I sometimes lurk in a wedding group where it is common for people to post cost break-downs. A recent one for an April wedding tops the charts as most expensive one I've ever seen at $101K. And that is just for the day-of; doesn't include rehearsal dinner, bachelorette/bachelor parties, showers, engagement party/photos, bridesmaids/groomsmen proposal boxes, travel costs, etc ...
After picking my jaw up from the floor I was able to look at the details. They spent $7,000 on stationery! The only things they spent more on were catering, florals, and venue w/ dish & furniture rentals.
She said the stationery (save the dates, invites, escort cards, place cards, menu booklets ...) were designed for free by "her team" but the printing cost was $7,000. When questioned she elaborated with "We did all our stationery letterpressed with holographic foil and advanced die cuts. I own a design firm, so trust me when I say that $7000 for all that was a complete steal."
Another poster in the thread commented that "We spent about £5000 on our stationery suite and on the day-of paper stuff, and we didn’t spring for letter press - just printing. It is really expensive to have custom stationery. It isn’t worth it for everyone but I am a paper geek and really, really loved having our own special stationery made for us. 💙"
I've never understood what the heck an "escort card" is, and I don't know what "letterpressed" is either. But holy cow! We talk a lot here about digital invites and "budget" brides ripping of designs to print themselves so I thought it was worth sharing that there is still a market of people out there willing to drop a small fortune on actual professionally printed stationery. I am thinking that for all you wedding designers getting weird/annoying chat requests and single invite orders - it could be a scammer/cheater trying to save on costs, or it could be someone looking for THE exact thing that they are willing to pay a bundle for. I don't know. I am just thinking that if wedding stationery is your forte, don't get too exasperated with possible cheaters; it would just take one of these big-budget paper-loving brides to make up for them. 😁
There are a number of very active wedding subs on Reddit which I started following probably two years ago when I was thinking about trying my hand at wedding related designs and thought it would be a good "inside look" into what people want. Wedding designs didn't turn out to be my thing but I still lurk in those subs, it's a guilty pleasure I guess, I enjoy looking at the pics and seeing/reading what real-life brides-to-be are wanting/doing. If you're a wedding designer, you can learn a lot there that might help you. A common question is best place to go to get custom wedding invites, save the dates, etc. Zazzle isn't near as well-known as other sites but it does get some mentions and they can be a real eye-opener sometimes.
For instance, one recent post was asking about how to actually customize the text/designs for rsvps at some of the PODs. They said most they looked at had lines for just number of guests that would attend, but they wanted something that would include the name of the guests attending and their menu choices. They said they knew they could customize things but didn't know how. From the responses it turns out, to my amazement, that at at least one other popular POD, you have to ACTUALLY PLACE YOUR ORDER and THEN you submit the personalized text you want! That's crazy. Zazzle easily beats the competition here but for some reason, isn't as well-known as an option.
Another thing I recently learned from these groups is that square invites require more postage to mail so people recommend avoiding them. If you're a veteran wedding designer you probably already know that but I had no idea. On a related note, people seem to prefer using envelopes even with postcard style invites/rsvps/etc because it prevents smudging, fingerprints and general damage on them in the mail.
Another thing I've seen mentioned more than once (and in an FYI manner, not as a scam/cheat hack) is that if you order a single invite/whatever as a sample from Z, you will get a coupon code for as much as 50% off your next stationary order with that order, so order the one, then wait and if you like it, order the rest using the coupon code.
Another post that sticks in mind was a thread that again, was looking for recs on where to get custom invites. Zazzle was mentioned but one person said that they found a design there they really liked and even though the designer said in their info that they'd be happy to customize the colors, they never responded to any emails or chat messages so they went elsewhere.
Another thing you see a lot in these groups are pictures of bridesmaids/groomsmen proposal boxes that people are really excited about putting together & giving out. If weddings are your business, this is a nice insight into the kind of personalized trinkets people are buying to include in such things.
I've even seen posts asking about where to get ties for the groomsmen in specific coordinated colors and or design themes. They can get that at Zazzle!
Anyhows, you get the idea. You can garner a lot of useful info for your design work in these groups and there is even one specifically for lower-budget weddings.
