When it comes to your wedding invitations, there are many routes that you can choose to go. If you’re a do-it-yourself type of bride, then odds are you are very crafty and will be handling the paper goods on your own from finding the design (or designing it yourself), handling the printing, cutting, envelope sourcing, stuffing, all the things! But if you’re not the crafty type, or simply just don’t want to put that much time into your invitations (wedding planning and working full time is no joke), then working with a stationery designer who can handle some or all of these tasks for you will be the way to go. I’m guessing you’ve wondered, is working with a stationer really worth it for my wedding invitations? So I thought I’d explain more about what exactly a wedding stationer does and can do for you to help you decide which route to go!

A stationer will help you stay on track.

If you’ve ever helped a friend plan a wedding, or in the beginning phase of planning your own, there is a LOT to think about. From the venues, to the photographer, your hair and makeup team, the guest list (ugh, the dreaded guest list), finding the dress, planning flowers, decor and design, food and drinks, and all the paper details, it’s hard to know what to do first and WHEN you should do everything in the planning process.

The first advantage is a stationer will help you stay on track for your wedding stationery. This is especially helpful if you don’t hire a wedding planner to handle this detail. Most wedding stationers, especially myself, will create a timeline of dates for each step of the invitation design process. This attention to detail is very important if you choose to go the fully custom route for your stationery. If you’re still wondering when is the best time to reach out to a stationer for your save the dates and wedding invitations, I’ve put together a helpful timeline that explains when you should be working on each of your wedding stationery pieces. You can grab this helpful checklist and timeline at the end of this post!

A stationer will create your dream invitations while sticking to your budget.

Ahhhh, the lovely budget term again. But let’s be honest, having a wedding budget is so important! We all know that weddings can add up quick! So setting a budget for your wedding stationery is the first step and a stationer will help you stick to it. Typically at the beginning of the stationery process, stationers have couples fill out a form and one of the questions is “What is your anticipated stationery budget?”. We do this so we can first determine what is the best route for your wedding invitations (such as a fully custom or semi-custom design), and to choose the cards and embellishments to include that will best fit within your budget. Not all couples will have it in their budget to add on custom envelope liners but they may have enough to incorporate vellum belly bands. A stationer will be able to best suggest the pieces that will make your invitation suite perfect for you, while keeping within your budget.

A stationer will help you cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s.

Ok, there is not much worse than opening your box of fresh off the press invitations and to find a dreaded misspelling on one of the cards! This is when you think, HOW in the world did we miss catching that?! It’s likely because you didn’t spend longer than an hour reading them over. Mistakes happen, but a stationer will help eliminate these pesky mistakes on your invitations because there is a thorough proofing process with each layout. And because we have worked with many couples and seen a wide variety of invitation wording, another benefit of working with a stationer is to make sure you don’t forget some of those little but important details. Did you remember your hotel booking phone number? Don’t forget the respond by date!

A stationer will bring your wedding invitation vision to life.

If you choose to go the fully custom route for your stationery, a stationer will be able to bring your dream, one-of-a-kind wedding invitations to life. This is the biggest reason why a couple will choose to work with a wedding stationer. After scrolling for hours online for wedding stationery, nothing seems to fit quite right and it’s really important to you to have invitations that tell the story of your wedding, then working with a custom wedding stationer may be the perfect choice! If you’ve been eyeing pretty painted maps and venues, an artist or stationer is your go to for bringing these custom, memorable pieces to life.

When you work with a stationer for a fully custom invitation suite, the process first begins with a questionnaire getting to know your relationship story, what makes your love story truly special, your wedding design theme, colors, florals, and then transforming all of those special details into a highly tailored invitation suite. A stationer will also be able to carry these custom illustrations and details into your day of stationery such as table numbers, programs, signs for a complete branded experience.

If fully custom invitation design doesn’t fit your budget, then semi-custom is a great option. A stationer can help you pair the perfect suite within their invitation collections, suggest envelope colors and embellishments that will make your paper dreams come to life better than you could have imagined!

A stationer can save you time and eliminate worries.

Not only will a stationer help you stay on track with your wedding stationery by reaching out at different points in your planning process, stationers can save you time and eliminate worries. When choosing fully custom invitation design, there is more time involved with this highly tailored process, but when it comes to sourcing all of the paper details, this is taken off your plate and one less thing to worry about in your long wedding planning to do list. If you need a faster turnaround, a stationer will likely recommend choosing an invitation from their semi-custom collections.

A stationer can help answer all those unknowns like “How do I address this envelope?”.

There will be a lot of questions along the way when planning a wedding. The most common questions I get is, “How do I address this envelope to my brother and his girlfriend?” for example. Or “what is the proper wording for an invitation where my parents are hosting?”. While google can help answer a lot of these questions, it can be reassuring to let a stationer help guide this part of the process.

There can be a lot to think about when it comes to wedding planning and stationery is just one little part of the wedding planning journey. It’s first helpful to sit down and determine your budget, how much you’re willing to spend on your stationery and what is most important to the both of you.

I’ve put together a helpful guide that includes a checklist of all the wedding stationery items you may need and it’s broken down into a timeline of when to begin each stationery piece in your planning process to help you stay on track. Grab the guide here!