How is everyone on this beautifully sunny Monday morning? It’s blissful here at English Wedding towers — I’ve been for a walk around my little village, along the seafront and through the fields already! Time now for a bit of inspiration in the form of some papery goodness, I think.

Five great alternative wedding invitation ideas

Alternative wedding invitation 1: the Lotus Flower

Lotus flower alternative wedding invitation found on Without A Hitch — the flower is cut from blue patterned paper and becomes a stunning, different wedding invitation via the magic of origami. A tag attached to the flower has all the information a guest could need!

Alternative wedding invitation 2: for book lovers

For paper– and book-lovers everywhere: these alternative invitations styled from books are divine. A discovery from one of my favourite wedding blogs at Oh So Beautiful Paper.

Alternative wedding invitation 2: invites in a tin!
Wedding invitation in a tin! How cute is this — shiny, retro, thrifty-looking (but not, thanks to Royal Mail!) — worth it if you love to make a splash with your invites! Discovered at Lovely Package.

Beautifully natural: alternative wedding invitation number 3

A creative and natural alternative wedding invitation — carefully designed and styled from two circles of untreated, recycled chipboard — die-cut and then letter-pressed to look like an old planting wheel. This invitation is really different! Another find on Without A Hitch.

Alternative wedding invitation 4: camera film invites

For your inner photographer — these retro alternative invites were created by wedding photographers to be eye-catching and fun. They’re interactive: pull the thingy to ‘reel’ the information out. I saw this on the fabulous Invitation Crush website.

If you have an alternative wedding invitation idea please share it here with everyone! Images can be uploaded with the comments options below –but please keep the size to 600 pixels wide, no more (magazine-quality huge images make my blog run really slowly).

Happy Monday everyone!

Claire xx

Hello! For starters: I’m only cringing a little bit at the title. OK, so it’s not a dire warning about the Royal Mail. Your wedding won’t be flashmobbed by angry postmen; even postal strikes aren’t going to have that much impact on your day. So let’s not panic — this is a sensible blog post with wedding advice for couples and suppliers alike: a few things that can go wrong when you’re relying on our wonderful postal service, and how to make them go right instead. (PS do you like my pink stamps? I love Photoshop! Queen, take note!)

Pay the right postage; save on wedding invitation stamps

For anyone who didn’t know, the price of stamps is going up in April. It’s worth thinking about buying your stamps now to save lots of money. The bigger / heavier your wedding invitations, the more you’ll save by buying stamps before the 3oth of April.

The price of a first class stamp and what it covers

A standard first class stamp will cost 46p until the 30th of April, when the price will increase to 60p. Standard stamps are valid for items up to 240mm long; 165mm wide, 5mm thick and up to 100g in weight. If you’re posting 50 wedding invitations and they’re that size, that weight, you’ll save £7 (every penny counts!)

Measure and weigh your wedding invites for postage

Larger and heavier letters cost more to send. If your wedding invitations contain information sheets, diamanté buckles, or are heavy pocketfold formats, be careful to buy the right stamp for their size and weight. Never assume your wedding invitations weigh less than 100g: it all depends on the card stock you’ve used; the envelope quality, and whether you’ve included a reply slip or information sheet.

How to be sure of what your invitations will cost to post

Have one of your made-up wedding invitation packs weighed at the post office or ask your stationer to calculate the postage price for you. If you use the wrong stamps and your wedding invitations cost more to post than you’ve paid, they could be held at the delivery office while your guests are asked to stump up the additional postage cost and a £1 handling fee! Don’t forget the price increase on the 30th of April!

This happened to one of my wedding calligraphy clients this week. The poor girl felt awful as a couple of her guests had had to pay (£1.12) for their wedding invitations to be delivered!

Stamps or great big ugly postage stickers on your invites?

It might seem easier to get all your wedding invitations ready and just take them into the post office for them to add your stamps for you. If you’ve spent a lot on making your wedding invitations look good, don’t forget your envelopes. Stamps look nice but those big postage labels they use at post office counters can look awful squidged onto an envelope! Ask the counter staff to give you normal stamps instead. Even if you need more than one, two stamps look nicer than a huge sticker on your delicate little envelopes!

