Wedding Cards Key Terms

Sharpen your skills with some common wedding card terms

By Darcy Chadwick

The choices of wedding cards are plentiful, which means that you should brush up on your terminology to better suit your clients' needs. By offering the best services, you can increase your client base and keep current with the trends in the wedding market. If your customers desire save the date cards, you must know what distinguishes them from regular invitations. You also should know what makes the different printing options perfect for one type of card, but not feasible for others. Brush up on some common wedding card key words, and watch your business grow.

Place card

Brides and grooms use place cards during the reception to inform guests as to where to sit. You can use calligraphy to inscribe guests' names onto the cards along with the table number.
Try: Visit Martha Stewart Weddings to see a place card template.

Personal stationery

Personal stationery is all-encompassing, which can include thank you cards, blank note cards or other writing material for the bride-to-be to communicate with others regarding the wedding. Oftentimes the person's name or initials are somewhere on the stationery.
Try: Visit The Knot to learn more about current trends regarding personal stationery for weddings.

Response card

Also called an RSVP card, the response card is a small piece of stationery included inside an invitation. Guests should make a note on the card as to whether or not they will attend the wedding reception. It's important to include a return address with the card, either printed on the opposite side of the stationery, almost making it like a postcard, or in a separate envelope.
Try: Visit The Wedding Printer to read more about response card and wording for them.

Save the date card

Although not necessary, save the date cards are sent out shortly after the engaged couple sets the wedding date. It's especially important to send out if the wedding occurs during a holiday weekend, a popular vacation spot or requires numerous guests to travel.
Try: Visit Beaucoup Wedding Favors to learn about the different options you can use for a save the date card.

Letterpress

Letterpress printing has been around for several centuries and is still a popular choice. Featuring movable type, letterpress involves metal plates that place the ink onto the top surfaces of the paper. This forms an impression, leaving the words imprinted on the paper.
Try: Check out Green Dolphin Press to learn more about letterpress printing.

Thermography

Thermography is a modern technique, which is similar to engraving, used for printing invitations. The paper receives a powder-like application with added resin in the ink. After removing the resin from the dry parts of the paper, only the wet portions, which include the type, remain covered in resin. Once heated, the resin sticks to the ink.
Try: Learn what style thermography resembles at Wedding Paper Divas.