Your save the dates and invitations are the first pieces of your wedding that your guests are going to see, and whether you send out physical copies, digital invites, or direct everyone to a wedding website, these can go a long way in setting the tone for the day. It's important that your stationery matches the aesthetic of your wedding, while still providing clear information about the logistics of the day through signage, directions and menus.

Striking the perfect balance of eye-catching and informative will make your stationery suite stand out.

general design notes

As with everything else, the little details make a big difference when it comes to your wedding stationery suite. You want to make sure the core design you pick for your save the dates can be carried through to your formal invitations and all of the signage on your actual wedding day. This will help with setting guest expectations regarding formality right from the start, and the purposeful matching of designs will make your wedding feel elevated.

To keep things consistent and cohesive, you want to choose a logo, colour scheme and a set of fonts to use on every piece you design. Generally, you'll want a more unique or 'fancier' font for your logo and names, then a more standard one for headings and a basic one for the body text. You can use the same font as the body text but capitalised for headings, or you can just make it a much bigger size. 

Depending on the aesthetic you're aiming for and your personal preferences, you might want to add some other design elements like line art, borders or floral motifs. If you do, think about ways that these designs can be incorporated into different sizes and styles of stationery - maybe a large floral pattern encircling your names on the save the dates and invitations can be changed to that same pattern going in a straight line down one side of your menus, for instance.

In general, more formal events will have more formal wording on their stationery, such as using the couple's full names rather than just their first names, and phrases such as "request your company" in place of "invite you to celebrate". This isn't a hard and fast rule, though, especially as weddings overall are much less strictly structured now.

what's included in a wedding stationery suite

I've compiled some examples of different stationery pieces that are commonly included in wedding suites and that you may want to include in your big day. While you don't have to have each and every piece listed - you can mix-and-match depending on your venue, wedding size and schedule for the day - the majority of them are expected staples at weddings and leaving them out may cause some confusion amongst your guests.

If you visit each category by clicking on the heading, you'll find specific information about when to send each piece listed, helpful hints for their designs and details about exactly what information each piece should include.