A Designer's Take on Wedding Invitations Part One: Printing At Home

Designing and printing wedding invitations may be one of the most fun projects we get to tackle as designers and printers.  Unlike most couples, we get to do it again and again!  Since we have more experience than most couples will ever have in the wedding invitation department, we wanted to share our experience to make your task a bit easier.  There is a lot to cover, so we'll start with our first post on printing at home.

Follow along for the next week as we cover budgeting, designing, assembly, and then we'll finish with a handy checklist to bring it all together!
Printing Wedding Invitations at Home:
Weddings can be so expensive!  Printing invitations at home can be very tempting as a money-saver and a fun way to get involved in the process.  Before you commit to a DIY project, here are a few points to consider:

First, assess your printer.  Do you have a home printer that can handle the volume of prints, number of colors, and type of paper you want?  Can your printer do double-sided printing?  It's so important to check this at the beginning of the process, so you aren't faced with an emergency on a very short deadline when you finally do sit down to print your invitations.

Print a few test prints on your desired paper at the beginning to make sure you're happy with the quality.  Make sure you have included the cost of a few ink cartridges in your budget, especially for designs that have large areas of ink coverage.  Print some pages with large blocks of color to make sure your printer doesn't create streaks or visible lines within your design.  If you've ever printed a larger quantity of pages and noticed the print quality degrading, you may want to consider having your invites printed professionally, or budget your time so you can print a few invitations a day rather than all at once.

Now, consider your paper selection.  When choosing a paper stock for printing, keep in mind that any colors you print will have to overlay the base color of the paper.  For this reason, it is usually best to choose a white or cream stock, so your other colors reproduce as well as possible.  If you are interested in having a design with a darker color, it's better to print that color, rather than attempt to use darker paper.  Remember, most printers can't print in white, so the only way to have white text on a dark background is to print the background color around the area of text!

Also keep in mind that many printers will not print well on heavily textured papers.  If at all possible, obtain a few sheets of your desired paper for test prints before committing to a particular paper.

This design would be printed on white paper in order to achieve the white swirls and gray background.  The design includes a background "texture" so even on smooth paper, the invitation still has some textural interest.

Next, choose a design you can print!  Do you know what "full-bleed printing" means?  Any design where the ink goes all the way to the edge of the paper is called "full bleed."  It's actually not possible to print all the way to the edge of a piece of paper...this look is achieved by cutting away excess paper after the printing is completed.  Keep this in mind as you are selecting or creating designs!  You may need to print on larger stock and cut each piece to size after printing, or add an unprinted border to your design. You won't be able to achieve full bleed printing on pre-cut wedding invitation paper sets either.

This wedding invitation does not include any "bleed" and could easily be printed on a home printer without significantly changing the look.

Unlike the invitation above, this invitation would be considered "full bleed" and must be printed on a larger piece of paper or cardstock and then cut down to size.  Although it is possible to print this type of invitation at home, it can be difficult to achieve your intended results without professional help.

Many times couples discover, too late, that they are unable to print double-sided documents at home.  This discovery is often made after the first side of the invite has been printed.  Home printers can streak or damage printing when attempting to print the second side, or may simply not allow paper to be loaded more than once.  Be sure to attempt this before committing to a design so you know what your limitations may be!

If you find you can't achieve the print quality you'd like at home, you may discover that you can still realize a savings by having a professional printer produce your cards. You can then opt to take care of things like cutting and assembly at home, but have the print quality you want!

Now, make sure you have the right equipment to cut and assemble.  If your home print quality is acceptable, or you've paid someone to print your invitations, make sure you have high quality equipment available to cut your invites apart, or purchase stock that is already cut to size.  Some invitation stocks come perforated so you can print and then tear away the excess...be very careful about choosing these, as the perforated edges will have a somewhat rough or fuzzy look to them.  That may work for a more casual or rustic design, but won't be as appropriate for a more formal look.

You can see the rough, perforated edge at the top of this RSVP card.

You may want to consider calling a local printer to see if they may be willing to cut out your invites for you, even if you do choose to print them yourself.  For a very small fee, you can often have your entire stack of invites cut all at once!

If your finished invitation will be placed inside a pocket, held together with a belly band, or feature any type of added embellishments such as bows, lace, or rhinestones, look to scrapbooking supplies!  Simple double-sided tape is much harder to work with than some of the excellent tools available for applying glue strips or tape dots.  A visit to a local scrapbooking shop or craft store can save you hours of frustration.  There are even self-stick bows and seals available to free you from attempting to recreate something from ribbon or with scissors.

Coming up next, planning a budget for your invitations!

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