Choosing your wedding invitations can be one part of your wedding planning that suddenly makes everything seem real and that the wedding is really happening. Your invitations are an important part of your whole wedding festivities, they are the first look your guests will get at the style or theme of your day, and the way in which they are printed can say a lot about the formality of your wedding.
Usually you will order your wedding invitations as part of a wide package of custom designed wedding stationery. The amount of products you have in your wedding stationery can vary depending upon the style of your wedding, a casual wedding for instance may not include wedding programs, printed menus or place cards. But all packages will have invitations.
When it comes to choosing the style of printing you have several options open to you and your final choice can depend largely on budget as well as your wedding style. DIY invitations, which you print yourself at home remain a popular choice for cash strapped couples or those who want something rather more low key. But if you are looking for something special from your invitations then here are your printing options:
Engraving produces a very formal invitation and is produced by having a plate 'carved' with your chosen text. When pressed on to the invitation it leaves indentations in the paper. Traditionally the plates would have been hand cut in wood or copper but today they are more likely to be made of steel and precision cut by laser. Engraving is not a cheap option, but the look and feel of the finished invitation is beautiful.
Lithography is a chemical process based on the oil and water doesn't mix principle. In essence the paper is coated with a special chemical which when ink is applied repels the ink in certain areas whilst leaving it in others.
Thermography uses special powdered inks which when heat is applied forms a raised effect on the paper. This creates a very beautiful look to your invitations and is not a difficult process.
Letterpress is similar to engraving in that the text is applied by the use of a special plate press pushed down on to the paper. This can involve the cutting of custom made plate or by using generic plates onto which the individual letters are slid in reverse order (the plate is then turned the other way to produce text reading left to right). This is a popular technique for wedding invitations and is slightly less expensive than engraving.
Embossed printing produces a raised effect on one side and a depressed effect on the other. It is achieved by using two metal die plates - one female and one male which fit together. The paper is slid in between them and heavy weight applied to produce the finished effect. This is a nice effect for graphic elements on your invitations and for producing intricate raised borders.
Off-set printing is a combination of letterpress and lithography and is a less labor intensive way to produce good quality print on wedding invitations.
Laser and inkjet printing are the most cost effective method of printing invitations and although many of us can do this at home on our home computers, commercial printers will give a better quality print, be much faster and give better color saturation.
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