Moo met Mengyuan while travelling through China, and love quickly started to work its magic… A little while later, Mengyuan decided to move over the UK to be with Moo – and they’ve never looked back! Just a few years later, Moo and Mengyuan married at the wonderful Matara Centre, “a place of beauty and tranquility.”
Mengyuan’s family made the long journey from China to the UK for the wedding, where they met Moo’s family for the first time. On the day, Moo and Mengyuan fused English and Chinese wedding traditions in a ceremony that reflected both their cultures. Not only did Mengyuan handmake hundreds of paper cranes, but a traditional Chinese tea ceremony was performed shortly after the western ceremony. The bride and groom presented tea to both sets of parents in exchange for small gifts, welcoming their new in-laws into their family.
Congratulations, Moo & Mengyuan! And thank you, Boy Called Ben Photography, for letting us share these beautiful photographs to help remember a very special day!
Where better to have a show-stopping day then at the iconic Shepperton Studios. Not only is it a stunning manor house steeped in history, but it has featured in some truly memorable rom-coms including Nottinghill, Bridget Jones and Love Actually. Tiffany and Ashley held their beautiful September wedding at the iconic venue, with fresh lavender and gold accessories it was a sensationally glamorous affair.
South East | Surrey | Shepperton | Summer | DIY | Classic | Country | Lavender | Gold | Film Studios | Manor House
A big congratulations to Tiffany and Ashley on your truly memorable day and a huge thank you to Graham Mansfield for capturing such a special day so beautifully.
A sunny Autumn wedding set in a gorgeous hotel followed by a marquee reception decorated with fuchsia pink flowers and bunting. Noel and Steff had a truly gorgeous wedding day surrounded by their closest family and friends.
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Venue: Eastclose Country Hotel | Photographer: Jennie Franklin
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South West | Hampshire | Christchurch | Autumn | DIY | Classic | Marquee | Pink | White | Hotel
A huge congratulations to Noel and Steff on your beautiful autumn wedding and a huge thank you to Jennie Franklin for sharing your wonderful photographs.
A DIY-inspired, multi-cultural wedding set in the countryside surrounding Stratford-upon-Avon. Prisha and Paul made sure their wedding was truly unique by overseeing almost every element of their day. The flowers were arranged by the bride’s mother and the bride’s lace gown was even hand-made by a friend. Deep purple was themed throughout, reflecting the autumnal time of year.
Cultural | DIY | Purple | Golf Club | Manor House | Autumn
Congratulations Prisha and Paul on creating a truly amazing wedding and thank you to the brilliant Kayleigh Pope for capturing and sharing some beautiful moments from the day.
Like what you see? Take a look at Kayleigh Popes wedding photography profile here.
This rustic barn wedding has so many handmade and personal touches from the bunting sewn together by the bride’s grandmother, to the flowers arranged by the bride’s mother, to the table chutneys and sides prepared by both of the couple’s fathers! Steph and Greg had family and fun in mind with their outdoor lawn games as well. Enjoy perusing this relaxed, lovely barn wedding at the Corn Barn in Cullompton.
Devon | South West | Cullompton | Summer | DIY | Rustic | Pink | Barn
The Corn Barn was bursting with local flowers arranged by Steph’s Mum and friends, and looked wonderful with a twinkling fairy light canopy overhead. A huge amount of work had gone into this wedding, mostly carried out by family and friends, and Steph and Greg themselves. They had a range of village fete style games outside for everyone to play, keeping adults and children equally happily entertained! The wedding breakfast was a grand ploughman’s lunch, with picnic hampers on all the tables filled with ham, cheese and homemade chutneys. Even the bunting was a compilation of pieces made by all the guests, and patiently sewn together by Steph’s grandmother.
The whole day was really wonderful to be part of and just bursting with emotion. Greg and Steph were glowing with happiness all day long, and Greg’s emotional speech pretty much had the entire room in tears.
Congratulations Steph & Greg and thank you Helen Lisk Photography for letting us share these beautiful photographs to help remember a very special day!
The creative personal touches were everywhere at Katy and Steven’s wedding from the cross-stitched table names (of bands they’d seen together) to the nautical heart symbol, and K&S heart décor strewn across the tables. Take note of the delicious looking cheese cake (not cheesecake) made of stacked wheels of savoury cheese. Yum!