Wedding mail order — use Special Delivery

When you’re ordering other bits and pieces for your wedding, don’t skimp on guaranteed delivery services, and ask your suppliers how they post orders out.

Bespoke items worth £100 or more should always be sent by Special Delivery in my opinion: if the supplier charges more for this, it’s worth paying. Recorded delivery is not a viable option. In my personal experience Recorded delivery can be no better than first class: my postman never used to ask for a signature for recorded items, only for Special Deliveries. Anything ‘Recorded’ was just dumped in my porch with the normal post. Also, even if a Recorded item does go missing, you’ll have to wait a month or so before Royal Mail will accept they’ve lost it and look into the matter for you.

There is a big price difference to watch out for: Recorded delivery costs the same as first class post plus 95p while Special Delivery costs from £5.90.

See the full price list on the Royal Mail website here: Royal Mail 2012 Prices pdf

If you hover over the link it looks strange, but I promise it’s a genuine link. If in any doubt go via this page: http://www.royalmail.com/prices2012 (scroll down and click on the pdf).

Safe packaging for wedding items in the post

Don’t skimp on packaging if you are sending out parcels to suppliers or posting anything relating to your wedding: your wedding invitations, for example, for calligraphy.

I see many different packaging styles when couples send me their invitations. Some use two boxes with bubble wrap and protective foam while others simply throw placecards into a paper envelope and hope for the best.

(This week I’ve had an order for envelope calligraphy from a groom. It was very carefully packed and the envelopes arrived in perfect condition… in a box for a “cordless rechargeable leisure inflator” — which has kept me smiling all week! — it may not be beautiful packaging, but the tissue paper and careful wrapping worked like a charm.)

In my opinion it is always worthwhile using plenty of packaging to protect valuable items whether these are wedding invitations or your bridesmaids’ accessories, and wherever you are sending them to.

If you have any further advice about posting wedding invitations or sending weddingy bits through the post, please use the comments box below to share with other couples. Wedding suppliers — do you have any more tips? Eco-friendly packaging, perhaps?

Claire x

I have really strong feelings about today’s wedding blog post so I’m going to jump straight in and share them with you: wedding invitation designers have the right to add their signature or branding to their designs. It’s a mark of quality, proof an artist takes pride in their design work. Today I’m urging wedding stationers to add their name to their designs; I want to persuade couples who are buying handmade to choose designer invitations with the maker’s name on.

UK designer wedding invitation — Photo credit: Bunny Delicious

I’m expecting different reactions: a fair number of “ooh, this could be interesting“s — and probably a couple of sharp intakes of breath! Let me explain why this is so important to me.

The designer’s mark on a wedding invitation is:

• an artist or craftsman’s right and tradition
• a requisite for a small designer business
• a sign of quality; of pride in one’s designs

Let’s start with a little background — it’s about maker’s marks and designer labels.

What is a brand?

From Wikipedia: The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”.

A brand is a word or company name that is loaded with our perceptions of quality, style and reputation.

A brand is something that creates a distinction:

• in retail: Prada or Aldi?
• in art and design: Van Gogh vs ‘Anon’?

A strong, positive brand can make the world of difference to a designer or small business. Successful brands are build on consumer perceptions. Brand image is all about quality and reputation, about pride in one’s work and conscious branding of a product range.

Every business has a brand

Wedding designers, business owners and creatives take huge pride in their products. It could even be argued that a team of 1 or 2 designers are more fiercely proud of and focused on the quality of their designs than the likes of… ooh, shall we say Moss Bros?

As designers we have the right to shout from the rooftops about how much we love our brands.

Signatures and logos in design

Hallmarks on silver: Photo credit AllAboutGemstones.com

Who uses these makers’ marks in design?

• Artists, painters and designers from the greats to local artists (a slight tangent but here’s a great blog post about signing works of art)
• Designers and retailers: who has an embossed fork in their kitchen? Or a silver bracelet with a hallmark?
• Manufacturers of quality brands: designer label shoes, handbags, cars… think about Coca-Cola, Smeg fridges, French Connection for example

But wedding invitations are different, aren’t they?

There’s a very common misconception that handmade, handcrafted and smaller scale designer pieces aren’t like this. That ‘designer’ doesn’t apply.

I don’t get it.

