The Wedding Genie is always happy to answer questions our brides have and over the past few weeks we had many regarding stationery. I asked the lovely Sophie Ellis-Waring from Cards by Sophie

Sophie started her stationery company after planning her own wedding and struggled to find modern wedding stationery at an affordable price. Since then Sophie has developed a range of fourteen stylish, contemporary designs. These little goodies are all lovingly made by hand, completely customised to your colours and wedding theme. There are no set rules, all the stationery is available in a range of sizes, you can even create your own wording inside and outside of each card. How fantastic is that? Your own unique design. Stationery available includes Save The Date Cards, Invitations, Menu’s, Favour Boxes, Table Plans and much more. You will get one free sample and a 10% discount on orders over £250!

I asked Sophie to give us a quick guide to ordering your wedding stationery.

What to order when – your quick guide to wedding stationery.

Once you’ve got engaged, all the preparations can seem rather daunting in the excitement. Help is at hand for your wedding stationery. We find that the questions we’re most often asked are when to order stationery, and whether it all needs to be ordered at once. Here’s our handy guide:

1. First stage: Order Save the Date cards as soon as possible after you have fixed your wedding date: usually at least 9 months to a year before your wedding. These cards are a great idea if your wedding is at a popular holiday time or mid-week – make sure your most important guests aren’t busy elsewhere. Don’t worry too much about colours at this stage – just choose something you love. You can coordinate later!
2. Second stage: Order Invitations, RSVPs and pocketfolds. We recommend sending out invitations at least 2 months prior to the wedding. You’ll also need to allow enough time for your stationer to make the items (we ask for 4-6 weeks). Once you’ve found a design you like, choose a colour theme. Your stationer should send out a proof showing all of your details in your chosen colours. This way you’ll be sure all the details are correct before the order is completed. Consider having Pocketfolds; they contain not only the invitation but an RSVP and information card for details of hotels, directions etc. tucked inside – we love making life simple!
3. Third stage: Order on the day items. You can do this much nearer the wedding.  These items include menus; order of service; place cards; table cards; table plan – anything that will be used on the big day itself! We suggest making on the day items to match your invitations to follow your theme through. We know how long it takes sometimes to finalise things such as details with the vicar, caterer and your final guest list. We usually request wording for order of service and menus around 8 weeks before the wedding and details for table plans, place cards, table cards, etc. 4 weeks prior to the wedding.
4. Fourth stage: Order favour boxes and thank you cards. You can actually order these at the same time as any of the previous steps – many of my clients have purchased these at the same time as the invitations!  Leave the thank you card inserts blank if you want to write your own message, or we have some standard examples that you could try out. Both thank you cards and favour boxes can match the rest of your stationery too.

1. It easy to order in several stages, meaning minimal fuss and the chance to evenly spread payments before your wedding! If you prefer to order everything at once, your stationer may provide the items in stages: we prepare your order in two batches – the first batch includes the invitations and RSVPs, the second includes all of the ‘on the day’ items. Of course, we give you plenty of reminders as to when we need your information!

Having set out our suggested timescales, we realise that it’s not always possible to stick to them. Don’t worry – we can often help out if you’ve got a tight timescale. Just ask us for advice, we love to help!

Sophie is going to be sending me some lovely samples which I will show at our Bridal Workshops. Our first classes are running on October 24th at The Ramada Hotel, Birmingham North, Cannock. You can win a pair of free tickets tickets worth £120 by entering our competition or book here. Its all you need to know to plan your perfect wedding day.

Until next time, happy planning.

Since then I have recommended them to many people. Their stationery is excellent quality and you can get anything you like made to your design. Their prices are brilliant and the customer service is second to none.

Wedding Genie make a great fuss about only working with suppliers who offer the same standard of service that we do and Lilylou and You certainly fit this bill. Now in addition to sharing them with you I asked Bernie for advice on when to send your invites and what to think of when ordering them. Enjoy!

Your invitations are the first impression your guests have of your big day

The greater the impact the greater the response and general excitement among your guests in the lead up to your big day! You invitation sets the scene for the day whether it be subtle and serene or wild and wacky!

Give Your Guests Plenty of Time to make the necessary arrangements

Your guests do really make your day so give them time to make sure they can attend – post your invitations out at least three months prior to the wedding and allow your guests six weeks to reply – at Lilylou & You we make this easy by introducing RSVP postcards as standard with all day invitations.

With the above point in mind handmade stationery takes time

Allow 8 – 10 weeks from point of order to receipt of your invitations – other items can be ordered at a later stage closer to the wedding date.

Colour Matching

Our invitations are all handmade from either our own or your original designs, we are able to match any colours you would like throughout your design. Sending us a swatch of fabric or anything we can get a glimpse of colour from is a great start and helps us to create your perfect unique stationery.

I love this one, we got this for my best friends Mama Mia style wedding in Cyprus

And lastly we urge you to contact us at any time

We are always here to help with any questions you may have no matter how niggly you might feel they are. After all it is your day and it must be perfect.

If you want me to blog on anything you need information about then please let me know. My blog is for all brides who want the inside track on planning and I want it to be enjoyable, informative and above all answering the things you need to know.