“Steven and Katy were the second couple to get married in the newly renovated Tithe Barn, at Symondsbury in Dorset. The barn looked wonderful – I absolutely loved the flowers, from The Real Cut Flower Garden, all in beautiful shades of blue and white. Katy had spent a lot of hours carefully cross-stitching the table names (bands they had watched together) – there could not have been a more perfect way to display these, I loved it! It was a fabulous day to be a part of, especially as the expected rain held off and never quite reached us. Katy and Steven are such a great couple and I really enjoyed photographing their wedding day”
Congratulations Katy & Steven and thank you Helen Lisk Photography for letting us share these gorgeous photographs.
You can practically smell the lavender coming through the computer screen in this beautifully coordinated country-style Welsh wedding! The couple even found a perfectly-painted deep purple Volkswagen van to coordinate with their chosen wedding colour – how’s that for matching?
Venue: Glangrwyney Court, a country house in Powys, Wales
“From the moment we met Steve we knew we had made the right choice in wedding photographer. Steve makes you feel relaxed and takes amazing natural photos. The comments we have received about our photos have been amazing and we absolutely love them. One of our photos even won wedding photo of the week on yourperfectweddingphotographer.co.uk!”
Love was the in the air and on the dance floor at this beautiful wedding! We loved the vibrant blue and orange running throughout from the groom’s suits to the table decorations. Such a creative couple!
Season: Spring | Styles: Classic, DIY | Colours: Blue, Orange
Words from the couple:
“Our wedding day was on the 18th April at Holdsworth House, a beautiful Jacobean Manor House in Halifax. We chose the venue because it had a great reputation for food and the setting and the grounds were really pretty. We had everything crossed in the run up to the big day for sunshine, luckily it turned out to be one of the warmest days of the year so we were able to have our drinks reception outside and our guests played croquet on the lawn whilst we had out photos taken.
We knew that photography and our choice of photographer would be one of the most important decisions we had to make, Andy and I both work in the the creative industry and had a very strong idea of the photography style we wanted, James and Lianne’s relaxed style matched what we were looking for perfectly and the photos were more amazing than we could have asked for.
After trying on what felt like 1000 dresses-but was actually more like 30-I finally found ‘the one’-Francesca by Maggie Sottero. The lovely ladies at Angel Brides persuaded me to try it on. Initially I wasn’t sure about it because it wasn’t what I pictured in my head, how wrong I was! Before the dress was fastened properly I knew that I couldn’t get married in any other dress it was so beautiful! I accessorised with a Richard Designs headdress and wrist cuff, Kurt Geiger heels for the day and in the evening I changed into my customised Converse trainers. My hair and makeup on the day was done by Kathyrn Hurl. I knew that I wanted a relaxed loose bun so that I could have my hair up off my back to show off my dress but without feeling too ‘done’-Kathryn knew exactly what I wanted and also managed to hide the fact that I had about 3 hours sleep the night before!
Andy tends to wear jeans and trainers to work so he really wanted a tailored suit with some unique design touches, but something he could still wear again. We went to Michelsberg Tailoring in the Leeds Victoria Quarter and James truly delivered on Andy’s brief, the suit was beautifully made and fitted with all the individual touches that Andy wanted. He wore it with Oliver Sweeney shoes and a Paul Smith pocket square.
Our adult bridesmaids wore coral gowns from the Dessy collection and the men wore suits from Next in a matching colour material to Andy’s suit. Our flowergirl wore a dress from BHS and out page boy had a suite from Matalan and a Ted Baker tie- they absolutely stole the show!
A lot of our decorations were home-made. Andy is a graphic designer so he designed all of our stationery and organised the printing. We made our table plan and photoboards from old picture frames, a friend made the bunting and I spent weeks decorating jam jars and luggage tags for our tables, it was a lot of hard work but it was totally worth it to have a day that really felt like our own. Lynne from Stem Designs filled my jam jars with beautiful white blooms and created relaxed hand-tied bouquets for me and the bridesmaids. We say Typical Type’s Big Love at a wedding fayre very early in the planning stages and I fell in love with it and decided there and then that whatever our wedding looked like, that would be a big part of it. In the end we built our wedding around it and it looked great both during the ceremony and at the evening reception!
The whole day was everything that we’d wanted it to be and more-planning it together meant that we had a day that reflected both of our personalities- I still look at the photos at least once a week and wish we could go back and do it all again!”
Congratulations Gemma & Andy and thank you James & Lianne Photography for letting us share these beautiful photographs to help remember their wedding l day!
Your wedding stationery plays a vital role in your big day – after all, without it, you wouldn’t have any guests! Before your guests have even stepped foot inside the venue, your stationery tells them everything they need to know: not just the date, time and location of your wedding, but other information such as the theme and (importantly) the food. It also continues to play a part once your guests have arrived and even after they’ve left, from letting them know where to sit, to a thank you card a week or two later.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at everything to do with the cost of wedding stationery, including the average cost, the cost of individual items, and what factors can affect the price you’ll pay.
