DIY Service

DIY is an easy way to get the wedding stationery you love for half the price (when compared to our price for 20-50 personalised stationery items)
By ordering this way, you really are able to get designer invitations for a budget price. All our designs are available DIY, so choose your favourite and get going.

Thinking of ordering?

Click on Browse Designs,Pocketfold Invitations or Eco Designs and then click on a design you like to see all the items and colours available. You can put the quantities you are thinking of ordering in our handy price calculator on each of the different designs pages to place your order or just get a quote. Remember, you can mix and match our DIY and Personalised services, so it's great fun to have a play around and see what your budget can stretch too. We have just added our ‘Best of Both’ service too, so now there is a third option of getting everything type set, proofed and professionally printed by us, and saving by assembling yourself at home. Cheap invitations these are not! The quality of the card, ribbon and designs are unbeatable, we just want you to be able to get them at reasonable prices.

Below are templates for printing your inserts at home

Our templates are all here and are “Word” documents that have been sized to match the insert papers or card we supply. They have sample wording on them that has been positioned to print in just the right place.

Helpful Notes:
When using the Avalon invitation template, the flowers that you can see are only there as a guide so that your text doesn't go over the design when printed. Remember to delete the flowers on your template before printing. The card is quite thick on the Avalon design (180gsm), so if you are unsure that your printer will be able to manage the printing ask us for a sample insert to test on. Printers that work without the paper/card having to roll back on itself will work. If you are worried, why not email or call us, we offer a service where we can print everything for you, including all your details and then you assemble it yourself. This is 95p on top of our DIY price and is a great way of getting the best of both worlds!

There are 4 text boxes that appear on the A4 folded additional info sheet for the pocketfold invitations designs. You can place your wording anywhere within each box so they print into columns and the lines of the text boxes have been hidden, so they don’t appear when printed. If you need to include a map remember to turn it so it fits within the column width. You can also print onto the reverse of the A4 sheet using the same template if you need more space. Once printed, the sheet will need to be folded in a concertina to slip into the pocket of the Gatefold card.

What do I get with DIY?

Everything you need is included in the price. The outer card with the design you have chosen, the insert paper or card already cut to size, envelopes and either a glue roller, trims or ribbon. The ribbons come in all kinds of colours, click to view ribbon colours. We include an extra insert sheet or card so that you can do a test. Remember that the card weight of the gatefold insert is 280gsm, so do check your printer can print on this. The ribbon is provided on a roll for you to tie into bows. Glue is provided for gatefold orders and for orders where the stationery will remain plain (without a ribbon or trim).

How do I do DIY?

When you receive your samples, you will see that there is an insert sheet or card inside the invitation (depending on whether you’ve chosen a gatefold pocket-fold or the square folded). It is this page that you print yourself. When you order, the paper or card is provided already cut to the right size, all you do is type your own details into our template and print! Assemble the stationery, either by folding the insert and securing it with a ribbon (or glue if choosing a pocketfold design) or sticking the insert and backing card onto the A5 gatefold card for our gatefold designs.

Can I change the fonts and colours on the templates?

You are in charge of the type setting now, once you have downloaded the template, chose your font you play around with colours until you are happy. If you want to have a particular font in mind or would like one that we use, give us a call and we’ll give you it’s name. We buy our fonts from www.myfonts.com You may want to keep the main text a neutral colour like black or grey and go for colour in your names or have contrasting colours, it is up to you!For more wording suggestions click here.

Will I be able to print on my home printer?

The insert paper is already cut to size and is narrower than A4, you just have to slide the feeder tray guides in. Every sample we send out has an example of how your wording could look, so use your sample as your guide. Any problems then give us a call, there must be a reason, so we will talk it through with you. Once you order, remember to do a test before you print your whole order to make sure the positioning is correct, settings can vary on different printers. Ink from some inkjet printers won’t dry on some of our specialist papers and cards, that's why we check which type of printer you are using when you order. We can then insure you get paper or card suitable for your printer.

Is tying ribbons easy?

