It’s really not until you go about organising a wedding for the first time that you truly get a taste of how much every last detail can cost. It seems like there are certain major expenses and the rest take a backseat – that is, until you find out how painful these backseat expenses can be when combined with one another.

Take for example wedding stationary – here’s an absolute wedding essential which on the surface would have you think it couldn’t possibly cost more than a few sheets of paper would set you back. In reality however, you can actually spend a ridiculous amount on wedding stationary if you so wish as it’s important to remember that you’re looking at a large order of 100% custom products.

The good news however is that there are ways and means by which real savings can be made – it just takes a little forethought and a lot of proactivity. According to the experts at Handy Hippo Crafts, wedding stationary costs can be brought down to absolute minimums in order for the available budget to be redirected to much more crucial costs for the big day.

1 – Plan in Advance

For example, the further in advance you plan with regard to wedding stationary, the less you’re likely to end up spending on it. The reason being that the vast majority of stores and services specialising in the stuff have a habit of charging quite the premium for last-minute orders which may force them to work overtime in order to get things done. What’s more, planning ahead means more time to shop around and find the very best deal of all.

Wedding Stationery – How To Make Genuine Savings

2 – Order in Bulk

Where possible, it’s a good idea to order as much as you can for the wedding from the same vendor or service. There are two reasons for doing this and the first is of course the fact that you’ll save money by ordering in bulk. The more you order from one place, the bigger the discounts you can expect as a result. Secondly, when you order from one place it makes things much easier to keep track of as you have only one service to turn to if you need any advice or need to make any changes to the order.

3 – Keep it Simple

One of the easiest ways of keeping expenses to a minimum when it comes to wedding stationary is to keep things as simple as possible. The more elaborate and complicated you make your designs and individual pieces, the more they are going to cost you as a result. What’s more, complicated pieces are also much more likely to go wrong and have to be remade or altered. As such, for the sake of both your budget and keeping things as smooth and easy as possible, try to keep your designs and your orders at least relatively simple.

4 – Forget Response Cards

You’ll of course need to know who is coming to the wedding and who cannot make it, but this doesn’t mean that you need to effectively double your stationary bill by making response cards and envelopes for every single person you invite. These days, it’s far easier, faster and cheaper to request that everyone you invite sends their RSVP by way of email, text message or via social media. Just as long as they tell you, it doesn’t really matter how they tell you.

5 – Use the Internet

In fact, there’s really no reason why you cannot ditch the idea of invites altogether and go about the invitation process using the Internet instead. It may not seem the traditional way to go, but technology has provided much of the world with all manner of ways and means to do things that are not only 100% free, but incredibly easy and environmentally friendly to boot. So, if need be, consider using the Internet for invites and responses.

6 – Make Your Own

Last but not least, perhaps the most rewarding way of all of going about the invitation and response process is to make your own. In fact, there’s nothing to say you cannot make all of your wedding stationary yourself and enjoy enormous savings the likes of which can be reinvested elsewhere. Homemade wedding stationary is so much more personal and admirable than the kind of generic examples you can pick up from any High Street store, so consider making the efforts and ensuring maximum memorability as a result.