The nearlyweds - Not a 70's sitcom but a funky range of Invitations

I have to be honest, I have never been much in favour of vector art graphics for wedding stationery. I often see the bold lines and shapes of vector art on free image stock websites for which looks like as though they have been drawn up by a student in their first week of graphic design class. With wedding stationery I often find this style from print shops because they realise that you can easily scale a vector graphic from a Place Card to an Order of Service without losing quality.

Anyway, after that moany start, I will continue by saying that The Nearlyweds do not fall into the dodgy vector art category and are a shining example of what can be achieved with computer aided design. Their vector art is some of the most original I have seen and perfect for the bride looking for some chic, funky wedding stationery.

At first I thought the printers at The Nearlyweds were trying to conserve their materials costs by limiting the ink pallette to pink, white and black. Pink is all you see see when you visit their funky web site. What you might not realise until you delve a little deeper is that all the designs are available in different colourways which is a welcome sight. Some of their designs are a little too cutesy for my liking and remind me of the Bubblegum brand of stationery that Collisons have recently (and thankfully) discontinued, but the bold shapes and style of their butterfly and floral designs work very well. Best of all is that all designs have the added bonus of allowing the bride and grooms names to be printed on the front to make your design set truly unique.

Free samples are available from The Nearlyweds however it does not look as though you can specify exactly which sample you get. I think that their reasoning behind this is that because card stock and print quality is probably the same across all designs then individual samples are not necessary.

Origami Wedding Invitations from Paperbird

We like to uncover wedding stationery that is a little out of the ordinary and these Origami wedding invitations from Paperbird Design are our latest find.  We don’t usually start with the price but I think it is only fair in this instance because it may put some readers off.  Each invitation and envelope costs between £7.00 to £11.00 each depending on the complexity of the design.  This sounds expensive but I guess if you break it down into cost per fold you soon realise that is the labour that you are paying for here and not the materials (not to forget the rather exclusive design).

These origami designs are part of the Paperbird Signature range which includes paper fold creations featuring either a Heart, Lily, Lotus Flower or Butterfly.  I imagine, the butterfly design will be very popular because the delicate folds lend themselves well to this popular wedding theme.  My favourite is the Lotus Flower which I believe is the most expensive but it certainly looks the most complex and I have blogged about the symbolism of the Lotus flower before as a symbol of sexual purity in marriage.   The design comes with a clever protective folding envelope but I would question how vibrant those petals would look after they have been through the postal machines at Royal Mail.  Unlike most wedding stationery companies Paperbird do not appear to have a minimum order quantity so perhaps this design may be best suited to give to close family and friends where the invitations can be hand delivered.

Lotus Flower Origami Wedding Invite

Finally, if price is the only put off here, you could order the DIY option.  You get a ream of paper, a ream of card, and a reel of ribbon, a set of false finger nails, and a waste paper bin…… only joking.

If you’re looking for wedding stationery that’s a little bit different that you can incorporate your wedding colours into, then take a look at Dottie Creations.  They have designs to cover all tastes from floral, butterfly, vintage and hearts, to polka dots, cowboy and zebra designs.  This Romany range caught my eye with its intricate floral design in black with butterflies highlighted in deep red and sage green.  It’s a wallett style invitation which includes the invitation, RSVP postcard, information card and coordinating envelope for £6.60.

For those of you who want to save some money and print your own wedding stationery, but don’t have much artistic flair, Marks & Spencer have come to the rescue.  There are a few designs available, a couple that require a little assembly (don’t worry, only a bit of ribbon tying) but the most on trend style after Coleen’s wedding is this butterfly design in muted tones.  The invitations come in packs of 10 and include insert paper, ties, envelopes and instructions, all for £7.50. Also alvailable in the range are placecards in packs of 10 for £2 and table name cards numbered 1-12 for £3.50 which is incredibly cheap.

Butterfly themes are big since Coleen and Waynes wedding pictures came out in OK! and I’m sure there will be many trying to replicate their stationery, but I love this design from With Love as it’s not overtly full of butterflies stuck all over it.  The butterflies dance in and out of the delicate oriental cherry blossom with the couples name and wedding date set in between.  The design is shown in red which gives it an oriental theme, but it can be printed in colours to suit your colour scheme and is printed on a pearl lustre card to give a gentle shimmer.  Wedding and evening invitations cost £3.10 which includes a pearl envelope.  With Love were the Best Wedding Stationery Winner 2008 in the Wrapit Awards and will be exhibiting at the NEC National Wedding Show which is on from October 10-12th 2008.

Coleen McLoughlin had a beautiful and simple butterfly theme for her wedding to Wayne Rooney, and although we can’t tell you who made the stationery (Revellers World Events were the organisers), we can show you something similar that we featured here a little while ago from Twenty-Seven.   It had been widely reported that Coleen and Wayne were to give their guests a butterfly each in a box to release at the end of the ceremony, thankfully this was not the case, and all the guests were given a little box decorated with a butterfly with Rosary beads inside as a gift.  They did release a dozen white doves to signify peace and hope for the future, a little more fair I feel as at least doves can show their displeasure at being couped up if they want to with a little gift of their own!

Simple designs are often among the most effective and this die cut butterfly wedding invitation is a refreshingly simple example.  Butterfly wedding invitations seem to have sprung from nowhere in the last year but now virtually every wedding stationery supplier has a butterfly design in their portfolio.  Unfortunately, the style police were not around to oversee this 2 winged design explosion and the results are often disastrous.  Many of the designs I come across consist of nothing more than a selection of cheap silk butterflies stuck to a card.   These over zealous and unimaginative designs look like a sickening display page from an over-enthusiastic butterfly collector.

This butterfly design from Twenty-Seven is certainly one of the better butterfly designs I have come across.  It would have been so easy for them to use a different colour insert paper to be revealed through the die cut on the cover but I think sticking with a white board throughout adds an air of sophistication.  The only indulgence on this card is the silver thread that zig zags across the spine of the card.  Again, a simple touch that is not over the top.

Pricing is equally simple.  No quantity based prices here.  You pay £3.00 per card for either a Wedding Invite, Evening Invite, Order of Service or Menu.

Butterflies seem to be all the rage in wedding stationery design in 2007 and there seems to be no change for 2008 with many more companies adding butterfly wedding invitation designs to their portfolio.

I love these stylish butterfly designs from CKK.  The design is fairly simple with bold single colour butterfly symbols that are softened by a translucent overlay.  The cards are finished with a matching satin ribbon bow.  I first came across these style of bows on the Imperial design from the Letterpress of Cirencester (previosly called Roman).  A single piece of ribbon is threaded through two machine punched or drilled holes to create a bow effect.  Simple yet very effective.

They best thing about this design is the price.  Only £1.50 each for the flat invitations shown above which includes envelopes and there are quantity discounts starting at 50 invitations which can bring the price down to less than £1.28 a card.  A real bargain.

You can request a sample of this design from CKK for £1.50 in one of six standard colours - Dark Brown, Fuscia, Plum, Dusky Blue, Rose Pink and Lilac.  If you are looking for a different colour then contact CKK and see what they can do.