How Much Does Custom Wedding Stationery Cost?
We get soooo many people who ask us: what does fully custom stationery cost?
Unfortunately the answer, truly, is: it depends. Wedding stationery designers charge in lots of different ways — some have a base design fee, plus the cost of product. Some build the design fee cost into the final price they give you. Not to mention, every wedding has a different guest count; every couple has different wants and needs for their stationery; and some print processes cost more than others. But the reason to choose fully custom wedding stationery is probably pretty simple. If you’re here reading this because you’re interested in custom wedding stationery, it’s likely that:
You have some ideas in mind, but don’t know where to start or how to put it all together
You know what you want, but haven’t been able to find it, or
You don’t know exactly what it is you want, and you need someone to go through the process with you step by step to get it right
If any of those sound like you, you’re in the right place!
We’re going to dive into it, but the TLDR is that custom wedding stationery can cost anywhere from $2,500-$25,000 🤯 Barnett Crafted’s average cost for a wedding invitation suite is around $4,000. Head over to our portfolio page to see some examples of some past suites we’ve done!
Let’s look at the wedding stationery you see in the above photo as an example. This invitation suite (i.e. all of the paper items included with your invitation) from a wedding we did earlier this year consists of the following pieces:
The invitation itself — A7, rounded edges, digitally printed
The details card — A2, wavy shape die cut, digitally printed
The rehearsal dinner invitation — A2, rounded edges, digitally printed
The RSVP card and envelope — A1, rounded edges, envelope return address printing, digitally printed
“Let’s boogie”— custom shape die cut, silver glitter foil
Outer envelope — A7, metallic envelope liner, return and recipient addressing, digitally printed
Now we also must remember that each of these pieces was individually designed, ordered, printed, and produced. So you’re not just paying for the cost of the product like you would on a big box site; you’re paying for the time it took to design, format, tweak, quote, produce, and ship that product, too. The time it took to pore over your Pinterest boards looking for the common threads to identify your style; the brain power that went into making sure each piece coordinates and flows together; the knowledge and experience of which vendors to use for which pieces; and so much more.
you’re not just paying for the cost of the product like you would on a big box site; you’re paying for the time it took to design, format, tweak, quote, produce, and ship that product, too.
When you’re working 1:1 with a designer (or in our case, two designers), you go through rounds and rounds of edits until every single word, font, color, and space looks exactly right to you. If you love the design, but want to change the color — we can do that. If you love the primary font, but not the accompanying font, we will send over a couple of new options that we recommend to change it to. This isn’t to say that you have to suddenly become a graphic designer and tell us in exact terms how you want it to look— instead, working directly with us means you can say something like “can we make the words indented in the paper?” and we know that what you mean is you want to upgrade to letterpress. You can say “can we add a swirly do da under our names” and we know that you want to see what it may look like with a design embellishment. You can even say “we are paying for the wedding ourselves, how should we word it on the invitation?” and we can give some suggestions and play around with wording until it feels right to you. You might ask “when do we need to even send these things out?” and we will go through the recommended timeline and work backwards from there to create your production timeline and let you know when all designs need to be reviewed and approved in order to stick to it.
This isn’t to say that you have to suddenly become a graphic designer and tell us in exact terms how you want it to look— instead, working directly with us means you can say something like “can we make the words indented in the paper?” and we know that what you mean is you want to upgrade to letterpress.
This is, essentially, a long-winded way of saying that working 1:1 with a designer on a fully custom wedding suite not only means you’re going to get exactly what you want (even if you don’t know what that is yet), but you’re also getting a friend (or two) who will help walk you through invitation decisions, timing, deadlines, and etiquette. We have group texts with all of our couples, whether that’s for quick design decisions that don’t need a full mockup sent over yet, or to gush over compliments you’re receiving once your suite goes out, to hear about how your venue site visit went, or just to chit chat about the latest bridal party drama.
You’re not just going to get exactly what you want (even if you don’t know what that is yet), but you’re also getting a friend (or two) who will help walk you through invitation decisions, timing, deadlines, and etiquette.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in for your upcoming wedding (or other fancy event), give us a shout — we’d love to get to know you!
