If COVID-19 has you worried about how to adjust all of the elements of your destination wedding planning, you are in good company. That’s why we have been doing a series of posts addressing how to deal with different issues around having to change your plans. This blog post is all about what to do about your stationery – especially if you’ve already printed and/or mailed them.

Founded in 2008, Méldeen is a company that specializes and develops luxury brands for weddings and wedding-related stationery. So we thought who better to answer your frequently asked questions around the topic than Méldeen’s founder, Kaleigh Wiese.

Q: If invites are already printed, is there a cost-effective alternative to alerting guests of the new date while keeping with the design of the original stationery? 
A: We are recommending several ideas and seeing lots of different preferences with handling notifying guests of postponements:

• We find it important and special to use the same colors, graphic details and fonts of your original invites. It’s easy to incorporate and makes these undesired pieces more special and cohesive.
• You can have your stationer prepare a digital graphic that you can share with guests via email, text or social. As for a PNG or JPEG file, they are easy to send and show quickly in any mobile or web browser. Note: Square and vertical orientations work best for mobile viewing. 
• If you are comfortable mailing the original suite you have worked so hard on for so many months, feel free to just add an insert expressing the new date and a website to keep guests updated. This addition should only add a couple of dollars each. Guests will absolutely understand the change and appreciate the gorgeous invites that represent your love story.
• Reprinting is always an option, but in these uncertain times – printing timelines and limitations have to be understood for availability.

Q: Is Meldeen offering any sort of discount or assistance for those who need to postpone and update their invitations? 
A: For our existing clients, we are providing Change the Date and postponement graphics for free. We are all in this together and our hearts break for our clients having to move their dates. If there are costs associated with printing or reprinting with new dates, we are working with vendor and production partners to provide the best price possible.

Q: For couples who have weddings in the late summer, fall or winter – what can they be doing to plan for their stationery now?
A: Do you have any advice to get inspired while they have a bit more extra time at home? 

Planning your wedding brand and stationery is one of the most fun parts of the engagement process. It is never to soon to finalize your guest list and addresses. Also, get creative and inspired by gathering photos of things that catch your eye, or colors or fonts you can share with your stationery. Most stationers can start designing and leave “filler” information in on the date, time and location so you can get the design finalized and then add in those details at the time of printing.  

Q: What timeline should couples be working on in regards to stationery?
A: We recommend 1-3 months of working with our clients on design. Be sure you allow 4-6 weeks for production time after you approve the look of your invites in this volatile print market. Then don’t forget to add your mail period to determine when to get started with a stationer. Allowing more time is helpful for all event businesses because we are working with my postponements during this season and we never want the process to be too rushed.  

Q: What should couples who’s mail dates are coming up soon do?
A: For couples who’s mail dates are in April and May who do not have printed invites yet or don’t feel comfortable mailing not knowing if they will need to move their date. Remember traditional mail periods are 6 -8 weeks before the wedding. In this case, I think having a digital graphic for a Save the Date to let clients know in advance is absolutely acceptable and then move your mail date to closer to 4 weeks before the wedding to allow for more time to produce and mail with your confident date.  

Q: Do you have any additional suggestions?
A: It is OK to think outside of the box and re-word your invitation a little differently. You can always print a gorgeous invite announcing the nuptials and add a simple card with the date, time & location on a smaller card that takes less time in production. This allows you a little more wiggle for prepping your invite that is on a more time-consuming material like acrylic, or letterpress or foiling and adding those final details right before mailing. 

*Special thanks to Be Inspired PR for collecting the answers to our questions.