When planning your marriage celebration there is an expansive constellation of decisions you and your partner will need and want to make, and one of the hardest parts? You’re likely making most of those decisions for the very first time. I’m Stacey, Owner + Creative Boss of Oh hey face, and I’m delighted to be back on the Tapestry blog to help demystify one aspect of your marriage decision constellation — stationery. I’ve been a print designer for over ten years and have worked almost exclusively in wedding stationery for the past four. This is the first in a two-part series sharing my knowledge and experience so you can comfortably and confidently move through your stationery design process.

HOW DOES PRINTING WORK?

Printing wedding invitations comes in 3 main flavors.

Digital Printing

This is likely the kind of printing you’re most familiar with. It’s the most common type of printing and is what places like Costco or FedEx use.

Digital printing uses 4 colors of toner — cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. This is referred to as 4-color process because the printer uses only levels of those 4 colors to mix and create the colors in your print.

Limitations:

• every printer is calibrated differently, so you can see some variation between the color of your final prints depending on where they are printed

• the cost per item is always the same — there will never be volume discounts

• can be challenging to get very specific colors, particularly light and bright colors

• you’ll be limited to paper thickness that works with the mechanisms in the printer, so no extra thick papers

Benefits:

• there are many low-cost options using digital printing particularly at smaller quantities

• it’s fast and readily available

Offset Printing

If you’re familiar with screenprinting t-shirts, this process is very similar.

Offset printing will make something like a stencil for every color in your print. The cost of creating that stencil is called a set-up cost.

Offset printing typically uses inks referred to as Spot colors, also known as PMS or Pantone colors. These are colors created by the Pantone company, and supplied directly to a print shop.

Unlike 4-color process, Pantone is able to mix colors like a painter would and has access to a much broader range of starting colors. They can create very specific, bright, saturated colors that will always be the same. Pantone literally sends a pot of ink to a print shop of the exact color for your print job.

You can also use foil in offset printing to get extremely opaque, crisp colors, metallics, or light color printing on dark paper, however the collection of foil colors is limited.

Limitations:

• the setup cost can make smaller quantities cost-prohibitive

• the more colors in your design the more expensive — remember each color needs a stencil so each color has a setup cost

Benefits:

• very high quality print style

• you can get specific colors like ink that matches an accent paper color exactly

• nearly all professional print shops print in both digital 4-color process and offset

• because of the setup cost higher quantities benefit from volume discounts — the most expensive part is the setup cost, so the more you print, the less expensive each individual item become

Letterpress + Engraving

There are many similarities between Letterpress and Offset, but instead of making a stencil, letterpress uses a stamp, or press.

The press will leave an indentation on your paper giving a nice tactile finish. Just like Offset, each color needs a new press, and each has a setup cost. This is why you typically see letterpress greeting cards in only 1 or 2 colors.

Engraving is most easily thought of as a subset of letterpress. It’s able to create extremely fine detail that most printing methods can’t accommodate, like hairline flourishes or very small typography. It’s one of the least common printing methods because it tends to be the highest of all setup costs.

Limitations:

• like offset printing, set up cost can be prohibitive for smaller quantities and the setup cost for letterpress is often higher than for offset

• you’ll have a setup cost per color

• double-sided printing is more challenging than digital or offset because of the indentation the press leaves — you need extra thick or duplex paper (two sheets, often two different colors, sandwiched together) which can become quite expensive

Benefits:

• this is my favorite style of printing for the tactile handmade qualities

• you have access to the Pantone color family and foil colors like offset

• you have access to the same volume discount structure applies to letterpress

• bonus, most letterpress print shops are small and locally / family / artisan owned — a lovely way to support a small business through your celebration.

HOW DOES THE PRICE OF MY STATIONERY BREAK DOWN?

There are four key pieces of your invitation suite that can impact the cost

1. The design

2. Your printing method

3. Your paper

4. Special finishes

All 4 pieces are working together in a web — a tapestry if you will ;)  — if you tug on one, sometimes it has cascading effects on the others.

For example, let’s say you’re working with your stationer and creating a design digitally printed on light gray paper. But then you decide you’d actually like a beautiful deep green paper — because, obviously.

By changing that paper, here’s what else might happen:

• You also need to change your printing method, because most digital print shops aren’t able to print on dark paper, which means you’ll need to switch to offset or letterpress, adding setup cost

• Those lovely dark, saturated colors of paper that we all love (for good reason) tend to add cost, and usually aren’t available locally so the orders have shipping charges, can push your timeline, and availability can be limited

• You also may have special finishes like wax seals or ribbons, illustrations or custom calligraphy needing to be reworked or recolored to work with your new paper.

Technically one change — the paper — but the other elements shift alongside that change. All the elements work together to create your cohesive suite.

Your selections in each of the 4 elements of your suite is what creates your base cost.

One of the most important things to remember when budgeting for your stationery suite from a base cost estimate is that your design is yet to be created, and it can be challenging to accurately price something that doesn’t quite exist. Most stationers have a library of past jobs and costs associated, but every suite is as unique as you. Connect with your priorities and stay in active and open communication with your designer.

WHAT’S BEHIND THE COST OF A CUSTOMIZED WEDDING SUITE (I.E. WHY IS IT SO DIFFERENT FROM ORDERING FROM ETSY/MINTED)?

That skilled hand to the page to make something unique to you is the biggest difference.

In Offset and Letterpress printing methods, remember there are setup costs — think of a stationer’s design skills and time working with you as the setup cost for just you. An etsy or minted designer has the same setup cost, but in a sense that setup cost is spread across tens to hundreds, maybe even thousands of couples.

When working with a stationer you get to completely customize your balance of Function vs. Keepsake, and make sure that there are elements that reflect you and your styles as a couple.

I am a huge fan of Etsy and Minted stationery, very skilled designers make most of those templates and they are lovely, time-, and cost-efficient options. 

What you’ll never get in that process is feeling like the pieces you get were made for you because, well, they weren’t.

— Stacey, Owner + Creative Boss of Oh Hey Face