Do you need to have a lot of graphic design experience to design your own wedding invitations?
May 16, 2010 by
Filed under wedding card design
I am pretty computer savvy and super creative. My family owns a banquet hall and I want to enhance our business by designing my own invites and place cards. What materials do I need? What kind of desktop publishing software is good for this kind of project? Can I use a standard printer? How do you get those matching colored envelopes? As you can see I need you to be as detailed as possible! Thanks…
You can buy kits at the store, and design and print them off your own computer. I’d buy what ever craft accents (lace, trim, ect) you’d like to embellish it. Use your imagination!
Mine weren’t fancy, but I wrote in pre-made ones in calligraphy, and enclosed transluscent confetti in the shape of doves. It was a nice touch.
Not really. I’m sure there’s some reasonably priced software out there that has templates, clip art, and various fonts for you to use. Then just hit save and get it printed!
To start you need a decent computer and monitor and maybe a digital cammera a laser printer could be a good choice, the software you will need is:
Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe Illustrator.
You would need to buy some starter tutorials o books, that would help.
You can use a standard printer, they work nice but you will need a budget worth in ink, and they cant print all kinds of paper.
Local shops are dedicated on putting your desing on different paper and evelopes, they usually have a good price cheeper than standard ink jet.
It sounds like you want to design invitations on a professional level, so the kit and crafty approach isn’t going to work. Keep in mind that typesetting is a trade and as such, can take just as much know-how and work as any other part of your business. You will have demanding customers who -will- bounce jobs for any and every reason. I just felt it was fair to warn you first.
Now, there are three approaches you can take to this business, and to satisfy everyone you may want to do a little of each.
1) Contact a mail/phone/web order printing company who will supply you with catalogs your customers can choose from. They will offer you very specialized designs and packages and a wide range of accessories for a fraction of the price it would take to have the same things created locally. Bear Creek is an agency for one such printing conglomerate. You take the orders, you collect the money, you place the order, you stay on top of them for two weeks, then the invitations come to you in nice little boxes. Then you pay them.
2) Design yourself, have them printed locally. This sounds most like what you were asking about. Pick up a layout program such as Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress. Read lots of tutorials on how to use them, and get good at it. Then print clean black and white laser prints and take them as originals to a local print shop for production. Be specific as to what you want and when you need it. Ask for a detailed quote and check it carefully. If you develop a relationship with a printer that knows what it is doing and will protect you if you do something dumb, then it can be mutually beneficial.
3) Buy an expensive printer and produce the invitations yourself. You will be severely limited as to what you can offer, but you will be able to do the work quickly if necessary. Look for a full color laser or large inkjet printer to keep from having to replace ink cartridges all the time. You will also want the ability to print on thick paper, and reasonably close to the edges on cards of different sizes.
I guess your final option is to find a decent printer who will offer you a trade discount for brokering their work. Do this if you become discouraged trying the 3 options above.