Wedding stationery is the name given to any materials, either printed or written, that are used to provide your guests with information. Examples of wedding stationery include:
Save-the-date cards
Invitations
RSVP cards
Welcome signs
Order of service
Menus
Seating plans
Signage
Table numbers
Name cards
Thank you cards
Maps and directions
Accommodation information
Wedding stationery even includes any stag and hen party invites or rehearsal invitations if you’re taking the formal route.
The beautiful thing about wedding stationery is that the only limitations are your imagination. Even on a smaller budget, you can use your creativity to come up with unique designs, formats and styles to suit your taste and the theme of your wedding. If your wedding has a cinematic theme, your invites could be designed to resemble an invite to a movie premiere. If you’re going for a countryside theme, your name cards could be printed on little cardboard trees – the possibilities are only as endless as your creativity.
In the UK, the average amount spent by couples on professionally designed and printed wedding stationery is £384. This cost includes everything from save-the-date cards sent around a year before the wedding to the thank-you cards sent once you’re settling into married life.
Of course, this figure is an average (as explored in our ultimate wedding budget breakdown), so you can spend as much – or as little – on wedding stationery as your budget allows. You could take the DIY route and cut your spending right back, or have bespoke stationery handmade by a skilled professional.
The cost for professionally designed and printed wedding invitations starts from around £1.50 each. However, that cost can rise sharply depending on the skill and experience of the designer, as well as the level of detail and complexity you’re looking for.
For many couples, the single most important piece of wedding stationery is the invitations. So, even if you plan on saving money elsewhere, chances are you’ll be keen to send out perfect invites. That means, spending a little extra on the invitations can be worth it.
What factors can affect the cost of wedding stationery?
Because there are so many possibilities when it comes to wedding stationery, the cost can vary wildly. Some of the factors that can affect the cost include:
Quantity – This may be obvious, but the more guests you invite, the more stationery you’ll have to produce, and therefore the higher the cost will be. However, the more you order the cheaper they’ll often be per piece. For example, 40 invitations could come out at £3.35 each, whereas 50 or more could cost £2.15 each, so if you’re thinking about framing a few invitations, go for it, as it can bring your overall price down.
Vendor – A small company with limited staff and resources may charge more than a large company. Similarly, designers with more experience will have higher rates than those new to the industry.
Type of paper – there’s a big difference between premium card or paper and the paper you might pinch from the printer in the office. For example, smooth matte will cost around £1.33, whereas luxury pearl will cost closer to £1.60.
Printing method – More complex printing methods, such as stamping, engraving, and digital printing can be pricey and will affect the cost.
Handmade aspects – Bespoke, handmade pieces take a lot of time and care, so will cost a lot more than printing.
Complexity – A simple design will be more affordable than a complex design or a design with more illustrations.
Add-ons and decorations – Unique touches such as belly bands, twine wraps, ribbon or wax seals can enhance your stationery, but will also increase the price.
Time – Last-minute orders will often cost more than orders placed without a strict delivery date.
Stationery Suites
The price of your wedding stationery can also depend on how extensive you want your suite to be. The more items you have, the higher the overall price. A rough guide to this would be:
£85
£139.25
£300
25 wedding invitations and RSVP cards
25 wedding invitations, RSVP cards, thank you cards and save-the-dates.
25 wedding invitations, enclosure cards, RSVP cards, thank you cards, orders of service, menus, favour tags and table numbers.
We’ve already gone into detail about the overall cost couples pay for wedding stationery, but if you’re only looking for specific items of wedding stationery, below is a rough idea as to what you might pay for a professional service:
Save the dates
Cards – from £1.10 each
Magnets – from £1.50 each
Invitations
Single-sided – from £1.50 each
Double-sided – from £2 each
Wallets – from £2.50 each
RSVPs – from £1 each
Information cards – from £1.50 each
Map design – from £15
Ceremony stationery
Order of service – from £2.50 each
Welcome sign – from £10
Signs – from £5
Reception stationery
Seating plan – from £10
Name cards – from £0.50 each
Table numbers – from £2 each
Menus – from £1.50 each
After the wedding
Generic thank you cards – from £1 each
Personalised/photo thank you cards – from £2 each
Start planning your wedding with Bridebook
Here at Bridebook, we have a wide range of wedding stationery vendors that can help you design and print your perfect wedding invitations and other stationery. Sign up and start planning your big day today.
