Print Proposal: Designers Discuss Printing Custom Wedding Stationery

When it comes to wedding stationery, your clients have many different aisles they can walk down. We give you total customizing freedom to create the look and feel of their dreams with online printing features like premium paper stocks, full-color, unique white ink, UV coatings, Soft Touch laminate and drill holes for special accents like ribbon or twine.

Put simply, whatever the happy couple can dream up, we can print. No uninspired templates here! Our team of print experts and world-class customer service reps turn wedding printing into a truly personalized experience for you and your clients.

As you work with couples looking ahead to their future, we look to our own with eco-friendly printing practices. Prioritizing environmentally-focused products, Smartpress is your socially responsible printer, a value essential to a client of Cimarron Creative’s owner and designer Carla Olson.

“The bride was very conscious of the environmental impact, so I wanted to use a company I knew married high-quality printing with environmentally-conscious practices (more than simply offering a recycled paper option),” Olson said. “With Smartpress’ commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability, it was an easy choice.”

Planning Pointer: “Take advantage of the Smartpress Paper Sample Book, and share that with your clients so they can be a part of the decision-making process and know exactly what they’re getting,” said Katie Birch, owner and designer of inKBar Design Co. “If you have really picky clients, offer them printed samples in addition.”

Whether your clients’ design taste is something old or something new, Smartpress makes the process simple so you can help them save money and stay within their budget.

We offer services like variable data printing, which lets you personalize wedding stationery with the recipient’s name or address. Or try our Versions feature, which lets you vary the content on save the dates, invites and RSVPs. This comes in handy when your client has different guest lists and wants to send one version to guests invited to the ceremony and reception, and one version to guests invited to just the reception.

And all that sending? Smartpress can do that, too. We offer full mailing and addressing services, from list processing to matching envelopes. It’s just one more way Smartpress helps your clients remember the special moments and not the stressful ones.

Planning Pointer: “Be sure to let your clients know that certain specifications (thickness or square envelopes) may cost extra postage,” said freelance designer Elizabeth Miller. “[And] order at least 20 extra invitations. There’s always someone they’ve forgotten, and starting from scratch to print extras will require them to pay set-up and postage costs again.”

While the ceremony often takes the spotlight, wedding day events begin before and last long after it. At Smartpress, doing your clients’ wedding printing online can include decorations and personal touches for every moment.

Suggest non-traditional invitations with specialty Designer Folds, like Square Petals or Diagonal Wraps, for a truly memorable opening experience. Clients may even want to design a more elaborate program with Saddle Stitch Booklets. With all the extra pages, they can include stories of how they met and relationship milestones, plus fun anecdotes and photos of the bridal party.

For the reception, be sure to encourage custom Hanging Banners for decor (your clients can add personal photos or even showcase design features from their wedding suite), and suggest sending guests home with personalized wedding favors. With our Promotional Products, they can customize everything from commemorative keychains and coasters to pens and glassware.

Planning Pointer: “If I ever receive an invitation [or] save the date in the mail, I save it. You can see font, paper color, texture, ink, etc. and visualize what you’d like for yourself,” said Hamilton. “[And] always upload the correct file types at a high resolution, keep your designs inside the ‘trim safe’ line and proofread, proofread, proofread!”

Planning a wedding and wedding stationery can be challenging in many ways, and it’s made all the more challenging with safety guidelines and social distancing to consider. Luckily, our custom options make pivoting with print no problem.

With a smaller number of guests and venue changes, the complications don’t have to mean cancellations. Advise your clients to use social distancing signs like our custom Floor Graphics. These floor decals can guide guests safely around, in and out of the event space and can coordinate easily with their wedding theme and colors.

Offer to print sophisticated and glass-like Clear Acrylic Signs with safety reminders to display in reception areas, entrances, or even on buffet, cake and punch tables. And to ensure enough space is between each person, design Table Tents with seating instructions as part of centerpieces or use Collated Printing to create numbered table cards for each place setting.

A little creativity goes a long way, even with pieces you and your clients have already designed. It’s something Olson experienced first-hand with one couple’s program.

“We did design a full invitation suite, although ultimately the couple decided to postpone and scale down,” she said. “The bride’s mother wanted a special keepsake as a surprise, so we adjusted the program and menu to create this double-sided piece with a nice, thick cardstock and matte finish.”

Planning Pointer: “Dive deep. If you’re doing a fully custom design, listen and ask questions so you really get to know the couple and understand how they envision the day,” said Olson. “They may come with an idea, so use that as a jumping point, but don’t be beholden to it – elevate it!”

Whether your clients’ wedding looks more city hall than a cathedral or more cocktails than catering, Smartpress is the online printer to ensure their stationery stuns. Our high-quality products are a perfect match with designs of all kinds.

With the expansive assortment of print possibilities Smartpress offers, Miller reminds you to, “Work with your clients to show them the vast universe of choices they have when hiring a custom designer.”

“[Smartpress’] quality of work is amazing, and [there’s] such a wide array of products/options to choose from,” said Birch. “Everything is so seamless, from choosing the project to completion – it’s such a great user experience.”

Our simple ordering platform was a selling point for Olson, too. “The website is easy to navigate, and their customer support and print quality are top notch,” she said. “I’ve used many online and local printers over the years, and I am most pleased with Smartpress.”

Let Smartpress be your other half as you help clients to the altar.