Is it because they’re paper? Then look at the high grade watercolour papers I use — the beautiful watermark is an essential part of the product, the cherry on the papery cake!

Is it because you don’t expect branding on greetings cards? Have a look at the back of a card you buy in Smiths or Sainsburys… in fact, it’s my sister’s birthday on Thursday so I’ve got an M&S card here:

How many logos and brands? 1. Forest Standards Council 2. Marks & Spencer 3. Getty Images — and there’s also a guide to the size for posting the card, ‘made in the UK’, Marks & Spencer’s head office address and website (in bold), a barcode and a line to say “for her — bright fun” (? there’s a hamster on the front).

Is it because it’s a wedding? Then explain to me why that makes it different. None of the stationery designers I know — small business or high street chain — change their rules or prices for wedding stationery. So I can’t see any justification for denying them their branding: effectively changing the rules on them.

Branding and logos as a mark of pride and quality

Jimmy Choos — always keep the brand as a mark of quality

Look again at designer brands: Prada, Jimmy Choo, Jaguar, Levi’s… you know when you see one of those logos on a product that it’s top quality, beautifully made, stylishly designed with thought and care.

Wedding invitation designers should show that they take the same pride in their work and include their signature / brand logo on the back of their product.

Sadly, I’ve heard stories about brides and grooms asking for a logo or brand name to be removed from designer wedding invitations.

Why?! Would these couples cut the label from a Louis Vuitton bag? Does ‘designer’ mean nothing in the wedding industry? Unless you’re buying your wedding invitations from Netto, or literally writing on the back of a fag packet, you should never try to hide the designer brand!

Zoe Rusga is the designer at Bunny Delicious, and she told me, “I have been asked to remove my logo from wedding invitations… but why would you spend £200 on invites and have a logo removed?  I am so brand aware and have spent years developing an iconic “thing” that will set me aside from the rest, add value to my product and create a little world of intrigue via the logo and beyond. When I see my invitations without the branding they look so de-valued. I drew the design, I am proud of my rights as an artist. I want people to buy and be excited to buy from me!”

Asking a designer to remove their logo from wedding invitations

Asking for the removal of a designer logo or branding from your wedding invitations is denying a designer the right to claim creative ownership of their work.

Not only that, it takes away a perception of value from your stationery. It’s the difference between ‘designer label’ and ‘anonymous’.

It doesn’t matter if your designer runs a highly acclaimed business or is just starting out. Vivienne Westwood started somewhere — how cool would you be if you’d bought one of her very first pieces? How silly would you feel if you’d cut the label out? Supporting established and new designers in any field is a wonderful thing.

Asking a designer to remove their branding from a product is not only insulting and rude, it devalues a piece too. It’s like trying to pass Prada off as Netto.

Brand logos as trademarks

Is this more about business and advertising than creative rights and a mark of quality? Am I missing the point here, do you think?

Are you?

Advertising is a small part of branding on invitations

If advertising were the sole purpose of branding wedding invitations, then designers would put a price on the back. Please credit us with a little more intelligence than that.

Look again at my M&S example: there’s a barcode on there, a product code and the website. That’s selling. Compare this to a wedding invitation with a designer logo on the back: I’m betting the logo is as carefully designed as the invite itself: it’s a mark of quality, not a hard sell.

If your wedding invitations arrive with “only £1 for 6 and get 10% discount online when you quote offer code XYZ” on the back, then you’ve cause to complain.

Logos are tasteful and while they do advertise the designer, it’s the right of every small business to get their name out there.

The desginers from Bellybuttonboo commented on my facebook page, “we do add a logo or website where we can to our invitations but we always add it to the final proof/sample so the couple know it will be there — it’s a key thing for us that if people like what we do, they can look us up. But it’s not always practical and we wouldn’t squeeze it in or add it where it would impact on a design.”

They went on to mention a bride who “wanted the feel of handmade invitations and wanted to make them herself, but we ended up doing the main invitation for her and she added some finishing touches. Although we could have added a logo, we didn’t as it wouldn’t have been ‘handmade’ for her. It’s really knowing when it’s not right for that couple in particular.”

I think an invitation handcrafted by a designer has added value though, don’t you?

