Welcome to your crash course on the Wedding Invitation Suite! Whether you are getting married soon yourself, looking for the perfect custom wedding gift for a friend or loved one, want a wedding heirloom gift for your wedding anniversary, or you’re just interested in stationery design — this post is for you.

My wedding services

First of all, I would love to work with you to make your wedding dreams come true. I love to create original fine art stationery that unique to each couple. Here are the categories of wedding services that I currently offer:

Custom artwork - paintings & drawings
Calligraphy
Stationery design

If you are interested in working with me after reading this post - please reach out. I look forward to hearing more about your vision!

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so, what is included in an “invitation suite”?

Take a look below! — Here is a suite that I created for a Florida summer wedding last year & an overview of each item:

I wanted to put together this blog post about all of the different pieces that can be created for wedding stationery. To do that I thought it would be helpful to create a little diagram so I added labels to this photograph in order to share information about what each item adds aesthetically and functionally to your paper goods. You can hire me to create all of these items for your special day or pick and choose. I can also create custom wedding gifts (such as calligraphy wedding vows, commissioned artwork, or custom thank you cards).

THe overview

Now let’s take a deeper look into each element and the ways they can be customized to fit your unique style! Feel free to jump to what you are particularly interested in, or read the whole post to understand the overview. Here’s an outline of what we’ll cover:

The Save the Date
The Formal Invitation
The Detail Card
Envelope Upgrades: Calligraphy, Postage, Wax Seals, Liners
Day of Stationery
Custom Wedding Gifts

1. The Save the Date

First is the save the date card which usually just has 4 pieces of information:

The bride and groom‘s first names
The date of the wedding
The general location but no other specifics
“Formal invitation to follow”

This is usually sent out about six months before the wedding date just to make sure that people mark it on their calendars and look for the formal invitation. Some fun ideas for a save the date include: a venue illustration, a floral or other design, an illustrated wedding map if especially if it’s more of a destination wedding or if a lot of the guests will be traveling. Maps are a cool way to introduce your guests to the town or city where you’re getting married and get them excited about the whole weekend. I’l show an example of a map later on.

2. The formal invitation

Next step of course is the formal invitation! This includes (for the most basic package — we’ll discuss upgrades later):

The invitation card
The RSVP card
And the 2 corresponding envelopes

The invitation is more detailed about the time of the wedding and the venue name and address for the ceremony (and the reception if it’s at a different location). As far as wording goes, there are different ways that you can go about this. Sometimes it’s the parents who are inviting the guests “Mr. & Mrs. Xxx invite you to join us in celebrating the marriage of their daughter etc.” or you can say “together with their family’s bride X and groom X welcome you”... if the couple is hosting with their parents. There are some etiquette rules that can be adhere to our broken depending on how you want to invite the guests and who is hosting the event.

As far as the design of the invitation goes — there are a lot of different directions that we can take this including:

Floral watercolors
A venue drawing or painting
A wedding crest with the couples initials & other fun items
A painting of the surrounding landscape
Or a more minimal typography focused design

RSVP cards

RSVP cards can be customized in anyway that you’d like! The card must include the basic “yes, we are coming!” or “no, we’ll be celebrating from afar” to determine if they’re coming (but can be worded in a customized way). After that, you also might want to add a space where you tell your invitee how many seats are reserved for them (in case there’s a question of: 1. if kids are invited or 2. if they are permitted to bring a plus one). You may also want to ask for meal preferences if you’re doing a plated meal with choices. I’ve also seen people ask for music suggestions which is a fun way to incorporate your guests in that aspect of wedding planning.

These are 2 sides of the same card - the Map on the front and the Schedule of Events on the back.

3. add a detail card

Detail cards can include hotel block information, your wedding website link, dress code or parking/other logistics. This card would go in the main envelope along with the invitation and if desired you could tie the pieces together with a ribbon or something to give it extra flair. Wedding maps and timelines are other formats that are fun to include!

Wedding Maps

I mentioned Wedding Maps before but if you don’t do one for the save the date you could also do this as a detail card. Illustrated wedding maps include a minimum of three location paintings, lettering to label the venues and other locations and the title of the map that usually includes the broader location or city and the wedding date or weekend dates. I can also create line drawings if you prefer a simplistic line map instead of the watercolor painted look. This can be super custom & the artwork can be used on multiple pieces!

wedding timelines

Illustrated wedding timelines are another fun way to extend the wedding beyond the ceremony and reception. If you have a welcome party or brunch the morning after or are hosting the ceremony at a different venue then the reception — this is a fun way to make sure everyone knows about all of the different events, where they are, time, and attire suggestions if necessary. It’s the perfect card to have for the actual wedding weekend.

