Design beautiful, unique wedding invitations stress-free with Basic Invite

This year, I’ve been on a mission to reduce stress in my life. I’m fascinated by how many of us don’t recognise opportunities to make our lives easier but instead pile more work, guilt and, yes, stress on our already overwhelmed shoulders.

This got me thinking about you, as brides-to-be. I know some of you are navigating the wedding planning journey with little difficulty, but for many of you, I know that it can be a struggle to manage everything. So I’ve decided to start sharing some ways of how you can make it easier on yourself.

I’m starting today with wedding stationery. Why? Because it’s something that I personally struggled with when we got married and I know, having spoken to many brides, it’s been one of the things that has come up for them too. Simply put, you need a way to let your guests know there’s a wedding. Bottom line. But then we start stressing about when we need to send the invites, who we should invite, whether we need a different invite for the evening and, worst of all, finding and writing out addresses to finally send them out. Do you buy or DIY? And is it worth investing the money in having someone make them for you when you could do it yourself?

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I DIYed our wedding invitations and it took ages. If you’re great with paper crafts, then the chances are this is a job you’ll be happy to get stuck in to but, for the rest of us, we may need a little help to beat the overwhelm of designing and printing invitations, RSVP cards, gift lists…

I liken it to decorating my house. The job seems manageable in the beginning when you’re excited for a change and the fresh paint is out of the tin but by the time you’ve finished masking off the last skirting board and painted the first wall, you’re probably looking for any excuse to have a cup of tea and wondering why you didn’t pay someone to do it for you or just let your other half do it. I digress…

So how important is a wedding invitation anyway?

Your wedding invites are the first glimpse people get into your wedding. It sets the tone for the day by sharing your colour choices and style, through fonts and imagery. Some of your guests may even decide on their outfits based on that one invite. It’s a small detail that leads to the big picture and, if you need a little help, today you’re in luck as I’m going to introduce you to a lovely company called Basic Invite. They’re based in the US but ship to the UK (and elsewhere in the world, for my loyal readers overseas!) within 6 business days. And the best bit? You can customise all the details yourself, online, with a few clicks of a button.

Today’s post has been written in conjunction with Basic Invite, who have sponsored this post, however the opinions I’m sharing of their work today are my own and I’m sharing my space on the Internet with them today as I believe you will love them too!

Beautiful unique wedding invitations from Basic Invite. Image courtesy of Basic Invite

So where do I begin? Well, as a person who loves details, Basic Invite certainly meets my high standards! They offer a range of finishes on their invitations, from gold, silver and rose gold foil effects for lovers of glamour to real wood invitations for those looking for something a bit different for their rustic wedding - how cool is that? The one that really stood out to me though, was their Seal and Send invite. This little gem has a tear off RSVP postcard within the invitation and comes pre-printed with your guests’ addresses so there’s no need to faff around with address labels or suffer from an aching hand after writing them all. I love this idea; all you need to do is share a link with your guests, provided by Basic Invite, collect addresses and upload them on to your design. The only thing you’ll need to do when they arrive is fold them, seal them, add a stamp and pop them in the post box.

You can also collect addresses in the same way to be added on to envelopes, if you’re not opting for the Seal and Send-style invite. Coordination is key for this company so you can order envelopes in over 40 colours, Each one is peel and seal, so minimum hassle for you when it comes to sending them. Yay!

For those of you who feel overwhelmed by an abundance of options, you can filter designs based on themes (think rustic, botanical, typography to name a few), how many folds you want in the invitation and the size, so you’ll only see the options that fit what you want. I struggle to make decisions on a daily basis so this really helped me to narrow down my favourites on the site when I was playing around with the templates. If you’ve decided on your wedding colours, you’re sure to find them in Basic Invite’s palette of over 180 colours, meaning you can coordinate every single detail on your invite. I’ve spent hours colour matching and choosing fonts for my business so being able to dive in, select the exact colour I’m looking for and match my fonts was a huge time saver.

What’s more, each invitation is part of a set so you can even find everything from save the date and thank you cards to menus, programmes and direction cards, all coordinated to your invite. You could have your save the dates designed as a magnet or, if you’re looking for something a little different, take a look at the clear collection; beautiful stationery designed on plastic stock in a choice of clear or frosted finishes.

Beautifully curated stationery sets give your invitations the wow factor

With over 180 colour options and 40 envelope colours, you’ll be spoiled for choice!

Another thing that I think you’ll love about Basic Invite is that you can order a custom sample of your design before you order all your invitations, so you have the chance to see how it looks for real, touch and feel it and make any changes before you commit to placing your full order. The reason that I find this really useful, and a little tip for you all, is that you’ll be able to see all the finer details on the finished product than your computer resolution is able to portray. I’ve found this several times with business cards, where an image has looked one way on the computer screen but has completely transformed on the business card itself, sometimes better, sometimes worse. This way, you can check every detail and there won’t be any nasty surprises when your full order turns up.

You’ll even find a range of printable products on their site, including this handy free wedding planner, with beautiful graphics and top tips throughout from wedding professionals that could help you save time and money on your wedding planning. You’ll also find printable checklists, games and gift tags, suitable for any occasion.

I’m completely smitten with this company. I would have happily used their services if I’d known about them when we got married and I’m considering using them for my business cards when I need to reorder (yes, they do those too!). Anyone who has the phrase “either you love it or we’ll make it right” in their guarantee is a winner in my books. I operate on the same principle; your wedding day is so important and by choosing suppliers that go the extra mile you can be sure that you have people working hard to make sure they meet the high expectations you have for your special day. And that, friends, is priceless.

You can see Basic Invite’s beautiful work on Instagram, follow them on Facebook, get Pin-spired by them on Pinterest or give them a tweet on Twitter. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.

I hope you’ve loved today’s post and feel free to send me a message with any wedding planning woes you’ve had and I’ll be happy to help. Happy planning!

All images used in this post have been provided by Basic Invite