Lastly I have had a flurry of enquiries in the last few days, it seems like some of you are just going ahead with a lovely wedding on the spur of the moment. If you want help to coordinate your day I have a few dates left and I would love to help.

Until next time, happy planning.

Earlier this week I promised to find you more gorgeous vintage finds. I have just come across this lovely website by

I was so impressed that I mailed Lucy to find out about how she started and what inspired her. Here is what she said.

I am Lucy Ledger, an illustrator with a BA Hons degree and I design vintage inspired scrapbook style stationery. I started by producing greeting cards when I was inspired by a very old scrap book my Nan gave to me. It was filled with hundreds of vintage cards from the turn of the 20th century. This book was such an inspiration because not only did these cards have such a warmth about them- the way they were presented in this scrapbook made it look more like a memory book- a perfect style for greeting cards! That is now the signature style I use throughout Lucy Ledger Designs.

I introduced wedding stationery after I had planned my own wedding last year; like so many other brides I wanted a relaxed and informal feel to my stationery- something that would make guests feel that they were going attend a warm, personal occasion that was filled with love, fun and lots of laughter and when I couldn’t find anything that was quite right I decided to design it myself!

I truly believe that picking wedding stationery is one of the most important and exciting parts of planning a wedding as it sets the tone and atmosphere of what is to come. It is the first thing guests will see and it will give an indication of what kind of wedding is being planned. All my ranges can have personal photographs added in, text personalised all in a quirky ‘scrapbooking’ style reflecting the ‘gathering’ and ‘collection’ of memories that compliment a special occasion such as a wedding.

I know I am all about the weddings but I have to admit at being the most forgetful person in the world for birthdays. I am going to buy a whole load of these cards for my family and get them personalised. That way I just have to remember to post them. Well am off to find some more vintage finds for next week.

If you have a favourite site that you would like to share with us please send it over.

Until next time, happy planning.

Our blog is all about being practical and giving  great advice to help brides plan a fantastic wedding day. I do have to say that I do get a bit fed up of american blogs leading the way when it comes to inspiration. Don’t get me wrong they are excellent but often its hard for brides to source the items they recommend. Once you have seen them on the site and you fall in love with them its really disappointing not to be able to access them in the UK, that goes for their suppliers too.

Today I want to introduce you to one of the great new English! blog sites, English-Wedding.com full of inspiration and advice for brides. In fact you can even find my articles on there too.

Claire Gould who runs the website popped by to tell me what the aim of her website is and a little more about it. Claire is not stranger to weddings,she runs a calligraphy company so she knows what she is talking about having been around engaged couples for the last few years. I thought it would be better if Claire explained herself.

English-Wedding.com is a new website for brides. It’s halfway between a wedding directory and a blog, with the focus of the whole site being on inspiring wedding photos for you to browse at your leisure. More than a blog, way prettier than a wedding directory, this is a website to enjoy with a cup of tea – browse a few pages and see where they take you!

Some of the best English wedding photographers have featured n the blog home page of English-Wedding.com showcasing gorgeous brides, magnificent venues and beautiful wedding details to inspire your own wedding. See inside Peckforton Castle, Hampton Manor and Crewe Hall, be amazed by a red Maggie wedding dress and a delicate Charlotte Balnier gown, or look at winter wedding pictures, summer weddings, tipis… you name it, it’s on the blog!

Once click inside the website will bring you to a collection of wedding advice articles, covering everything from starting out with wedding planning, to choosing your dress and applying your make up for the big day. Every article is submitted by a wedding expert – with wedding planners, stationers, even wedding cake designers sharing their own tips and advice to make your wedding day go smoothly.

When you are in the mood for a bit of wedding shopping you’ll find the inspiration pages of English-Wedding.com are full of lovely ideas. From inspiration boards to the Loves! page which is full of pretty accessories and ideas from English wedding suppliers, it’s just a lovely website to look at, and will help you find great new websites to buy everything from favours to flowers for your day.

The website is put together by me Claire Gould, I have worked in weddings for five years – in one of the more unusual wedding jobs, as a calligrapher! I decided to turn my creative eye to website design as a new hobby back in 2009.

I am really pleased to have been able to introduce you to this website, I hope you find great inspiration from it. Why don’t you check out Claire’s calligraphy website to see her latest work too. Wedding Genie like to work with the best suppliers who have the same high standards of customer service that we do. If you want help with sourcing suppliers why not give me a call. Even if you just want a little advice drop me a line we are always pleased to hear from you.

Until next time, happy planning.

We love the little details that make the guests smile at your wedding. This is a great idea from Royal Mail, stamps called Smilers which you can personalise with your own photograph. They can be sent on your Invitations or Thank You cards. Its a personal touch that really sets the tone of the wedding day or adds an extra special thank you for the wedding present you received.

You choose from one of the 16 designs, I like this one the best. Then simply upload your favourite photograph. It may be one of you and your fiance the night you got engaged, or one of a special moment that means a lot to you both. The instructions on the website are easy to follow and you can buy the stamps in sheets of 10 costing £7.50, or sheets of 20 costing £13.50 plus £1.41 for p&p. They do become cheaper the more sheets you buy.

If you have any ideas for the personal touch why don’t you contact us and share them, we are always delighted to hear from our readers.

Until next time, happy planning.