Wedding Invitations & Paper

Ordering online (WPD) vs. local stationary place

tcnobletcnoble member
First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
So we are beginning the journey in to ordering STDs and invitations. I ordered some samples from Wedding Paper Divas and another site. We also have several local stationary places in town.

Looking to get some opinions/insight on doing the online ordering vs. a brick-and-mortar store?? Do you still have to assemble them the same? Do the brick-and-mortar stores usually cost more? Any insight appreciated!! :)
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Re: Ordering online (WPD) vs. local stationary place

  • b&m usually costs more.  we used a boutique stationer because stationary is really important to me.  i wanted letterpress and foil printing, custom designs, premium papers, a personal approach, etc. and i did not feel any mass producer online offered anything particularly impressive.  that being said, you can get perfectly nice invitations from wpd, minted, etc.

    i did not have to assemble my invites.  i believe you do if you order from a website.
  • @sheslikeasunburn thank you for the response!
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  • Ditto that brick and mortar are more expensive. We looked at a couple local stationers in the very beginning, and then couldn't personally justify the expense since it was going to be 3 to 4 times more than ordering online. It just wasn't high up enough on our priority list; if it is for you, go for it. You can definitely get more of what you want from working with a stationer though. You're basically working with templates online; luckily we found one we liked pretty well.

    I ended up ordering online. We did have to assemble invites (the pieces came in their own boxes - invitation, RSVP card, envelopes), but it took FI and I maybe an hour to put all the envelopes together and get stamps on them. 
    image
  • I ordered online and got samples.  I had to touch them to decide.  We have now chosen the invite and we are having them do the addressing if I can ever get FI to get me the last 6 addresses I need.... 
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  • @PDKH this may be a silly question... but for the very basic of invitations, are the 3 components an invitation, RSVP card, and an envelope? We don't plan to do inner envelopes.. so is that as simple as it gets? 
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  • rsvp envelope, too.  so 4 pieces.
  • RSVP envelope too (unless you do the postcard thing), a reception card if your reception is in a different location than your ceremony, and potentially an accommodations card (helpful, but not necessary). 


    image
  • I used WPD and was satisfied. They just went out so we've been receiving lots of compliments.  Plus, I found a deal online for $200 value for $100.  You may want to check out GiltCity.com, I think they're running the deal again.
  • tcnobletcnoble member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited April 2014
    Got it. Definitely intend to do an accommodations card because 90% of our guests are OOT.. but I think we can do without a reception card. Is it just assumed the reception will follow immediately, if there is no card?? Paper adds up fast!!

    ETA :: I just came across an "enclosure card" that just stated 'for more details and registry information please visit our wedding website at blahblahblah'  ... I question if this is acceptable because of it's clear declaration of registry information. Etiquette faux pas?
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  • manateehuggermanateehugger member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited April 2014
    tcnoble said:
    Got it. Definitely intend to do an accommodations card because 90% of our guests are OOT.. but I think we can do without a reception card. Is it just assumed the reception will follow immediately, if there is no card?? Paper adds up fast!!
    Just put a small note at the bottom of the invite saying "Reception to follow." You can use "Dinner and Dancing to Follow" or some variation if you want. Then it's understood that the reception will take place directly after the ceremony in the same location. 

    You don't need a card unless guests need to know to get themselves to a separate location (e.g. our ceremony is at a church but our reception is at a museum, so we needed a separate card with the reception time and museum address on it). 

    ETA: Example
     image

    image
  • Can you recommend the on line places you used?  Thank you!
  • manateehuggermanateehugger member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited April 2014
    Can you recommend the on line places you used?  Thank you!
    I ended up with Invitations By Dawn because they had a template I liked. Wedding Paper Divas, The American Wedding, and Vistaprint are all pretty common. Etsy has tons of invitations designers as well (I saw a range from $2 to $20 per suite on there when I was looking). 

    ETA: I looked at Minted as well. 
    image
  • Can you recommend the on line places you used?  Thank you!
    I'm currently looking around to find designs I like. I ordered samples from Wedding Paper Divas, MagnetStreet, and Invitations by Dawn.
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  • I ordered Save the Dates, invites/RSVPs, and thank yous from WPD. They've been super easy to work with, so if you find a template you like, I'd say go for it. However, definitely order the sample before deciding for sure just so you can get the look & feel of the paper because they have several different types. Like PP, it wasn't super high on our priority list and I didn't want to spend a fortune, but we are really happy with how everything turned out!

    One more thing...They run specials all the time. We ended up ordering our Save the Dates & Invites/RSVPs for 25% off and free shipping, and Thank Yous were 50% off. If you're far out enough, definitely worth it to wait for the best deal!
  • We are getting ours from Ann's Bridal Bargins.
  • Since we only need 60 at most, b&m actually comes in cheaper if we do assembly. Plus, I love our printer, he's so helpful and nice. If we went with templates, I'd just go with the Hobby Lobby type packs.
  • We used minted.com because we found a design we liked there, and my FI wanted thick paper for the invites and there's was going to end up being one of the less expensive options.  Minted will let you change the colors on a lot of the invites for free (I think WPD will too).  A lot of the sites will send you a free package with samples of the different types of paper, and let you order samples of the specific invitation you are interested in.
  • I ordered from Invitations by Dawn. They run specials all the time, and we ended up paying less than I thought we would, and have plenty of extra copies just in case. Plus, their turnaround time was so quick. Since I just did the laser printing, I had everything within a week of ordering.
    ~*~*~*~*~

  • My FI & I designed our own! We made our own monogram that we wanted to be repeated in other places. So we got to work and made our design in Photoshop and used Cards & Pockets to print them. Stationary was towards the bottom of my totem poll of importance though. They came out very nicely and it was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than any store or online website. We even paid the extra quarter to have them mounted so we wouldn't have to assemble things which was the best! We really wanted pocket invitations and all the enclosure cards but not a huge price tag
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