4. the envelope Upgrades

Now onto the add-ons or upgrades that can help elevate your wedding invitation suite! First, let’s talk about beautifying the envelopes. There are several upgrades that you can add for envelopes including:

Envelope addressing in calligraphy
Wax seals
Envelope liners
Postage

Calligraphy

Calligraphy itself elevates the envelope immensely since this is the first glance that people have when receiving your invitation.

When you request this service, I provide you with an excel template to gather your addresses.

Wax seals

Wax seals are also a fun upgrade they come in a variety of colors including gold, bronze, white, pink etc. And there are different designs including simple wreaths, flowers, or can be customized to include your initials. I love this because it’s an antique addition and makes opening envelope even more of an experience.

envelope liners

Another way to beautify your envelope is to add an envelope liner. Liners are adhered to the inside of the envelope. It’s really just another place to customize! Here I used the same floral pattern from the invitation — I thought it was a nice way to tie everything together and bring that turquoise color accent back into the envelope which where a dusty rose color.

postage

There are 3 options for postage:

Vintage
Custom design
Regular USPS love stamps

1. Vintage stamps are another beautiful piece of art that can be added to the envelope. There is a plethora of options for this: color matching, meaningful locations, different animals, flowers, or landscapes. In the example photo I chose:

A 1883 Brooklyn Bridge stamp because the couple lives in New York City
A Florida state green stamp because the wedding location was in Florida and the green went well with the whole suite aesthetic
And a 1817 turquoise Mississippi flower stamp because the turquoise matched really well with the watercolor floral pattern that we used throughout the designs

2. You could also choose to have a custom designed stamp which I could create that would match the artwork exactly and be unique to you.

3. If you choose to use regular postage there are beautiful love forever options from the USPS. For a standard invitation you would need only one $0.55 forever stamp but if you add your wax seal you’ll need an additional $0.15 (so $0.70).

Return addressing options

Another aspect to think about is the return address which we like to put on the back flap of the envelope. Options:

Request for it to be printed directly on the envelope
Have a custom rubber stamp made and apply that with a white or black ink pad on each envelope
Write it on each envelope

You can also request to have your address printed on the front of the RSVP card which is typically done so that guests don’t have to address it. It is also customary to provide the postage already on the envelope so that they don’t have to pay for that. Therefore all the guest have to do is check “yes” or “no” if they’re coming, fill out any other information on the RSVP card, put it back in the prepared envelope, and then mail it back to you.

printing upgrades

You can request paper/printing upgrades as well: double thick paper, letterpress printing, foil printing, or handmade paper. Email me or fill out the form for more information about those more luxury printing methods.

5. Day of Stationery

Day of stationary can also be a fun way to create a cohesive design style for paper goods through to the wedding day. In the example diagram we used the venue illustration from the map on the wedding ceremony program as well. The program design is usually text heavy because it includes the itinerary for the ceremony and the list of the people in the wedding party. This can be double-sided to include more information. As the one in the photo did have information on the other side.

Other day of items that you can order include:

Menus
Table number signs
A seating chart
Place cards
An illustrated wedding timeline (5pm ceremony, 5:30pm Cocktail hour, First dance, Dinner, Toasts, Dance Party, Send off, etc)
Signs: “Please sign our guestbook”, “Welcome to the wedding of”, “Enjoy the photobooth”, wedding hashtags, “Unplugged ceremony” etc…
Illustrated bar menu sign

Weaving the design aesthetic of the stationary through the wedding day is a fun way to make sure the whole decor is aligned.

6. Wedding gifts

You can also order custom wedding gifts from me! Some ideas include:

Wedding vow calligraphy
Calligraphy of bible verses, quotes or song lyrics
Thank you cards
Illustrated love story timeline
Bridal bouquet paintings
Paintings from the wedding after you have photos from it

A venue painting (if you don’t request one for the stationery) it’s still a great gift to frame. You could also commission a painting of the couples first home together. Custom thank you cards are another fun gift - because it’s custom, meaningful, and useful since the couple will be sending those out after the wedding. This can include the venue painting or a photo from the wedding. An illustrated love story timeline is another special heirloom piece — it includes three or more meaningful events for the couple (such as their first date, fun trips together, the engagement, wedding day, honeymoon location, etc). It would include mini paintings of each plus lettering for the date and location or any other text you want to include. This could be a very special and customized gift to give to your spouse on the wedding day or to use as a decoration for the reception.

Have any other ideas?

I also love to hear any other custom ideas that you have as far as wedding signs, wedding paper items, gifts etc. I would love to bring your vision to life! I can also do bridesmaids gifts, bachelorette invitations or timelines, or bridal shower invitations. Let me know if you have any questions or ideas. If you are interested in requesting a custom quote please fill out the form below and I will email you back within a few days!