Using the beautiful, and feminine combination of pink and gold, this invitation is all about rustic elegance with vintage French details. This wedding was to be somewhat modern in style, but the bride wanted to incorporate some whimsical details as well.

Details from vintage French perfume labels are infused into this invitation suite…

…along with patterns for a bit of a modern touch.

Invitation design by Zenadia Design.

Board Credits – Top Row: This Is Glamorous, This Is Glamorous, A Beautiful Cliche, Bottom Row: Riches For Rags, This Is Glamorous, This Is Glamorous

Next up, Inside Weddings! One of our sweet couples (you may remember their invitations) is featured in the current Spring issue, on news stands now! Also, we are now honored members of Inside Weddings esteemed Editor’s Circle!

Lastly, we are thrilled to have three of our invitations feature in Contemporary Bride!

For more of our recent press including web featured be sure to check out the press section of our website!

You may have been there as a bride. You see an invitation designers work online, fall madly in love with it, inquire and, shock, find out the price. Its lovely, but why is it so expensive?! You’ve found other invitations online for half that cost!

For most brides, planning a wedding is a new experience. Choosing flowers, selecting the right photographer, what’s an A and B list?! Ordering invitations is a new experience too, with many options. What a lot of brides don’t understand is why custom invitations cost so much more than ready to order invitations. This post is to hopefully give you some insight into the matter.

There are different levels of custom invitations, high end and low end couture studios that offer different ranges of pricing with, of course, different levels of quality and service. The biggest factor as to why custom work costs more…

Time

Custom invitations take time. It takes time to design, time for revisions, and time to produce. That’s why you will notice the time frames on custom work are a lot longer than ordering out of a book. About 2-3 months longer! Designers spend an average of 4-5 weeks working on the design of your invitations. That includes the initial designs they send you, plus doing revisions. This is all considered “design time”,  and could be charged in an hourly or flat fee. (See the entire process with Zenadia Design right here.)

Producing your invitations also takes time. At Zenadia Design, every invitation is produced in house by hand, allowing us to oversee production and ultimately deliver you with a perfectly crafted work of art. While some studios outsource their production, it’s still taking time, and will either be billed hourly, or as a flat fee depending on the complexity of your order. Most often, these “fees” are all lumped into the price you are seeing on the designers websites that’s leaving you having a minor heart attack.

“But,” you say, “some custom invitation studios charge more than others.” I’m glad you mentioned it. Studios can charge what they want based on how long they have been in business, the quality and type of materials and production methods they use, the complexity of their designs and so forth. Think of it in terms of cars. Honda makes a nice car for a decent price, but you get what you pay for in terms of ride, quality of materials and style. BMW on the other hand manufactures a luxury vehicle with a smooth ride, top of the line materials and styling.

High end invitation studios also pride themselves in service. Be sure you read reviews either on their websites, or places like wedding wire to see what brides are saying about their overall experience with the company you are interested in. At Zenadia Design, it’s all about creating an experience for our clients; something fun and memorable to make this step in their planning process a stress free, joyful time. Because after all, that’s what planning a wedding should be all about!

Whew, so if you’ve read this far congratulations, you’re now an educated bride! Hopefully you understand a little better why custom invitations cost more than ready to order invitations online.

Was this post helpful? Informative? Still leaving you wondering?

Stay tuned for other helpful posts in our ongoing series The Educated Bride.

All invitations by Zenadia Design.

Image #1 Michael and Anna Costa for Zenadia Design.

Image #7 Mary Jane Photography for Zenadia Design.

Using patterns galore, I present Alissa and Aaron with 4 different options for their wedding invitations, and here is what we came up with..

The main invitation featured a belly band sleeve, complete with the couples monogram laser cut out of the black paper (see our video on Laser Cutting for a behind the scenes look at making this invitation!) The belly band slid off to reveal the classic but modern invitation.

I loved the look of all the patterns together. It definitely had a lot going on but with the classic color scheme, and keeping the style on each card the same, we definitely pulled it off!

Guests received beautiful envelopes in the mail, complete with calligraphy by Pretty Pen Jen.

Invitation design copyright Zenadia Design.

Board Credits – Top Row: The Enchanted Home, Designspiration, Sharon Sacks Productions, Bottom Row: Sweet and Saucy Shop, unknown, Pinterest

Their venue alone sent me swooning. The Crane Estate in Massachusetts.

