7 Printing Methods for Your Beautiful Wedding Invitations That Amaze Your Guests

Who would have thought that the wedding invitation design may take thought and planning too? Well, if you want your guests to be on your special day, ensure your wedding invitation design lures them in. Apart from selecting the design of the invitation, the kind of printing undertaken plays an important role. Once you have figured out your invitation design, ensure the printing of it is a match. After all, as they say, first impressions do make a lasting impression.

Further, no pressure, but do remember that weddings might last a few days but the invitation card may stay for a long time with the guests, more so if it comes in a unique design, shape and printing style that guest may want to keep.

Printing methods to chose from

Firstly, it is important to decide what kind of an impression do you as a couple want to make and possibly be a reflection of your unique style. Do you want to keep it simple and classy or ornate and eye-catching worthy dazzling treat?! Decide your style statement and there will be multiple invitation printing methods to meet it.

Let's look at the various printing methods available for your favourite invitation design.

1. Digital Printing 

The simplest and most affordable one is digital printing. As the name suggests, this is like the commonplace laser printer available in offices though this is the industrial digital printer, almost the size of an office table. The printing is quick, affordable and easy and bulk quantities will make it even more reasonable.

2. Letterpress printing 

Letterpress printing is the way early printing used to be. It adds more character and warmth to the invitation design as the ink is 'pressed' onto the paper using metal plates. Each colour needs a different metal plate making it a slightly longer and more expensive option. However, if you want to give an intimate, hand-crafted feel to your invitation design, press printing on the softer cotton paper is a good choice

3. Foil stamping

If you want to add a little allure to your invitation design, stamp a little foil on it. Done the same way as letterpress printing, the metal plate pastes the foil onto the paper making it light up.

4. Engraved printing 

Engraved printing as the name suggests creates raised letters giving it a heavy inked look. This usually works well with tissue textured paper so the ink does not spread

5. Spot colour or offset printing

Spot colour or offset printing is similar to digital flat printing but works with certain colours that digital printing cannot handle - neon colours, very vibrant colours or deeply rich. With the advantage of 12 basic colours, spot printing allows colours to be mixed but each one will need a new plate so go easy on the colours. But if you like your colours then remember only spot colour printing can allow a royal rich blue!

6. Thermography 

Thermography allows you to mix the benefits of spot colour and engraved printing. So the heat allows the ink and pastes to be 'melted' onto the sheet. The end result is a raised, colourful and shiny lettering that looks like plastic but is actually paper

7. Laser cut printing

A slightly lesser know printing method is the laser cut. This is not really a printing method but a cutting of the paper as per an invitation design. For obvious reasons, this will take time and effort and an intricate invitation design might make it expensive, so your call really. Imagine a beautiful laser cut forest design as a thematic invitation design for your destination wedding in the forests! This would be a great example of the invitation design pulling up the stature of the wedding several notches.

A little creativity added in

If you really want to get creative, you can combine the above printing methods with unique creative invitation designs, like musical cards, talking cards, 3D cards! Choose the right paper too so that it does justice to the customised printing method and creative idea.

Accessorise them...

If creative and customised invitation design orienting is not enough, add in a few accessories - balloons, glitter, tags, ribbons...you get the picture, right? Very often we spend the least effort and money on the invitation card assuming that it has a transactional purpose as a piece of information. Actually, it serves as a lasting memory of your special day, a magical reminder long after the wedding is over and marriage sets in!

So, as you can see, there are many options starting from the easy flat digital printing to the curated and bespoken laser cut method. It would be a shame to have a well-planned, destination wedding lowered by a non-classy invitation design. On the other hand, the simplest of weddings can become the epitome of elegance with intricate and customised invitation designs.

So what's it gonna be for you? Share with us in the comments below.