have done in the past to show many options for what you will end up with.  You can feel the same emotion your guests will feel.  There is no better way to know the quality than to hold it in your hands.  Even if your stationer is not local to you, they would be able to send you samples of past work.
   
4. Possibilities are endless- The options for wordings and design are only limited by your imagination.  Websites are extremely limited.  A stationer has control over the entire field of your design.  So colors, fonts, wording layout, even languages can be used on your stationery to make it utterly unique and fit the needs of your wedding.  If you can think of it, a stationer can help you achieve it.
   
5. Personal touch- In short, a stationer cares.  They have a passion for paper and for the design process.  They strive for the smile on your face and cares about YOU.  They also can help with complicated family situations that can affect wording of your stationery.  If there is out of the box, they can make it work.
   
6. They can save you money- You might not think this, but it is true.  Just like a wedding planner, a stationer knows things about stationery that you didn’t even think to ask about or were even a thing.  I have had so any clients tell me they needed a save the date for every guest.  I always remind them to count addresses and not guests. And then there is postage.....
   
7. All about postage- There are so many things about mailing that most people don’t know about.  Trust me when I say a stationer knows (almost) as much about postage as any post office employee.  They can inform you of any design choices that could cost you more when mailing.  Square, over 1 ounce, over ¼ inch thick, ribbon, a brooch, or acrylic are some design choices that will make your stationery cost more to mail to your guests. 
   

 
All the people you choose to work with for your wedding should be professionals and your stationer is no exception.  Just like your other professionals they want to make your day extremely special.  Take care when choosing where to get your wedding stationery and don’t be afraid to ask questions.  A stationer would love to answer them and be the choice for your wedding.
 
Keywords: wedding, wedding stationery, wedding budget, wedding invitations, custom wedding invitations, save the dates, stationer

Every stationer has a design bucket list.  Designs we want to do for a client.  I am no exception.  One of those on my design bucket list was a passport wedding invitation.

So when Amanda contacted me about a passport invitation I was so excited! (Note: I am excited to hear from everyone but every so often there is a little extra excitement).  I was ready to jump into this project.

I have a passport so I know what they look like.  Lol.  But one element that needed to be considered was what makes it art versus a felony for falsifying a legal document.  I am not one for committing crimes (I won’t copy a design either).  What I learned was as long as it didn’t look like an actual passport of any country in the world I was good to go.  Sweet!

Amanda and Tim’s colors were burgundy and gray.  I suggested burgundy for the background color on the invitations and gray for the font and envelopes.  They really liked the idea.  Amanda sent some pictures that could work and told me which ones were her favorite.  I thought a nice element to add depth to the design was a world map behind the writing on the page with the details of information about the wedding.  Amanda and Tim really liked the idea.  As a bonus it made the text on that page slightly easier to read.

Once the design was done I began printing.  I did a test print and the gray was too dark and made it almost impossible to read.  I had to lighten the gray a little to make it easier to read.  This is a big reason why I prefer doing my own printing instead of outsourcing so that I can adjust during the printing process to make the best final product.

The passport invitation was so much fun to work on and I was so excited for the end result.  The passport style was perfect for their cruise destination wedding. 

Keywords: wedding, destination wedding, passport wedding invitation, passport invitation, destination wedding invitations