Rachel Sokhal, designer at Exceptional Designs, says “I have always added my logo and website details to the back of all of my wedding stationery, right from when any samples are sent out and I have never had one client question it in 4 years.”

Sophie from Cards by Sophie commented on my facebook page: “I keep it simple, not too overt and in a grey shade so again it’s not too out there! I’ve never had anyone question it at all, like Rachel said. I think it’s important to show where they were made, also get your name out there and also to be very honest not have someone fob them off as their own! I don’t see why not? People have paid for your product, obviously love it to have done so, and no one seems to have an issue with it being marked as where it’s from.”

Julie from Carol Miller Designs told me, “I include my details on all my wedding invitations. If anyone asked me to leave them off I would say no. After all if you buy a card from Clintons or M&S all the details are there. I get calls from relatives asking for secret photo albums, keepsake boxes etc as a wedding presents. I’ve also had stationery orders from brides the following year who have received one of my invites.”

Supporting small wedding businesses and designers

I’d love to see English Wedding couples making a conscious choice to not only buy invitations from small businesses and designers, but to take pride in

a) having a unique, affordable, creative designer label on the back of your wedding invitations

b) helping spread the word about designers and small wedding businesses via the logos on the reverse of wedding invitations

Having pride in designer wedding invitations

Creatives in any industry have a terrible habit of undervaluing themselves. I hear it all the time from brilliant designers: “I’m not sure if I’m good enough” — from top bridal accessory designers to stationers, photographers (less often!) and even cake designers. Even though their work is impeccable and exciting, too many amazing wedding stationers work for peanuts.

Having a logo on a product is a mark of distinction. It’s a signal, a little stamp of confidence: not shouting “I’m brilliant” from the rooftops, but saying “I’m proud of this”. And that’s every designer’s right.

A wedding invitation designer who puts a logo on the back of their product is a GOOD designer.

(And let me take a little moment to say to designers, “please brand your products!” If you don’t, why not? I’m off to investigate an embossing press for my brand as soon as I’ve finished writing! Perhaps I’ve never really had the confidence to before — I don’t know. But I know branding my product will keep that confidence at the forefront of my mind — and that can’t be a bad thing.)

Haha… Even as I type this post, Nikki from Knots & Kisses has told me on facebook, “I’m looking at finding someway of embossing my logo on the envelopes and therefore it won’t ruin the stationery” — but Nikki I agree with your other half: embossing your logo on the invitations themselves will be a real advocate of your brand. I think any couple would be proud to show off their Knots & Kisses invitations!

Sharing your pride in your wedding designs

Brides: If you buy a top from Tesco in your lunch break, do you show your colleagues or leave it in the bag? No harm in either really, but I don’t imagine you’d be rushing back desperate to show it off…

If you buy a top by Alexander McQueen in your lunch break, do you show your colleagues or leave it in the bag?

The moral of the story there is, if you buy something special you can be proud of it. A designer piece is something to get excited about — designer wedding invitations are just the same.

If you buy a handcrafted designer wedding invitation with a logo on the back -

Show if off with pride!

and thank you for supporting our wedding industry designers too.

Claire xx

On Friday I asked wedding invitation designers from all over the UK to share their best bright and summery invites with English Wedding blog. A cold and frosty day turned into a little ray of sunshine for me as lots of talented designers joined in to showcase wedding invitations with a cheerful spring and summer feel to them.

A new feature on English Wedding blog

This will become a regular feature because it gives you lovely readers out there a chance to see lots of new and exciting designs and ideas, all in one place.

(I’m thinking next time I might look for jewellery and accessories on a theme… if you have a theme, season or style in mind, give me a shout and I’ll ask for ideas for your theme!)

Do pop over to the English Wedding Showcase to see the summery wedding invitations in glorious technicolour (by which I mean: bigger. They also have descriptions and more info from the designers over there). In the meantime, here’s a round up of all the designs shared: two wedding inspiration boards with all the supplier information below each one.

Photo and design credits clockwise from top left:

• Beautiful Butterflies invitation by Wendy Bell Designs
• Aqua scroll wedding invite by Julie Boyd at Carol Miller Designs
• “Marie” summery wedding invitation from Cards by Sophie
• another scroll wedding invitation in pink from Carol Miller Designs
• Pretty pink invitation from the Ditsy print range at Knots and Kisses
• Beautiful bright wedding invites from the Enchanted Collection at Pink Sherbet Designs
• The Promenade Range from Invite In The Post is bright and breezy — perfect invitations for a spring or summer wedding!

