Templates Vs. Truly Custom : Which is better?

We’re talking design today on the blog and it’s a topic our brides LOVE: how to get a design that truly fits with their wedding inspiration! We can talk about choosing an overall wedding theme or style on a later blog post, so let’s talk specifically about wedding invitation design. A quick search on Google for “Wedding Invitations” gives 373 million hits, with major companies like Minted, Shutterfly, Basic Invite and soooo many more! With that many choices, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of information out there and from the thousands of design possibilities! I’d like to compare the major two options available to most brides: Templates or Custom Designed.

Templates:

It’s all about the plug in and go. If you like what you see on a designers website, you can simply supply your information (names, venue, dates, etc.) and have the design printed as is. This option works great if you like the design EXACTLY as you see it. Some of these companies have programs so you can build it right on their website and see immediately what you are getting. Some even have the ability to change a few elements and colors to suit your specific choices, but these may be limited. This route tends to be a little less expensive- with less design time, you don’t have to pay someone to work for you. The work has already been done. The major limitation is not being able to change a whole lot of the design. You may be ‘stuck’ in what is available.

Custom Design:

If you have a healthy Pinterest, bursting at the seams with everything wedding, You may have quickly realized that you like to curate each detail to a T. This route may be the best for you: you work one-on-one with a designer to craft your perfect wedding invitation. From the background texture, to the design elements (things like watercolor flowers, gold foil, etc) and your provided information, you can get a truly unique and 100% YOU wedding invitation suite. Calligraphy, gold foil, letterpress, hand painted- these are all examples of artists that work with brides to achieve a custom wedding invite. This route can be pricey, depending on the cost per hour of the designer and paper/supply costs. The price can be eve higher if you opt for luxe add-ons like gold foil and letterpress. You can talk to your designer about keeping the time within a certain limit- this helps if you have a lot of design ideas and need some help reigning those in! You may also have to adhere to the artistic styling of the designer- for example, you wouldn’t ask a designer who specializes in modern simplicity to suddenly hand paint a bunch of flowers!

Here at Anthology Print, we have worked with designing custom wedding invitations for hundreds of brides. Some have chosen to go with an exact design seen on our website, and that’s awesome! We also have started completely from scratch to create a one of a kind design. We have the option of pulling the design of a past bride and making your invitation the same- or even with a few tweaks! If you like the overall design but want to change the colors/flowers/typography/etc we can do that! Just tell us the name of the couple on the design that you’d like and we can get to work.

For those of you that want a truly custom experience from start to finish, we start at the beginning, building your design elements as you like them. We primarily work through email, proofing designs back to you until we’ve reached approval for print. It’s an easy process and is only limited by what you’d like to create. If you want a full wedding suite (invitations, insert cards, RSVP, Thank You cards, menu cards, canvas prints, etc) you have the option to carry your design elements to every part of your wedding.

The best part of working with us with either the template or custom route: you’ll be paying a fraction of the price for wedding invitations! We charge much less (and I mean a crazy amount less!) than major companies and have better design (and quality!) than a local print shop. Check out our prices here.

Getting started on a design is easy! Just click the “Contact” button in the menu and fill out your order form! A design will be sent back to you through email within 24 hours (often within a few hours after submission!) and you can suggest changes to the design or approve as is! Easy peasy!