Wedding invitation suites

A wedding invitation suite is the set of cards your guests receive in one envelope: the invitation, a reply card with its own envelope, a details card for travel and timings, and the outer envelope with your return address. Liners, belly bands, vellum wraps and wax seals are optional finishing. Save the dates and day-of pieces such as menus and place cards can match the suite but are ordered separately.

Our three suites for 100 guests are 1 640 $US (Essential), 2 690 $US (Classic) and 4 190 $US (Signature), with envelopes, a free digital proof and free continental-US ground shipping. For 200 guests they are 2 190 $US, 3 615 $US and 6 600 $US. Most full suites for 100 guests land between about 2 500 $US and 5 000 $US once you add extra colours, liners or a specialty piece.

Plates, dies and press setup cost the same for 50 cards as for 200. Below about 75 guests, setup is most of the bill, so a Classic suite for 50 guests is 2 215 $US, not half of the 2 690 $US it costs for 100. For the same reason, a few spare suites added to the original order cost far less each than the per-guest price suggests.

Choose letterpress if you want guests to feel the type: an inked plate presses the words into soft cotton. Choose foil if your design is light on dark paper or needs real shine, because letterpress ink is see-through and looks chalky on dark stock. On our suites one colour of either is priced the same, so choose on look, not budget.

On our suites, letterpress costs the same as one colour of foil: 1 640 $US for an Essential suite for 100 guests and 2 690 $US for Classic, envelopes included. Letterpress gets expensive through setup, not ink: every colour is its own plate and its own press pass, so extra colours and short runs cost the most. That's why we price a second colour as a flat add-on rather than per card.

If your guests will hold the card, yes. The impression is the one thing a screen or a flat print can't imitate, and on 32pt cotton you feel every line. It's the wrong choice for photographs, gradients or large solid areas of colour, which print with a soft mottle. Those work better with foil or a coloured paper.

Letterpress presses inked type into the paper, so the words sit below the surface in colour. Embossing presses the paper up from behind between two matched dies, usually without ink; a blind deboss presses it down without ink. All three need soft uncoated or cotton paper, and a deep impression of any of them shows on the back of a single sheet, which is why we bond a second sheet when the back matters.

An emboss reads only by its shadow, so it needs bold shapes: fine lines and small type disappear. On a single sheet it leaves a reversed impression on the back, which we fix by bonding a second sheet behind it. On black or very dark paper a blind emboss or deboss is very quiet, so if it has to be read we add foil inside the impression.

Work back from your mail date. Invitations usually go out 6 to 8 weeks before the wedding (8 to 12 for a destination wedding). Allow a week or so for concepts and proofing, about 3 weeks of production after you approve the proof, about a week of shipping, and a week or two to address and assemble. These are estimates, not guarantees, so leave a cushion.

We don't offer rush production, so we don't promise rush dates. A suite takes about 3 weeks of production after you approve your proof, then shipping. If your mail date is tight, tell us your date before you order and we'll say honestly whether it fits. If it doesn't, you'll hear that from us before you pay, not after.

Order one suite per household, not per guest, then add 10 to 15 percent for late additions, keepsakes and your photographer. If a calligrapher is addressing envelopes, order 15 to 20 percent extra envelopes for practice and mistakes. Because setup is most of the cost, extras added to the original order cost far less than a reprint later.

Yes. Our sample kit is 8 $US, credited toward your first order. It's our general sample pack rather than a wedding-specific box: real production pieces, mostly business cards, across our papers and finishes, plus a hot foil swatch card showing the foils we stock. It's the same paper and the same presses as your invitation, so you can judge weight, impression and foil colour in your hand.

Yes. Printed guest addressing is included in the Signature suite, along with envelope liners and a wax seal. Names are printed flat in ink, which keeps every envelope consistent. Guest names in foil need a separate small die for every name, so personalised foil is quoted on its own. If you'd like addressing on Essential or Classic, ask in the Studio and we'll price it.

Yes. US orders ship from the US, and EU orders ship from Berlin. Suites include free continental-US ground shipping. For addresses in Europe or elsewhere, tell us where the suites are going when you start and we'll confirm shipping before you pay.

Printing at home is cheaper for flat digital cards, and for some weddings that's the right call. It can't give you letterpress, foil, embossing or 32pt cotton, because those need plates, dies and a press. If the feel of the card matters to you, a printed suite is worth it; if it doesn't, save the money for the day.

The common ones: ordering one invitation per guest instead of one per household; asking for light ink on dark paper, which looks chalky (light on dark is foil); foil type or lines too fine to hold; leaving no cushion between production and your mail date; and buying stamps before weighing a finished suite. Thick cotton, a wax seal or a square envelope usually needs extra postage, so take one fully assembled suite to the post office and have it weighed first.