Photo and design credits from top left (please go by my descriptions):

• Summer tea inspired wedding invitation by Sweet Words
• Bright and cheery stripey wedding invitation from Bonnie Blackbird
• Glorious sunshine invite by Octavia Plum
• Emma & Marc’s summer wedding invitation — photo credit McAvoy Photography
• Creative handmade calendar invitations by Gabby (shared by Ann from Eleventh Heaven)
• Pocketfold wedding invitation for a relaxed summer wedding by Bunny Delicious
• Vintage summer wedding invitation with lace and buttons by Flutterby Couture
• Bright and cheery peacock inspired wedding invitation from Inspired by Lisa
• Lime and charcoal pocketfold invitation by the lovely Millie and Me
• Vibrant orange and yellow bunting invitation by XOXO Stationery
• Cool invitation for a music themed wedding shared by Lynette at BlincPics Photography

So which is your favourite? Do you prefer pastels or bright colours for summer wedding invitations? And do you like the new feature… I hope it helps and inspires some of you

See all the invitations with full descriptions and big pictures on the English Wedding invitations Showcase

Claire xx

Hi again! Time for some pretty unique wedding invitation designs to show you — beautiful, creative and standout wedding invites from Wendy Bell Designs.

I featured Wendy’s London wedding on the blog back in 2011 — she’d designed all her own stationery to fit with her choice of wedding venue, and it was absolutely divine! Wendy’s bespoke wedding invitation service promises to be outstanding, so do check out her official website to find out more.

As a sponsor of English Wedding blog, Wendy Bell Designs now has a dedicated Showcase Page which I think you’ll love — there are more pics on there of her personalised wedding invitation designs, alongside info on the bespoke wedding invitation service.

Watch out for Wendy’s blog posts on the English Wedding Showcase as well — I’m looking forward to seeing what 2012 has in store for this very talented young designer (and lovely, lovely lady!)

Find out more about Wendy Bell Designs on the English Wedding Showcase

Wendy — welcome to English Wedding!

I wonder how many of you brides and grooms out there started the month a day or two ago with a resounding rallying cry of, “Right!” If you’re marrying in 2012, it’s time to get stuck into your planning, and especially time to think about wedding invitations. And if my inbox is anything to go by, plenty of you are investigating your options for stationery already! So I welcomed this guest blog post from Confetti with open arms. I hope you find it useful!

This article is supplied by Confetti.co.uk. To see their range of wedding stationery, visit www.confetti.co.uk/wedding-stationery/

Ok, you’ve set the date, what’s next? Well, this is where it starts to get really exciting. This is your chance to tell the world, (or your friends and family at least) by inviting them to the big day! Your wedding stationery is the first glimpse your guests will get of your wedding day style, so it’s important to make a good first impression.

When to send?

Timing is critical. People lead such busy lives these days that perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised if sending out invitations just a few weeks before the event results in a postman’s sack full of “Sorry we won’t be attending” replies. To make sure that your nearest and dearest are all present on the big day, sending out save the date cards around 6 months before the wedding is a great idea. If you are holding your wedding abroad or during a popular holiday period, it would be wise to get them in the post even earlier.

Personalised wedding stationery

As the cost of printing has fallen over the past several years, personalised stationery has become hugely popular. It’s the perfect way of putting your own stamp on your wedding with the minimum of effort.

There is a huge range of personalised stationery available, however the quality of design is just as large. English Wedding has some wonderful examples of beautiful wedding stationery so take a look around to find something suitable for you.

Advantages of using personalised stationery

• Saves you time and effort — it’s easy to order personalised stationery online so all the work is done for you
• The choice is endless so you can choose your favourite design and font, creating a unique style which is personal to you
• You can mix and match with DIY wedding stationery — you could have personalised invitations, for example, but create your own place cards

DIY wedding stationery

Creating your own wedding stationery is a time-consuming process which can either become a hugely enjoyable part of your wedding preparation, or a major regret. It’s a very hands-on approach, but lets you design something perfectly suited to your day. Receiving a handmade invitation feels much more personal and special. It’s a wonderful gesture, but it’s crucial to plan each step through before starting.