The Eco and Satin ribbons are very simple, just tie them around the card and do a double knot. The organza bows are a little more fiddly but you soon get the hang of it!! We cut our ribbons to about a 45cm length to tie around square folded invites, save the date cards and thank yous. Orders of service and folded menus need 54cm lengths. For the Gatefold invitations, tie the satin or organza ribbon around the gatefold card in a large bow. We cut our ribbons to 85cm lengths for the Gatefold invites and 54cm lengths for the flat evening invites and menus. Finish any of the ribbons by trimming the ends in a 'v' so that they don't fray. If all that is too involved, why not go for a metallic trim or keep your stationery plain? As you can see from the images on the design pages, the flat invite and flat menu has the ribbon tied around the printed insert and then the insert needs to be glued onto the backing card. This secures the ribbon too.

Can I get the ribbons already tied?

Yep! We can provide you with the ribbons already tied. This is an extra cost but it does mean that you can just slip them straight onto the cards. The ribbon needs to be tight so you can't just slide them on to the cards. Instead, slightly bend the card in your hand so that it is an arc shape and then slide the ribbon on and into place. Once you release the card into a flat position, the ribbon will be tight so it holds the insert in place.

What if I am having a design that has my names on the front?

You will still have the outer card printed by us, complete with your own names and wedding date. You just print the insert page yourselves and tie the ribbons.

What if I want more info within my invites?

By ordering some extra insert pages you will get all your extra information to fit neatly within your invitations.

What about addressing envelopes?

If you don't fancy writing all your guests addresses out by hand but would prefer not to stick a white address label onto them and spoil the look, we can supply clear address labels. That way you can print your addresses onto them via word but still have an envelope worthy of your wedding invitation. There are 21 labels per sheet and we are happy for you to buy them by the sheet, so you don't need to over order.

How about printing Order of Service?

This is the most complicated item to get right as there is a lot of information within an order of service booklet, plus you will need to print onto both sides of the page. Take a look at our sample pdf and the template to get an idea of how it is done. To put your order of service booklet together you would need a saddle stapler, the ribbon is not enough to hold this item together because there will be more than one page to be turned and read. Your ribbon will tie around the front as decoration but it is the staples that will be holding the pages in place. If you can't get hold of a stapler long enough (it will need to reach 15cm) then you can always go for our metallic trims. These will remove the need for staples and happily hold all your order of service pages in place.

Three or Four page order of service

Using your word template to set the text in the correct position: (Using 1 sheet of insert paper)

Print page one onto your insert paper then turn this over and print page two and three onto the back of page one.
If you have a page four, print this onto the same side as page one.
Fold the insert sheet into the outer card. If your order of service is only three pages long, you will be able to stick the insert pages into the outer card, as the back page will not need to be read.
If you have a fourth page of text, you will need to staple the insert sheet into the outer card using a saddle stapler, so that the text on the fourth page can be read.

Eight page Order of Service

Using your word template to set the text in the correct position: (Using 2 sheets of insert paper)

1/ Print page one onto your first sheet of insert paper then turn this over and print page two onto the back of page one.
If you have page seven, print this onto the same side as page two.
If you have page eight, print this onto the same side as page one.

2/ Print pages six and three onto the second sheet of insert paper, turn this sheet over and print pages four and five onto the back of pages six and three.

So therefore you will have:

Insert 1 - Page 1 and 8 on one side, Page 2 and 7 on the reverse
Insert 2 - Page 3 and 6 on one side, Page 4 and 5 on the reverse

When you think you have all your text in the correct order, please print a test sample, fold it into a booklet, staple it and dress it (i.e. add a ribbon or trim) to make sure that the order of the pages is correct and you are able to read all the pages of text.

3/ Fold the insert sheet into the outer card. Lastly, using a saddle stapler you will have to staple the insert pages into the outer card and then dress with your ribbon. The ribbon needs to be placed around the outer card only, so that the text on pages three and four can still be easily read.

For the eight page order of service, we would strongly recommend using our metallic trims, as the trim holds the pages together without any need for stapling.

To personalise your insert further, create your names, wedding date and venue in your theme colours as a title page.

Please ensure you print some test sheets and check the position of the text on each page very carefully, as we are not able to guarantee the accuracy of the centring, as we cannot determine the settings/margins that your printer is set to.