Letterpress (or not?) invitations

[pvinmay08]

Hey girls,

I am new here, and am in the process of researching wedding invitations. With so many awesome ones out there, I'm so confused! I know I want either letterpress or raised printing, I am looking for nothing to cheap-y looking BUT I don't want to spend a couple thousand on them either. Am I impossible? I only need around 60.

Any reccomendations would be great!

Thanks!

[Leia78]

Prim and Pixie

 

I'm ordering my invitations from them.

[Can'tHardlyWait]

If you want something fancy but don't want to put out the big bucks for letterpress, try thermography. It's raised printing at half the price. I spent about 3 months of my life freakin out about invitations (which are still not done, by the way) and the only way I could tell between letterpress and thermography is if you flip the card over and look for the grooving that letterpressing creates.

[coreyphil]

Letterpress was one thing I knew that I really, really wanted. Luckily, I have a friend who does letterpress and does amazingly beautiful work. She recently graduated and has just started her business. The interesting part about it was that having a smaller number of invitations (only 35) didn't really help as much as I thought it would - the plates that they use have a set price - like around $100 per plate (and they need different ones for the invitation, envelope, reply card, etc.) ---- that price is fixed regardless of whether you print 35 or 200.

 

When I was looking into all this - I think that I did remember a couple of on-line companies that had 'per set' pricing - so they didn't require that you order a big minimum (it seems most require 100 or 150) --- I think the minimum for their orders was 50. I'll try to see if I can find the links.

 

You might just check and see if there are any independent people offering letterpress (for example, I live in Dallas, and D magazine has the names of a few) ... You could be surprised - their pricing should at least be lower than what you'd find in an invitation shop - they're cutting out the middle man. Plus - you get to design your own so you get exactly what you want. Also, with independent makers - you may have a bit more flexibility to cut costs a little here and there ... like I was given a number of paper options at different prices.

 

Also - if the invitation is the most important thing - you could order the standard size, and do you're own envelopes and line them yourself - it's not hard to do and it's easy to buy quality envelopes online. I don't think that people necessarily notice if the envelopes are letterpressed or not.

 

It is really hard making those decisions. I have always had a "thing" for paper ... and I love the idea of how old letterpress is as an art ... I wanted to be able to pull out my invitation when I'm 80 and still love it. And, even though we're doing a lot of "non-traditional" things (like the boarding pass STD's), I wanted traditional for the formal invitations. Plus, at some point I decided even the ones I liked that weren't letterpressed were pretty expensive - so then it became - if you're going to spend this much money on invitations - shouldn't you just get the ones you really love?

 

But - I think many girls have said time and time again ... no one else really cares about it as much as you do! You know you're budget and how important the invitations are to you ... And, you're right there are a lot of really beautiful options out there! I'll see if I can find some of the links to invitation sites when I get home.

[pvinmay08]

Thank you SO much. You have all been very helpful! I'll try researching thermography.

[Diana]

Here is how I feel about invitations. When I think about sending them out I want them to be the best my guests have ever gotten. When I reflect upon all the invitations I have received over the years I remember how nice they were but have never SAVED any. I am not saying they are not important but remember the reason you are going. YOU AND HIM. Good Luck, but in my opinion, don't stress too much, remember- STDs and Invitations are just information to get you and your guests where you want them want to be. Those who are truely important will be there.