The Wedding Budget Guide

When it comes to planning your dream wedding, every detail counts. From save the dates to invitations and table plans, bespoke graphic designs can add a personal touch and set the tone for your special day. In this blog, we'll explore what you can expect when ordering custom wedding stationery, including the importance of setting a realistic budget to avoid disappointment.

Ordering Bespoke Designs:

1. Collaboration: Working with a graphic designer allows you to bring your vision to life. Be prepared to share your ideas, inspirations, and any specific themes or colors you want to incorporate.
2. Customization: Bespoke designs offer endless possibilities for creativity. You can choose from a wide range of materials, colors, fonts, and illustrations to match your style and preferences, sharing a pinterest board can help your designer understand your style.
3. Personalization: Your wedding stationery should reflect your unique story as a couple. Customization options like monograms, custom illustrations, or incorporating meaningful symbols can make your designs truly one-of-a-kind.

Importance of Budgeting:

Setting a realistic budget for your bespoke wedding stationery is crucial. By considering the following factors, you can avoid any unexpected surprises and ensure that you get the quality and style you desire:

1. Complexity of Design: More intricate designs will affect the overall cost. If you want all your favourite characters illustrated or you like the maximallist look, this is likely to require additional time and effort from the designer and therefore cost more than a simple and traditional typography based piece.
2. Complexity of the Print: For example, having your invite as an all in one piece like a concertina folded invitation will keeep your costs down whilst still being visually interesting. However, if you like the multiple piece look like a separate main invite with detail card and R.S.V.P. postcard with a belly band or vellum wrap is going to add to both design time and the cost of the materials. If you are going for multiple elements be prepared to expect to be at the higher end of the budget spectrum.
3. Finishing Touches: Extra features like foiling, specialist paper, or unique folds can enhance the visual appeal of your stationery but may come at an additional cost.

Discuss these all these options with your designer to find the right balance between aesthetics and budget and remember that those boujie invites you may have taken inspiration from online do come with a high ticket price.

What parts should you choose?:

1. Invitations: The main focal point of your wedding stationery, invitations set the tone for your big day. From traditional to contemporary styles, you can choose between all-in-one pieces like concertina folded invitations or opt for separate elements like invitation cards, RSVP cards, and details inserts.
2. Want vs need: The place to start his here, look at the things you cant live without and then add on what you want. You might choose to swap out something you want in order to upgrade something you need to something more elaborate.
3. On-the-Day Materials: Apart from invitations, there are other elements to consider, such as table plans, signs, order of the day, placenames, and table names. These pieces contribute to the overall ambiance and help create a cohesive look throughout the venue. At the very least you should be adding placecards, table names and a table plan as these are the main elements your guests actually need. A canvas table plan is a great way to dress your home after the wedding and remember your big day every day.
4. Importance of Placenames: Table names and placenames may seem like small details, but they play a significant role in room dressing. They not only help guests find their seats but also add a personal touch to each table. These elements are probably the most budget friendly of all the designed option and whilst many opt to use some free table names provided by many venues, these to me always look jarring against a usually beautifully dressed table. I have also found that a well designed table name often gets taken home by guests to help them remember your special day.

Price Guide:

To give you an idea of what to expect, here is a price guide for different wedding stationery elements:

1. Save the Dates: Prices typically range from £400 to £700, depending on design complexity and quantity.
2. Invitations: Custom wedding invitations generally fall within the £600 to £1200 range, considering the design intricacy, printing techniques, and additional elements such as a main invite plus RSVP card and detail card, wax seals, wedding icons, ribbons and wraps. Then you must also consider your postage - I offer a complete packing and posting service should you wish to save time and stress.
3. On-the-Day Materials: Budgeting around £700 to £1500 for materials like table plans, signs, placenames, and table names is a reasonable estimate. If you are after more expensive materials such as acrylics, costs will likely be nearer £2000 however this will depend on your needs. You may even want to consider adding custom wedding favours for a cohesive wedding day aesthetic.

All in all you can expect an average of £1500-£3000 if you wanted to include save the dates, invitations and your on the day elements. However if you are looking for a deal head over to my templated range where you can get professional designs at a lower cost.

Your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a truly memorable event. Custom wedding stationery adds a personal and unique touch to your celebrations. These designs will be cherished by you and your loved ones for years to come, making it worth the investment. By setting a realistic budget and collaborating with a graphic designer who specializes in bespoke stationery, you can bring your vision to life and make your wedding day even more extraordinary.

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