Are you trying to make a decision about your wedding invitations? This week on This vs That Wedding Decisions, we are talking all things wedding invitations. There are so many wedding invitation decisions that you have to make so Annie and I thought we should start with one of the bigger ones, custom vs template invitations. I have Annie Roche with me who is a custom stationer and she is going to chat with me about things to consider while choosing custom or working with a designer or deciding to go with a template invitation.

Annie Roche is the owner of 5 by 7 Designs, a boutique invitation studio located in Dallas, Texas. A Dallas native and USC grad, Annie left her life destined for law school when she fell in love with paper while working at a little stationery store. Annie followed the paper trail to become the art director for an event company in 2007. She left the company in 2012 to start 5 by 7 designs. When Annie is not designing custom invitation suites for clients around the globe, you can find her co-hosting This Week in Weddings Podcast, a podcast for wedding industry entrepreneurs.

Things to look consider:

What is a template or semi-custom invitation and what are the limits to going that route?
What can you get from a custom stationer or custom designer?
How to stay within your stationery budget
Do you need a save the date?
When do you send out your invitations?

According to Annie, if you're one of the people who cannot visualize their custom designs or explain the custom process, it is advisable to go with a template one. You can do anything you want but with custom, the sky is the limit. When a customer has a proper vision for the custom design, they then hire you to make a custom piece for them. It doesn't even have to be paper, we have had custom orders where we have done acrylics, stones, embroidery, leather, and boxes. Even semi-custom invitations can be at a higher price point. There are a lot of semi-custom designers, so it is advisable to research those.

When it comes to template invitations, a lot of couples who are getting married in that time period can have similar designs for their wedding invitation and in that case, you have to be comfortable that there's nothing unique about your invitation. There are also DIY and crafty websites where you can design your own invitations if you're more of a DIY person. Annie says that when someone orders a custom-made invitation, she is the project manager while if someone decides to go the DIY route, they are the project manager in that case.

There are also Millennials and Gen Z who have never physically mailed an invitation. One of the reasons it is advisable to go the custom route, is because you have experts dealing with your invitations. They guide you through the process and guide you whenever you have any confusion. If you hire a custom designer, they will help you all the way from the save the date to the cocktail napkins, so there's an element of consistent branding there and it just flows and looks complimentary.

In terms of starting the whole process, go for your save the date invitations first and send them 6-8 months prior to the wedding. Also, if you're trying to stay within budget, do a save the date photo card and go for the custom route for your wedding invitations. You are going to be far less stressed out if you're going to send your invitations 8-12 weeks in advance. It'll allow you to have more RSVP details for the number of people who are actually coming and take the stress out of giving a proper number of people to the caterers. Also, it gives the guests an ample amount of time to send in their response cards.