Short potted history of the Wedding Invitation

Weddings have been a large part of English-speaking culture for a very long time. Before the invention of the moveable-type printing press in 1447, weddings were announced by the town crier (a person employed to make public announcements). Anyone who heard the announcement was welcome to attend the ceremony. People were largely illiterate in the 1400s, so this was the most efficient way to announce a wedding. Written wedding invitations were only used by England’s nobility during this time. The noble class would hire monks that were skilled in the art of calligraphy to hand-craft their wedding invitations. The invitations would be closed with a wax seal and delivered to specific invitees.

It was quite a while before the printing press would be able to print quality documents, but newspapers were regularly printed by the 1600s. It was around this time that people started to announce their weddings in the paper. Metal plate engraving was invented in 1642, which opened up the world of specific wedding invitations. Text would be reverse engraved onto a metal plate, and stamped onto paper. To prevent the invitations from smudging, a piece of tissue paper would be placed on top of the invitation–a practice that remains a tradition today.

In the early 1800s, wedding invitations took another leap forward with the invention of lithography. It was no longer necessary to engrave anything for printing, and this simpler, faster method was widely adopted by the middle class. Printed wedding invitations were generally very accessible at this time. Mail was delivered by horseback, and the outside envelope was usually damaged and stained in the process of delivery. Thus, people used double envelopes to protect the beautiful invitation and inner envelope. This is yet another traditional practice that is still used for formal weddings today.

After World War II, fine wedding stationery was made commercially available and almost all engaged couples began sending formal wedding invitations. No longer were beautiful wedding invitations reserved only for society’s elite. Today, letterpress printing is often used on formal wedding stationery. Although letterpress printing was originally designed to barely kiss the paper and leave the print flat, people now seek a deep engraved letterpress print to add to the look and feel of their wedding invitations.

At Versatility in Print we are proud to continue with many of these traditions as well as keep the art of hot foil printing alive for the next generation.

What is Hot Foil Printing:-It is an old and traditional way of printing, often by hand ( as in our case and adding metallic colours such as Gold & Silver along with many move) to Stationery . Although real gold is no longer used it still give the same lustrous effect for a fraction the price.Foil Stamping ,as it is sometimes known is an art in its own right.

We started making Wedding Stationery over 3 decades ago but have been doing it full time since 2003 on a full time basis, and we have seen many shifts and changes in the market over the years,. The main difference is that people used to choose their stationery from big albums of pre printed blanks that we would make up into invitations, now everyone wants to have a unique design for there wedding and this is where we can help , starting from the design aspect with our in house graphic designer with over 30 years of experience to hand crafting your designs using a wide range of papers and boards from some of the UK’s best paper merchants offering over 300 varieties of paper stocks in 9 different thickness’s. We can then Print, Cut , Foil , Crease, Fold into almost any design you might like the possibilities are almost endless.We have even had the Bride and Groom on the premises printing their own stationery for the big day because they wished to be involved in all aspects of making their day special and we are happy to extend this to ther couples if they wish to see how it is produced from scratch.

We get orders for our stationery from all over the UK as well as Europe and beyond and covering every style and them from Traditional to Contemporary to the down right Bizarre.Themed Weddings such as an Aston Villa Wedding to a Disney Princess.

This year we have added a Laser Engraver to our portfolio of machinery that now allows us to cut and engrave into wood, perspex’s, acrylic and many other items to create some truly outstanding design concepts.

So if you re looking for something as simple as a ‘Save the Day’ card or a place card, right the way through to a table plan, thank you cards and order of service we can do everything for you under one roof. A ‘one stop wedding stationery ‘shop

If you would like to find out more about our unique services just on your doorstep please call and chat to any of the team.

on 01527 871500 and ask for Lisa, Jane or David