Kahtu has a love for fashion (she write the well known fashion blog I Am Khatu), and has even designed and made some of her own clothes. That red dress in their amazing engagement photos by Callaway Gable? She designed and made that herself! This girl has some serious talent! With Khatu’s love for fashion, I knew that we somehow needed to incorporate fabric and textile into the invitation suite. I set to work designing several options for Khatu and Darren, and here is what we came up with.

What I loved about this suite, was the contrast between the black lace and the white paper. It added that textural element that I wanted to be sure Khatu and Darren’s invitation had.

Since black chandeliers were going to play a big part in their wedding decor, I wanted to be sure we carried that theme onto all her other invitation pieces as well.

Besides the invitation, I also worked with Khatu and Darren to design their wedding menus, programs and seating cards. I believe having a cohesive branded look to all your paper products really helps make the day special and well thought out.

Khatu and Darren’s wedding day was absolutely amazing, and captured beautifully by the incredibly talented Callaway Gable. I hope to be able to share some images with you soon!

Image Credits:

Board – Top Row: Pinterest, from The Knot, Harwell Photography for Shay Brown Events via SMP, Bottom Row: This is Glamorous, David Tutera via Tickled Pink Brides, This is Glamorous

Venue left – right: First Parish Church, Dream Love Wedding Photography via Lindsay Griffin

Invitation design by Zenadia Design.

They plan beautiful, luxurious weddings and events for clients all over Italy…

They do some seriously amazing work. The venues alone have me swooning!

And I am loving all the details…

Stefania, one of the incredibly talented planners, contacted me about my couture invitations. She and the girls from Ideeventi were planning a fashion show, and wanted to showcase some of Zenadia Design‘s couture creations at the show. Since we use a lot of fabrics and textures, Stefania thought they would be perfect! I was, of course, happy to oblige! Below is a small sampling of some of Zenadia Design’s invitations at the event, and Stefania talking about them to the attendees! So fun to see.

I’m simply dying over all the dresses!!

The show was a huge success, and I am so thrilled to have been able to contribute. (And can I try on one of those dresses? Seriously, I have my eye on a few there!)

If you’re in need of an event planner in Italy, definitely give the girls from Ideeventi a call! They’re a lot of fun and plan some pretty incredible events at some pretty amazing locations!

All images courtesy of Ideeventi. Invitations by Zenadia Design.

Continuing on with my favorite invitations from 2012. This one was designed for a dear planner friend of mine, Sonia. The theme for the shower was “Build a Library”, which I thought was so cute! Instead of cards, guests we to bring a book of their choice. Great idea! Sonia sent me the initial inspiration and an invitation she had seen and really liked, then I took it from there.

The invitation Sonia sent me that she liked was a library card style invitation. Taking it a step further, I wanted the whole invitation to resemble a children’s book. I asked Sonia what her favorite children’s book was (The Velveteen Rabbit), and then designed a full invitation around that.

The cover featured a full watercolor to really make a statement when guests opened the envelope.

The left side of the “book” is where the library card style invitation was housed, with fun dates and numbers that corresponded to events and dates having to do with the baby.

Sonia was beyond thrilled with the end result, and it was such an honor for me to design these for her!

All designs by Zenadia Design. Copyright 2012.

Happy 2013! I thought we would start the year off here by sharing a couple of my favorite invitations from 2012. First up, an invitation for a Sweet Sixteen with a vintage style Carnival theme. Alyssa had seen my other carnival invitation design, and fell in love with it. We worked with Alyssa to design something very similar for her sweet sixteen birthday party.

The invitation featured a die cut outline, with a custom carnival scene drawing on the backside.

On the reply card, we used vintage tickets to add a little style element, and bring in the carnival theme a little more.

Now, onto my absolute favorite part. For the seating cards, Alyssa wanted popcorn boxes with the seating card tags tied around each one. The popcorn boxes would then be stuffed with peanuts. As no task is ever to large for Zenadia Design, we custom designed and made each popcorn box by hand.

I love when clients really let me think outside the box and create one of a kind pieces for them! Besides the popcorn boxes, Alyssa’s mom wanted a card box made to match the overall style and brand of the event (which you know I love), so we also hand made a 12×12″ card box, designed just for Alyssa. What fun!!

All designs copyright Zenadia Design.