Make sure you’ve got time. For example if you’re having a small wedding and you’re planning well ahead of time, DIY stationery could be the perfect choice. If, however, you’re inviting hundreds of guests and only have a couple of months before your wedding day, you’re almost certainly going to be better off with a personalised range. It’s just not worth the stress!

Advantages of DIY wedding stationery

• Perfect if you want to show off your creativity and use your artistic skills to create completely unique stationery
• Creating your own stationery can be great fun. Evenings spent with bridesmaids making cards can be one of the highlights of planning your wedding
• DIY stationery tends to be less expensive

Whichever style and type you go for, stationery is such a huge part of your wedding day it’s worth getting absolutely right. Give your guests something to get excited about with your invitations and follow the style through to your menus and place cards for extra effect. The effort will be worth it.

I promised you gorgeous, glamorous, bright and sexy wedding invitations, and here they are. Designed by Wendy Bell, whose wedding I featured on the blog yesterday, these invitations are pretty special — and right up my street.

Roof Gardens Flamingo Design: www.WendyBellDesigns.com

Wendy’s Flamingo design was created for her wedding. She coordinated the wedding invitations to tie in with her wedding venue — the Roof Gardens in Kensington. The funky invitations take inspiration from the colourings of the wedding venue. The flamingos are found in their gardens and the dots symbolise the beaded curtains in the Roof Gardens club area. Wendy offers a bespoke invitation design service… and you can see just how much thought and attention to detail goes into the design process!

Peacock Spots wedding invitation: www.WendyBellDesigns.com

Above, Peacock Spots wedding invitation. Intricately dotted designs evoke the natural patterns of peacock feathers, in cool pink and grey… so sophisticated.

Monochrome Hearts wedding invitation: www.WendyBellDesigns.com

Monochrome Hearts wedding invitation. I love the grungey hearts, the textures and beautifully messy design with such a lovely typeface. Yummy.

I Love You wedding invitation: www.WendyBellDesigns.com (Wendy, we love you too!)

My favourite invitation from Wendy Bell’s collection is the I Love You design — it just looks like so much fun, and the colours are fabulous!

Beautiful Butterflies wedding invitation: www.WendyBellDesigns.com

…while these butterflies against a dark background stand out from the crowd — a really pretty design with a beautiful contemporary feel to it.

Art Nouveau wedding invitation: www.WendyBellDesigns.com

Last but not least, this is Wendy’s Art Nouveau wedding invitation design. It’s so pretty and elegant, but fits with the more glamorous side of vintage that we’re seeing emerge in the wedding industry for 2012. The squares in the layout contrast with the delicate flower designs, and I love the swirly bits.

She’s so talented!

Wendy Bell is an accomplished designer, having graduated from Winchester School of Art & Design with a BA (Hons) degree in Textile Design, specialising in Print. When she became engaged in 2010 and designed her own wedding stationery Wendy decided to create a bespoke invitation design service — and I’m delighted she did!

Find out more about Wendy, see other wedding invitation designs and read about her bespoke design service at www.wendybelldesigns.com

I have pet names for only a very select few wedding stationers. Zoe from Bunny Delicious just happens to be top of my list, and in more ways than one. I can’t remember quite where ‘Miss Delicious’ came from, but I like the sauciness of it… and it makes me smile whenever I see a Bunny Delicious design! I’ve known Zoe via the miracles of our modern interweb for years — and I’ve watched her creativity with growing delight.

Bunny Delicious is one of the UK’s top wedding stationery companies, appearing regularly in top wedding magazines and leading the way with a distinctive and unique artistic style. Wedding invitations from Bunny Delicious are instantly recognisable, Zoe’s guest books and photo albums are inspired and exciting, and Zoe herself is just brilliant.

An outspoken, creative and genuine lady, Zoe Rusga is one wedding stationery designer you have to find out more about. I’m very pleased to have Bunny Delicious as my newest sponsor on the English Wedding Blog. Find out more and see some of my favourite contemporary wedding invites and accessories on the new Bunny Delicious Showcase Page.

Zoe — I’m very happy to welcome you to English Wedding Blog.

Claire xxx